World Day of Prayer

Today is the World Day of Prayer and I wanted to share the Daily Word with you all. I pray that each and everyone of you that reads my blog will be blessed, fulfilled, have prayers answered, and that love and happiness will find it's way into your lives. Each of us has a testament to the wonderful things God has done in our lives and on this day, I ask each of you to give way to praying for someone other than ourselves. I further ask each of you to be a part of a positive and progressive movement to work toward peace and harmony in all you do and those you interact with.

"Now everybody that loves God, give him thanks, give him glory, give him praise
He deserves it, he's worthy,
That's the least we can do for all of the wonderful things that he's done for us
Come on and help us praise him, " The Least I Can Do - Smokie Norful

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Rejoicing in our oneness with God and one another, we celebrate healing in every aspect of our lives and in the world.

Today we celebrate our oneness with God and with one another. Letting our understanding of this oneness deepen, we open ourselves more fully to God's presence.
In anticipation of new expressions of healing, prosperity, compassion, and freedom in our lives and in the lives of people worldwide, we give thanks to our Creator.

With each prayer we pray, each feeling of gratitude to God, we open the way to bountiful blessings. Let us rejoice in our oneness and celebrate the healing that is taking place. Let us carry this spirit of celebration in our hearts from this day forward.

"But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, so that those who love your name may exult in you."--Psalm 5:11

content of character

"A good test of a person’s character is his behavior when he is wrong."

When I read this quote, I recalled a recent incident where someone was caught in a situation and did everything in his power to play the victim. Even when confronted with the facts and how he blew things out of proportion, he still tried to play the victim and not admit to his own fault/actions in what took place and move to correct his behavior. It took a lot of gumption on the parts of the other parties involved to not back down and make said person account for what he did and make the necessary concessions and apologies.

To that end, I take a lot of pride in trying to make good when I've done something wrong. I get the most awful feeling inside of me that does not rest until I can and have found a way to fix things.

I think it's extremely important for people to take the necessary provisions to correct their wrongdoings and rest on their integrity and moral fiber. While it's not always easy to admit fault, it's still a well-noted and received quality. When one is willing to admit s/he is wrong, the wrongdoing isn't always thrown back at them, but instead the fact of being of good character is always mentioned and remembered.

I recall an incident with Lil Lady and she hurt and disappointed me enormously, but she went to great lengths to remedy the situation that all I could do was praise her and her improvements. Being a part of the solution is far better than being a part of the situation.

The more I live life, the more I see how much integrity, moral fiber, and content of character is so important. With the installation of these traits, we're able to become raise better children, handle various situations, and most importantly be seen as upstanding people. No one wants to be branded a liar or untrustworthy, but so many are willing to receive that than stand up and do the hard thing, which has more value. Doing the right thing may be hard, but it carries the most weight and is more favorable in the long run.

As I look at the current political arena, I've become more aware of how important it is to stand firm on your convictions is they're true than to appease the masses or lie your way out of a situation. It's my humble opinion that if you're really 'bout it; bout it, you don't need to sling mud at another to make your point because your actions will speak for you and your moral fiber remains in tact. Jamaican's have an expression, "the higher the monkey climbs, the more he exposes". I think it's all time we stop climbing trees and remain on firm ground.

Well class is now over kiddies. I hope the opening quote will be of use out there in classroom of life and help you to be of good character.

Love!

i dont even know what to call this ish!

the following is a list of memorable things that happened this week; good and bad in no particular order...

i got a txt from dude i blogged about in What Freedom Feels Like on Thursday saying, "how r u? i hope ur having a good day" @4:19pm...it's now Friday @ 7:12pm and i still haven't responded...let freedom ring! *giggle*

i was having an emotional meltdown and reached out to my cousin and my male bestie of 25yrs and they both talked me off the ledge in their respective ways.

said male bestie was so amazing in his support and follow up that he moved me to tears.

i actually took some time out for myself by ignoring calls, sleeping in, and leaving work early.

i like my current interest more than i probably should and it's driving me crazy.

if my mood swings don't calm down, i'm seriously thinking of seeing my dr about getting on something

i have rope burn for how tight i'm holding onto the knot in the rope

love is an elusive and deceptive emotion

i've never felt more emotionally drained than i do right now

if saying, "eff it all!" was an option, i think i'd take it

reggae is some good ass music

no one believes i'm almost 41; i've been hearing i look 26 for the past couple weeks

i finally lost almost 10lbs without even really trying, but when i try, it never happens

i finally got my cover up tattoo and i love it...pix forthcoming

reality sucks; fantasy never disappoints

potential is only good when it reaches manifestation; why can't folk just wo/man up?

i need to start going back to the firing range

why can't i have things MY way just ONCE?

after the week i've had, i can kinda understand why people drink to excess to escape

i've seen emotional fraud manifest itself and let me tell you, it's a fuggin horrible thing for the one who was deceived

eff it! i'm out...

love!

all the hoopla!

