Saturday, January 30, 2016

Is there ever a graceful descent from the number one spot? I love you Serena and you will get back up!

Serena lost to Angelique Kerber this morning. I do wish I could have watched it. But that never stops me from discussing the personal ramerfercations to my life.

My mommy was Serena in her neighborhood, in the same age range. I remember us thinking her an unbeatable foe, to us and to others. I saw her win and win and win again. Then one day, she lost to a most humble opponent. Norma ran to the top of the mountain and carried her trophy and screamed her victory to the rooftops. There is a time for everything, I remember thinking. Mom was number one for a long time and now she has to reach from 2 to regain her title. She did, of course and she taught us "it is how you lose that counts!"

Friday, January 29, 2016

What Snow?

I do love how the snow comes and goes, down here. It is a beautiful sunny day and you are saying to yourself, did it snow a couple of days ago?

The children play outside and the mud is all over the place, you have to watch where you step. As long as I have concrete here and there, I am delighted to watch the snow turn into mud. I want to call my children's book, The Muddy, Mucky Day. It is muddy more than it is anything else. This years gardens will love the ground, for sure!

We meant to get everyone together to take a family snow photo, but we could never get everyone and the snow together. I think that is fun.

As I hear the deepening voice of my darling Ezra, it reminds me that there are no more babies in the house. He doesn't much care for the baby type things like making a snowman. He likes money. Oh well! I can understand that.

Monday, January 25, 2016

Our Panthers are SUPER BOWL bound!

To live here in the Carolinas is a delicate mix of beauty and simplicity. We enjoy the simple things. It seems there is little else. Occasionally, a great name or other comes to perform and then there is a tumult. But, usually there is little to get very bent out of shape about.

We have had some friends come and go, because the spiritual climate, they thought was too bland. I am grateful for the rest of emotion, on the other hand. I needed the emotional rest from city life.

Our Panthers are the rage, now. We were hoping against hope that their nearly perfect season record would continue, game after game after game. Now we are at the Super Bowl's door and it is a crescendo of elation in the entire state and for miles around. I don't think we have ever been champions before. I am hoping, for my lovely State's sake that they can take it all. My Cam Newton is just a delight to watch in action. He rejoices at the little things and the big things. I like to think that he carried the entire State on his shoulders into the end zone. I know that is not true, but I like his enthusiasm. The rest of the team has the hearts of our dear area. All around is aglow with the thrill of possible victory!My mind wishes that Mr. T could go to them and give them the pep talks that he gave us. "The only thing we have to fear...etc." He was an inspiration in my whole life to live my life to the glory of God. He is the picture of victory in my mind's eye. I wish he could talk to those boys and help them to see the victorious ability that is within them. GO PANTHERS!

Saturday, January 23, 2016

The Snowy Day

I was in Kindergarten or First Grade when I first saw this beautiful book, by Ezra Jack Keats. I loved it then. And even now, when my children are all too old to enjoy it, days like today make me search out the book to remember those enjoyable thoughts of childhood and the snowy days enjoyed, back then. We Call it Christmas in January!!!

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Monday, January 18, 2016

Celebrating MLK

Please enjoy this playlist, I've compiled with some great speeches and songs in memory of Martin Luther King Jr.

Learning to be Old, Gifted and Black!

The Joys of growing Old, Gifted and Black!
When I was a child, our mantra was “I’m Black and I’m proud and I’m saying it loud…etc.” There was more to my mantra, but its irrelevant to my discussion and reflection today.
Nobody told us that we would not always be “young, gifted and black” One day you may become old, though you might still be gifted and black. What did you do with that youth? What did you do with that giftedness? What did you do with that skin? Did it limit you? Did it free you? Did it help or hurt anyone else?
These are questions for me on this 35th anniversary of our celebrating MLK’s birthday.
YOUTH---

I am sure that I have never done anything as controversial as Rosa Parks. But as my hair grays, I am starting to see that this woman which I semi-regarded, I am starting to see her in the mirror. Aging Black woman, me, never been in the paper for your civil-rights actions; but, what do people see when they see you? I have a story of walking into adulthood and developing a right human esteem, in the light of perspectives that our country was working through in its attempt to shed the sad history that we were working with in the 60’s. I love America. I love that we all participate in the identity of our nation. We are wicked together and we are redeemed, politically together. “You’ve got your soul in tact!” Aretha bellowed, in her rendition of YGB. I am thankful that I am black, because it means that I don’t have to answer for the slave trade, seemed the sentiment. I don’t think that is really true, but it is a sentiment. We have our own parts in that matter. Learning forgiveness and transcendence over hard trials, through our faith in God. This lesson is very strong in the Black Church, as I have seen. 1.We must not rejoice in calamity!

