With 206 bones in the human body, sooner or later I was bound to damage one; wasn't I??

To put it mildly, it's been a rough week. Plain and simply y'all, a sista is tired, tired, tired. It's all good though 'cuz I've been here before and I know that this too shall pass. Here's the quick recap just to bring y'all up to date on ya gurl...

Left The Lou last Friday afternoon and headed to Nebraska to spend Easter with my BFF and her family. Putting the petal to the metal, I turned what highway laws intended to be a nine hour trip into a seven and a half hour adventure, arriving at my gurl's spot a little before midnight. After sitting up catching up with her until 2am, I went to bed and got up and commenced to spend the day shopping for clothing and all of the necessary groceries required to prepare the Easter Feast she and I planned. On a happy note, I found all kinds of deals on clothing as she lives in a very small, basically rural community in central Nebraska and thankfully since farmers don't have a lot of use for designer duds, all manner of gorgeous articles of clothing found their way to the not 50%, not 75%, BUT 85% off rack!!! Glory be y'all, Ms. Just Write Now was fixta be stylin and profilin' but I digress.

After spending the day shopping, the BFF and I began the preparations for the Easter Feast and as she was preparing more dishes than I, I volunteered to clean her new hardwood floors throughout the house for our Easter celebration as the workmen who were doing the remodel on her kitchen and deck had tracked it horribly with their boots. To put the size and scope of this job into perspective, I'll simply say this, her house is two stories and contains over 6500 square footage of living space and the entire first floor with the exception of a small office and her bedroom had been converted to hard wood flooring in the remodel. Suffice it to say that when I was done, I knew for sure I had done some work! But it's all good, that's how she and I do, and believe me you when I say she has gone so far beyond that floor for me til it ain't even funny. Once again, for the second consecutive night, I hit the bed about 2am.

Sunday dawned and we finished the dinner preparations and entertained 11 for a scrumptious dinner. Following the massive clean-up, I was so tired I simply wanted to find a bed and fall in but as our 18 year old sons were both out and she had to work the next morning, I agreed to be the one to wait up for them to make sure they arrived home safely. Once again, bedtime for me wasn't until 2am.

Monday morning I got up around 8am and prepared for the return drive home. Making the trip in about 8 hours, I went to bed to prepare to drive Ryan to visit the last of the colleges he is considering attending next year. After a 2 hour drive there, we spent the day touring the campus, (walking), visiting professors and departments (more walking), and hanging out with football players and coaches (still more walking), all of which I did in boots with 3 inch heels. Ryan loved the school and the people and it is most likely where he will be going next year. Another 2 hour trip brought me back home where I was thrilled to find the mountain of work that had accumulated since my last day at work the previous Friday. I also had to prepare for my boss who was scheduled to work with me again on Thursday after having been in town to work with me only a week before on the previous Wednesday.

Before I could dig into the work however, my mother phoned to tell me one of my favorite aunts was in the hospital and had been hooked to a ventilator as she was unable to breathe for herself. Of course I immediately went to the hospital to interpret for my family and to see about my aunt first hand. She was in pretty bad shape as she was unable to communicate and was also on a feeding tube in addition to the ventilator. I had the unpleasant task of explaining to those in the decision-making positions what her options were and what my aunt's apparent prognosis was and at that point; it wasn't very good. Remaining at the hospital until 11:30pm or so, I finally went home and returned again on Wednesday night as well.

On a bright note, I also attended the Jill Scott concert with my pregnant girlfriend and her husband who promptly got into a fight (the husband) with a random guy because he says the guy bumped/hit their car with his body (not another car mind you). Keep in mind that it was raining cats and dogs in The Lou that night and as I watched from the warm, dryness of my own car, I assure you I had absolutely no intentions of getting out. That is until my knuckle-headed, pregnant girlfriend jumps out of their car and tries to break up the fight. Instinct took over for me as I feared she or their unborn baby might be hurt and jumped out of my car to help break these fools apart. After getting my friend's husband back into their car with some not so nice words of encouragement and a good, old-fashioned, round-the-way gurl push, we finally parked and went into the concert for which we were 30 minutes late. That's alright tho y'all cause Ms. Jilly most certainly did NOT disappoint a sistah! SHE BLEW IT UP!!!

