You say you want a revolution

Thought for today:
A most gracious good morning good people,

I love, love, love this pic!!!

Unlearning is critical in true evolution . Unlearning is critical in true revolution..
Just waxing poetic to remind you that education happens when we challenge the constructs of the arcane and antiquated. Unlearning is the Sims and Farmville of the soul and the psyche.

Ok, I'm getting too abstract for some of y'all...allow me to break it down like it needs to be broken...
Our minds, bodies and spirits hold on to information feeds because we are programmed with the messages it's tradition, it's considered normative, society demands it or someone projected upon us. Holding on to these feeds don't necessarily make them good, true or valid to and for YOU!!!

I like to use the "fruitcake" example. There are some family's that pass the recipe for this jellied, fruit laden, dense log of a cake from generation to generation with the preface "this recipe has been in our family for years" and for most of us, it tastes like it has....the only way to consume this brick is either you or the cake has to be drenched in rum..... I'm saying all this to say that just because it's considered "tradition" doesn't make it right or good!

I get both heartbroken and angry when I encounter people holding on to and trying to live a truth that is NOT theirs!!! Doing so creates a dichotomy that strangles a spirit.

John 10:10 (NIV)
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Who or what is your thief? How are you living in abundance when you're not whole?
Here are two quotes that I hope you'll give ear and heart to today:
"Here’s to all the freaks, the weirdos, the malcontents and contrarians, the warriors for justice, the seekers of hard truths, the beatniks with bass beats. Here’s to the artists who question everything and in turn force us to question our world and ourselves." ~ Brandon Wardell

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. ~ Steve Jobs

We're not cookies, so why are you trying to live a cookie cutter life? BE YOU!!!! ~ KB

The practice of people pleasing

  
  


Thought for today:
Good morning kings and queens,
I start this Monday off deep in thought....

I saw the pic about the greener grass and began to think about how many of us act in cursory and scripted behavior patterns that are rooted in trauma rather than altruism. I then thought about how these patterns of behavior NEVER lead to joy and happiness and how they rob us of the beauty and the purity of/in love.

Our scripted behaviors make us caricatures and automatons living out the plans of others. Our scripted behaviors convince us that we're real when we're actually acting out a fear response that continue to batter our souls and steals our authenticity. Our scripted behaviors redirect our focus from our healing by creating diversionary "emergencies" that are actually visits to "trauma fires"

Begin your healing process by looking to who God says you are rather than what people say and manipulate you into believing. Begin your healing by taking a journey into your soul...with the belief that you are wonderfully made Psalm 139:14. Begin your healing knowing that God made you in love and that you are unique and that your uniqueness has a place in this world.

Truth is that you don't have to hide or be ashamed of anything that makes you, YOU!!!! 
KNOW THAT YOU ARE LOVED!!!! ~KB

Healing

  

  

Thought for today:
Good morning kings and queens,
Have you ever been elevated to a position of leadership? Whether it be a small group leader or a position at work I can pretty much guarantee you that the quote "heavy is the head that wears the crown" immediately becomes real.

Check this out, what becomes a blessing for you is also a blessing for others to voice their truths about how they see you.... I don't want to make you paranoid and hypervigilant in looking for the ah ha's and gotcha's because this school of thought leads to and fosters resentments.
Hearing negativity and complaints, especially about yourself, makes it easy to assume the seat of judge and juror in return. Your peace, joy and happiness comes from your ability to not personalize what you're hearing. You must learn to deflect and redirect the issues; redirect it to the owner if you can, if not release it to the universe......

On the real folks, not everything you hear is an untruth; some things you DO need to hear and work on!
BE WILLING TO OPEN YOUR EARS IN ORDER TO CHANGE YOUR HEART and in doing so you may change the hearts of others.
Healing is reciprocal, in that your knowledge of self helps others and in helping others you gain more knowledge ~ KB

life is a soundtrack...how about these lyrics:
Do You Know
Where you're going to?
Do you like the things?
That life is showing you
Where are you going to?
Do you know?
Do you get?
What you're hoping for?
When you look behind you
There's no open doors
What are you hoping for?
Do you know?
Once we were standing still, in time
Chasing the fantasies and feeling all nice
You knew how I loved you, but my-spirit was free
Laughing at the questions
That you once asked of me
Now looking back at all we've had
We let so many dreams just slip through our hands
Why must we wait so long, before we see?
How sad the answers to those questions can be

