Make a Difference

Most people think an uneducated populous won’t affect/effect them if they rise above the fray of humanity thronging for scarce resources.

Striving to get above Maslow’s first three rungs can be achieved but perhaps not sustained (ask those effected by the technology bubble, the housing bubble, stock market black Fridays, mass lay-offs, bankruptcies, etc..)

Everyone has a stake whether it equates into taxes, police, crime, jobs, food prices, water resources, child hunger, etc.

What are you doing to make a difference in your human experience besides focusing on your sphere of influence?

 

“If a man answers; you probably have the wrong number

It’s been a long time since I was married to a man, lived with a man, and made love to a man.  What a man thinks or wants means very little to me.  What he thinks his heart is telling him means even less because it is my belief they are extremely fickle when it comes to emotions.  Maybe I have such a low regard for men because they are so needy and can never seem to get very far without the assistance of women like me.  So what’s the point in relying on them if they wear you down, sap your energy, and then cheat on the one who loved and washed their dirty drawers?

I am so done with men!  There is absolutely nothing a man can do for me on a personal level.  You see; all of my hope and trust is in God not man.  And, the Bible says to put no confidence in man.  I’ve been around the block a few times, and I wasn’t born yesterday, so when other women say, you’re still young and attractive don’t you want a significant other?  I want to answer with a definitive NO!  But, being the polite person I am, I say Jesus is the man in my life.  What I really want to ask them is why their husband looks so much younger and they look so run down.  What I really want to say is why do I need to add being a maid to my daily schedule.

There are women who are not lesbians, who can sustain themselves without men.  The Bible says it is better to be single if you can refrain from fornication.  When you get to be my age; in menopause, empty nester, and with resources, what exactly can a man who lasts two to five minutes in bed do for you except make you wonder why you bothered in the first place.

I’ve been paying attention all these years and what I’ve seen makes me sad, anger, and wondering why women let men take advantage of them to the point where she’s destitute due to his inability to support himself and the babies his seed brought into this world.  And, why is she opening her legs to someone who left his Mama’s house and moved in with her instead of getting his own place, in the first place!

Women are too easy, insecure, and superficial.  They would rather have half a man, a man who bounces between women, than have no man at all.  In the meantime; babies are being born to women who’s safety net is hanging by a thread from the get go.

Check it out!  There are more women in college than men.  Don’t men think they need an education past high school?  Women head of households are more likely to be poor and on government dole for the majority of their children’s lives.  After government assistance stops then what…shack up with another man who abuses and uses them.

Wake up ladies!  Resources are limited and if it wasn’t before; its fast becoming a dog eat dog global society where only the strong survive and handouts are resented by those who work hard and are taxed to pay for your inability to say no to those drippy words whispered in your ear.

Knowledge is power!  Paying attention and searching for a way out of going nowhere relationships with men who don’t have a clue is one of the best things you can do for yourself.  This mountain of strife will only become steeper if you don’t start picking away at it little by little, a day at a time.

How do I know so much?  I’m an observer of humanity.  I’m a lover of people.  I’m a realist!  And I don’t beat around the bush.  And if you didn’t hear me the first time, I could care less about what men think or how they feel.  They change after they get you tied up in their drama.  No more going out to dinner, movies, date nights.  They become the boring human beings they really are and you realize you are the one carrying the weight of the relationship on your shoulders.  And they happen to think we are the weaker sex!

Ladies, seize the moment, the day, the week, the month, the year and step outside of that convoluted box you helped make.  Stop waiting on him to do something.  You take the initiative.  Start designing a life you want to live and start by keeping your legs closed.  What can he do but go back to that other woman, or go back to live with his Mama.

I’ve been married once and earned my PHD living with that monster.  I woke up after I found God, and then I had the energy to call the police and eventually leave him.  Before it was all said and done; he bought a house to entice me back into his deadly web of hits and licks.

I lived with a fiancée twenty years later and realized being equally yoked is more about communication and education than just sitting in church together.  Three and a half years later I left his house and moved back into my home.  He cried and hollered just like my ex-husband, but after trying to communicate with him the three and one half years we slept in the same bed, I was done!

Sometimes you have to go through some things, some men, to see the light and to understand how the “world” works and what you need to look out for.