Thursday comes and I work with the boss again, do hospital duty with the aunt who is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH improved though still on the ventilator which is now doing only 40% of the breathing for her, and then at long last, I go to bed early.

Waking refreshed on Friday morning, who knew that in just seven short hours, I would be on my way to the local ER having stubbed the third toe of my right foot on the suitcase sitting on my bedroom floor that I had yet to unpack from last weekend's trip to Nebraska. X-rays showed a spiral fracture at the point the arrow is pointing to in the picture at the beginning of this post. Once again, my tendency to procrastinate about doing things I know I should do immediately has been my undoing. Ryan's Mom Prom is next Friday night, and I bought the cutest dress for it just yesterday. It is short, and the look of my foot in this oh so attractive fracture boot is not quite the fashion statement I had planned to make. Additionally, Ryan and I had planned to put every other mother-son combination to shame on the dance floor at this event we have been looking forward to for four long years.

Oh well, no use crying at this point as I know that it will all work out because everything always does. HOWEVER, I'll say it again y'all, this sistah here is tired, tired, tired...I'm going to go to bed now ;b

I exist, therefore I am...and now you're telling me I have to have a purpose too?

A certain curly-headed lurker called me up last night to ask me questions about the concept of "purpose" in one's life. We had quite an extensive discussion about this ideology, and before I realized it was happening, I had discovered that in some wierd transmutation of the universe, I truly don't believe that each of us has a singular purpose so to speak to fulfill during our time here on earth!

Now before passing sentence on me and banishing me from ever even speaking the title of Mr. Warren's book aloud again, please bear with me while I try to explain my shocking perspective.

While it is important to understand that I am without question a person who is quite driven in life, I believe it is equally important to understand that I am not necessarily driven in quite the same way that many profess themselves to be driven, i.e. by purpose. A hard worker by upbringing and an over-achiever by nature (or so my son says), I am driven by myself and my response to my personal work ethic along with a desire to never be the proverbial "dumbass" in any room to do what I must to excel in every endeavor I attempt.

Tonight, while hanging quietly in my room reading blogs and trying to come up with a topic for this post, my beautiful, intelligent, and remarkably self-contained [especially for a 24 year-old] Goddaughter [the afore-mentioned curly-haired lurker] called to ask me my opinions on my personal purpose in life. Remembering what 24 was like, I was actually somewhat hesitant to share my views on purpose with her for fear that it would derail her from the path that 24 year olds inevitably find themselves traveling. After a short amount of introspections, I decided to do what I always do when it comes to this amazing individual and give her the unvarnished truth as I see/live it.

I explained to her that in my opinion, "Purpose" as a concept is quite overrated. Let me try to explain what I mean by this statement...

1. I believe that too many people spend too much time and exert way too much energy "looking for their purpose in life". In my opinion, purpose is something that is specific to wherever an individual is at any given moment in life and as such is a different thing for the same individual depending on the stage of life they may be in at any given time. That means that like most things in life, a person's purpose probably changes as a consequence of all of the other changes that are constantly happening in one's life. This being the case, it would seem to me that this idea of one's "Purpose" being the singular defining reason for why they were sent to this earth in the first place is way too big to accommodate any phenomenon with such a huge propensity for change.
   
