Two Mothers Unconditional Love
A Mother's Love
My journey with Betty led me to be who I am today but it would have never happened if Mother had not the strength and foresight to let me go. I went places, learned how to love unconditionally, succeeded with triumphant and lost with
dignity, all happened with the support of two mothers. My life was almost like a Cinderella tale, except I had a mother who loved me so much she knew I would blossom more outside of her guidance. My mother actually entrusted my life to someone who had shown not only an interest in my well-being but someone who could also love me unconditionally.
Today, I give honor to two extraordinary women in my life… my mother, Mamie and my other mother, Betty. How lucky can one girl be?
A Mother’s Love
A mother’s love determines how
We love ourselves and others.
There is no sky we’ll ever see
Not lit by that first love.
Stripped of love, the universe
Would drive us mad with pain;
But we are born into a world
That greets our cries with joy.
How much I owe you for the kiss
That told me who I was!
The greatest gift–a love of life–
Lay laughing in your eyes.
Because of you my world still has
The soft grace of your smile;
And every wind of fortune bears
The scent of your caress
~Author Unknown
Drivers Beware
In the past two weeks I have had two close encounters with hitting pedestrians who walked out in the street in downtown Chicago. One person was so close to the car, she was clipped by the right rear view mirror.
Grant it we were not moving fast, but the fact that pedestrians have taken over the streets is baffling to me. Pedestrians boldly cross in the middle of the street because the light at the end of the block is red and they have zero regard for cars turning into the street! There are the pedestrians who walk in the middle of the street because the oncoming traffic is ‘far enough’ away to stop while they cross; and there are pedestrians who ignore the red-light & bolt into the street because they’re in a hurry! We won’t even discuss the cell phone talkers & texters… That’s a whole other blog entry!
My letter to the pedestrian:
‘Dear Pedestrian,
For whatever the reason you choose to ignore the power of a moving vehicle, it is not worth getting hurt, losing a limb or getting killed! Illinois pedestrian laws cannot protect your life, your leg, or your brain! Why not use your brain before bolting in front of me, the driver, in the street? If I hit you in my SUV, I would be devastated & charged with hitting you! However, you will be hurt, limbless or DEAD! Nothing is worth your limb, brain or life! You cannot outrun a moving car or move fast enough to get out of its way! Please take caution, respect your life, traffic signs and moving vehicles.’
We have all the laws to protect the rogue pedestrian but none to protect driver who drives within speed limits, obeys traffic signals, respects pedestrians in the crosswalk and are always cautious when driving!
Can we all agree to obey rules & respect the rights of pedestrians & drivers? Can we agree that pedestrians walk on the sidewalk, cross in crosswalks and we drivers drive in the street & not plow pedestrians over in the crosswalk? What the heck?!!!!
It’s just me… Remember… iKare!!!
It’s All About Me…
I have been working with a company that provides career coaching for the past month or so. As a part of the career coaching session, I completed the Myers Briggs personality assessment. Well according to MB, I am an ENTP. For those of you who have done this before here is the scoop:
ENTPs direct their energy towards the outer world of actions and spoken words. They try to create new potential, changing things to see if any improvements can be made, and generally working towards a better future. They are often challenging the status quo and instigating change. Now I would say this is pretty darn accurate! Of course my family’s interpretation of my personality is that I am overly dramatic, spacey and see life through rose-colored lenses. I accept that assessment too. LOL! Anyway, I digressed!
I met with a career coach today and he asked me the usual… ‘what are your strengths, what are your accomplishments and where do you want to go’ questions… Of course, rose-colored lenses girl rattled off the accomplishments and what I’ve done to to help others. My diatribe even included how I want to move into the arena where I am more strategic and less tactical. We talked more and Mr. Career Coach said to me, ‘you give a lot into making sure others have what they need but you don’t seem to put the same kind of attention on yourself; everything you do is outward!’ “ARgh! That’s right”, I say, “If I focus on others I don’t have to identify my short comings.” Duh… no brainer dude!
Well as the career coaching thingy goes… he did not end it there, we dug deeper. He asked, “Where do you see your career going and where are you in terms of where you think you should be?” Well, I know I have great customer service experience, I’m innovative & I can solve problems. But I want more… (this will be more my story until I leave this earth).
In my quest of obtaining ‘more’ there are some things that my coach stated that I needed to do. Make several small steps that will lead up to the attaining the master plan. With this in mind, we came up with the following small steps:
1. Increase networking
2. Update my LinkedIn profile
3. Keep an updated resume
4. Create milestone dates
5. Develop an exercise and fitness plan
6. JUST DO IT
So, iKare cares about you and my customers but what this post essentially boils down to is: I have basically perfected the extroverted me because it’s who I am. Now I need to be a little more introspective and focus on my needs without giving up on who I am, of course. Stay tuned as I balance my extroversion with my introspections!
Because in the end… it’s all about me!
The Great American Poet
I received a Twitter post yesterday about one of the greatest American poets in the early to mid 1900′s, Langston Hughes! This post reminded me of the love I have for poetry and how he and the great Nikki Giovanni helped shape my love for this form of creative writing. So this week, I thought I’d give honor to the great late Hughes and share a few poems with you!
First, I will share a brief history of a man who was forward thinking and provocative. He was born in Missouri in 1902 but spent his adulthood in New York. He was influenced by the Harlem Renaissance and thus many of his poems reflect that wonderful era of Black awareness. He experienced racism (of course) but what gets me is that he often received criticism from his contemporaries like W.E.B Dubois. There was conflict because Hughes chose to write about the lower socio-economic group of Blacks and exposed a lot of prejudices within the Black community that were based on skin color (which is still prevalent today, unfortunately). Hughes stressed the importance of racial consciousness & Black pride during this period too… now how forward thinking was that?
Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
~by Langston Hughes
I LUV THIS!!!
I Drank the Kool-Aid
I drank the Kool Aid and bought into the ‘Platinum Rule’ of treating others as you want to be treated.