Look out for AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.  When I hear statistics about the number of babies born to unwed mothers into households already at or below the poverty line, I think of contraceptives and the importance of protecting one’s self from not only pregnancy but disease.  Obviously some people aren’t taking available information to heart nor are they thinking about the future, and how having a mouth the government has to feed, or a disease that has no cure leads to death.

Pundits keep saying we need to educate people, and I keep saying people educate themselves on what they want to know.  Cars, clothes, shoes, jewelry, and other tangibles are gotten by these uneducated people because they see value in what they wear on their backs, what they drive, and what they look like.  The intangibles like education aren’t even put on a back burner; they aren’t on a burner at all.

Educations is the KEY, but forcing people to spend some of their twenty four hour day educating themselves or their children is counterproductive to them when they can lay around all day doing absolutely nothing.  Pick up a book, newspaper, or tune into current events or better yet read to your children and stop this vicious cycle of crib to street to jail.

If men are depending more on women to fill the void and women aren’t focusing on long term initiatives, then the blind is leading the blind.  Under water households isn’t just mortgage terminology.  It’s the reality of how some people live from day to day.

So, if a man answers my phone, you probably have the wrong number!

Matters of the Heart

Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

Mothers laid our heads on their hearts, breasts, or some say bosoms.  These areas form the core or center of our emotional being.  If the heart nurtures us, we sometimes develop healthy dispositions and positive attributes that help us overcome the issues that continuously confront us as we walk or run through this life.  Mothers should not keep their hearts from babies who need to feel the innermost feelings of love and protection.

But, a mother’s love is different from the love a woman feels for a man.  Keeping thy heart or holding onto oneself is not what makes the world go around.  The world is dynamic and graceful diligence is hard to maintain when matters of the heart steer us in the direction of desire.

Relationships are born and dissolved each day as we come to the realization that the issues of life are real and a wrong choice causes much ado.

Issues of life stem from consequences or results and are what life is all about, but some issues we allow to happen or cause because of disobedience and lack of attention to subtle nuisances.

We play with fire and falsely tell ourselves we won’t get burned because we know just how far to go, but we deceive ourselves, and our lack of attention to that little voice of truthfulness sets us up for failure.

The desires of the flesh are substantial and require much genuflection for what comes naturally.  There is no easy out as we prayerfully make our way through mazes of temptations painstakingly designed to prevent us from receiving blessings only God can pour upon us.

I believe there is someone for everyone, although there appears to be a shortage of eligible contestants.  Matters of the heart derail us into thinking we must help God out.  God is faithful and needs no help from nature’s born in sin.  We should wait, instead of selecting choices that derail us from the track, which leads to the fulfillment of our heart’s desires.

Excessive Police Force

The show of militarized force in Ferguson, Missouri and the denial of First Amendment Rights in this small town over-run with lack of diversity in its police force remind me of a war zone and the way Nazi’s patrolled German streets in the run up to genocide.

Two questions:

Has America turned into a police state (remember the Occupy movement)?

When do you think drones will be used for crowd control?

Wake up.  Just because some American social issues are happening to people of color (Ferguson, Mo., Los Angeles, Ca. and New York City); doesn’t mean you will never feel the effects.  America is crumbling (literally) and the power no longer belongs to the people.

Don’t get me wrong.  I hate violence of any kind and would never condone looting, burning, or running the streets at night creating havoc but let’s make one thing perfectly clear……black men are an endangered species!

Focused

Sometimes I wonder why I’m so different, why I’m so provocative, so inquisitive, and so sensitive to what is said versus what is done.  The world around me is constantly changing and I find it fascinating, totally mysterious, and very dangerous.

Is it my age that makes such a difference in how I view the natural world or is it a keen sense of perception that hones in on what other people miss?  What is it that makes me stand out as an enigma to those who love to hate me?

There are others like me.  Others who know death is only one heartbeat away.  Life warrants us to be different, so we can operate in that special zone of awareness that escapes so many.  We take nothing for granted and know we control nothing but the way we respond to the world around us.

I think I reflect on these thoughts because I am growing older and if I had it all to do over again, I would change many things.  But since I believe in God; I sometimes wonder if destiny has had any hand in where I find myself at this very moment.