2. If one does decide to take the position that we each have a specific singular purpose we are supposed to fulfill while here, a look down the road and into a future where that purpose has or has not been fulfilled results in a couple of questions that I believe it is important to answer. In scenario I, one fulfills his/her purpose by the ripe old age of 30...what's next? If purpose is a singular, overriding, and defining reason for why we are here, what is left for the individual who manages to find and fulfill his/her purpose quickly? Do they get a new purpose? Do we all get more than one? If we each have a singular purpose for which we were put here, what is this individual supposed to do with the rest of his/her life? What happens now? In scenario II, let's assume the individual never discovers nor fulfills his/her purpose...what happens here? Does this mean this person's life has been a waste and he/she is a failure at life? Should he/she continue to try to "find" a purpose or should he/she just give up and accept their perceived failure? If he/she does find "a new purpose" does that mean that they were mistaken about what they thought was their purpose before, or is this so-called "new purpose" a cop out? The fact that in either of these scenarios the individual is left to figure out what to do next seems to belie the idea of a singular purpose in any of our lives.
   
3. Another issue I have with the concept of a singular purpose is that for far too many people, purpose seems to relate to their occupation or vocation when in my view of the world if one were to be given a singular purpose to fulfill, I would think it would be connected to things that bring more value to the average individual's life than what we do to cover the cost of living. Though I fully understand that some of us actually do work at jobs that we truly love and that we find fulfilling, it is my belief that the mass majority of us work at jobs that are just that jobs...and have very little to do with any greater purpose our lives may have.

I could continue building this list of reasons why I don't personally subscribe to the idea of a singular purpose in my own life, but I won't because who has time for all of that? I will add this point from my own personal experience here on earth that just might shed a little more light on my views. If I were asked to define my own singular purpose in life if indeed I have one, I would have to say that it would be to have been my son's mother. However, this is something I would answer with the wisdom of the perspective of hindsight working for me. When I discovered that I was pregnant almost 20 years ago, I can assure you that I felt absolutely no sense of this pregnancy possibly being the first step to me fulfilling any purpose I might have been given in this life. Even as I raised this fantastic little boy to manhood, I still felt no sense of this being my purpose though I admit to having enjoyed doing this one thing more than anything else I've done. Additionally, now that my son is a man and well on his way to being on his own in the world, if being his mother was the singular purpose assigned to me by the cosmos or whatever entity is responsible for assigning purpose, does that mean I'm done now? Of course it doesn't, and for this reason more than anything else maybe, I don't buy into the idea of a singular purpose in life.

Not subscribing to the idea of a singular purpose has made my life easier in many ways in my opinion. I have spent virtually no time in the past 43 years comparing myself to others as it relates to where I happen to be at any point in my life. I don't find myself looking at those who have attained educational goals that I still aspire to achieve and thinking that they have done a better job of deciphering and attaining their purpose in this world. I don't look at married couples and think they are further along the path to fulfilling their purpose than I am. I don't find myself falling into depressions with the advent of my birthday each year because I am not where I thought I'd be by "x" date or point in time; to the contrary, I anticipate each birthday with the same excitement I had for my birthday as a child. As a matter of fact, though I spend a significant amount of time planning for my future, I DO NOT have a 5, 10, 15... or any other number of years plan; don't get me wrong, I see nothing wrong with making these kinds of plans...I simply don't do them. I definitely make plans for myself and my future such as my current "plan" to become a published author (I'm already a writer ;) within the calendar year running from February 1, 2008 to January 31, 2009. Notice I am writing that very specific and measureable goal here in the public realm for each of you to read and if you want attempt to hold me accountable to achieving. As I write it, I fully expect to fulfill this goal; however, if I don't, such is life...I'll change the "complete by date" and try again with absolutely no shame in my game regardless of what any of you might have to say about it! LOL!

If I believe in the concept of a singular purpose at all, I'd have to say it is with a caveat. I believe that if indeed we have a singular purpose in life, it must minimally be similar to the way other positive characteristics are assigned to us...things like beauty, intelligence, personality, etc. I think if indeed we each have a purpose in life, that purpose whatever it may be is not assigned to each of us to the same degree. What I mean by this is that much like physical beauty is possessed by each of us to some degree, some possess more and some possess less, purpose in my opinion probably operates much the same way. This explains to my satisfaction those people I meet on rare occasions who seem to be doing exactly what fulfills them and utilizes the gifts they possess to the utmost potential. These individuals are to purpose what Halle Berry and Dorothy Dandridge (according to many) was to the idea of black, feminine beauty. This also reinforces for me why for the majority of us for whom purpose is not so obviously an identifiable gift, spending inordinate amounts of time and energy trying to discern it might not be a sensible idea.

