Month: March 2022

Fear

I believe we can grow afraid or we can grow from fear itself. Be brave. Be honest with yourself – your true, deepest, whole, God-given self – and speak up, step up. Do that one thing every day that scares you, that will change your life for what it deserves to be and is made to be. Be afraid. Be very afraid. And also have courage, so we can grow from the lessons we learn and create something amazing.

God, please, bless us with your love. Your will be done, and may it be clear what our next steps always are. I’m your name, we pray.

Post-a-day 2022

Uh-oh…

It is 7:20am, and I am only just climbing into bed for the night. And, of course, “for the night” now means “for not quite an hour,” because I want to see the llama and alpaca show at the livestock show this morning, and they start around 8am… yikes.

But, you know what? This was a fantastic night, followed by a great workout this morning, a hot, cleansing shower, and a long-awaited teeth-brushing.

Thank you, God, for this crazy day that was today (Thursday). Wow… thank you. May I give it all back to you through expressing your love in the world around me. In your name, I pray. Amen.

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Babysitting

I went to my sister’s house early, so I could do a workout in her front yard at the same time as the gym was doing the same workout at the gym. Afterward, she and her husband would be leaving to go to something, and Imd be with the kids. As I finish my workout and go inside to go to the bathroom, one of the two girls who has been let outside during my workout decided to hide without telling anyone. I could see her from the bathroom window initially and had intended to play a bit with them out front before heading inside for the evening. I just had to go to the bathroom first, as I knew I was all bloody after those double unders.

However, she had other plans in mind when she decided to disappear/hide. The middle child and I walked the whole neighborhood, and she even started to cry. Something in me wasn’t worried, though – I kept wondering at that… was it a sixth sense guiding me then, telling me she was totally fine and was genuinely just playing a trick on us? I kept calm yet firm about finding the sister. After returning from the park, just as this older sister was starting to cry about her missing younger sister, I could hear scream yelling coming from the front yard. Sure enough, it was the youngest. She had been hiding in her dad’s truck apparently, having a blast as we all looked for her, though none of us was playing.

As we had been walking back to the house, I had been thinking of how ridiculous it was that I hadn’t even started my real supervision duties for the evening and there was already a kid missing – not the best start for me, ne? Man…

Obviously, I’m glad she was okay. But I’m still a touch spooked at the fact that I wasn’t spooked at all. I didn’t even know that she had a history of hiding or running off initially, and I had felt like she was just hiding somewhere nearby…

Thank you, God, for that bizarre yet helpful guide today. And please, do give the youngest kid a bit more sense. That was super not cool today on her part. Guide us that we be your love expressed. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2022

No doubt…

… that was an awesome concert.

Gwen Stefani is another one of those artists who played an important role in my childhood. I remember singing the choruses to two of No Doubt’s songs while dancing around in the living room at our original house when I was only about four years old. They were “Spiderwebs” and “Don’t Speak”. I didn’t know what most of the lines meant, and I even had a few words wrong (“I gotta scream my phone calls,” instead of screening them, because had no idea that screening a call was something that existed), but I loved those two songs. To this day, I can still see the image I had in my mind of this woman climbing around and walking inside this massive spider web, while her landline phone was ringing in the distance. The phone was yellow, by the way. I genuinely thought she was telling a story of how she was doing crazy stuff, like walking in an actual spider web – she was out living life – instead of sitting around, waiting for the phone to ring, waiting for calls. I’ve related to it that way ever since it came out almost 27 years ago, and I have no expectation of that changing at his point – if it hasn’t changed already, I think it won’t at all.

So, all that being said, Gwen Stefani is kind of on par with Ricky Martin in terms of how it played a role in my early childhood. Naturally, when she sang “Don’t Speak”, therefore, I cried a bit.

And then, for Spiderwebs a coupe songs or so later, I went nuts jumping around and dancing.

I did that on several songs, of course, many of which I had either forgotten had been Gwen Stefani’s songs or that I had never known were Gwen Stefani’s songs.

Of course, she ended the concert with “Hollaback Girl“, and I then discovered that it wasn’t, “Mmm this much. Mmm this much,” but “Mmm this my sh**. Mmm this my sh**.” Rather different lyrics, yes, and the real ones don’t actually fit musically as well as my version of them. So, I’m sticking to my original understanding of the lyrics on this one.

All in all, it was a great and fun concert. And she even declared, “Praise Jesus!” at one point, which was baller in a whole new way. And no, Blake Shelton did not show up. She said early on that he was “babysitting” her kids… and my friend said, ‘I believe that is just called ‘parenting’.’ 😛 But the concert was filled with songs, and she even went over by about ten minutes, she had packed so much music into it. It was great.

Thank you, God, for the absolute blessing that was tonight and today on all levels. Please, especially, bless those who showed love to me today in particular, that they feel your love more fully tomorrow. Please, guide us all to be your love through our lives. Help us to be who you made us to be. And thank you for this opportunity of life. In your name, I pray. Amen.

