Living Off the Wall - One Year Later

One year ago today, we lost a creative genius and icon of music, love and originality.   When I think about Michael Jackson, I feel a mixture of sadness, admiration, and joy.  His music and dancing brought so much inspiration into this world that it's hard to believe that anyone could deny that it was his gift and purpose to do so; and that we are all blessed to have been touched by him. He was idolized, labeled, accused, and adored and he bore the weight of all those things.  His life reminds me to live my life on my own terms regardless of people's praise or blame.   Below is a repost by Chic Mommy...

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The Perfectionists?

GG and I share an interesting trait: we both have discovered we struggle with a need for control and a desire for things in our lives to be as close to our ideas of perfection as possible. Understanding, of course, that perfection does not in fact exist--this notion is the idea that we have of how things in our worlds should look, feel and be scheduled; the neatness of the packaging we desire to present and the order we desire to create. Converse to this desire that we share is another commonality: we are both mothers to boys with completely different personalities from each other, but who share ties in the acute refusal to be controlled. You can imagine the resulting conundrum; the tenacious push against the "pish-posh-perfect" (a phrase my son coined) environments we try to create. It is...

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Beauty is my Birthright

Birthright: any right or privilege to which a person is entitled at birth Beauty: the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest). I was reading Essence magazine this weekend and became so inspired by the "I Love Being a Black Woman" theme that is a feature of the July issue. I have a four year old daughter and another baby girl on the way, and my biggest wish for their lives is that they love themselves...

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Ingrained Responses

The emotional responses ingrained in our brains are strange things. They can be triggered by people, places, smells, songs...basically anything that our brain recognizes as associated with a specific era or event in our lives. For example, a little while ago on the way to a girlfriend's home, my son told me that when we pass the field where he plays football (which is very near her home) he gets butterflies in his stomach. He said that being near the field immediately calls pre-game nervousness to memory for him; a recollection of wondering whether he and his teammates were going to play well, to win or to lose. Similarly, as I scrolled through Facebook statuses recently, I came upon one written by my high school boyfriend reminiscing about cookouts at his childhood home. I "liked" the status,...

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Elusive Happiness

We are fortunate to be surrounded by a group of very intelligent and talented friends. One such friend is Professor/Pastor Lawrence Ware. We threw the idea of guest posting out to him, not knowing if he would have the time or even the inclination to write for us, but he agreed without hesitation and we're so pleased that he did. He breaks down the concept/perception of "happiness" in a way that is simple and easily applicable to real life. So without further ado: Happiness is deceitful. The root of the word happiness is hap. The explicit use of hap is all but dead in the English language; yet, we find it in other words that can aid us in understanding its meaning: happening and happened. Happiness means pleasure rooted in externalities. In other words, happiness is dependent upon what is...

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Loving the Questions

Can you believe we are just almost half way through 2010??? Time has flown by in a blur of ups, downs, happies and sads. Such is life! It's senseless to fight time or the balance of things. And with that, I am peacefully content with where I am in life. I still have so many questions, but I love the questions. I still have so many contradictions, but I love them too. If the true value of the journey is in the ride, then I'm going to enjoy the ride for all of the traffic jams and breakdowns that come with it. Because life is amazing, scary, bittersweet and mysterious. Life is a blessing that we spend our whole lives trying to understand and appreciate. But, as humans, we don't know what we've got until it's gone. Today, take a moment to reflect on how far you've come. You may not be where...

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