Posted by Peace Love and Pretty Things on 5:54 AM
Good Morning,Let's begin our day with some meditation to prepare our minds, bodies, souls and hearts to maintain peace throughout whatever should come to us during this day. I invite you to repeat these things out loud until they permeate your whole disposition and become the response to any negative energy that dares to try to come into your sacred space.*I will appreciate myself and honor my soul. *I am focused, engaged and balanced. I attract positive energy, and resist negative energy.*I float freely above the burden of having to place a judgement on everything.*I let go of the need to need and allow myself to sink gently and gracefully into...
Posted by Peace Love and Pretty Things on 12:30 AM
I read a passage in my daily devotional that really resonated with me:
“Forgiveness is not something you do. It is a state of being that when offered brings forth the truth of who you are.” – Iyanla Vanzant
Having been challenged in the past couple of months with a difficult situation in my personal life and having chosen to be forgiving in that situation, I realized that even though it had seemed to others a difficult choice, it had never really been a choice for me at all. The truth is, I thoroughly enjoy the peace that I’ve been experiencing within my spirit. The truth is, I’m giddy about the loving feeling I’ve developed for myself. The...
Posted by Peace Love and Pretty Things on 2:53 PM
I could use some advice from my fellow mamas, teachers, aunties, or anyone who knows kids or has some perspective on the topic. Help! My 7 year old son is entering a new and challenging phase that is driving mommy to her knees :/ I could use some suggestions, encouragement, prayers...spells...magic tricks...whatever you got. So, this boy's got energy and personality for days, which often gets him in trouble. Lately, he's become more strongwilled than ever. Questioning authority, disobeying rules, and whining and complaining everytime he doesn't get his way or he thinks something is unfair. It seems as if overnight my baby has gone from age 7...
Posted by Peace Love and Pretty Things on 8:00 PM
I had a beautiful, lovefest of a weekend full of sun, family, friends, hugs, kisses and good food. It doesn’t get much better than that. As usual, on Sundays I find time to prepare myself inside and out for another busy week. This week in particular, there was a subliminal message playing repeatedly under my internal soundtrack.
Although I tried to ignore it, the message was clear and concise. “Let go.” I’ve been hanging on to this pain in the pit of my belly for a few months now. I won’t get into the details of it, but suffice it to say that I was hanging on to this heartache because I simply couldn’t process it in order to let it go. I thought...
Posted by Peace Love and Pretty Things on 3:24 PM
Daily affirmations have become a big part of my life. These positive statements are constant reminders about the woman I am and the life I desire. Speaking them out loud, repeating them and committing them to memory can help me jump start my day, pull me through a rough emotional patch or just make me smile and revel in ooey gooey self- love. So I thought I would share some of those reminders occasionally with you--starting with today. Read them, sit with them, journal them, leave them as love notes for yourself--let them be the lyrics to the song in your soul.Affirmations* I am love* I radiate love* I receive love willingly* I am tolerant of...
Posted by Peace Love and Pretty Things on 3:18 PM
The Shack by Wm. Paul Young
I acknowledge that not all situations will be easy to be forgiving in. For example, when we experience severe loss to death or tragedy, it seems extremely difficult to do so. I recently read a book with my book club that deals with just this type of situation. It’s called The Shack, by Wm. Paul Young, and tells the story of a man whose daughter is abducted during a family vacation. After her passing, the father is bitterly sad, but receives an invitation to spend a weekend with God. Sounds far fetched, right? I thought so too. But the message in this book hits very close to home without being preachy—it is one that...
Posted by Peace Love and Pretty Things on 6:29 PM
God knows we needed a role model and representative when he chose Michelle Obama as the First Lady of our nation. I just adore and applaud her for her fabulous, intelligent realness. I love her not just because she's black, but because she is Michelle Robinson Obama - working mom, loving wife, lawyer, community activist, and stylista. She takes her daughters to Beyonce concerts and has date nights with her husband. I have seen her dance, articulate, nurture, cry, educate, sass the press when necessary and ride or die with her man with the cameras rolling and not a hair out of place. Her grace under fire presence inspires and delights me. This...