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No, sleep tonight!

Well, I’m on my bed, in the new apartment, getting ready to go to sleep. I am a tad nervous. I am still here, doing it, though. I can do this. I can have an amazing time living here comfortably.

But I just get to sleep now, as it is getting far too close to midnight for me still to be awake. Good thing I have the highway to keep me company, or else I might have felt lonely in the new place in quiet darkness.

God, please, keep us safe and well living here, that we may best fulfill your will in the world. I love you. Thank you for this life and its infinite blessings. In your name, I pray. Amen.

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What’s-his-name

My mom aske me the name of my friend’s most recent child today. I had no idea, but imagined it would be names from the bible, and so I said the first two male Bible names that came to mind, adding that it was something Catholic like that, though I was truly only guessing all of it.

After a brief pause, my mom says, ‘Wait… but isn’t it [first name in Spanish] [second name in Spanish]?’

My eyes merely widened. ‘Seriously???’ I wanted to know. Was my mom really remembering correctly? And had I just pulled two names out of nowhere that were the right names, just in English instead of Spanish? Then my mom adds that it might actually just be the first name in Spanish and the second in English (as the second isn’t spelled any differently in Spanish versus English, but merely pronounced differently).

So, I looked it up on Facebook. I had sent my mom the original post about the baby’s birth, and that was the only time she or I had seen his names, anyway. I kid you not, it was exactly as my mom had guessed, and as I had thrown out randomly. The names were right, just that the first was the Spanish version of itself. My mom nailed it, and I was blown away.

Totally cool yet still bizarre, right? I had completely forgotten everything about that kid’s name in my conscious mind, but my subconscious had held onto it somehow – way cool!

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P.S. N, if you’re reading this, yes, this was about your son. ;P

Saturday sickness

Man, my body is tired of menstruation… not having my supplements this time, leading up to my period, I mean, has been a real hassle. I spent most of the day sick today – exhaustion and weakness with slight elevation in temperature in the afternoon (I talk about this like I’m a weather report…). I felt roughly dreadful ever since my shower after the workout this morning. I went back to bed just for a nap, woke up after an hour, needing to potty and adjust the air to cooler, and then fell asleep hard for another three hours. I woke up hot and panicked, knowing it was later than it was supposed to be.

My mom didn’t mind too much, though. She still enjoyed the rodeo on her own, then left early, as it was incredibly crowded (as expected) by later afternoon, and brought me some soup. She just happened to have made some soup yesterday, and to have brought a bunch with her in thermoses to the rodeo, but not drunk them yet. It was just what I had needed, that soup. And it got me outside for a few minutes when I went to get it in the driveway and talk with my mom briefly.

I’m feeling much better now, but still not tops. Hopefully, I will improve throughout the night… though, it will be tough having to get up as often as it looks like I’ll have to do to use the bathroom (due to menstruation, not the potentially-menstruation-induced illness)… only tomorrow will tell.

At that, I bid you all a wonderful and rest-filled night! God, please, bless us all with your love in a new way tonight, that we better fulfill your will tomorrow. In your name, I pray. Amen.

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Unknown dreams

Talk about dreams being manifested that we never new we had, I went to the rodeo tonight with my mom, and my brother and sister-in-law and one of my brother’s childhood best friends met us as our guests. Fancy parking pass and chute seats and all.

It was black heritage night, and it was Bun B and a whole line of black heritage rappers, which was why we had been given the tickets by some older friends of my mom’s – just not their style, you see.

Most of the music, I didn’t know myself, but I’m a fan of good music – good rhythms and lyrics and beats and all of it make for a good time for me (though I often can’t understand any words in music, not just rap) – so I was enjoying it for the most part. Though, I was quite tired.

Just as my mom and I were going to head home, a couple songs came on that I not only knew, but loved (for ridiculous reasons, obviously). And what was the one that blew my mind here?

“Ridin’”. Never had a clue I would love to hear that in concert, but here we are, and I loved it! I felt like a little kid who just got to see a herd of unicorns fly by. It was way cool. Chamillionaire and “Ridin’”, y’all…

But get this: THEN Lil Flip comes out and dives into “The Way We Ball”! Y’all… the little girl in me was delighted to have me fulfilling dreams she never even thought to dream… It was super cool!!

(By the way, if you don’t know here songs by name, look them up! It’s likely you have heard them! They were both big hits around 2005 and 2002 respectively. And I had no idea the guys were from Houston until tonight!!)

Also, fun fact, Bun B’s birthday is next Saturday, March 19!! He put on an awesome collaboration and mini-festival in just a one-hour show tonight for over 73 thousand people, and I am grateful to have been present for it. What a lovely accomplishment to have as a sort of birthday present to himself! Happy Birthday, Trill OG!! You rock.

So, thank you, God, for that very unexpected blessing. Brief as it was, it was powerful, and I am grateful.

Just wow…

Praise be! Amen!

Post-a-day 2022