Happy Anniversary to Me!

Happy Friday, everyone.  Hope your weekend is off to a great start.  Well, yesterday, August 4, 2011, was my 1 month anniversary being all natural.  I'm amazed at how quickly my hair is growing.  I've been on youtube checking out the natural hair beauties that have their own channels and researching the best products to use for making the transition to all natural hair.  There is a wealth of information out there, as I said before, but I'm starting to narrow my products wishlist down to the essentials.  I'm really excited to see the progress of my hair and I hope that my journey can inspire other chocolate beauties to embrace their God-given locks!

Have a great Friday and a fabulous weekend everyone and I'll be back soon with updates on my writing projects.

Peace and Love in Christ Jesus!

The Journey Continues-Two weeks all natural

Hello everyone and happy Saturday! Well, it's been two weeks (this coming Monday, July 18) since my natural hair journey began and I am very pleased so far.  At first, when I cut the perm out of my hair, it was still bone straight.  Needless to say, I began to panic, thinking that I'd lost my natural wavy hair pattern.  But, true to form, it only took two weeks before the natural curl pattern returned.  I can already tell the difference in my hair.  There's really not much to do with it. I co-wash it with my cholesterol conditioner and then I moisturize with Motions Oil Moisturizer Hair Lotion, or Softsheen-Carson's OPTIMUM Oil Therapy.  These are the products I have at my disposal right now. 

I have done quite a bit of research since I decided to go natural and am pretty much running on product overload.  There are so many products out there for natural hair, I had no idea of the vastness of variety.  Many of the women I've seen on YouTube make their own mixtures and some have even turned their homemade concoctions into a business.  I say, good for them!  But I'm a little overwhelmed right now with the huge amount of choices in haircare products so, I've decided to narrow my initial purchases down to a few choice oils and unrefined Shea butter.  I'll probably go to Whole Foods Market to make my purchases to get more for my money.

My wish list is as follows:

Unrefined Shea Butter
Pure Coconut Oil
EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
Caster Oil (Yaaay, I'd much rather put it on my hair than to ingest it like I did as a child--yuck!)
Sweet Almond Oil

 and some others that I can't recall at this very moment.

All in all, I'm pretty excited about my journey and where it's going to take me.  There are a few Natural hair vloggers that I've been keeping up with for advice: NikkiMae a/k/a Natural Chica, Naptural85, and Naturalista Cosmetics. Natural Chica and Naptural85 have me going through some serious hair envy right now! LOL! So I'm going to have to put my patience in overdrive and watch my hair grow out healthy and strong over time.

Well, you all, that's all for now.  Have a great day and keep writing!

AFTER JUST 2 WEEKS!

My Natural Journey Begins

Hello everyone.  I know it's been ages since I've updated this blog.  It's been very distracting in my life for quite some time now, but things, I'm sure, are about to change.  Anyway, I thought this would be the perfect forum for me to document the reinvention of "myself."

I've been very inspired lately by the growing natural hair movement. As a result,  I've done quite a bit of research on methods and products to ensure a healthy transition from relaxed hair back to the God-given status. I've been wanting to go natural for quite some time, but I always seem to get stuck at the in-between stage which prompts me to give up and go with a relaxer yet again.  However, with the help of natural hair blogs and YouTube tutorials, I feel  that I can make the transition much easier and with a much higher level of self-confidence.

I've cut my hair down to the fresh growth and I am looking forward to documenting my transition with you all. My hair is not the only part of me that is undergoing a renovation.  As my hair starts to get bigger, I'm working to make my body grow more fit and healthy by losing the excess weight.  I've struggled with my weight since my pre-adolescence days and at 53, it has become increasingly more difficult to shed the unwanted pounds.  But I'm determined this year to do what I know needs to be done.  I've started eating much better, decreased my portions and I've also started an exercise regimen.

So today begins my natural hair journey and my self-improvement endeavor.  I hope you all will stick with me and that my progress will be an inspiration to those of you who want to reinvent themselves as well.

Stay strong and keep writing.
THE BEGINNING: Me in my TWA (teeny weeny afro)
Monday, July 4, 2011
Happy 4th of July all!

Continuing the Process

I've been on vacation this week and still have not accomplished what I planned on doing.  Why is that?  I try to be more disciplined but for some reason or another things just never end up going the way I planned.  I've finally started my novel (started it while on my job no less) and was very much looking forward to working on it this week.  So what happens?  I get sick with a pretty bad sinus infection.  The pain in my head is so great that I can hardly see, much less look at a computer screen and tap on some keys.  AAARRRRRGGGGGHHH!  So I've spent this week at home recuperating from the anti-biotic that wiped me out last week (I hate taking those). 

But that's not the worst of it.  I have a job that I'm doing for someone else and I have yet to finish it.  I only have six more chapters to go (thank God they're short chapters) so I should be finished with it by this weekend.  Everyday this week, I've gotten up early, made plans to work for at least half of the day and read for the other half.  Hasn't happened. So now I have no choice but to find a way to motivate myself back into working.  I'm looking to have some things in place as a writer come this summer and I don't have too much time left to at least get the ball rolling.