My life these past few years has been totally dedicated to fulfilling a purpose I believe I am moving towards.  Time is a luxury I no longer can afford because death comes as a thief in the night to deplete us of the energy we had only yesterday.

Love and beauty keep me focused on what is so wonderful about the world we live in and that is my respite from the evil men do.  Finding love and seeing beauty in the world around me doesn’t necessarily include other humans.  Sometimes humans bring drama when none is needed and most humans never delve into what lies beneath the facade they present to the world.

What lies beneath the surface of our makeup is who we really are and who we hope we will one day become on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (specifically self-actualization).  I don’t think anyone can truly live a life worth living unless they are willing to look life in the face and reach beyond the obscenity of the physical world to see the love and beauty within the one who preserves a place for himself others cannot reach.

I believe the greatest, the best, the brightest, the ones with the most to offer mankind developed a focus beyond imagination.  How else can a man or woman break records, perform miracles, and offer themselves up as sacrifices unless they are focused?

Why Sex Won’t Sustain a Relationship

We indulge the opposite sex as we let our imaginations take us into an unknown setting of unfulfilled desires we hope our newfound interest will quench.  Daydreaming about what we want to happen and how we plan to initiate the first move leaves us eagerly participating in a world of make believe.

Life is a hard road, made easier when we take someone along for the ride.  We imagine all life has to offer as we forget about the routineness of all love affairs when the newness wears off.  Newness robbed by instant gratification.

We know the downside, we know bliss does not last forever, and we know our imaginations beget issues too much to bear.  But we indulge anyway as we satisfy our hedonistic tendencies, and we call it love.

Keeping it real reveals who we really are and what we truly want.  We want to be loved but we don’t know who we are.

Not knowing who we are, we settle for what we can get.  We expose ourselves and wonder why we don’t get “that quality time” with the man or woman we’ve given so much pleasure to.  Did he or she approach “head first”, behind a disguise of meaningless words and strained actions?  Were they saying all the right things but really saying nothing?  Duped again… because we lay bare all too soon.  We long to be chosen, and we are, but only for a season.

Sex comes in all disguises.  It’s shoved in our faces, daily, and we turn a blind eye to the underlying messages sent, while waiting for someone to receive and respond back.  Sex.  Sex.  Sex.  What’s all the ado about sex?  Do you really think the man or woman of your dreams only wants sex?

Sex is but a small part of why couples choose to stay together.  Sex is over rated and miscast as love.  But, why want sex if you really can’t enjoy it forever and a day?

Enjoying sex isn’t just climaxing.  It’s basking in the sun when there is no sun.  It’s sinking deeper into bed covers when it’s time to go to sleep.  Enjoying sex is about closing your eyes and feeling like every bone in your body has just turned to jelly.  It’s not getting off and getting up.

Sex is best when it’s with the one you love and you’ve been together a long time, and you know both of you are on the same page and share the same values.

When two people have a common purpose in life, they love each other, and they fall asleep in each other’s arms each night; that’s probably as good as it gets.

Qualities we think are important to the maintenance of a strong relationship are soaked in the look, taste, and touch of another human being we call our significant other.  But I think there has to be more than what we see, feel, and salivate for.

When we’re old and gray with wrinkles, false teeth, and a cranky attitude…what then?  Eye candy eventually fails and we cling to the intrinsic value of what we know is real…and that has nothing to do with physical sex.

It has a lot to do with communication.  Not just physical but mostly verbal sensuality.  Few lovers or wanna be lovers know how to verbally make love without touching.  The art of true lovemaking has long been forgotten as in your face buts, G-strings, breast, genitalia and Lord knows what else take control of our imaginations and fuel a fire steering us in the direction of failed intimate relationships.

Nothing is left to the imagination anymore, and we are lost in a sea of double standards not easily defined.  How can he or she say they want a good man or woman when the physical captures their attention and draws them into a world of make believe?

 

Deflated

The smell of incense floated through the air like the sensual musical notes spilling into the atmosphere.  Candles placed here and there dramatized flickering flames dancing around the walls like silent observers in an environment made for lovers.

