That’s the way the cookie crumbles…..

….I was supposed to be reporting on the number of times I heard the presidential candidates said “fundamental difference”…..well unfortunately people I fell asleep during the beginning of the debate.  So my tally for the event was a meager two times….

Okay, in keeping with the theme of Rewind Wednesday….well I’m deviating slightly from the format.  I decided to go through my email from exactly a year ago to the day and this is a discussion my email group had…

Why do you think men leave there wives for younger women? I would love some feedback about this.

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.- George Bernard Shaw

David

when I move you move…part 1 of ?

Okay, it seems like I had all these outside forces working together as one to prevent me from blogging today….from work, home, school and other personal issues things just kept on cropping up.  I was actually getting irritated by all of it.  Have you ever got to the point when you were so frustrated with everything and everyone around you….you just wanted to just go…no specific destination…but just go somewhere for a few hours.  That is how I have been the last few days.  It is like the smallest of things set me off.  I don’t get irrate or anything like that…I just cut the situation or person smooth off.  It is nothing for me to shake something loose.  I have always been like that.  My wife used to say that I was the coldest, caring person in the world.  I mean if you are on my team…its not nothing that I won’t do…..but if I am jabbed the wrong way….it is curtains…seriously.  Anywho….I’m really not sure how this blog is going to end up….how long it will be or should Iet it go at some point.  So in advance I apologize for any scatter-brained moments…if I’m not making sense….and grammar/spelling issues.  I don’t go over or spellcheck…..I just write kind of raw for my blog.  If this was a paper, I would though…lol.  By the way, I made the Dean’s List for the second straight quarter.  Please feel free to donate to the cause (hahaha just kidding).

I talk about my dude the Brain all the time.  We are on this qwest for world domination.  I mean we really have some tremendous things that we would like to accomplish together and also seperately.  He lives in Texas and I truly believe that the Lord planted him there before me to start sowing seeds.  I say before me because I will be moving down there sometime soon I really believe.  I think once we are together….world ya’ll better watch out.  The key is to listen….listen for God’s voice.  I need to move when he tells me to move…..and I’m not talking about just moving in the physical tense….but the mental tense as well.  You don’t have to physically be moving to move.  I was doing a little research on the actually word “move”…and there were a few definitions that stood out to me:

1. to advance or progress
2. to prompt, actuate, or impel to some action
3. a change of location or residence
4. an action toward an objective or goal; step

I’m gonna stop right there and let you marinate on that….see you tomorrow….

I Need Speedbumps

Rewind Wednesday…..enjoy….

Speed bumps….whose bright idea were these????  Have you ever been driving along in your own little world….like in a daze of some sort, not really caring or paying attention to your surroundings.  This happens to me often.  I can get in my car and just space off.  A few days ago I encountered one of these episodes.  Shortly after I got off of work I was on my way to visit my wife in the hospital.  On my way to the hospital, I stopped to pick up my two children.  The more I drove, the more I became engrossed in my thoughts.  Just drifting along.

Out of the blue, I quickly came back to my senses…as I heard my two children in the backseat arguing over who’s going to play the Xbox 360 first when we get home from the hospital.  At that moment I noticed I was approaching a very large speed bump in the middle of the road.  I had just enough time to slow down and not do any serious damage to my car….even though I did ride over the bump rough…everything was okay.

After this experience, it made me realize the power of the Lord.  I heard a wise man say that sometimes the Lord had to throw calamity (speed bumps) in lives in order for us to slow down a witness the view…to witness His strength.  Isaiah 48:17-18 says ….17 This is what the LORD says your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: ”I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. 18 If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river,  your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

See this particular day my calamity was my children arguing…..what’s yours???

I remember to the day when I wrote this post.  My wife was really sick.  I had just picked up both of my children…I actually was coming from #1′s mother’s house.  Man this really brings back memories.  How have I grown since this initial post????  I still have the speed bumps in my life.  Sometimes they seem more like steeplechase hurdles.  The difference between then and now is I have experienced more pain and I am still growing.  The process is extremely difficult, but my steps are ordered.  A friend on mine told me shortly after my wife died…that, “all sunshine and no rain makes a desert.”  Thank God for speed bumps.

“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”-MLK

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow

Your latest installment of Rewind Wednesday…

Man, it’s been along time since I have blogged…..Just over 5 months to day.  Things have been kind of hectic over my way.  Between my family, job (I got a promotion a few months back), school and other things I just haven’t had the time to devote to write like I used to. 

I was on my way to work this morning and watching people drive.  We have a little snow on the ground, so folks seem like they have lost their minds.  Watching people slip and slide wasn’t funny because I know the potential of an accident….but what it reminded me of is when I was a kid.  I couldn’t wait for it to snow.  There was a park directly behind my house and there was a hill that seemed like it was 30 ft. tall.  You know all things seem bigger when you are a child.  We used to get some make-shift sleds…actually it was only a big piece of cardboard (I grew up in West Dayton, Ohio….the inner city), we used to make a dollar out of fifteen cents people.

I would go up and down this hill hundreds of time each snowfall.  The cold really didn’t matter to us, all that we cared about is having fun.  After daydreaming for a quick second at the stoplight, I came back to reality.  It made me think that why do we as adults sometime make things so complicated.  Sometimes we just need to be a kid.  Sit back and have some fun once and awhile.  Enjoy life and live life to the fullest.

