Wednesday, August 27, 2014

The Wise Sharpening of the African American Woman's mind!

Halleluia, What a Savior!

That Zina Garrison, looks to have cracked the glass ceiling of self depracation in that protégé of hers. I would give her a cigar!

Your mission, if you choose to accept it is to build an athlete woman who has no mental block to the number one spot, internal or external. This block must be conquered, even before the physical prowess is fully bloomed!
That looks to be what Zina has created in her young monster. That girl is a monster in bloom. Physical at 50% play ability good and growing, but the mental acumen to look a Senior woman in the face and not fear beating her. That has been our African stumbling block in a matriarchal system. We rear them to fear us so that they cannot overcome our "mothering". I applaud the spirit that I see developing in the young 18 year old. Give it your all, do not genuflect to the matriarch and in all your beating, don't beat yourself. If anyone beats you, let them know that it is because they are better at your game and not because you were too chicken to win.

Sharpen mind and body, but don't beat people into subjugation to do it. That's not what the rod is for.

If I never see her again, I am blessed to have seen what I would have wished could have been the womanly condition of Black Tennis in my youth. "We are definitely going up!"

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

I ate 'em and they turned my stomach, some. Not sure why?

My Tubers{sweet potatoes} were beautiful in the way they grew around eachother. I have, for a long time been enamored with the "tubers" growth and beauty. I have seen such parallels inside the body, as I colored, with the Sweetpotato in pictures. This time I grew some for myself. What a proud moment to pull them out of what looks, on the surface, like a fruitless garden and have these beauties smiling and looking at you. I must eat you right now, and I could have bitten into the raw one, but I dared not. City girls don't eat their own produce. One never knows whether the process has been completed rightly. Was there too much miracle gro or too little insecticide? How does that process work with sweet potatoes?

I nearly forgot about the holes in the sweetpotatoes. They looked like worms had tried to get into them. That concerned me some. I found that when I cooked them the skin had absorbed the eating of the worms and the inside of the potato wasn't harmed or touched. Very different from apples, that the skin having been penetrated by the worm, will keep the little thing inside as a gift for you if you don't watch out. The sweet potato seems to be eaten by the worm and save the meaty part of the potato for me. The skin seems to be softer than a white potato, but far more resilient to the elements. I don't know why?

I washed and boiled them and ate them with my "legume enriched" meatloaf. I had a serious stomach problem the whole night. Was it the legumes or the sweet potato? No one else got the problem, so it must have been the sweet potatoes. I will try it again tonight, just to make sure. Or I may wait a week.

I I really never harvested sunflower seeds before. I hadn't put the 2 things together, in my mind. "here to sunflower seeds come from?" was one of the questions that got crushed in its earliest inception. I have grown them before and I have eaten them before, but I had never spent the time to pull them out of the "face". I guess I was like Ethan when he found out that cucumbers were edible and not just a cartoon character. I always thought of that part of the sunflower as the face and not so fruitful.

I sat for a half an hour or so trying to extract them whole after having dried the flower in the house for a week. Sweet syrup was coming off of the flower and I wished I had been a bee to get it out. I licked it and said "YUM!" This is yummier than the seeds. You should have tasted my fingers after the extraction process was completed. Yummy! " do love icky sticky stuff"to quote Pooh Bear.

I know that I am very sensitive to tactile on my fingers. {I used to go into the wool aisle and just stick my fingers into the different skeens to enjoy} Sunflower seeds are very similar in tactile delight. They are sticky sweet and dry at the same time. They stick to your fingers just a little and then leave the stickiness on your fingers and become dry. I am typing with the stickiness, because I don't want to wash off the sweet flavorfulness. Yuck!

I intend to plant mine and not eat them. Partly because I want to associate the experience in my mind with the sweet flavor and not the seedy flavor that I am used to. And partly because I want more sunflower seeds to harvest, If I can get some more before winter, somehow. Maybe they won't bloom again, but I'll try putting them in dirt and seed what comes of it.

My millet came up far more beautifully this year, than last year. They were bigger and thicker than last years batch. I do love millet, as difficult as they are to process. I must be a bird some where. I usually would blend them in something and enjoy it in a bread. It is a reminder of Dr. Manion and Grandma Ruth who told us how he would use the different whole grains in a well rounded diet. I haven't fully inculcated that as a practice, but I do occasionally use the different grains and millet is a delightfully different flavor of grain, to wheat.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Chowanautical and set at full sail!

Our Poor Puppy is a real sheepdog. When we came in the door from the trip to Chowan, she looked at us. Are you okay with this? One of us is missing, Mommy. I am not okay with this Emma. But it wasn't by accident and she is not lost. She is on a mission and her goal is to come home smarter and more equipped. Let's hope that happens! Still we are missing her.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Thank God for our police and firefighters!

We are so blessed to know some of our bravest and finest, in our neighborhood. We wouldn't trade them for the world. So grateful to God, are we for them. Our prayer is for their safety and blessing, today!

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Fewer pain meds and the knee and the elbow are getting more useable!

I am not good with bone pain!

My children think its nice to stand over me and ask to lift and help me. I hate it, as nice as it is as a gesture, I start to feel old. I keep seeing Dr. Lang telling dad in a stern voice "TONY, a man's got to do what a man's got to do!"

Today I got out of the car without a hand and without the meds. Halleluia! That pain felt like it was going to last a lifetime, it was deep and urgent pain. Now as it dissipates, I am reminded that healing is a gift from God. I am very grateful for the dear and very expectant Dr. who is delighting my life, with encouragements as she looks at the developing and the aging of my bones. She's not my child and she is not a friend. A counselor and overseer of the healing process, We've been blessed with many dear Dr.s down here. A breaking bone and tearing skin season for us. But, the tearing has grafted in these dear people into our lives and hearts and taught us much about our ability to follow the directions of others, who may be younger and yet knowledgeable directors for our health.