The take-away folks is that purpose should be a good thing in one's life. It should focus us on the creation of goals and objectives that if achieved should hopefully enrich our lives. At the same time, as it focuses us, our purpose should be flexible and capable of being adjusted, modified, or even scrapped without leaving us to feel we have failed or even worse, that we are failures. Purpose should inspire us to do great things, not convict us about the things we are doing. In too many cases, I find that those "purpose driven individuals" that I personally know are much too hard on themselves. They are often found stressing over how much of their lives have passed with them not yet having identified their purpose...or worse, they are distraught over the thought that they may never be able to fulfill the purpose they believe they have identified. So much energy focused on something that should be a positive influence in our lives and yet seems so often to be such a negative force in our lives can't be a good thing. So as a happily purposeless woman, I'd like to offer the following suggestions...

RELAX and let yourself do whatever it is that you do!

If indeed we each do have a specific singular purpose to fulfill, it will surely find us so don't stress over it. If we each have multiple purposes to fulfill, I am sure those will find us too. Even if the final verdict is that there is no such thing as purpose, that's okay too because if each of us are doing whatever it is that we do, I assure you that we will be doing what it is we are supposed to be doing and in my opinion, none of us can expect any more from ourselves than that!

So let me hear from you now...Do you believe you have a singular purpose? Have you identified it yet? Is it something you expect to be able to identify? Have you fulfilled it yet? What if you never find it...what then?

I AIN'T MISSING YOU...I Can Lie To Myself...Can't I?

Okay peeps, here's my story...

See what had happened waz I made a new friend who I like a whole, whole lot. My new friend is a guy and regardless of what y'all might be thinking right now he really is a new friend even if he does also happen to be a guy ;)

What was that? Is he a boyfriend? Are we romantically involved? The answers to these questions are as follows:

• I MET A NEW FRIEND!
• No!
• No!

However, if I am completely honest with myself, I'd have to say that there are definitely moments when I think that I'd like the answers to those last two questions to be yes and yes! As most of you know, I have recently (like in less than a year ago) gotten out of a pretty intense relationship, so based on that, I'm truly trying to take things slowly for a minute as I feel the need to regroup and find my own center again. Nevertheless, I can say that the possibilities presented by this new friendship could definitely include a romance down the line as far as I'm concerned!

Since meeting, we have spent huge amounts of time talking to each other and as of late, we've also spent a good amount of time in each other's company though no romantic liaisons have been formed. Also, it is important to note that it has only been a few days (since Sunday) that we have not talked or spent time together and I'm sure it is just a consequence of us both being busy and working opposite schedules. So what is the point of this post you ask? Simply put, it is this...spending time together and having such great (and long, on average 4-6 hours long) conversations have quickly become things I enjoy doing with him. I've already developed such a fondness for the times we share with each other that I look forward to them and when they don't occur as regularly as I'd like them to, I find that I miss them/him. I am a woman who loves consistency. I crave it like some women crave chocolate. I love forming habits that are good for me, and I'm sure that spending lots of time with this particular person is very, very good for me.

Most of y'all probably won't believe this isn't about lust...well of course there are moments when it very well might be about lust, but I swear that most of the time it is simply about wanting to spend more time doing what I have come to love doing so much...being in his presence.

So I ask y'all, under these circumstances where there is no official relationship other than a pretty cool azz developing friendship is it alright to want/wish for consistency? In the absence of a romantic liaison (even though sometimes I feel a very definite romantic spark) is it okay to miss him? If it is alright to miss him, is it alright to let him know he is missed? If it isn't alright to let him know he is missed, why isn't it? Is that playing games?, ('cause if it is, I don't do that)...Finally, if it isn't appropriate to let him know he is missed, at what point does it become okay if indeed it ever does?