Posted by Peace Love and Pretty Things on 6:05 PM
I love being a black woman. I literally thank God everyday for the tone of my skin, the texture of my hair, and the rhythm of my hips. I feel a beautiful depth of spirit and character that comes from an ancestry of strong women who held their families together through persecution and ignorance and kept their eyes on the prize. I claim unity with my sisters through the sparkle in my eyes, the sincerity in my smile and the love in my embrace. My purpose is to grow, support and inspire sisterhood to promote a stronger, more unified black community and world community. I want to inspire other women to feel like I feel - like love and hope personified....
Posted by Peace Love and Pretty Things on 11:08 PM
Here’s what I’ve discovered to be true about feelings—while I can’t control what I feel, I can control how I react to what I feel. I can choose to acknowledge, accept and acclimate.
When I acknowledge, I say “this is what happened and this is how I feel about it.”
When I accept, I say “this is the situation that has been presented to me—whether as a result of my actions, or of someone else’s and it can’t be undone.”
When I acclimate, I say “this is an opportunity for me to use this experience to grow and now I’ll get to decide exactly what direction I want to use this change to go in.”
This phenomenon is called freedom. And isn’t it amazing?!...
Posted by Peace Love and Pretty Things on 10:41 AM
Oh Saturday, I've waited for you all week and finally you are here! So far today, I slept in (which is 9 AM in my world), fed my babies, got sweaty and loose with some cardio sculpt and yoga, fed myself and showered. My mind is feeling clear and calm. I'm looking forward and expecting to have a beautiful day.
Freeze! So often when I am feeling content and happy, something or someone comes along and tries to change my internal soundtrack from "Just Fine" to "Disturbia". Someone enters my space with an attitude or opinion that I didn't ask for...or I open a bill that almost makes my eyes pop straight out of my head. People will always have...
Posted by Peace Love and Pretty Things on 10:01 PM
**I posted this recently in the notes section of my Facebook page, but it is still timely and still resonates for me, so I thought I would share it again.**
"Cause we're the party people night and day. Livin' crazy that's the only way. So tonight, gotta leave that 9 to 5 up on the shelf, and just enjoy yourself. Groove. Let the madness and the music get to you. Life aint so bad at all."
Certainly the untimely death of Pop icon, Michael Jackson, has reminded us all of how fragile life is. Michael once said in an interview that he felt his life was meant to touch people and that he was supposed to do that through his music. He did what he...
Posted by Peace Love and Pretty Things on 5:18 PM
I must confess. I have taken a lover. We are still in the honeymoon phase of our affair, so forgive me if I gush about my lover shamelessly. Just indulge me for a moment. I have fallen head over heels for my hair. Yes, I’m talking about my hair, and I am so serious.
I stopped getting relaxers three years ago as an experiment. I always wanted thicker hair…BIG hair to be specific. But I could never achieve the volume I wanted with a relaxer in my hair. As the relaxer grew out, I developed a crush on my new growth. I could tell I was falling hard for it, but as we so often do in new relationships, I still doubted that things would work out between...
Posted by Peace Love and Pretty Things on 8:06 AM
"You want to do what?"
"Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"Now just isn't the best time."
"But what if something bad happens?"
Oh yes, you recognize those all too well, don't you? Can hear them just as clearly as you read the words, right? Those are the voices of your naysayers. Bold, confident, assertive, educated and experienced. The ones who, under the guise of coming to your aid, shoot down every shred of positivity in your attitude, your plan, your dreams. Oh surely they mean well...they just don't know! They don't know that they're living in fear. And their fears vary--fear of lack, fear of bad people, fear of rejection. And so they advise you to fear. "Be veeeery careful!" they warn. And they sound so convincing that you're almost sure that they are right. They're not! There...
Posted by Peace Love and Pretty Things on 8:02 PM
It's that instant where everything that has been out of focus suddenly becomes clear; the moment when you realize that all the things you thought you couldn't change are indeed different; the day you look around and your surroundings are new--the same people, places and things aren't there anymore; the hour/day/week/month when you can tell that you're just not the "you" that you thought you were. Don't get nervous! This is it! The moment you've been waiting for! You are standing in the middle of your own personal, spiritual and emotional transformation--your rebirth into the life you've always wanted. Maybe you're not there yet, but NOW you understand your journey and that you're meant to learn valuable lessons along the way there.
We have both recently experienced the "a-ha!" moment in our...
