SELF AWARENESS

"What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself."

Abraham Maslow

The Same Love That Made Me Laugh

When I got home from the gym early this evening, I took a nap, and for some reason, I woke up and found myself singing the above song. I'm thinking, perhaps I had dreamed of Diana Ross singing that song, which is one of my favorite songs on her Cd Baby It's Me. It's a Bill Wither's song. I do like his version better

25 Random things no one will ever read

1.I met met my wife when: Haven’t met her yet.

2. I hate: that I love sweets

3. My favorite thing in the world is: dessert!

4. I'm scared of: bats, rats, and dying alone

5. I have my doll from: non applicable.

6. I never had: pork chops and applesauce out of a garbage can.

7. My first job was: paperboy

8. I have a sister: that was born the week before I turned 3

9. My dream car: a black self-cleaning jaguar

10. I remember my accident : I was sleepy

11. When I retire: I will write until I can’t write anymore, and it’ll be in beautiful house in Negril Jamaica .

12. I've never been: beaten up.

13. I can't sleep: if I haven’t showered

14. I think Algebra is: light years more enjoyable than Geometry or Calculus. Wait...I know there's a theorem proving it somewhere....

15. I miss: R&B radio stations, listening to Tavis Smiley and Steve Harvey on the radio as I get ready for work or listening to Gospel on the radio on my way to church on Sundays (when I lived in Milwaukee Wisconsin) and black people to the left, the right in front, and back of me everywhere, outside of church ( I live in Oregon)

16. I have had dreams about: Halle Berry, Janet Jackson, Rachel Smith, Sallie Toussaint, & Dorothy Dandridge fighting over me.

17. I used to go to lunch: with a different group of friends on different days each week.

18. I love shopping for: clothes, bakeware, music, and books

19. Drama: I avoid it, unless it’s on tv.

20. It bothers me when: people get in my lane ahead of me without signaling.

21. I wish I had: 70 lbs off my body frame

22. I like being close to: Los Angeles

23. I am not: a rock & roll fan. I tolerate it since all my friends here like it exclusively and the majority rules when we hang out.

24. I don't always: talk to people in the morning. I don't engage in a full-scale personal conversation until about 10 am; I am not a morning person!

25. This list was: satisfactory

Irony

Funny thing happened on my way to the gym yesterday evening. Not funny haha, actually, but ironic. When it would usually anger me, this time it made me laugh.

I was driving home, and there was a woman in the car behind me, on my tail. I’m driving the speed limit, and besides, there is a car in front of me going the speed limit as well and I can only drive as fast as the car in front of me will allow, before I hit them. When the one-lane became two, the woman behind me raced from behind me to the second lane, while flipping me off in the process! I did get heated for a minute, until I saw, on her bumper, not one, not two, but three Pro- Christian bumper stickers, a Peace Is The Answer sticker, and a Make Love Not War sticker. And I had to laugh a little. You might ask, if she raced past me, how did I see the bumper stickers so clearly…?


She was pulled over 2 blocks later by the cops for speeding.

the small things

From as early as I can remember, I was a Christian, raised Baptist and eventually Pentecostal. My sister and I were dragged to church every Sunday until I came to know Jesus Christ for myself, then I wanted to go.

As a child I worried a lot.

Why was I worried? I had friends who were Jews, Catholics and Seventh Day Adventists. I even had a friend, my first best friend, whose family converted to Islam almost the second after his grandmother died, with whom mother had forced me to cut off all contact, when I was about 10. She was afraid his family would try to convert me as well. I remembered early on in the Pentecostal church, a woman, standing up in the testimony portion of the service, announcing that her son, who was in a gang and heavily in the drug scene (though being raised in a Christian church) “ had turned his life to God, but church, I need you to pray for him because he was now a Baptist.” There were groans of disappointment, which I thought was odd because I thought Baptists were just like us Pentecostals except not as strict. I understand from others that Baptists were going to go so hell, like everyone else who was not Pentecostal.
I was worried because, as I thought or believed Pentecostal was the correct religion, I wondered, what if we were wrong? My Catholic friends believed Catholicism was the correct religion. My Jewish friends believed the Messiah hadn’t even arrived yet, and the students at the Seventh Day Adventist school that my sister and I attended thought my family was hell-bound since we were not of their religion. What if they were right?
I was about 11 at the time. I didn’t realize that religion was basically a grouping of people who comfortable with each other, who shares certain similar views of God and the roles each of us should play or should play. I thought, “we’re (the Christians) all reading out of the same Bible. We can’t all be right? Someone has to be wrong, right?”
Why so many interpretations of the same words?
It’s like being in court. There are defenders and prosecutors, and then there’s the law. Each defense attorney and prosecuting attorney of each case interprets the same piece of law to fit their beliefs, which amazed me. It amazed me because we could read the same thing and get different views on what was read.
I decided that yes, I am and will always be a Christian, and for me my comfort level is in a Bible-based, Pentecostal-leaning church, with the loud choirs and tambourines, organs and pianos, and shouts of Amen peppered throughout the sermon and the dancing in the spirit and the speaking in tongues....and the bottom line is, what I believe is most important is how well I treat myself, how well I treat others, how well I treat the Earth, that I believe in and honor The Trinity, and that I show compassion & dignity for all.