I know one thing is real, whether or not it actually applies to my situation, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS SONG...both when it was originally recorded by John Waite as well as Tina's version which I am providing for y'all right here...ENJOY!

I am adding this poem to this post b/c I made a promise to a friend to publish ALL poetry that I write to publish on other blogs, somewhere on this blog TOO...

2am

The loudest quiet ever is 2am.
When you’re lying there;
eyes squeezed shut, wishing
the phone would ring. Wishing
you were not in bed alone. Wishing
2am was not so loud that it kept keeping you awake.

The brightest darkness occurs at 2am.
When dazzling light appears;
from behind your eyelids shining
so brightly you can’t sleep. Shining
the dull façade of heartache. Shining
the dark of night to the glare of noon, keeping you awake.

The most enthusiastic sadness happens at 2am.
When despair captures you;
and visits upon you its willing
victim, tears and fears. Willing
you to wallow in sorrow. Willing
you to relinquish optimism and hope while keeping you awake.

Hold on…with the morning comes renewal.

© Sharon J. All Rights Reserved 2008

Hillary Gives The Phrase "BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY..." A Whole New Meaning!

Somewhere she completely missed the concept of TEAM. I'm guessing no one ever told her there is no "I" in "TEAM", and that even if there were, there is a way to promote one's self even while playing as a member of the team. Perhaps she doesn't realize that being a member of the Democratic Party makes her an assumed member of the same team on which Mr. Obama plays even as he promotes himself as a standout star of said team. When winning is so important one is willing to elevate one's ultimate opponent (read: JOHN MCCAIN) above one's team mate (read: BARACK OBAMA) and intermediate opponent (and if her rhetoric holds any water, her possible future "running mate"), in my humble opinion, ONE IS LOST and winning or losing for that matter doesn't much matter because they become the same thing.

Still don't believe that for Mrs. Clinton the program is WIN AT ALL/ANY COST? Click this link:

http://news.aol.com/newsbloggers/2008/03/11/ill-go-to-democratic-convention-with-a-pitchfork-if-hillary-ste/ where you can find the article that goes along with this clip:

Through it all, Mr. Obama continues to forge his path ahead without sacrificing the class and grace that are without question among the many qualities that first endeared him to me as a candidate. The take-away here is that just because the pitcher pitches low balls to you, YOU don't necessarily have to stoop to HER level in order to hit them. YOU can hit the low ball pitched to you without lowering the standard YOU bring to the game. Don't believe me...WATCH AND LEARN:

OH, and by the way, I knew Mr. Obama had won TEXAS!

http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2008/03/11/its-official-clinton-lost-texas/

BE EVER VIGILANT FOLKS...We've seen this before, so let's not stand by and take it this time! MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!!!

(I'm sorry for a second political rant in a row, but I get soooooooooo upset by folk who don't play fair. A huge believer in the thought process that says we all learned "EVERYTHING WE NEEDED TO KNOW IN KINDERGARTEN", I find all of this to be a bit difficult to swallow. However, all of that notwithstanding, I promise no more politics for at least a week, maybe even two ;)

This Black Woman Supports Mr. Barack Obama...and she ain't afraid to say it!!!

Can anyone tell me where these political pundits get off with this assumption that because I am a black woman who supports Mr. Barack Obama's candidacy for president, I am simply delivering my support to him because of the fact that we both happen to be black?

• I have never, ever voted for Jesse Jackson for any reason...I wouldn't vote him dogcatcher; oh and btw, he's black too.
• Before this election, I have never voted for any black candidate for the Presidency of the United States and I was black in all the previous elections in which I voted too.
• I have voted for many white candidates for any number of offices even in some instances when there was a black candidate running as the opponent; but I guess they probably assumed I punched the wrong chad.
  

