No Time Like the Present

Greetings to all!!! I pray the day is treating you well. Today is a wonderful day to work on "me"! The snow is falling outside and since I am home, I have an opportunity to stop and think about what is important to me. I made the choice to stay home today because the weather may be beautiful to look at it is not beautiful to drive in. There is no time like the present for me to focus on my goals and dreams. Life is too short to spend every working moment working for someone else!! Finding your dream, your passion is something that requires lots of effort on your part. The effort comes from spending time to really work on what it is you want to do. There is no time like the present to start today working on the things that matter the most to you. I believe it begins with personal growth. I am a firm believer in reading books and surrounding yourself with words, thoughts, ideas, and people that inspire you to move forward. Lord, give to me a clear vision that I might know where to stand and what to stand for. Along with growth comes action-effort. It is easy to assume that if we think about it, it will happen. They didn't say "think it and they will come", they said "build it and they will come"! The effort was before the reward. Life is full of rewards for each of us. There is no time like the present for personal fulfillment. Personal fulfillment in every area of your life, health-financial-spiritual-love-any and every area that matters to you. There is no time like the present, make the most of this gift. Love you all!!

Unwanted Advice???

Greetings to all!!! I pray the day is treating you well. Question for today....Has anyone given you "unwanted advice"? Their 2 cents about your relationship, children, job, what you do or don't do? At times the advice may seem offensive...How dare she tell me ......!!! The biggest offense usually pertains to parenting when someone (usually without children) tells another how to parent their child. As the Mother of a 6 year old, I can understand how that feels. We never want to think we are not good parents or we don't know what we are doing. However, as the Aunt of more than 20 nieces and nephews, I have given my advice a time or two, wanted or not!! So what's my point....again, I know Moms and Dads, until someone has children they don't really understand, BUT, it isn't that they don't understand, they just haven't experienced it yet. The advice they give can be beneficial because they see things through a different set of eyes and they are removed from the situation, so it is all matter of fact verses emotionally based. The same is true in relationships. If we are the second half of a less than perfect duo, we don't see things the way they are. IF we do, then we are at times afraid to pull the trigger and do exactly what we would tell someone else if the shoe were on the other foot!! Unwanted advice-YES sometimes people overstep. Remember though, the advice usually comes from a place of love, someone wanting us to see things for the way they are. Whether we heed to it or not, we at least should listen. Don't forget, we ALL give unwanted advice and then wonder why they didn't listen to us the same way we don't listen to others. The advice may be unwanted, but it also may be just what you needed to hear!! Think about that!! Love you all!!

Time after Time

Greetings to all!!! I pray the day is treating you well. So today, at exactly 5:50 pm, my beautiful, wonderful son will be 6 years old!!! Where did the time go? It is amazing when I look at him sometimes and I see this person that only 6 years ago I met for the first time!! I like to tell him the story of his birth, and at least for now, he likes to hear it. I can remember the day like yesterday. Going to the hospital, talking to friends on the phone, everyone who was there, the look on my father's face. A moment in my life when for a split second, I understood the bigger picture. It frightens me sometimes when I realize how much time has passed. Not just the time that has passed as my son grows older, but time in general. We don't realize how quickly it moves, how we don't have forever. I see myself in the mirror and I see a woman, not a girl. I look at my parents, my siblings, my child and I realize that time is going by so fast that I MUST make every opportunity to cherish it. There are many things in life we can get back, but time is not one. I have said it before and I will say it again, take time to spend time with those you love. Take time for yourself, take time to appreciate your life because you never know when "time" will not be on your side. Love you all!!

What if you don't know?

Greetings to all!!! I pray the day is treating you well. There are commercials on TV and people talking (including me) all the time about living your dream, loving what you do. Do you know people that seem to be living their dream life? They are doing exactly what they want to do, they have freedom, they make the decisions, they are living the dream? Well, do you also ask yourself why that isn't you? What if you don't know what your dream is? What if you don't know what your ideal career is? It isn't that you wouldn't make it happen, it simply comes down to one thing....you don't know!!!!! My question then to you is, how do you find out? How do find out what it is that you love and in return "it" will give you financial security, a career, an opportunity to wake up everyday and do what you know you are meant to do? That is a task many people spend their entire lives working to accomplish. Some of us go along, day by day, praying to GOD to open the door for us and show us the way. Well, I am here to tell you that life is not a sprint, it is a marathon. A marathon that must be ran at pace, sometimes you go fast, sometimes you go slow. The most important thing though is that you finish. You finish the race with no regrets. If you don't know yet what "it" is, that means the time has not come for you to find it. You will, and when you do, life will be that much sweeter. So what if you don't know, be thankful that you do know that and keeping looking, because you will find it. Love you all!!!!

