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Did Someone Call Hoarders?
I am somewhat of a hoarder. I come by it honestly though. My grandma holds on to things too. You never know when the thing that was in that box for all those years may come in handy. Seriously. I fight against that hoarding instinct at times. Not often but sometimes. I mean, you can get in my house and walk around without fear of towering piles of my precious collectibles falling on your head. But behind these closets and closed doors…well, let’s just leave those things where they are. I have a closet full of boxes that I did not unpack after my home renovation two years ago. I…
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Open Your Hands and Your Heart
The blessing of writing this blog is that I get to share my personal walk with the Lord. The burden of writing this blog is that I get to share my personal walk with the Lord. Two sides of the same coin. I have to walk the line between being open and helpful versus open and hurtful. I wrestle with knowing the difference. I debate how much information is too much information to share. Sometimes, I publish an entry that I know did not go as deeply as it should have. Because I do not exist in a vacuum, my journey with the Lord involves other people. I want to…
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A Tight Fit
Everyone has a list of must-haves when they are in the market for a home. My list of must-haves included a garage, fenced backyard, and a tub that I could fit in. I know…I know. The tub probably threw you for a loop, but I am a lover of a good soak in the tub. And if I was going to throw my hard-earned money into a home, I wanted to at least be able to soak and relax at the end of a long day at work. My search for a home gave me access to the way that others live, and it was eye-opening. Also eye opening was…
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Wheel of Emotions
In December of 2019, I had my first experience with group therapy with strangers. How did I arrive at that juncture in life? I’m happy to tell you. My first experience with individual therapy occurred when I was nineteen. I was finding my place in the world and making choices that my mom thought was not in my best interest. In her mind, I needed to speak to a professional to sort through my feelings. She found me a therapist and work began. Over the course of a year, I saw the therapist once a month. He was a nice man. However, I didn’t spend my time talking about my…
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Holy Week
Holy Week has arrived. A sacred time in the life of a Christian. Each day is one day closer to the cross of Calvary for Jesus. This is a time of reflection for the body of Christ as a whole. And a time of gratefulness and rejoicing. The rejoicing will come later. After the cross. After the burial. And after the Resurrection. What must this week have been like emotionally for Jesus? Well, at least it started off on a high. Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey. Word had spread that He was coming to town. The multitudes gathered to greet him. They took the branches of palm leaves and…
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I Know I’ve Been Changed
LaShun Pace Rhodes sings “I Know I’ve Been Changed.” It’s a down home, foot stomping gospel song. You can find it on YouTube if you’ve never heard it. Back in the days of cassette tapes, LaShun was on heavy rotation in my mother’s car. At Bible study on Wednesday night, pastor taught about spiritual transformation. As soon as I got home and thought about the lesson, the song sprang to mind. At one point in the song, she says, “God’s chemical laboratory of redemption took my black soul and dipped it in red blood, and I came out white as snow.” It’s an awesome visual description of just how changed…
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Ruth Graves Wakefield
Ruth Wakefield was in a hurry one day. She was known for making amazing chocolate butter drop cookies. The recipe was not one that could be completed in a hurry really, because chocolate squares had to be melted. After melting the squares, she would then have to pour the melted chocolate into the batter before baking the cookies. Ruth had to make a choice. She decided to just break the chocolate squares in chunks and place them into the batter. Hot is hot, so the chocolate would melt on its own accord. She was wrong. When she pulled the cookies out of the oven, the chocolate remained in its chunks. …
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Out of the Box
I didn’t want to put a Christmas tree in my house, because I have a cat now. Fitz loves anything that dangles. And he loves to climb. He climbs up his cat tower. He leaps onto my table and couches. He bats the cords on the blinds to watch them swing. Christmas trees are great for climbing, and they have all of the dangling objects. Nope…no Christmas tree this year. We have the tendency to put people in a box. Again, when I say we, I’m talking about me. I often think people don’t have the capacity to change. I don’t expect much from people or of people. I’m guarded.…
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Yes
Sometimes a song that I haven’t thought of in forever will pop into my head. Am I the only person that happens to? I was traveling back home, and Shekinah Glory Ministry’s song, “Yes,” began to play in a loop in my mind. If you’ve never heard it, go to YouTube and play it. Spoiler alert: The choir’s only line is “yes.” I take that back. At times, they do echo the soloist. The soloist does ad lib throughout the song, but she spends a lot of time saying “yes” as well. Some of her lines were really permeating to me. For instance, “Will your heart and soul say yes? …
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Unsolved Mysteries
This has been quite a week. I may have mentioned before that I do contract therapy. That means that if I don’t work, I don’t eat. I was afforded an opportunity that requires me to miss a week of work. And it didn’t come at a very convenient time. I already work less days in the month of December because of Christmas and New Year’s. I struggled, but I decided to skip out on work. I can’t afford to not work, but I also can’t afford to miss this opportunity. With all that in mind, I realized that I had a doctor’s appointment on this past Tuesday. Even though I…