If you are able to answer that question, let's try another one. Please explain to me (slowly as you must realize that as a black woman my ability to comprehend is limited at best and you may lose me if you go too fast **smh**) why it is that the converse is not the case; meaning that when a white male or female votes for Billary or McCain or any other of the multitudes of available caucasian candidates the same assumption is not made?

• I suppose white folks vote the issues because...why again?
• It reminds me of an incident that occurred on my last job where this brother (i.e. African-American colleague) would not join me and the 3 other black co-workers in our division for lunch in the corporate lunch room for fear he would be seen as "only cavorting with blacks". First of all, I don't cavort; however, if I choose to start, why I ask you must we be concerned about such things when white folks find that they can sit with/vote for whomever without racial assumptions being drawn. I say, "I'll sit wherever and vote for whomever I damned well please and anyone who has a problem with that can kiss my....!"

Now that you're all warmed up, I'm sure you will be able to knock this one out of the park for me! Why is it that the fact that I CHOOSE to support the candidacy of Mr. Barack Obama MUST BE all about race when the fact that some caucasians CHOOSE not to support him MUST BE about anything else BUT race?

• Because the fact of the matter is that it is NOT POSSIBLE that white folks in American would choose not to support for president the perfect man to take the reigns of this country based on one reason, BECAUSE HE IS A BLACK MAN...
  

Tired yet? You should be, 'cause believe me when I say, "I most definitely am!" I AM TIRED! Tired of having my intelligence be considered suspect because I have chosen to support the candidate I BELIEVE best aligns with what I consider to be the most urgent needs of this country: GETTING THE HELL OUT OF IRAQ YESTERDAY and ELECTING A PRESIDENT WHO ACTUALLY REMEMBERS THAT THOSE WHO WORK THE HARDEST DAY IN AND DAY OUT TO MAKE THIS COUNTRY THE AMAZING PLACE IT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE (yeah I said it dammit, **POTENTIAL** 'cause we damned sure ain't there yet! So bring it on, I can take it just like Michelle!) DESERVE A PRESIDENT WHO WILL WORK ON THEIR BEHALF TOO!

I'm tired of folk who don't even know me and who can't begin to relate to what my experience has been trying to tell me what MY ISSUES are. All this talk about Obama supporters being conned by his eloquent speeches makes me wonder if these so called "political analysts" have ever listened to a word Mr. Obama has spoken. Please someone tell me what part of "I plan to withdraw our troops from Iraq within a year and a half" isn't about the issues facing this country. What part of "I have a plan for Universal Healthcare that does not involve garnishing an individual's payroll or blocking his/her ability to secure gainful employment" is not about the issues facing this country? At what point does "Instead of giving no-bid contracts to companies headed by the President's former campaign manager, we will make sure that rebuilding benefits the local economy. I have worked across the aisle in the Senate to crack down on no-bid contracts, and to make sure that emergency contracting is only done immediately after an emergency. When I am President, if there is a job that can be done by a New Orleans resident, the contract will go to a resident of New Orleans. And we'll provide tax incentives to businesses that choose to set up shop in the hardest hit areas. " fail to address one of the major issues facing New Orleans and the the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina which even now, more than two years later is still virtually a devastated wasteland. In this world of political pundits dictating for us what our votes mean and/or say we believe I ask you why does this perspective "Each year, as we watch the State of the Union, we see half the chamber rise to applaud the President and half the chamber stay in their seats. We see half the country tune in to watch, but know that much of the country has stopped even listening. Imagine if next year was different. Imagine if next year, the entire nation had a president they could believe in. A president who rallied all Americans around a common purpose. That's the kind of President we need in this country. And with your help in the coming days and weeks, that's the kind of President I will be." not receive more airtime? I don't know about you, but I have not had many phone calls or pieces of literature mailed to me by the republican candidates appealing to me to forget party alignment and work with them to realize this country's promise. Does the fact that Mr. Obama spoke out very specifically against the accepted politics of getting things done in Washington D.C. in this passage, "It's a game where lobbyists write check after check and Exxon turns record profits, while you pay the price at the pump, and our planet is put at risk. That's what happens when lobbyists set the agenda, and that's why they won't drown out your voices anymore when I am President of the United States of America." fail in some way to elucidate his stand on the issue of the power of Washington lobbyists and large corporations?