Where is the inspiration??

Greetings to all!! I pray the day is treating you well. Perhaps I am removed from the brighter sides of things, but I just don't see inspiration for our youth the way I was inspired as a kid!! Don't get me wrong, President Obama is inspiration and proof that persistence pays. But I just don't think it is enough!! I am far from being "old", I am only 36!!! I can remember growing up that striving to be something in life meant something!! College wasn't optional, respecting my parents definitely was not optional!! We were supposed to graduate high school, go to college, find our careers, get married THEN have children. It was taboo to have a child unmarried, let alone while we were still young!!! I am not passing judgement on anyone but what I am saying is that we were "inspired" to reach for more and not settle for the status quo. As I look at my friends, their lives and accomplishments, the majority of them have done just what we were expected to do. We did graduate high school, go to college, find our careers, get married and have families (not always in that order-marriage/kids or kids/marriage or no kids no marriage...you know what I mean). We take care of our families because that is what we do, it isn't anything that deserves praise. A Father is a Father, not a baby daddy!!! The inspiration came from seeing those before us go on to accomplish many things. Our music, TV shows all gave the same message-family, faith, education. Where is the inspiration today? The notion of sex between teens on TV started my senior year of high school!!! Now, 5th graders can turn on the tube and see it all day long. We wore baggy pants, and hoop earrings. They wear mid-drifts and hip hugger jeans with their tongs showing. Again, I may have a different view here, but it seems to me that our youth today are ready to grow up but not ready to be adults. Our version of growing up was going out of state to school, their version is having kids!!! Where is the inspiration?? Children having children, repeating the cycle and not realizing until they are 30 plus that something should have been done differently but by then it is all most too late!! They settle for dead end jobs that have no promise of a future career. The inspiration should come from home and friends. I grew up with people whose parents thought the same way as mine. They could spank me and tell my mother they did so then I would get it again!! We had respect for our teachers, pride in our history and a desire to be above average. I don't see it anymore so if I am wrong PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!! As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. What flock are you flying with? What flock are your children flying with? Inspiration....where will you begin? It starts at home, so be an example of something greater than yourself no matter how "great" you think you are. Love you all!!!

Perspective

Greetings to all!!! I pray the day is treating you well. It is amazing in our life and times how much things have changed and advanced throughout the years. We don't know what we would do without our Blackberries, cell phones, Internet, instant communication. We are a society of now!! A society that is focused on the material things and what we want when we want it. If you look at other cultures, other lives around the world, you will discover that the things we stress over are so small in the bigger picture of life. We get mad if we have no reception on the cell phone, but so many people do not have a phone!! We complain about the food we eat, or what we won't eat when thousands have no food to eat!! "What am I going to wear today??" When others have no clothes to wear!! I look around at my designer bags, flat screen TVs, computer, cell phone, etc... I look in my child's room and see toys, clothes with tags, TV, movies, things...am I teaching him to appreciate what he has and the life he has been given or am I creating a person that will think life owes him something? What is your perspective? How do you spend your time, spend the days of your life? Do you have a solid, grounded perspective? Do you understand that life is not about what you have or don't have? Do you understand that life does not begin when you have that dream job, dream home, dream car...but life begins when you appreciate what you have and where your life is going because of who you are NOT what you have? Plenty of people love their life with much less than we have. If we stop clouding our lives with the material things that don't matter, we may find that life is greater and sweeter when we appreciate the smaller things. Love you all!!!

I can do bad all by myself!!

Greetings to all!!! I pray the day is treating you well. Several months ago I went to the movies to see Tyler Perry's new film and now it is on DVD. The title of that movie is absolutely perfect....I CAN DO BAD ALL BY MYSELF!!!!! It is such a true statement that you don't need someone else to bring you down. We can handle that completely on our own. When you are with someone else, they should be a benefit, a blessing, a person that uplifts you. Far to often however, we fall into a trap where the person we are with does not uplift us, but drags us further into the gutter. Women will tell each other this all the time..."Girl forget him, if he can't help you then what do you need him for??!!" That is so true, but ladies, let us not throw stones. Fellas, remember..the same is true for you. If you take the time to invest in someone, if you allow them to occupy your space, to become a part of your world, be it man or woman, then make sure it is to the benefit, blessing and uplifting to you!!! They should help you become a better person, not bring you down. I can do bad all by myself!!! Heck, I can do GREAT all by myself. No one, be it a friend, family member, job, coworker or lover will ever cause me to allow myself to be less than great! Don't you allow it either. Do bad, no DO GOOD!!! Love you all!!!