Blessings, affirmations, grace, and reflection

I was driving around today when I saw this mural on a wall in East Harlem. I got out of car to take a picture of it. A couple of blocks later I was pulled over and summoned for a defective brake light. I guess the blessing in this is that at least I wasn't driving at night when I could have been involved in an accident as a result of not having my brake light working. Thank you God for your watchful eye of protection.

It just hit me. I think I might have this blogging thing all wrong. Instead of using it to vent I should be using it to write about my blessings. I came across a girl's blog where she wrote about one magical moment a day. Lately, I have been allowing myself to get caught up in negative thoughts and behaviors. Imagine how life changing it might be if I would focus on my blessings instead of my grievances. Like today for example. I was having a great day. Until I was pulled over and summoned for a defective tail light. I started to let it ruin my day, but why should I allow one moment to undo every other wonderful experience I had?  So, from now on I will try really, really, hard to stay positive and only write happy thoughts. Wish me luck!

So I changed the name of the blog. Again. Let's see if this one sticks.

Happy Father's Day to any dads who land upon my long forgotten blog. I had a stressful week, but I will come out on the other side as always.  Most of the stress was work related and while I don't like to vent about work on here, I feel like I need an outlet for my frustrations. I have been holding it in and then it always comes out in the most inappropriate times and ways. Please be patient with me, God is not through with me yet. I start vacation next week. Yay!  I planned to travel and possible move. Well, the devil quickly squashed those plans.  My student loans became due and I was threatened with have having my salary garnished if I didn't fork over nearly $1K a month! Extortion. It is crazy because you can have your credit card bills settled and negotiated, but your education expenses can cause you to be homeless. What is wrong with this world? I will never advise a person to take out student loans. If you can't afford to pay for your education yourself or get ...

I love these houses with porches and gardens!

A survey recently asked the question, if you and your future spouse could stay in the black financially by bypassing getting a ring would you. Hells yeah! Buying a house and making sure the bills are paid are so much more important than a symbol of our love. A symbol could be represented by everything from a necklace to a tennis bracelet. It is just a symbol, but it is not our love. We all know that love is more than an object and though you can't buy love you need money to keep the love alive. The irony is that I have alway had these untraditional ideas. I was never a little girl who dreamed of a big wedding or wanted all the fixings and trimmings. I have a former coworker who is the same age I am and is working on a third marriage. Ironically I have never been married and seems at this probably never will be. While I didn't want all of the hoopla that comes with marriage, I do want the companionship. I've been alone my whole life -- raised as an only child -- losing my ...

days after the threat of gun violence washed across our block, we finally see police presence. a group of officers went building to building looking for information. it had already occurred to me that all of the buildings on our block have security cameras so one if not all had captured the fracas that took place in broad daylight. an older uniformed officer, broke away from his younger cohorts to inspect the cameras on the buildings and ask questions. the rookies just stood over in group socializing amongst themselves. the vet cop sees myself and a neighbor entering our building and follows. he asks about a super. the neighbor was clearly of the mindset to not cooperate with cops. i on the other hand was almost a victim of the crime in question so i tell him where to find the super. if we were as vigilant about no shooting as no snitching the world would be a better place.

over the long holiday weekend i went to the beach. i watched a young indian family - a mother, father and daughter- enjoying the warm weather. the mother sat on the beach and watched as her husband played with her daughter in the water. as the tide began to rise, the waves became fiercer. a large wave washed ashore and knocked the little girl off of her feet. her father raced to her side and before she knew what hit her he had swept her up into the safety of his arms just as the receding wave was preparing to swallow her up and pull her out to sea.  she looked through her dark lashes, wet with salt water, and saw her daddy's loving face looking down at her. she giggled with delight and was ready to do it all over again, but mom and dad knew at that point that it was time to call it a day.