Most of all, I need it to be known that I resent with every single cell in my body when I am beat over the head and ridiculed for what most draws me to this particular candidate...our (his and my) shared belief in this:

"Now when I start talking like this, some folks tell me that I've got my head in the clouds. That I need a reality check. That we're still offering false hope. But my own story tells me that in the United States of America, there has never been anything false about hope."

and this:

"But we always knew that hope is not blind optimism. It's not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. It's not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it. "

See, the truth of the matter is that I was raised on hope! I was fed it at least 3 times a day and then my feedings were supplemented with more hope for snack times. It is my belief that in a world full of folks who want to believe that they have all the answers, the only smart thing to do is to find the one who offers hope along with his/her answers as nothing else much matters once they find out that their answers were not necessarily the solution to what ails us. When that point is reached, once the answers have run dry, the only thing left to fall back on is a good dose of hope; it enables one to brush oneself off and try again. Lack of hope results in stagnation as one becomes stuck wherever one is...sounds like the State of Our Union today doesn't it? We have no hope under the current administration and are all just trying to "tread water" until someone/something comes to rescue us. This one thing I know for sure, we are our own rescue squad and by voting to bring hope back into the politics of America, we can not only rescue ourselves, we can rescue our country. One of these days, those candidates who ridicule the hope offered as a primary platform in the Obama campaign will find that their answers (like the answers of so many before them and maybe even the answers of Mr. Obama) are NOT the solutions to the problems we face that they were expecting them to be. When that day comes, I hope their address is not 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue; because if indeed that is the case, we as a country will be faced once again with the perpetuation of all the issues that currently plague this nation and at the same time, find that we are doomed yet again to another long, painful season devoid of hope. I can't promise you that Mr. Obama has the right answers, but what I can promise is that if he finds that he doesn't, he will have the one key ingredient necessary for staying the course and trying again. How many of the other candidates in this electoral process offer anything similar to that?

This IS THE ONLY TIME YOU WILL EVER HEAR ME SAY THIS...but please, I beg of you, take Bill Clinton's advice...

(obviously said while campaigning for Kerry...still no less true today!)

I Was A Poem

I was a poem once.
I was the memory of Christmases past.
I was the feeling of anticipation of the last day of school.
I was the joy of summertime, hide and seek, red rovers, and tag.
I was his childhood.

I was a poem once.
I was the aroma of bacon on Sunday mornings.
I was the comfort of hugs, kisses, and talk of “when I grow up”.
I was the feeling of being tucked in tight preventing bed bug bites.
I was his security.

I was a poem once.
I was a cross my heart, hope to die, needle in eye girl.
I was a pinky swear, blood brothers, “you my dawg” ace in the hole.
I was “the only one who ever really knew me at all”, all the way down sistah.
I was his confidante.

I was a poem once.
I was a safe harbor in rough waters.
I was shelter from the cold, harsh reality of life’s storms.
I was nourishment, blazing fireplaces, and a shoulder to lean on.
I was his home.

I was a poem once.
I was the vision of breeze bent palm trees.
I was the scent of pineapples and pure cane sugar traveling on the wind.
I was the sound of ocean waves lapping the shore on a brilliant sunny day.
I was his vacation.

I was a poem once.
I was the alpha AND I was the omega of love.
I was the yin to the yang that was he, forever.
I was “the one” without whom the continuation of breathing made no sense.
I was all that and a bag of chips; the good kind, the make you lick your fingers kind.
I was his life.

I was a poem once.
One day I’ll be a poem again.
Soon.


© Sharon J. All Rights Reserved 2008