Just When I Was Getting Used to Yesterday, Along Came Today

My life has turbulence comparable to a Boeing 777... there are the expected ups and downs, much needed exciting moments and can have boring lulls at times. I try not to become complacent with my current course in life, but it seems that is complacency is a very easy land to drift into. I have grown quite comfortable with the company I work for, coworkers, area I live in etc... and BOOM... along comes change! As exciting as these potentialities might be, it brings about a bit of nervousness along with it. Accepting change also means taking on risk. But today folks, I've decided I am readily embracing that challenge!

My friends and I have been ready and willing to move for some time now, and have said whoever gets a position solidified first will be the pioneer, and the rest of us will follow. Unfortunately, well... not at all unfortunately.... but confusingly, I just got another job offer HERE locally which gets us closer to Nowheresville.... **sighs** It is a job in the industry I am more equipped and interested to work in, but would mean a pay cut comparatively... its two steps forward, and two steps back... I am deciding now if I should accept it, or turn it down and wait for a more dream like position to appear for me in a more alluring city. Also, I have an added component to consider, a boyfriend of multiple years and the weight that comes with that. Must decide how to factor the relationship into future plans.

What are your feelings folks?

This is a crossroads, and I am standing on the pavement, lost without my compass or sense of internal bearing.

Music that inspires thought...

Some of my favorites

The Dave Brubeck Quartet
( I like this because when I was a young grasshopper my Dad used to play cool jazz and blues of a different time and I used to sit and wait for the words to arrive... they never came. But one day I learned to appreciate that, I came up with an emotion, and lyrics are created in your own mind. Invokes thought! A beautiful thing.

Song: Take Five

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwNrmYRiX_o

This song was also sung unspeakablly well by Billie Holiday, and I can't find any links to it, but if anyone out there can... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send it to me! Paris Bennet on American Idol sang the lyrical version in lovely way, skip to approximately 1:40 seconds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwNrmYRiX_o 

I also love Lauryn Hill to pieces, almost every song she's ever dropped has been magical to me. Here are a couple favorite love songs...

SONG: Lauryn Hill and Bob Marley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFKIN8P2hE8

and

SONG: Lauryn Hill and D'Angelo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzEq3qMLToM

Poet's Corner

Time/Truth

Time is the most definitive form of truth one can find.

Time will strip all else down, and show us the damp roots of what it is we’ve always wanted to know.

So, if this is true, we don’t need a magic 8 ball, a fortune teller, or a wishing well. We need patience.

God, help me to make that patience tangible. To sense it, grab it, and hold onto it… until Time comes in, sweeps its broad draping arms us all. Swings past the 12, the 6, 9, and back to 12 again. Again…Enough times… that Our time has come. Until---Our truth is exposed; unabashed, unforgiving, free from apology. Exposed for what it is.

Self-seeking; we feel we are strong enough to do it all, to… defy gravity. Is this true? If we are in fact that sturdy… We should be strapping enough to ready ourselves for the Truth.

Stand steadfast.

Please God... Allow me to embrace it, when the pendulum, in fact does stop.

No food... no chip... not one sip :/

I'm not quite sure why they've given this abstaining of the body a title such as FASTING... because the process itself is quite grueling. It can be described as anything but fast in my opinion. I am trying this out for size, for the first time in my life and each day seems to last just a few hours longer than the last, lol.

I am fasting for Ramadan, a Muslim practice. It is observed on the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. "It is the time in which Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, and indulging in anything that is in excess or ill-natured; from dawn to sunset. Fasting is meant to teach the Muslim patience, modesty and spirituality." I am not Muslim, but I believe the same goal can be achieved by a person of any religious background who desires such, and is focused. In talking to a friend that was currently participating, I decided there is no time like the present.

I feel I must mention that I am a person who has never once dieted, abstained, or refrained from any indulgence when it comes to food :) For the most part I just eat what I enjoy. Nothing in excess, but I am a happy healthy eater... so this was a unique move for me. I've jumped in head first, but unfortunately a day late and a dollar short. Although the official start date for those that fast for Ramadan was August 20th... this was my first week taking a stab at it... yes, I will pause for laughter (insert funny here) from those who are more committed to this. But, kudos to me for the attempt!

Anyway, in this time I will be more prayerful, mindful, and conscious of my actions. I am anxious to report back my new found feelings upon my completion...

Stay tuned :D

Oh. oh.oh... p.s. this is the first week and I've already lost 4 lbs! Whoa.

9.11.01

"Eight Septembers have come and gone," Obama said. "Nearly 3,000 days have passed, almost one for each one who has been taken from us….

We recall the beauty and meaning of their lives," he said. "No passage of time, no dark skies can dull the meaning of that moment.”

God bless those who were lost, and those who remember 9/11/01.