Gratefulness is a lifestyle choice. It is far more fruitful than worry and is the opposite of selfishness. To be full of gratitude is to be thankful for the supreme wisdom of the Creator Who made you uniquely for a purpose. Divinity resides in your humanity. Grateful living finds its location in the present moment and [...]
I heard the two young women before I saw them. Their voices full of life, I looked over and noted a third person with them, a cinnamon-brown toddler. Thinking the young Black mother brave, I also wondered where the women elders were to guide her on her womanhood journey. In a time and a [...]
A call for unity in the aftermath of the Buffalo, NY massacre of 10 Black folk, one wounded Black person, and two white people, also wounded, minding their business in Tops Friendly Market is both logical and necessary. Bereft and angry, I texted four friends between the mainstream news outlets’ feature of the gruesome [...]
love can wait He waited for me for us His love covered the cursed tree blood thicker than hate blood holy and pure we are bought with a price He left heaven to identify with and to heal humanity His very Own creation to save us from sin this redemption song gives praise to [...]
On the wall of his mid-sized office stood books as tall as the pyramids of ancient Egypt. What was that sound? It wowed me, beckoned me to cross the threshold of my world history professor's door. I entered. "Who is that singing?" I asked him. "O!" he exclaimed. "That's Dinah!" My professor, Dr. Gomez, [...]
this feels new and wonderful our first kiss soft and wet your steady gaze so confident your laughter invigorating making me want to trust you making me listen to every word you say your voice like a poet’s so ready to impart a novel idea about what it means to be human and how [...]
A bunch of pearls Is but wild beauty Until it meets the Jeweler’s gifted hands. First, He takes a strand of glistening gold Strong enough to bear the beautiful weight. Then He selects the purest Pearls of white, Surveying each with a wise eye. Next, the Jeweler approves the roundness of Each noble, opulent [...]
Once, my Grandma recalled how a two-year-old me nearly swallowed the round bulb of the handle on a toy vacuum cleaner. As it lodged in my toddler throat, she fought back panic and pulled. Finally, it gave. Grandma spanked me. “Grandma,” I cried, “you hurt your baby!” Shocked and relieved, she embraced me and [...]
There’s something about Sunday. Throughout my childhood and adolescence, Sundays meant church. I did not grow up in a household where my parents’ involvement in Christian ministry required us to be in the church building every night of the week. However, I was raised by a husband and a wife who were both baptized [...]
When I was a little brown girl, my hometown of Jacksonville, Florida seemed so big. O! What many different places you could go. Both of my parents—my Dad an artist-teacher and my mother a registered nurse—had cars, so we often rode comfortably around town. We worshipped at church and sometimes visited our church family [...]
