Words of Wisdom

Friends borrow your books and sit wet glasses on them
~ Edwin Robinson

"Sometimes the people we care about the most are the people we treat badly. We don't always mean to or want to. At times we just don't think. Other times we do it because we know we can get away with it. We must learn to value and honor those blessings we call friends; they are few and far between. They come to share a part of life with us. How we treat them is a reflection of our thoughts about life. When we tax our friendships with abuse, neglect, or mindless actions, we shut ourselves off from the support that makes life easier to bear. When we fail to nurture our friendship, it is a sign that we do not nurture ourselves. When we treat our friends with kindness and respect, they are obliged to do the same. When we hold our friendship in high regard, we learn to feel good about ourselves. When we value our friends and the relationship, they know it, and they will will do their best to keep things in balance."

Quote from
Acts of Faith: Daily Meditations for People of Color



Poem of The Day

In My Search For Heaven

Is it a game we play
Every day of our lives
trying to find
what we believe
trying to learn what is right?
So many mistakes I've made
so many times
so many tears
Trying to learn to live
with these regrets

Still it makes me feel like shit
feels like damn
feels like I'm burning inside
It makes me feel like shit
feels like damn
feels like I'm going through hell
In my search for heaven

What is this world we live in?
where you're taught that beauty is skin
Makes you dazed and confused
sets you up to lose
but man, I'm trying to win
So many mistakes I've made
so many times
so many tears
Trying to learn to live
with these regrets of mine

Still it makes me feel like shit
feels like damn
feels like I'm burning inside
Oh it makes me feel like shit
feels like damn
feels like I'm going through hell
In my search for heaven

~ Alicia Keys

More of her poetry can be found in:
Tears for Water: Songbook of Poems and Lyrics



Words of Wisdom

You have to love enough to let go

There are times when loving someone means we must let them go. It is not healthy or productive to remain in a relationship that makes us happy sometimes, sad most of the time. Yet we hang on. We hang on believing that something bad will happen to the person if we let him or her go. That is our ego telling us what we want to hear. We hang on in fear that no one else will love them or us the way we want to be loved. This time the ego is telling us that we are not good enough. We hang on because we don't know who or what may come along. We believe there is a lack of available mates. We hang on wishing, hoping, trying to make it work-afraid it will not. When a relationship is over, it is over; but the love can live on. Loving someone means you want him or her to be happy. If that person can be happy without you, love is enough to let go.

Quote is from:
Acts of Faith: Daily Meditations for People of Color



Throwback Classic

Artist: En Vogue
Song: Don't Let Go
Album: Set It Off soundtrack



To download from Amazon click link:
Don't Let Go [Love]

Words of Wisdom

"Do not envy the oppressor, and choose none of his ways."
~ Proverbs 4:31

"When someone does you harm, it seems only natural that you should do the same to him, right? Wrong! You can never get even with someone who has harmed you. Any attempt to do so puts you behind the eight ball, again. Two wrongs never make a right. Nor can you right a wrong by committing another wrong. You may be able to justify your actions politically or socially, but spiritually you will be held accountable for what you do-why you do it doesn't count. The pendulum of life swings both ways and brings rewards at both ends of the spectrum..."

Quote from Acts of Faith: Daily Meditations for People of Color





Today's Words of Wisdom

"Would You Marry You?"

"We are always looking for the perfect relationship. The goal is to find that
perfect someone who will make our lives a better place to be. It is
unfortunate that we don't realize perfection runs two ways. In order to
find that perfect somebody, we must believe that, whatever perfect is, we
have already achieved it. No one can give us what we don't already
have..."

Quote from: Acts of Faith: Daily Meditations for People of Color


Poem of The Day

I was sent an email from my aunt. I don't know how long she must have sent it because I am bad when it comes to checking them. However, the email was a poem, it says that Maya Angelou is the author but don't take my word for it. Even if she is not, I still think that this poem is awesome and should be heard.

Go and Hug Your "Michael"

Yesterday I cried watching the Michael Jackson memorial. I cried for a
little black boy who felt the world didn't understand him. I cried for
a little
black boy who spent his adulthood chasing his childhood. And I thought
about all the young black boys out there who may too feel that the world
doesn't understand them. The ones who feel that the world does not
understand
their baggy jeans, their swagger, their music, their anger, their
struggles,
their fears or the chip on their shoulder. I worry that my son, may too,
one day will feel lonely in a wide, wide world.
I cried for the young children of all colors who may live their life
feeling like a misfit, feeling like no one understands their
perspective, or
their soul. What a burden to carry.
As a mother, I cried for Katherine Jackson because no mother
should
ever
bury a child. Period. And I think about all the pain, tears and sleepless
nights that she must have endured seeing her baby boy in inner pain,
seeing him struggle with his self-esteem, and his insecurities and to
know he
often felt unloved even while the world loved him deeply. How does it feel to
think that the unconditional love we give as mothers just isn't enough
to make our children feel whole? I wonder if she still suffers
thinking, "what
more could I have done?" Even moms of music legends aren't immune to
mommy guilt, I suppose.
When Rev. Al Sharpton ("who always delivers one" awesome "funeral
speech") said to Michael's children, "Your daddy was not strange...It was
strange what your Daddy had to deal with," I thought of all the
"strange" things of
the world that my children will have to deal with. Better yet, the things I
hope they
won't ever have to deal with anymore.
And as a mother raising a young black boy, I feel recommitted and yet a
little confused as to how to make sure my son is sure enough within
himself to take on the world. Especially a "strange" one. To love
himself enough to
know that even when the world doesn't understand you, tries to force you
into its mold or treats you unkindly, you are still beautiful, strong
and Black. How do I do that?
Today, I am taking back "childhood" as an inalienable right for every
brown little one. In a world, that makes children into booty-shaking,
mini-adults long before their time, I'm reclaiming the playful,
innocent,
run-around-outside, childhood as the key ingredient in raising
confident adults.
Second, I will not rest until my little black boy, MY Michael, knows
that his broad nose is beautiful, his chocolately brown skin is
beautiful,
and
his thick hair is beautiful.
And nothing or no one can ever take that away from him.
"Now aint we bad? And ain't we black? And ain't we fine?