Why is it so difficult to get motivated when doing something that you love to do?  I want to live the life of a writer, to be able to locate any where in the world and do what I do. You would think that would be motivation enough, but the familiar keeps creeping in and making itself comfortable.  I've been working a 9 to 5 for more than 30 years.  Routine is hard to break and the thought of having to discipline myself in much the same way in order to make a living at what I love to do is disturbing at best and annoying at its worst.  Guess what? Annoying or not, its necessary. So once again I have to convince myself: if I say this is what I want, then I have to do what's necessary to get to that point.  If I work hard in the beginning and continue the process, eventually I'll get to the place of cruise control and passive income which will allow me to do even more of what I love to do.  Which is write.

What motivates you to do what you love to do?

Another Free Promotion

For the week of March 6th, Affirmations and Other Poems will be offered for free for the whole week.  Just go to Smashwords.com and enter this promo code:  RE100, to get your copy.

Read and enjoy!

No More Excuses

It's getting more and more difficult to go to my job.  Not only does my creativity suffer because I'm too tired to do the things I enjoy doing once I arrive home, but I just think I'm too old (even though 52 is not really old) to keep going on like this.  Things haven't been so great for me financially for quite some time now, and I'm relegated to catching the bus to and from work mostly every day.  Sometimes I get rides from co-workers and friends, but after a while, if you have just a smidgen of pride, you eventually get tired of asking for rides.   

 

This job (although I'm grateful to have an income of any kind in today's economy) is the first job I've had that has actually made me want to quit before having something else in place.  You see, I work at an urban public school system and things can get pretty crazy to say the least.  There are fights and then there are more fights.  Oh, did I mention the fighting? 

Once when I was working at a local high school, a girl was jumped by some other girls.  When the victim's mom came to the school to assess the situation, another fight broke out just outside of the office where I was working.  The next thing I know, the brouhaha spilled over into the main office and the mother ended up being handcuffed by security, accused of hitting one of the students after being struck in the face herself, resulting in the breaking of her $500.00 pair of glasses.  This was amazing to me.  I know, I know, this sort of thing happens in urban public school systems everyday, but I simply refused to be so desensitized that these occurrences no longer bothered me.  To this day, I am still appalled at the whole thing.

So, there I sat, waiting for the trap door to open underneath my desk as a way of escape.  Of course, it never opened (probably because it was imaginary), and I remained in the same room with this mess.  Lord, what did I do to deserve this?  When can I get out?  How soon can I expect my deliverance?  Calgon, take me away...

As I sat and watched this melee of bad behavior, I began to second guess all my past decisions.  What would have happened, I thought, if I had gone through with my plans to join the Army Reserve instead of letting my mother talk me out of it?  Where would I be in the world right now?  Would I have done the 4 years and out, gone to college afterwards, and been in a completely different career?  Would I be working as a writer in New York, California, or even Paris?  Hmmmm... I can't help but wonder.

Or what would've happened if I hadn't let my father talk me out of playing the flute?  Would I be a flautist extraordinaire by now?  What would the outcome have been if I had continued to follow my dreams of full time artistry or writing?  For years I pursued a career in the fine arts.  I painted and created works of art on a regular basis.  I sold work and showed in gallery showings around the city where I live.  As a writer, my poetry was published in various anthologies while I did the local poetry circuit.  Even though the money was sporadic (I was still working a full-time job) it always came in handy.  I can't help but wonder where I would be now if I had continued doing shows, creating art, and writing poetry, essays, and short stories.  Oh well...

Living has a way of getting in the way of life... 

Because I had to do what it takes to live, my life as an artist, writer, creator, was put on hold―for many years.  Now, at 52 years of age, I have to remind myself constantly that all is not lost.  Things could certainly be worse.  The problem I'm having is with my feeling that I should be much farther in my accomplishments than I am at this point.  Exactly how did I get derailed from the path of fulfilling my dreams and aspirations?

Living has a way of getting in the way of life... 

Now, instead of dwelling on a past that I cannot change, I have to do what's necessary to accomplish what I've set out to do.  The greatest lesson for a procrastinator to learn is simply this: in order for me to accomplish anything, I must finish what I start.  No more unfinished projects.  Even if I have to take them on one at a time, I have to complete what I'm working on.  There has to be a determination and a drive to keep at it until it's done.  Then I can move on to the next project.  Even if I start a number of projects one right behind the other, I must take the time to finish each one in its entirety.  There has to be closure.  Unfinished projects sitting on the shelf collecting dust must no longer be an option for me.

So I make a vow to myself to finish what I start, to accomplish what I set out to do and to follow my dreams until I catch up with them.  I thank God that through the life, death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I have the ability to reach far beyond the walls of my immediate environment and aim for the stratosphere.  One project at a time.

BABY SHOES

Okay.  So

this guy walks up to me an’ my girl-homey while we coolin’ it on the steps at her house an’ he sees her little girl is coolin’ it on the grass an’ he’s got this little bag with him an’ then hey says “hey miss, what size shoe yo’ baby wear?” real quick and whispery like so my girl-homey says “size 8” an’ he says “i got some gym shoes for little girl feet/only costya 5 dollus” an’ my girl-homey says “i just bought her a pair” an’ then he says “3 dollus” an’ my girl-homey says “sorry brother/things is kinda tight money-wise” an’ so after my girl-homey says that he looks real sad in the face an’ turns an’ walks away mumblin’ somethin’ under his breath that sounds like it coulda been “thanks anyway” an’ after that we just sorta looks at each other an’ after that we 3 just goddup an’ went in the house to watch TV.