Okay, so I'm sure many of you have heard about the transexual who's competing on America's Next Top Model. If you haven't, check out the story Top Model Twist.

So, let me just come out and ask the question, do you have a problem with people who aren't of the same sexual orientation or gender identity as you? Please think before answering and most importantly be honest. That being said, let me continue...

I have never had an issue with people of other races, genders, sexual orientation/preference/or identity. Why? Because I never had a reason to. As far as I'm concerned, we're all our respective people; good and bad, so we must live and let live. My liberal viewpoint stems from where and how I was raised and it has been with me ever since.

Growing up in London, I truly felt like I was in a melting pot. I had friends of all races and we shared our cultures with each other. I knew of gays/lesbians and while I didn't understand the true dynamic of it, I wasn't offended by them. I did know a drag queen by way of a friend and I was rather fascinated by how well he looked as a woman. It wasn't until I moved to the U.S that I started to see and understand the full spectrum of sexual orientation in its many forms.

I became aware of how people were negatively treated and affected by their sexuality and made to feel ashamed of who they were. While there are those who I feel have 'chosen' to be gay (male or female), I truly believe that most gays were born that way. I doubt highly they woke up one morning and said, "chile, i think imma start sexin men cause it's good look". Face it, it's like a white person waking up and deciding to be black. Why would they put themselves through that level of persecution and torment? They wouldn't.

Anyhoo, I digress...I happen to have an extremely close and dear friend who is a male-to-female transsexual. She's one of the most admirable people I know because she chose to be true to herself and be the person she always felt she was. Ironically, my friend was once married; in the military (a pilot to boot); and has a child, but still always knew that something wasn't right within herself. Naturally, we had a lengthy discussion about hiding her true sexual feelings and identity and she told me that society refuses to accept that there are deviations in ones DNA or predispostion to all things sexual. She grew up in the mid 30's so coming out was very difficult much less telling your family that you'd rather be the opposing gender. Fortunately, my friend had a supportive wife while he was married who afforded a divorce and allowed my friend to pursue her life as a woman; they remain very good friends to this day and their daughter is well adjusted, very smart, and currently pursuing her Ph.D.

I've said all this to say, that yes, for the most part we all digress to The Bible for guidance and in many ways to demean and offend those who don't quite fit in to mainstream society. I think we should in many ways leave religion and/or religious doctrines out of this discussion. I truly do think that sexual orientation/identity is something that we're born with and for many it's something that is not like the majority. I know I'm going to probably raise all kind of moral backlash for my thoughts, but ask me if I care; this is MY house and I can say what I want and think.

Again, I digress...I have friends of all races, religions, and sexual preference and I accept them for whom they are. I do not think disallowing a transsexual or transgendered person to participate in a contest is fair. We need to see beyond what's considered socially acceptable and simply learn tolerance. No, you don't have to like it, but you should at least accept and respect the person. Ms. James who sits two offices from yours could be a call girl by night even though she rocks her Jones New York to the office by day. Mr. Smith could be wearing women's underwear to work under his Brooks Brother's suit. My point is that we don't know what the inner workings of anyone's psyche is and we can't jump on our moral pedastals because someone doesn't prescribe to the same makeup as us.

Not one of us is perfect or exempt from saying anything, doing anything, or dressing in a way that deviates from what's considered acceptable. We've got men screwing men on the down low, priests molesting little boys, pedophiles in the neighborhood and we're worring about a transsexual; gimme a gotdamn break. I've got tattooes, had a child out of wedlock, am black, have dated out of my race, yada, yada; so does that make me disposable because I've allegedly violated some societal rule? I think not, so I think it's enough with the trash talk over a transsexual potential model. There was an openly lesbian model competing some time ago and I don't think it raised too much hoopla, so neither should this. Personally, I think the haters are just mad cause she actually is rather attractive. I also think the men are mad cause they might find themselves caught out there is they ran up on her.

Okay, I'm done people!

Love!