Happy Holidays

Have a wonderful holiday season and a new year filled with the desires of your heart.

I'M BACK!!!

OMG. I'm so glad to be back. First I had computer problems. Then cable problems. For months. Back online now. Hope you had a wonderful full-filling Thanksgiving.

Getting back to wellness

If you pay attention, your body will let you know when something is not right. Here are some quick fixes for common ailments;

• Applying pressure to the acupressure point between the thumb and forefinger can release blockages causing pain, tension, and fatigue.
• To breathe freely, irrigate your nasal passages with a neti pot and warm water.
• Lots of disagreement concerning whether apple cider vinegar is good for you or not but it is a powerful purifying and detoxifying agent when added to a warm bath. Soak in a warm bath infused with two cups of apple cider vinegar to pull toxins from the body and clear blocked energy.
• The foods you eat have an effect on you physically as well as mentally. Eating a small meal rich in complex carbohydrates can be satisfying and can lift your spirit.
• Anxiety and fear dissipate quickly when countered with conscious breathing because concentrating on the breathe enables you to refocus your attention inward.
• Though tuning out can seem counterproductive, a few minutes spent lost in daydreams or listening to soothing music can help you see your circumstances from a new angle.
• If you feel ill health coming on, brew a wellness elixir. Simmer three sliced lemons, one teaspoon freshly greated ginger, one clove freshly minced garlic, and one quarter teaspoon cayenne pepper in five cups water until the lemons are soft and pale. Strain a portion into a mug, add honey by tablespoons until you can tolerate the taste and drink. This potent antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal mixture taken three times a day can ensure your symptoms never progress into a full-blown illness.

If we listen to our body, it will tell us just what we need to know to make it better.

I am enough

I AM ENOUGH

Today, I am enough.

I am smart enough.

Wise enough.

Clever enough.

Resourceful enough.

Able enough.

Confident enough.

I am connected to enough people to accomplish my heart’s desire.

I have enough ideas to pull off magic and miracles.

Enough is all I need.

Enough is what I have.,

I HAVE MORE THAN ENOUGH.

The One Minute Millionaire by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen

Guess what? You may need to qualify the people in your life. May sound strange but take a look at the people in your life. Are they happy people, full of life, always with a smile? Or do they bring doom and gloom, storm clouds with lightning and thunder, never have a kind or good word to say, always complaining? It's your life, your theater so you decide where people sit. (You may have to refuse entrance to a few people. Oh well.)

Everyone can’t be in your front row!

Life is a theater – invite your audience carefully. Not everyone is spiritually healthy and mature to have a front row seat in our lives. There are some people in your life that need to be loved from a distance.

It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you LET GO, or at least minimize your time with draining, negative, incompatible, not-going-anywhere relationships/friendships/fellowships.

Observe the relationships around you. Pay attention to: which ones give and which ones lean? Which ones encourage and which ones discourage? Which ones are on a path of growth uphill and which ones are going downhill?

When you leave certain people, do you feel better or feel worse?

Which ones always have DRAMA or don’t really understand, know and appreciate you and the gift that lies within you?

The more you seek growth, peace of mind, love and truth, the easier it will become for you to decide who gets to sit in the FRONT ROW and who should be moved to the balcony of your life.

You cannot change the people around you…but you can change the people you are around! Ask God for Godly wisdom and discernment and choose wisely the people who sit in the front row of your life.

The Cold Within

This poem was shared by one of the members of the Toastmasters club I'm in. If you see yourself here, saw ouch and resolve to not hold on the your piece of wood and let the fire burn out because of your own fears/hatred/misunderstanding, etc of someone different from you.

The Cold Within

Six humans trapped by happenstance

In black and bitter cold.

Each one possessed a stick of wood

Or so the story’s told.

Their dying fire in need of logs.

The first woman held hers back

For on the faces around the fire

She noticed one was black.

The next man looking cross the way

Saw one not of his church

And couldn’t bring himself to give

The fire his stick of birch.

The third one sat in tattered clothes

He gave his coat a hitch.

Why should his log be put to use

To warm the idle rich.

The rich man just sat back and thought

Of the wealth he had in store.

And how to keep what he had earned

From the lazy poor.

