The Upgrade Experience

"Spring shows what God can do with a drab & dirty world..." - Virgil Kraft   I absolutely LOVE spring… I mean, I honestly countdown the time from the end of fall to the beginning of spring. Something about this season renews my spirit. All the woes & worries of a cold, dark winter fade away into a blissful light of hope & possibility… In the mornings, when I’m heading to work, I can’t help but to TRULY appreciate the little things… Wet grass, birds chirping, folks out jogging or walking… Ok, I know that sounds lame, but it REALLY makes me smile!!! LoL… The flip side to that is how a little warm weather can make people do the FOOL… I’m talking about the WHOLE fool… No half-steppin’… Have you ever really stopped to peep how many couples break up around this time??? Folks are getting kicked to the curb left and right in pursuit of that warm-weather action… Sun shines & the world wants to show OUT… LoL… Yea, I’m laughing because ya’ll KNOW I’m not l...

“I am in no mood to be deceived any longer by the crafty devil and false character whose greatest pleasure is to take advantage of everyone.” - Camille Claudel I am in a CONSTANT battle with my flesh… I’m not even gonna sit here and lie to you… It’s a DAILY struggle to “make good choices” (as my 4 yr-old daughter often says) & do what I KNOW I’m supposed to do.   This world is a straight BEAST & she will devour you whole if you allow her to… See, when folks think about “battling the flesh”, first thought usually goes to some sexual stuff… Now, don’t, get me wrong, I’m talking about that, too… But it’s MUCH deeper than that… I get suckered into worldly thoughts everyday… I sometimes look through old pictures & I miss my pretty house or my BMW… Yes, I just admitted that… Those are things of the WORLD… They were attained in a manner that pleased the flesh, so they had to GO because it did not please God… But on that same note, I snap back into the spirit realm ...

"The supreme end of education is expert DISCERNMENT in all things... The power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, & to prefer the good & the genuine to the bad & the counterfeit." - Unknown I can't say it enough: DISCERNMENT IS KEY... Believe THAT... Discernment is the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure... Being able to look beyond and really SEE things and people for what & who they really are... This quality is key for survival in this world... Without it, we're just wandering around blindly, accepting any and EVERYTHING into our lives... I wouldn't DARE front like I'm the #1 authority on discernment... It's a subject that God continues to school me in DAILY... Ohhhhhhhh, when I look back over my life!!!!! Lawd, have mercy... LoL... I have accepted (AND participated in) a LOTTA foolery over the years... I have allowed people into my life who had NO business being in m...

  "When you do nothing, you feel overwhelmed and powerless.  But when you get involved, you feel the sense of hope and accomplishmnet that comes from knowing you are working to make things better." I hear people say time and time again, "Oh, I just feel so overwhelmed!!!!"  You know that feeling when you have sooooooooooo much stuff to do, but you just don't know where to begin.  Being overwhelmed is NO joke. My friend Twyla and I used to say all the time that we felt "underwhelmed"... We'd laugh about it at the time,but in reality the feeling was all-consuming...  It was knowing that we had so many thing to get done, whether in our personal life or career, but we didn't have the energy or motivation to do a damned thing... That's a terrib;e, terrible feeling... See, when your underwhelmed, all you want to do is tuck under some covers and zone OUT...  You don't want to deal with ANYTHING or ANYONE...  But what is that attitude going...

“When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.” - Catherine Ponder I have been lying to myself... BOLD-FACED lying, at that... That is NOT what's hot... Things happen to us in this life... Sometimes, REALLY jacked up things happen to us in this life... But hey, that's the breaks... We have to take it all in stride...  The hardest thing is for someone to wrong us, we get upset, and say that we've forgiven them or whatnot... Yea, it SOUNDS good, but our actions tell a different story. While I've been notorious for being the "Queen of Detachment", I'm also good at being the "Queen of Acting Out"... Hell, I'm getting too old for that foolery...  See, something can happen to me & I'll say I'm fine... But AFTER the fact, I do some crazy shit without even realizing until later WHY I ...

“Optimism is the most important human trait, because it allows us to evolve our ideas, to improve our situation, and to hope for a better tomorrow.” ~ Seth Godin Hello, my loves...  I pray that 2013 has been a blessing to you thus far... It's just the beginning, baby!!! Soooooooo, I've got a question for u... What's the first thing that you think about when you wake up in the morning????  Be honest, now... I'm gonna wait on it...  Alot of you WANT to say that the first thing you think is, "Thank You Lord for another day", but you and I know GOOD and well that's the not the case... C'mon, now... Typical early morning thoughts include: "Damn, I don't wanna go to work today!" "Uuuuuuugh, I don't wanna get out of this bed..." "Oh shit, is my light bill due today?!?!?!" "How much gas is my car???" "Uuuuuuugh, I hate my life..."  Do any of those sound familiar??? I'm just sayin', you ain...

"I had a dream I could buy my way to heaven,  When I awoke I spent that on a necklace...  I told God I'd be back in a second,   Man, it's so hard not to act reckless..."  ---  Kanye West I've heard the expression time and time again that "money is the root of all evil..." "A penny saved is a penny earned..." Oh, wait wait... Don't forget about "more money, more problems..." We hear countless quotes about money and it's influence... But, let's get down to the nitty-gritty... Money is like a WOMAN: You can't live with it, you can't live without it... I've seen some money pass through these hands of mine... It's safe to say, more money than the average 31 year-old chick out of the South End of Little Rock.  However, I wasn't a very good steward of my money.  I was WAAAAAY to carefree and careless... I spent with reckless abandonment and without any real thought of the future... I balled OUT... It ma...