The Quiet Place

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday fellow-shipping with family and friends. I thought I would be traveling but ended up staying local, which was a blessing in disguise. I was able to get so much accomplished at home, in addition to some much needed rest. Often times we find ourselves dealing with some sort of test or trial in our lives and most are unwelcome. We then find ourselves complaining or venting about “it”. I thought what I needed was a getaway, time with my family, but it didn’t happen, and I now know why.

I am learning to embrace my tests and trials, because I am beginning to understand that something will always come, so it’s best to simply prepare for these moments as best you can. It’s not always easy, and coping becomes tiresome, which is to be expected. We are a people whom want everything to be perfect and smooth sailing all the time, but life doesn’t work that way. So I ask myself, “Why get upset?” I can’t get all bent out of shape nor frazzled. I know there is a lesson and often times a revelation in that which I am going through and I know I am not going through it alone. During my time off from work, I became liberated, liberated from hosting and entertaining, liberated from sending mass texts and calls wishing everyone in my Rolodex a happy holiday, I became centered and grounded.

There are times where we need to be still and quiet, I have said this often, and we must take heed to the warning signs of when this needs to occur. There are times where you don’t want advice, listen to anyone’s rhetoric, there are times when you need to listen and commune with the inside and not the outside. During my time off, I did this and it felt great. Today, I am still in this place. I am beginning to embrace this season that I am in, the purpose becoming clearer each day. Today, I ask you to get still and quiet, commune with yourself, not murmuring or complaining about where you are and what you don’t have, but admiring all that you do.

Galatians 6:9 states: And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.  I know that giving up is not an option and the desires of my heart will be manifested in due time.

Have a wonderful week good people,
Shamina

LOVING

As I lay, he strokes my pain

My back has become relaxed, the tension has eased from my shoulders, my temples have stopped thumping
I smell the dew from the mountains as the wind sweeps pass the curtains
He kisses the back of my neck, inhaling a deep breath that makes my body smile, the hairs across my body stand
As I lay on my stomach, head laid on the pillow turned opposite of him, his hand caressing me, his other propped up under his face
he doesn't talk, he's simply gently touching me. He kisses my shoulders, soft butterfly kisses as I inhale
I don't say a word and my body relaxes
He cuddles my fears, my nerve endings on pins, he sits up, begins to massage my lower back and then my buttocks
As I lay, he turns me over, I hear the birds chirping
He kisses my forehead, the side of my cheek, the top of my ear and he tells me, he's not going anywhere, he doesn't want my body, just my mind, my heart, he wants it to open up...
I close my eyes, he places one hand against my belly, the other is propping his head...
I inhale
As I lay he massages my feet and I exhale, feeling defeated, my wall he is beginning to break
he says “its ok, I don't have to have it all now, I can wait...allow me to make love to your mind, put a ring around your heart and if you give me that, the loving will be a work of art, so just lay, I'll do my part.”

 

Get Up From This Place

Hello to you all!  I pray you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and that you were reminded of what you are thankful for.  As we approach a new year, we approach  a new start.  I know there are many of us struggling and dealing with many battles, some financial, some heart matters, for some of us, life is just beating us down and we can not see the light at the end of the tunnel, we can't get our focus off of our problems, it appears that it is just one thing after another.  Well, I am hear to tell you that joy does come in the morning, and it is not as bad as it seems!!!

We all have those moments of despair, wondering why, why, why is this happening to me, why am I here in this place.  For some of us, its the driest season we have ever seen.  But, I have realized the longer you focus on "it", the harder "it" becomes.  Take a moment to reflect on your past, that time when things were really bad before, and reflect on how you ended up on top...it will happen again, but you most do something different.  Its hard to move forward with your plans, dreams and aspirations if you have no tangible plan.  I know this has been a reoccurring theme in my writings lately, but it is so true.  Although the plan you write will be altered, it gives you something to see, to meditate on, to create visible time-lines and actions to complete it all, and it works.  When we keep our plans in our minds, they get lost and tangled up in all the mental clutter and chatter of our everyday lives.

If you want to see things manifest differently in your lives, ask yourself, "What am I doing differently?".  You must do what scares you to death!!!  You must be passionate about whatever it is you want, and you must learn to give, especially to yourself.  Time, resources money, even a smile or a kind word.  You think you got it bad?  Go visit one of your local shelter's and see how bad they got it.  Go visit a mother whose child is missing, hit the streets and try to talk to that young girl who has been tricked into prostitution while her pimp keeps a watchful eye, imagine you were her for just a moment.  Switch your focus, change your circle of friends, get with folks who are doing what you would like to do.  There is so much life to live on this earth, there is so much awaiting to spring forth from your soul to assist another person, there are so many people that are awaiting you, you can't even imagine.  We are to live in heaven on earth, fully, abundantly, prosperously, purposefully.  You can be down, discouraged, but only for a moment, so don't become defeated, change your mindset and renew your mind daily with the thoughts and plans that will help you to arrive at your new destination, which I will call L-O-V-E.  Loving your tests and trials, loving who your are, loving how far you've come, loving the love you give to others.  Operate from that love within and your situation will turnaround immediately...try it and see.

So with this being said, this month I will leave you with a poem by Langston Hughes.

Love, peace, and many blessings,
Shamina

Mother to Son
by Langston Hughes

Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor --
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now --
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

Hughes, Langston, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177021, Web. 29 Nov. 2011.