The black man’s face bespoke revenge

As the fire passed from his sight.

For all he saw in his stick of wood

Was a chance to spite the white.

And the last man of this forlorn group

Did naught except for gain.

Giving only to those who gave

Was how he played the game.

The logs held tight in death’s still hands

Was proof of human sin.

They didn’t die from the cold without,

They died from the cold within.

Author Unknown

What I know for sure

This is what I know for sure.

What you put out comes back all the time, no matter what.
You define your own life. Don't let other people write your script.
Whatever someone did to you in the past has no power over the present. Only you give it power.
When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.
Worrying is wasted time.
What you believe has more power than what you dream or wish or hope for. You become what you believe.
If the only prayer you ever say is thank you, that will be enough.
The happiness you feel is in direct proportion to the love you give.
Failure is a signpost to turn you in another direction.
If you make a choice that goes against what everyone else thinks, the world will not fall apart.
Trust your instincts. Intuition doesn't lie.
Love yourself and then learn to extend that love to others in every encounter.
Let passion drive your profession.
Find a way to get paid for doing what you love. Then every paycheck will be a bonus.
Love doesn't hurt. It feels really good.
Every day brings a chance to start over.
Being a mother is the hardest job on earth. Women everywhere must declare it so.
Doubt means don't. Don't move. Don't answer. Don't rush forward.
When you don't know what to do, get still. The answer will come.
Trouble don't last always.

Soul Nurturing

Great article by motivational speaker and coach, Caryl Lucas, called Soul Nurturing.

Soul nurturing is not optional or a luxury. It's a necessity!

A worn out woman, a stressed out woman, an over committed woman, has allowed her soul to become parched, withered and exhausted. For one reason or another, she has not been able to find time to renew her mind, body and spirit. She is constantly overwhelmed, irritable and sometimes feels saddened that she had lost her way...and her true identity.


Let's begin the journey of soul nurturing:

Be kind to your mind. Replace negative thoughts with loving thoughts and affirmations.
For one month, find a pleasant space to get quiet for 15 minutes and spend some quiet time with yourself. Get aligned.
Give yourself the gift of meditation to get attuned with your mind, body and spirit. Meditation nourishes the inner spirit.
Schedule time on your calendar with you and God. Pamper your spirit with prayer or finding time to welcome Spirit into your sacred space.
Discover ways to nurture your soul by walking through a park, garden or along a beach.
Re-generate your soul with music, art or dance. Relax, unwind and stretch through listening to music, visiting a museum or taking a zumba or ballroom dancing class.


You can reach Caryl Lucas at www.caryllucas.com and www.mylifecompass/coachcaryl.

Black Wall Street Riot, Part 2

Part 2

Black Wall Street

On the 90th Anniversary of the Tulsa Race Riots

 

The young girl screamed. The frightened boy was seen running from the elevator by a group of whites, and by late afternoon the "Tulsa Tribune" reported that the girl had been raped, despite the girl’s denial of any wrongdoing. The boy was found and arrested anyway. A mob of reportedly 2000 white men gathered at the jail demanding his release. They wanted to lynch the prisoner.

In response, about 75 armed African Americans from the Greenwood District came to the jail to offer protection for the prisoner. Eventually, a fight broke out between the two groups, and the much larger mob decided to advance on the Greenwood District where they looted and then burned all the community's businesses, homes and churches.

It is reported that any black resisters were shot and thrown into the fires. The fighting got so bad as the hours wore on that the National Guard was called in. However, when they arrived, they assisted the white townsmen by arresting all black men, women and children, and herding them into detention centers at the baseball park and convention hall.

As many as 4,000 Blacks were held under armed guards in detention. By the time the fighting ended, more than 300 African-American men, women and children were killed; more than 600 Black-owned businesses were destroyed; and 10,000 people were left homeless.

Dr. Arthur C. Jackson, a nationally renowned surgeon called by the Mayo brothers (of Mayo Clinic fame) "the most able Negro surgeon in America" was shot and killed at the convention hall.

By the next day, the entire Greenwood District was reduced to ashes. Not one white townsman was ever arrested or accused of any wrongdoing. After the Tulsa riot, the white townsmen tried to buy out the Greenwood District and force Black people out of town.