Man, I know that it is kind of weird since I’ve been preaching growing up and responsibilities and all that good stuff.  Where am I at after this initial post…I’m not sure.  It is such a delicate balance between work and fun.  I think that lately I’ve had less fun and have experienced a more tedious lifestyle.  Sometimes I wish that I could just drop everything I’m doing and just take about a two week vacation.  I was talking to a friend this morning and we got on the subject rest and fun….I guess I am having a problem with balancing the two.  My doctor tells me that this has got to change.  I really need to take some time to myself and re-charge.  My question is to you is how do you do that with so many responsibilities? I dunno, what do you think?

Rewind Wednesday….the Remix???

I know that Rewind Wednesday is like a day of reflection…I guess.  I wanted to do something a little different today (and then next week we’ll go back to regularly scheduled programming).  I don’t have a blog that I want to reference per say, but I do want to pose a question.  I was watching CNN Monday night and they were interviewing a reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat.  He was at a John McCain rally and for some odd reason he was removed out of the media area.  I really would not have an issue with this…hell to each its own except for a slight detail I did not mention.  The reporter was the only black in the media area.  This is a short article about it. 

Thinking about this interview reminded me of a conversation I had with my email group a couple of years ago.  This is my question to you.  I guess it goes back to moral responsibility….

Can you with a sound mind sacrifice your life (I mean actual death) for the well-being of your ENTIRE race?  Regardless of your ethnicity (black, white, hispanic, asian, etc.)….knowing that in each race their are people who can care less about accomplishing things.

      “I try to live what I consider a “poetic existence.” That means I take responsibility for the air I breathe and the space I take up. I try to be immediate, to be totally present for all my work.” – Maya Angelou

Dew

Whose Afraid of the big Bad Wolf

As promised, you second installation of Rewind Wednesday…..

Man I have three days until I turn 31 and I have mixed feelings.  I never thought I would make it to live this long.  Not because I grew up in an extremely rough environment (which I did), but because I didn’t have the foresight to look that long.  Growing up, all I could think of is now and could have cared less about later.  Now that I’m more established (better than saying older) my outlook is completely different.  From 16-25 all I could think about is money, women and self gratification….not necessarily in that order, but you get the drift.  As I continue to broaden my horizon, I see that or should I say I learned that there is more to life than those things.  Some lessons were easier learned than others, but the thing is I learned them and they stick with me to this very day.

Reflecting on where I came from, I thank God for that selfish period in my life.  That period helped me to realize that I love growing up.  I thank God for my wife and two children.  Dang I’m about to turn 31…thank the Lord!  Thank Him for not giving up on me. One of my favorite verses in the bible is…I Corinthians 13:11 (NIV)…When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

Here I am a little over a year after this initial post and my life has taken a dramatic turn.  My horizons are broadening by the minute.  My attitude is mature.  My life is continuing on the right track.  People it is a season for everything, sometimes your harvest my not come when you want it, but it is definitely right on time.  We have to continue to press forward and put away things that are childish….the things that hinder our advancement….those fatal vices that strip the life away from our bliss.  We all have them.  We might not encounter them on a daily basis, but they are there…..nagging us, talking to us.  Maturity…that is an awesome word….we (especially those that are parents_ need to set the correct example for our children.  Remember…it is NOT….”do as I say, not as I do”….it should be….”do as I do.”

Where am I compared to this initial post?  I am stronger…I am wiser…like the song says…I am better.  I thank calamity for coming into my life.  It has molded me to the person I am now….Talk to me people….

You don’t learn to hold your own in the world by standing on guard, but by attacking and getting well hammered yourself. – George Bernard Shaw

 Dew

 

Back, back, Forth and forth….

Okay people, I am going to start something new here.  I’ve been blogging for sometime now.  On the average I write here 4-5 times a week.  It just depends on my level of creativity I guess (and time constraints).  I think from this point forward, I will make Wednesdays…Rewind Wednesday’s.  I used to blog on another site, but once I was introduced to WordPress…I politely did that peoowwww, and transitioned here. 

RW’s will consist of a post I made once before and compare it to where I am now…..just to see check the curve…how is the maturation process…please feel free to comment…let me know (and I’m straight forward, I’m not a politically correct type of dude) if I’m talking about some garbage….say whatever.  I will also expand on the original post too….with that being said (drum roll please) here is the first Rewind Wednesday post…..(applause)

Change is something that is a natural maturation.  We change all the time.  We change clothes, we change residence, we change occupations….heck we change our minds numerous time each day.  Change is defined as: to advance or progress. 

If change is something that happens thousands and thousands of times each day…why can’t people accept it.  Why can’t folks change with the times.  Folks all to often rely or revel over the past while the present and the future is staring right at you.

God has so much in store for His children, but the problem is we can’t believe that people or situations change.  We can’t MOVE ON.  We are stuck in a time warp like Austin Powers.  I’ve never seen a person win a race while looking backwards.  Let the past be the past….Move on and walk into your blessing! 

Some might say that you must know the past in order to know where you are going.  I’ve made this argument before.  Yet, there is a difference with glancing and making observations….opposed to staring and passing judgement.  More people need to practice LIG (let it go).  Focusing on the past will make you stagnant.  If he hurt you…let it go.  If she done you wrong….let it go.  If you were wronged….let it go.  Live life to the fullest.  Let LIG be the motto….

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”- Nelson Mandela (Maryanne Williamson)

Dew