My how time flies

It is Christmas Eve 2009 and my youngest turns 14 today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BOY - of course he's not really a baby any more..........

No matter what we do, no matter how hard we try these little bear cubs have the audacity to grow up. They don't bother checking with you to make sure it's OK with you that they get older, more independent, think for themselves, make their own decisions about what's right or wrong......One day you are in the hospital cuddling them in your arms, and the next thing you know, they are almost as tall as you are and capable of remembering EVERYTHING you say, except how to clean their room or do their homework.

Motherhood, wouldn't take nothin' for THIS journey.

Peace!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!!!!!!

YAY. YAHOO. YIPEE. HOORAY!!!!!!!!!


Yep. It's finally here........seems like it took forever - but I made it. Yesterday marked my 1 year lock-i-versary. YAY ME!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY HAIR!!! YAY LOCKS!!!!!!!



It has been an incredible journey, one that I wish I would have done a lot sooner. But, I am really glad that I took the time to get to know my hair by being natural for almost 3 years before lockin' it up. My hair is doing well, if I were to guess, I'd say I am about 70% locked. I have lost most of my braid pattern and I don't do anything to stretch my hair out. I figure it knows what to do and doesn't really need me messin' with it's process. I just keep up on my retightenings, wash and spritz it regularly that's about it.

What better way to celebrate my anniversary than to post a pic of my oldest and dearest friend. We have been best friends since we were 7 years old. He has been with me through everything and through it all, we have remained good friends - even times when HIS hair was longer than mine. LOL!!

Have a blessed and wonderful holiday season.

Peace Lovies!!

Acting Silly

My daughter decided to make my son look like Mr. Cindy Lou Who.

Gotta love having grown children. Life is GOOD!!

Peace Lovies!!

Keep the LIGHT.

Peace and Light Lovies!!

During this time of hustling around preparing for the holidays - spending money and planning to get all my little chick-a-dees to the dinner table for Christmas, hubby and I took time out to go and visit a dear friends The Hanks.

Pulling into the driveway, we admired the Christmas decor which was a complex combination of classy greens, reds, golds with a strong afro-centric presence. We rang the doorbell and our friend greeted us with a huge smile and hugs with his frail arms. I was shocked and shaken by his obvious dramatic weight loss and immediately became concerned that our visit may be too much for him. So, being the planner-ahead that I am, I quickly started to think of how to shorten the visit so not to over exasperate our beloved friend. Then a funny thing happened, I looked into his face and the light that radiated from his eyes and smile melted away all of the anxiety I felt at that moment.

We sat in this warm beautiful home, by the fireplace talking about kids, life, marriage, Tiger, Michael, Barack, his experiences at the Inauguration, civil rights, civil wrongs and civil liberties. The beauty of this visit was that this man, while having an obvious battle with cancer was more interested in what was going on in the lives of his family, his friends and his community than what was going on with him personally. Life truly has a funny way of working things out because this trip was meant to check in on our friend whom we love and show him some love. This trip turned out to be a lesson for US in how to live, love, survive and thrive. I watched in awe as our very tall thin friend wandered into the kitchen to make himself some herbal tea. His wife constantly offered to do it for him but he insisted upon doing it himself never breaking from our constant flow of conversations.

Most of you know that I had been down sick for about 14 days. During that time, I slept a lot and waited for the day when I could really get out and about. I had never had a simple cold take me down like that but, I learned a strong lesson about what it really means to be 'down but not out' during this visit. Our friend has had several surgeries over the last 2 years, yet he has remained strong, mentally sharp and full of faith. He and his lovely wife taught us yesterday the valuable lesson of positive thinking and the value of positive friends. I won't say that he was in better spirits when we left or that our visit was a blessing to him ya'll know those cliche's we use when we visit sick people. In this situation none of those apply because he brought love, light and positive energy to us the minute he opened the door to his home. As we pulled out of their driveway, I felt refreshed, renewed and ready to get up and do something. I told my hubby that I felt so blessed to have been in the company of such powerfully positive people.

Time to do a systems check lovies:

Check your focus and all of your internal light bulbs. If any of your internal lights our out, change the bulbs immediately. Check your outlets and see if any of them are in need of repair. Are you losing energy anywhere? Has someone tapped into your power supply without your permission?

Sounds kind of crazy, but last night we learned the value of even exchanges among friends who love each other. See, we went to bless a friend by our presence during a complex time for him - instead of leaving feeling exhausted, we felt like we could conquer the world. His presence filled both of us with the desire to re-evaluate our lives, goals, direction, face down challenges, etc.

I encourage you all to check your power sources and make sure you are go or no-go for launch (a little Apollo 13 talk).

Fight on Larry - we are with you!!

Peace and Light!!

One Mo'

Today is my 46th birthday!! Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me-ee, happy birthday to me!!! Yay ME!!