Many months had passed since she last shared myself with someone she considered special enough to touch her in the way all women want to be touched when they’ve had too much of the mundane.  It had been six months to be exact.  Six months of not being sinful.  Six months of abstinence.  Six months of wondering if she would ever be sexually free.

She thought she knew what would happen that night.  She always knew what she wanted, when she wanted it, and whom she wanted it from.  Physical attachment and intimacy were never primary needs for her, but when the physical aspect of intimacy surged to the forefront, she knew her body would keep reminding her she was a healthy sexual being.  Just the thought of what it would be like with him encouraged her body to express itself.

His shy pecks turned into kisses then small nips along skin.  His hands finally found her breast and began to caress her in a way that reminded her of her high school sweetheart.  But, she was no girl of sixteen.  She wondered who had taught him how to love a woman.  Obviously it was someone who did not know how to ask for what she wanted.

She didn’t feel like coaching.  Instant gratification, penetration, and nothing more was all she wanted.  His way of making love to her did not make an impression.  She squeezed her eyes tight, trying to stay focused as she thought about the last six months and how focused she had become.

He felt her body as if afraid he would break her.  Like a forty-four year old adolescent engaged in his first sexual encounter he’d fumbled before he’d started.  His bark was worse than his bite and he would not make her feel good about breaking six months of being good.

The music stopped and her disappointment was like the smell of incense… barely noticeable.  For a woman, there is always more than one way to skin a cat.

He explained his failure as over excitement.  He said he had been dreaming of this moment for a long time.  His kisses and caresses were automated, cold, and abortive.

He was pensive as he tried to portray an image of strength.  He “was” strong.  He “was” pensive.  He “was” gentle.  He “was” almost believable.

 

SIDETRACKED

Dreams tell us much about our situations and ourselves; yet we discount them as hallucinations of the mind.  The images seem so real, so alive, and so fanciful.  Our bodies take on forms we would never visualize ourselves in, if we were in a waking state, but these forms are significant when we attempt to decipher the hidden meaning behind this subconscious state of being.

I will tell you about a dream I experienced but was not able to draw an inference from, until after I had gone through nine months of passion, heartache, nervousness, negative self-talk, reconciliation, forgiveness, and release.  I have learned to tune into my dreams … for they tell me much about past, present, and future.

I saw myself as a small creature along the side of a road.  I could have been a mouse that stood on two legs or I could have been any of God’s small creatures.  Size may have meant that I was small and insignificant in comparison to the universe and all its wonders.  But anyway, there I was on the side of a dirt road.  I was hitchhiking.  I was on a journey and I believe I was pretty sure about where I was going and what I was going to do when I got there.  I wasn’t afraid of being the only creature on the road and­ I wasn’t concerned that what little traffic there was, moved in the opposite direction of where I was headed.

Then, another creature appeared on the road.  This creature came from nowhere, looked just like me and there was no differentiation as far as sex.  Now, there were two of us on this lonely road.  We talked for a moment and decided we would walk to a tower we saw in the distance because it was getting dark and it looked like a storm was on the horizon.

This tower was not in the direction I was going, but the other creature seemed confident we could find shelter for the night in the tower, and then start afresh the next morning.  I don’t know why I followed this creature.  Maybe it was because darkness was coming on and I had not gotten a ride to help me on my journey or it may have been because the creature was persuasive in some way.  All I know is that I had a definite plan about what I wanted, where I was going, and what I was going to do once I got there.  But I followed the creature anyway.

We ascended the steps of the tower and immediately got lost although we walked up in a winding direction.  There were no hidden passageways.  We walked, and walked, and walked but never reached a plateau.  As we walked, the creature started to get tired; started to complain, and also started to blame me for what appeared to be a never ending search for something we could not find.

Then the keeper of the tower spoke.  The keeper told us we would never leave the tower and that there was no way out.  We would become perpetual walkers of the tower that had no end.

The creature’s complaints about being tired became more severe, so I allowed the creature to get on my back, and I started walking in the opposite direction.  I walked down the stairs even though the keeper of the tower kept reminding me there was no way out.

I wondered why I had let the creature talk me into straying from the path I knew to be true for me.  I wondered what it was in my chemistry that lacked the fortitude to stick to my guns.  Had I been looking for a savior on that lonely road?