Thank you to my family and friends. I am grateful for the well wishes. Thank you to the many doctors and nurses and technologists who serve us. God bless you all

No more trying to lift mom out of the chair, you hear!

Monday, August 11, 2014

I Hope You Dance!

She's back!

We walked into church late. The whole bunch of us big galloots were in the pew together, a rarity for us. We are usually in different portions of the church. This time it was hard to keep us sober acting for the worship service. Various giggles kept coming from our pew. Mother says shut up! we elbowed eachother to try to get ourselves together. Who's mother? I thought to myself. Oh yes, I am mother. That is the job description that I was given. It's your job to keep the "peace" or piece, {as Madea says, ie."a Ruthism"}. It is a good thing that we go to a Pentecostal Church first thing in the Sunday Morning.

Elyse is home from New York. We were all waiting expectantly for our dear and loving elder sister to come on home from the "real far country". She said she would meet us at church and She was there as expected. Its a good thing, too. We all would have beat her up, if she would have stayed in the far country. Just kidding.

We danced around the church in a nearly modest way. "On account of, because of" the Good Providence of God in protection and travelling mercies. My bad leg, notwithstanding. Shouting is in order on just such occasions!

When we got home, we had testimony service. She is recounting the travels to the "Homeland". We are still at Monday's good blessings and times with the cousins and the Aunties. Hallelia, What a Savior!

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Instantly, I was transported to Jamaica Ave and 218th St.

I got a phone call from Elyse going to the Aquarium. "What bus is it to 179th St.? How many times have I been to Jamaica Ave and 218th and gone to 179th St from every other direction? 179th St was like a North on the compass for a huge chunk of my life. Wherever you are find 179th St. and you can walk from there, if you need to. There is always a bus or a train to take you there.

I am grateful that I am not in the hustle and bustle of the city regularly. It is soothing that the run to the doors of the train is a distant memory. But it is bittersweet and somewhat I longed to just look at the view of the buildings and feelings of a New York minute. Blink your eye and the minute is over. I thank God for the dearness of my hometown and the sweetness of new beginnings.

Monday, August 4, 2014

Title- The Studious One!

Title-  The Studious One!
artwork by Elyse

Of biscuits and syrup

Of biscuits and syrup
tasty treats

Happy Saturday!

Happy Saturday!
a day at the Raptor Center.

Widdle Emmie in outer space school

Emmie jumped on the bus and off it flew out into the atmosphere. There was a set of clouds with turbulence right above the house and it took a few minutes for my Emmie to buckle her seatbelt. They hit the bump hard and it knocked my Emmie out of her seat and she bumped her head. The video camera came on and the monitor looked through and stated, Ms. Emmie, where are you? You are not in your seat. Where are you? I am alright I fell because I hadn’t buckled correctly. Well jump up Emmie we have a long way to go and you have to be buckled there is entirely too much turbulence in the stratosphere for you to unbuckle now. As soon as we are through this weather system there will be straight sailing but right now you must buckle. Emmie scrambled into the seat with intensity and purpose now. She watched every cloud pass her window and her nose was pressed to the window trying to see the top of the house as it drifted slowly out of sight. Soon they were not only out of sight of the house, the sun came out brightly and just as quickly they were putting on the atmospherical breathing apparatus and the outerspherical lights. The ABA and the OL. These precautions were to make them appear to be satellites to the radar as they were out in the ionosphere. Emmie knew all about this now. She had gone to the orientation and had a good breakfast and it took them 20 minutes for her to get out past the atmospherical pull and to feel the zero gravity. It would be 15 minutes before the gravity simulators would take effect, a glitch in the system which was being worked on. Until then, they enjoyed the couple of minutes of floatation, while being connected to the seats by belt. The first thing they saw everyday was the strataflotsam. The items which had been dumped into the atmosphere by earlier generations. What would their generation do about this ecological waste area that remained floating above their heads? This was a question for the generations. For now it was the area that they had to guide through on the way to school.

Midnight at the OASIS

Midnight at the OASIS
Sunset in Huntersville

My little Emmie

ran to the bus on the first day of the last year of school. 2 buns on the side of her head. She kissed me and ran at dawn to the bus. She was starting the adventure of a lifetime. I would never see that little girl again, she was going to woman school!

My Father and I 1989

My Father and I 1989

to the tune of Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

A VISIT TO PAPA











Are you going to Mary Immaculate?

Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



Remember me to the one who lived there,



He once was a true love of mine,



Tell him to buy me an acre of land,



Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



Between the muddy Hudson in Jamaica Bay,



Then, He’ll be a true love of mine,

Tell him to sow in it seeds of pure cream,



Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



And build Ice cream mountains and buildings of whipped cream,

Then, He’ll be a true love of mine,



Tell him to reap them with sickles of M&M’s,



Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



And chew bubble gum and eat till we’re done,



Then, He’ll be a true love of mine.



Tell him to run it off down the motor parkway,



Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



After your done 50 pushups



and jog down the West Side Highway,



Then he’ll be a true love of mine…

(Don’t wait for me today dad, The kids are sick again, My tummy’s bulging again, My heart is aching again, And now there’s no love there…)





He once was, a true love of mine….So, Girls, I do beg you don't miss your Daddy,Apricots, Chocolate cherries and Pie,You have one short chance to see him on this side, Go visit him and let your light shine.