2.We must not enter into the naughty behavior. 3.We must give God the glory in our rejoicing and in our suffering
At least these three things are what is meant to have your soul in tact! None of these perspectives save us, it is true: there is a great advantage, in living for God, knowing this, though. I have seen that in my life. I grew up believing in personal and social vindication, through violence. I said to myself, if America was right to Revolt, Malcolm X is truly American. I didn’t have the benefit of the spiritual instruction that was the bedrock of the nonviolent counterpart. I was taught to fight, I had no idea, that the little phrase of Aretha would haunt my soul through out life “You got your soul in tact?” Every fight, personal and social, takes a piece of your soul out of you, from the inside out. I would have to learn that the hard, hard way.
I was a hardened, emotionally bitter 16 year old, when God took me into the school of social, mental, and physical renewal. God showed me my soul, before Him. Undone, unacceptable, none of us has a right to look at any of the injustices done to us and feel superior. God showed me that. Personally, socially, and especially spiritually there is redemption, only in Jesus. More judgment is owed to you, in your sixteen years in sin, than is owed to the whole slave trade! I better flee to Christ, He is my only hope!
Martin was saying, I am a Christian. I have no right to hold any man captive, by my own retaliation. I certainly couldn’t see that part of the puzzle, while I was holding my grudges. Nonviolence was not a response of Ghandi-an imitation, only. It was the only right response, in the light of the great redemption, paid for, by our Precious and Suffering Savior.

Even with my soul intact, it took 54 years for me to see that side of the puzzle. I see that the only thing more blessed to me than Being Saved, is knowing that my soul is in tact, though my mind and my body may be deteriorating. The greater blessing than being Young Gifted and Black! I am Saved and I am Redeemed and I am saying it loud. “Get your soul in tact!”

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Details of a Crazy Friday with my babies.

Joshua talks very clearly to me everyday. He says his name and he tries to say everybody elses name. He is not taking any nonsense from the other children anymore. He is trying to keep up with them and daring them to try the antics of earlier days. When he hits them he looks at me, like, I owed him that, didn’t I. Nooooooo! I say, I remember they hit you, honey, but you don’t owe him that. He ate a lot better on Friday and I was comforted by this. He is a picky eater. I nearly have to wrestle the food into his mouth. I used to think Sharon was hard on little T the way she had to feed him. He must have had the same malady as this baby. One way or another half the food is going to be on me and half on him and I have to guess how much made it into his mouth. I saw some slight improvement on that effort, this week. I saw him growing and that affecting his appetite. That is a comforting thing.
Karadyn started the day setting up the chairs. I set them up all the time. They all take one chair and do their own thing. This time, she set them up in a straight line. I said, lets play sitting on the bus with Karadyn. She sat in the last seat, very proud of herself for having set up the chairs in a pattern. She was being Ms. Jayne. She was making a game for her friends and she was sitting in the back of the bus and now we can play. I am always in awe of the perspective and direction that her play takes. I am there to exemplify good playing habits, as much as possible. They take it to another level, everyday. She is really making strides in directing her anger away from her friends. Once in a while the blows land on the friend, but she looks at me and turns her hits away from them. I am delighted to see such growth in such a little one. My favorite is her practicing her trills. She sits there and dddddddd as fast as her little mouth can say and she is angry that it still is not a trill, yet.

Poor Braxton got the raw end of the deal, on Friday. We had company. Ms. Christine should be well known to them, I really don’t know how to calculate their behaviors. They were all out of sorts. Braxton got hit a couple of times. He was trying to sit on my lap for a lot of the time. That probably made everybody go after him. His tummy was a bit troubled, we figured out later. Nobody wanted to work out as usual. They each had something different in mind and I tried to keep up with them, somewhat. Braxton couldn’t regroup from everybodys newfound separatism. What is going on? He kept crying. Once we understood he was having a boo boo day, we took care of him and made him as comfortable as we could in the crib. Lets hope we can grow from this experience and get more civil with eachother. I think we will. This may be a new season of the older children learning to respect the growing up of the littler ones. I call it a learning burp! A glitch day.

Sunday, January 3, 2016

One of my favorite, worshipful Christmas songs.

It was about 26 years ago that I was outside a Christian Bookstore and met a delightful little elderly lady, who asked me if I'd heard of Morris Chapman. I told her no. I had visited Christian Bookstores to read and listen to music from artists that I already knew about.

We stood outside the bookstore and she went on to tell me how worshipful and God glorifying this music was and I promised that I would find his music, when I went in the store. I had one album of his and played it and played it and I am sure that it has become a part and parcel of my restored and resewn heart, after the loss of baby Ben. There is hardly any of his music that I have disliked. This one has lifted us to heaven in our Christmas meditations for all those years and I am grateful to have the opportunity to share it with my family. enjoy!

Friday, January 1, 2016

"Nothing Between in 2016"-----------------------------my motto of the year

I was so blessed by this rendition of the song, which my children and I enjoyed singing together, on New Year's Eve, in our home. Halleluia, What a Savior!

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.