I carried the creature for what seemed like hours.  The tower was dark now, where before it had been light.  Was all hope lost?  Was there a way out?  I stumbled, fell down the steps, unloaded the creature, and found myself back on the road where this fantasy began.

I woke up saying to myself that I would never let another creature persuade me to desert the path I intuitively knew to be right for me.

Months after this dream I met a man who said all the right things, was tall, dark, and handsome.  I persuaded myself that this was the man for me.  There were inconsistencies but I overlooked those and did my best to help him.  After all, I thought he had good intentions.  I found out during the nine months we knew each other that he was all talk and no action.  He blamed his failed marriages on the women, blamed his troubles on the job, on his supervisor, and blamed me for taking him away from God.

While trying to help him I found myself falling just like I fell down the tower stairs.  Once I realized that he was more of a burden to me and that I could not save him from himself, I let go, and he fell away to his own devices.

It took me several months after that relationship to stop the negative self-talk and realize that I’m no different from anyone else on this planet.  I too am looking from someone to be my companion on this lonely journey we call life.

Lonely not due to a lack of companions, friends, associates, and relatives; but lonely because many of us will never be happy with what we have, and therefore we get sidetracked into thinking the opposite path is easier, is sheltered, (i.e. the grass is greener on the other side) and we find ourselves in the tower going nowhere.

The choices we make determine our destiny.  Those choices can be positive or negative.  We should let no one change the path we know to be the right path.  We may stray away from what we know to be true but sometimes unloading excess baggage will get us back to our true self so we can reach the plateau…the next level…that keeps us moving forward.

Bitter Women

Some women go through life bitter about what they have control over:  their lifestyle, the words that roll cross their tongue, the number of children they have or don’t have, the man who occupies their bed, how much education they have, the job they work, the amount of money they have to spend, and where they live.  The aforementioned choices are under their control; therefore changeable.

Poor decision making leaves little quality time to think about whom or what circumstance got you down in the ditch.  Not taking the time to think about why you’re depending on someone other than yourself to claw your way up and out is yet….another poor choice

.Not only is agitation and rocking the boat a good thing to do; sometimes it’s the only way to get to the root of the problem.  We are the problem.  We are our own worst enemy.  We are excellent when it comes to deceiving our self, and find it hard to get out of our own way.  Admitting your life is your responsibility is the first step to rehabilitation and progress.

Bitter women also take their problems into the workplace, out on the street and especially into interpersonal relationships with other women.

Bitter women are haters of self and hate it when you look good, smell good, enunciate, are sociable, educated, confident, and not afraid of looking stupid because you ask questions, have a positive attitude, don’t genuflect to men, and treat others the way you want to be treated.

A bitter woman is always complaining about not having a man and takes her problems out on other women.  Some women are single by choice.  Some women are single because they moan and groan constantly about not having a man and their complaining attitude turns off other women and men.

I’ve met bitter women in the workplace and have them in my family.  When a bitter woman peels back layers of her own skin, looks at herself in the mirror, and is honest with herself about who she is as opposed to who she wants to be; then and only then will she be able to change her circumstances.  She must also rid herself of the thorn or thorns in her side that plague her well-being.  Sometimes getting on with life is about getting out from under whatever it is that holds you down.

A friend of mine was a bitter woman for years.  Her husband was chronically unemployed (by choice), a marijuana chain smoker, and emotionally abusive.  She finally divorced her husband, became a pleasant person to be around, and moved on with her life.

A co-worker was envious of my promotions until she went back to school, got her degree, and became a positive person to work with.

I feel sorry for the woman who made her bed, has to sleep in it, but won’t get up long enough to help her out of it.  You can’t pull yourself up by your bootstraps if you have no boots, but you can pick up a book, read it, and think your way out of what you thought yourself into.

Blaming someone else or other groups for your bad choices or living your life in your own way; then expecting the government, other institutions, family, or friends to pick up the pieces to put you (Humpty Dumpty) back together again has grown old, irrelevant, and falls on ears that are tired of hearing excuses.  Maybe you (Humpty Dumpty) shouldn’t have been on that wall in the first place!