sistahology.com

A smile, A generosity of spirit. Last week some of us celebrated Juneteenth, today I want to celebrate this woman – every woman in our past who found joy, laughter, good lovin’, deep faith and satisfaction – regardless of the sharp realities they faced. God, we ask for that grace, that elegance to always seek health and fulfillment despite the stress of reconciling our history with your Love. This Juneteenth, we release that stress. The stress that writer Opal Palmer Adisa said makes us “look so angry” and “walk like we’ve got bricks in our bags.” The stress that is “hemmed into our dresses, pressed into our hair, mixed into our perfume and painted on our fingers. Stress from the deferred dreams, the stress not voiced; stress from the broken promises, the blatant lies; stress from always being at the bottom, from never being thought beautiful, from always being taken for granted, taken advantage of; stress from being a black woman in White America”. …150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, we release it. Today, as we remember Juneteenth, we take a deeper inhale and an epic exhale. We breathe, let our shoulders down. We walk a little taller. With unrelenting love and commitment to one another’s well-being, we release it. In God’s name.  We commit to move forward and embracing life as we live it today!  Cheers to all of those who paved that path we now travel…………………

Dedicated to all Father’s and of course, my own Dad (R.I.P.)

It’s interesting how it begins

A little bit of lovin’

Two people together like husband and wife

The beginning is here for a new life

Which grows and grows in the tummy of another

The one that would be called its mother

But, let’s not forget the other one

That happens to start as someone’s son

He may not have grew the baby in his body

No less important He is now a father

It really is somethin’ to be his child’s hero

He watches his child grow from zero

Form diapers to prom to college you loan

To even getting a place on their own

You train them for life

And pray they have no strife

From football to ballet

To graduation day

You teach and discipline them

And catch the growing and fun by recording

All the parenting joys and highs

The valleys and lows

Take just like the wind blows

To watch it from up close

Giving medicine in measured dose

Turning daughters into women

And sons into men

Hope they never forget the lessons taught

From the knee its was wrought

Dad is always providing and instructing

Protecting and giving love everlasting

Saving from life’s monsters his little one

Because a Dad’s work is never done

Uplifting, encouraging, watching

The fruits of his labor producing

Pride swells in his heart

Even though now they are apart

But always in the child’s very soul lives

The love and lessons their Father gives

The love is eternal! Enjoy your day!

Cheers!

We can all recall our exceptionally aware moments. Unfortunately, they tend to occur in highly stressful and often life-threatening situations, such as skidding on glare ice at 60 MPH. This is when our fight or flight response takes over. The frontal lobes go offline. We literally stop thinking as the faster-processing and more primitive regions of the brain assume executive control.A lot has been said about kindness and patience.

We have to savor our good moments while we can. But, of course, we will miss them completely if we keep getting stuck inside our own heads. The practical benefit of mindfulness is that as our awareness becomes more heightened and our thinking more focused, we slowly acquire the ability to reel in our runaway thoughts, or at least slow them down a tad. Slowly, we gain skills in negotiating our way through the present. Slowly, we learn to manage our illness rather than our illness managing us.  Cheers to living!

Most women are inherently caring and nurturing.  Trouble is the one person we most often overlook when doling out all that compassion is ourselves.  How you treat yourself tells the world how you expect others to treat you.  A lack of self love can be damaging to your psyche.

Throughout the day, even when the day is hectic, there are many of opportunities to practice loving yourself.  Start by telling yourself how beautiful and wonderfully made you are!  Tell yourself how much you love you!  It’s a great way to start and end the day!  Cheers!