However, the Greenwood owners refused to sell any of their land. Instead, they spent the entire winter in tents donated by the American Red Cross. Within a year, many of the buildings along the first block of Greenwood Avenue were rebuilt. Within ten years, the tough little community had built back most of its homes, and business and commerce had begun to pick up again.

In 1926, W. E. B. DuBois visited Tulsa and wrote: "Black Tulsa is a happy city. It has new clothes. It is young and gay and strong. Five little years ago, fire and blood and robbery leveled it to the ground. Scars are there, but the city is impudent and noisy. It believes in itself. Thank God for the grit of Black Tulsa."

Tomorrow, Tuesday, May 31, at 6:00 pm, join New York Black Librarians Caucus in the Dionne Mack-Harvin African American Heritage Center at Macon Library, 301 Lewis Avenue, to view a screening of "Before They Die," a documentary chronicling the Black Wall Street Massacre. A community reflection will begin at 7:30 pm.

Look this up and learn about the cover-up. This is what fear will do. This is the mob mentality at work. The girl said she was not raped but they didn't care. They had no regard for the lives of the African American men, women and children that were killed. So they decided to sweep it under the rug as if nothing happened (or that the Black people brought this upon themselves. Like blaming the victim for causing someone to rape her.) We must continue to EXPOSE THE MADNESS!!!

Black Wall Street Riot

The anniversary of the Black Wall Street Riot just passed. Thing is I had heard of a book called Black Wall Street but never got a copy and didn't know the full story. Here it is and it's painful to read. Very long post but a must-read. Part 1

Black Wall Street

On the 90th Anniversary of the Tulsa Race Riots

 

Wall Street is synonymous worldwide with commerce, wealth and power.

However, very few can say they've ever heard of “Black [Negro] Wall Street,” the name given to the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In fact, the story of Black Wall Street has been all but erased—not only from U.S. history books—but also from much of America’s memory. Tuesday, May 31, marks the 90^th Anniversary of The Black Wall Street Massacre.

There's no more fitting time than the present to remind all who will listen about this important occurrence in America’s history, as the story of Black Wall Street not only serves as a testament of how far we have come as a country in achieving equal rights, but also, how far we have left to go.

In 1830, President Andrew Jackson renewed the Indian Removal Act, a great military effort to remove massive tribes of Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee-Creek, and Seminole (sometimes collectively referred to as the Five Civilized Tribes).

With the renewal of this act, huge numbers of Native Americans were forced to abandon their homes in the Deep South and move to the West and Midwest areas of the United States. Many African-Americans accompanied these native tribes on their journey in what would later be known as the “Trail of Tears.”

A large group of blacks and natives began settling in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the Greenwood District. And by 1870, more than 6000 African-Americans and natives lived in the Oklahoma territory.

Oil was discovered in Tulsa around the late 1800s, early 1900s. By 1920, Tulsa, Oklahoma, had grown into a thriving, bustling, enormously wealthy town of 73,000 inhabitants, with bank deposits totaling over $65 million.

However, Tulsa was a "tale of two cities isolated and insular,” one black and one white. The city was so segregated that it was the only one in America that boasted of separate telephone booths.

Since blacks in Tulsa could neither live among whites as equals nor patronize white businesses, they began to develop a completely separate business district where only they shopped and spent money.

The business district, beginning at the intersection of Greenwood Avenue and Archer Street, became so successful and vibrant that Booker T. Washington during his visit bestowed on it the moniker "Negro Wall Street." By 1921, Tulsa’s African-American population totaled 11,000.

Well-known African-American personalities often visited the Greenwood District, including educators Mary McCloud Bethune and W.E.B. DuBois, scientist George Washington Carver, opera singer Marian Anderson, blues singer Dinah Washington and noted Chicago chemist Percy Julian.

On May 31, 1921, the successful Black Greenwood District would be completely destroyed by one of the worst race riots in U.S. history. And it all started with one 19-year-old black man who bumped into a 17-year-old white girl in an elevator.

In Search for Me

In the search for me, I discovered TRUTH.

In the search for Truth, I discovered LOVE.

In the search for love, I discovered GOD.

And in GOD, I have found everything.