I am suffering with a bad cold that has had me down this week, but I have plenty of cool magazines, some very good herbal Enchenacia tea (prepared by my oldest), a comfy quilt (made by my Mama), my dog (Zeus) napping on my bed with me and my puppy (Atheena) running around chewing on EVERYTHING. Not quite the day I wanted, but GREAT just the same.

I celebrate and embrace every birthday because it's another opportunity for me to grow, learn, teach, love, live, dance, laugh, cry, fight, apologize, move on and do it all over again. Many of my high school class mates didn't live long enough to see 30 so their lives (which were gone waaaayyy too soon) taught me to live, live and continue to live some more. Life is a journey not a destination, you never arrive, you just simply transform from one into the next.

On today, I pledge to give myself the gift of good health, peace of mind and a balanced and strong spirit.

Peace Lovies!!

I'll be singing this all day: Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me-ee, happy birthday to me!!!

Behind the Mask

When I saw this picture on another blog, I stopped and stared at it for the longest time.

Initially I thought about Michael Jackson - his life, time, talent, stuggles, accusations and premature death. Then, I couldn't help but to apply this picture to my own life. Growing up in a small mid-western town with dark-skin in the 70's was a trip. Even though we were "sayin' it loud" while being "black and proud", and Jessie had an Afro and wore a dashiki sometimes, we were still trying to find ourselves in a society that told us that big lips, dark skin and huge Afros were part of some dark, alternative lifestyle. Because of that, when I think back over the years, I lose count of the long list of names that I was called (skillet and blackie are two that come to mind). All of them had a horrible impact on me for most of my life I started to hate how I looked so much that I only looked in the mirror when I had to and I hated taking pictures. During my teen years, finding makeup for my chocolate skin presented another challenge which made me further question God's handiwork.

Time is its own healer and teacher, if you allow it. Unfortunately, I was in my 30's when I decided to actually re-claim my identity. My daughter was 3 years old and I figured I'd be damned if I was going to let her have the same struggle. So, how could I teach her to appreciate her beauty if I didn't know how to appreciate my own. So, with some help from the inspirational writings of Susan Taylor, I decided to undress myself, spend some time admiring what God had created and truly embrace my beauty for the fierce perfection that it is. I was re-born at that moment, now I walk in the perfection of God's creation as the true Queen that I am.

My heart bleeds for those who are still living behind the mask. Working harder to please society than you are to please yourself is the definition of INSANITY. At the end of the day, when I look in the mirror it's me that's staring back - no one else but me, and I LOVE ME!!

"I'd be starvin' if I ate all the lies they fed". (India.Arie)

Be inspired, be yourself!!

Peace Lovies!!!!

10 month Hair Facts

This 10 month thing is quite a milestone for me. When I first started this journey, I couldn't conceive of being patient for this length of time. Here are some things I have learned along the way:

1. I started out with 435 braids but over these months, I have combined about 10 of them because I didn't like the way they felt at the time. Some of them seemed to be a little weak - so I didn't want to risk losing them after a while. Most of the ones I combined are right at the nape of my neck, where my hair is most likely to break.

2. My hair doesn't like much attention or product. This is a revelation that I came to when I was wearing my fro for 3 years. Learning that lesson then has helped me understand what my hair is doing now. So, I only use a clarifying shampoo on a weekly basis (usually after one of my dance ministry rehearsals) and I spritz daily. My spritz has aloe, water, jojoba oil and rosemary oil in it.

3. My hair is about 17 different lengths...LOL!! It has always been that way, even when I was a creamy crack addict my hair was a bunch of different lengths. I'm not concerned about it because, for me, it just adds to the volume and uniqueness, which is very important to me. My longest loc is about 10 inches long and my shortest loc, which is at the nape is only 4 inches long.

5. People still think I have sisterlocks........I can't believe that. The trademark of properly done sisterlocks is the uniformity of the parts and size of the locs. Mine are different sizes based on the texture of my hair. Did I mention that I have 4 different textures on my 1 big head? LOL??
So, where my hair is a looser curl pattern, thinner and a little more fragile, the locs are a little bigger (i.e. mostly the top and crown of my head). The locs around my temples are bigger because I have always had a tendency of breaking there. Where my hair is more coarse, the locs are smaller, the sides and just below the crown across the back. Originally I tried small locs at the nape, but as time moved on, they felt funny so I combined them. As for the parts, HA HA HA, careful examination will reveal parts that are ALL OVER THE PLACE. I have read on several blogs that perfect parts are very much an issue for them to the point of causing some of my sistahs great stress. Don't want the stress so I have never let that be a concern.

OK, that's it for now. I will do some comparison shots soon and prepare for my 1 year anniversary - which is right around Christmas (my present to ME - YAY!!). Enjoy the pics below.

Peace Lovies!!!!