Theme from Mahogany - Diana Ross

The "NEW" Normal

Thought for today:
Good morning fam,
I have been deep in thought these days....I am in the habit of NOT shooting from the lip, so it takes a minute to put my ruminations together before I share them with you... I will be sharing messages throughout the days to come as we go through and grow through this pandemic...
I don't know about y'all but I am sick and tired of hearing the phrase "the new normal." The phrase asks me to see my life as the "status quo", the old and boring, the staid and stagnant. I don't know about you but I am anything but...
I'm talking about this because we have embraced the word "normal" when the ONLY thing that is a constant in life is change.
Think about this, what we accept as "normal" IS stagnation!!!
Life is ever evolving, why aren't you?
Are you embraced as genuine and authentic, because you are or are you tolerated and dismissed with "that's just the way he/she is"?
Family, the "normal" we crave is relative. The "normal" we embrace" is rooted in comparison. Comparison is not of God! You are a unique work, called and appointed to a unique position. Have you asked yourselves about the prison bars of your "normal"
Sisters, does your normal mean sacrificing yourself esteem and self worth, living beneath your privilege to elevate someone who has no intentions of leveling up to their calling? Does your normal mean embracing getting thumped on like you signed on with Don King and humped up like a Barbary Coast "comfort wench"? Brothers , does your normal embrace a caricature of masculinity that is a toxic, macho cesspool with an undertow for all who come near? These examples may sound sexist and stereotypical but these are the embraced norms that imprison our souls and psyches.
Family does our normal incorporate projecting rather than embracing; blaming others because WE have failed to embrace our truths and we continue to live a life of comparison, measuring our success by reaching the expectations of others?
Family, allow me to be grammatically unsound for a moment to share this with you...
you ain't gots to believe what I believe...my wish for you is to live and feel the hope in these passages from the Bible

Divorce your knowledge of "normal" and live in the freedom of your truth ~ KB

Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV)
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Psalm 139:14 (NIV)
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

1 Peter 2:9 (ESV)
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light

RUSH BACK FOR WHAT?!!!

 

Thought for today:
Good morning kings and queens,

This pic struck me because everyone is up in arms about "returning" to work.... their norm, their productivity.

This pic is a cause for pause. What are you rushing back to? What is your baseline for normal?
Truth is many of us are waxing nostalgic about a return to our demise... we're rushing back to dysfunction. Self-destructive patterns of behavior and communication, low self esteem, wanton and reckless sharing of our bodies and psyches. Have you ever stopped to think about your standards? Does who you say you are fall in line with who God says you are? Is this even your standard of measure or you just happy to "go along to get along?" Who do you surround yourselves with - do gooders and go getters or a peanut galley that cosigns your contracts of depravity?

We are definitely in the Matrix the question is do you take the blue pill or the red pill....watch the movie if you don't get my point of reference....and when you watch it, keep a spiritual perspective.
I've referred to this Covid pandemic as our modern day plague....but what I should be saying is that it should plague your mind with questions about your legacy; begging the question: how do you want to be remembered. Let this shelter in place be a time on contrition, concentration and change. Let this down time be reflection, reaction and responsibility.... To quote John Lennon IMAGINE!!! One love y'all ~KB

Grateful for joyful spirits

Thought for today:
Good morning kings and queens
I was without my "visual verbal umbilical cord " the internet, for the better part of yesterday so I was feeling it big time.
You know I'm going to take today to reflect on gratitude....
Who would have ever thought that we'd be living in a time where a surgical face mask would become part of our fashions and daily garb? Who would have thought that our daily news and journalism would have become tabloid reports, biased opinions and nihilistic noise with attrition rates ?
It's easy to give up, lose hope, get distracted and get drawn into the whirlpool that drains into a cesspool (yes, I said it)
I chose not to dwell on the negative and in the negative. I serve a God that is not defeated and does not allow for defeat...
Brothers and sisters it's easy to swing a hammer to tear down but can you build up? Can you encourage in spite of what you're going through? Can you see God's comma (,) where you placed the finality of a period (.) Can you strain your hearts and ears to feel the "but God, praise?
Allow me to share some optimism from someone who by all intents and purposes had every reason to give in to depression and despair; this time I'm going to give you a human being... let these quotes resonate with you today when you feel the spirit of complaint well up in you:

“It’s difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

“Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!”

“Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness. People are just people, and all people have faults and shortcomings, but all of us are born with a basic goodness.”

These words were written by a 14 year old girl who lived in a very ugly time....Anne Frank

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

I dare to say ....and they will show you God as well. Let your hearts be pure and without complaint and constraint ~ KB

Hope not H8

   

Thought for today:
Good morning kings and queens,
I have a different kind of message for you today...

I have a lot to say today….so, get your coffee, get your readers and pull up a seat….

Yesterday I noticed a recurring theme in some of screening….while some of it was humorous and well written and entertaining it also led me to think of real time circumstances for the people who didn’t get the opportunity to see their blessings on the other side of their struggle.

To fully grasp what I’m writing about you must first understand the definition of the word dichotomy

di·chot·o·my /dīˈkädəmē/ (noun)
noun: dichotomy; plural noun: dichotomies
a division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different.

“A dichotomy is a partition of a whole into two parts. In other words, this couple of parts must be jointly exhaustive: everything must belong to one part or the other, and mutually exclusive: nothing can belong simultaneously to both parts – Wikipedia”

OK, now that I have the definition out of the way I want to talk about LBGTQ issues. I use the word “issues” because I want to address how parents and the presumed heteronormative mindset forces people to live in a state of denial or assume a dichotomous lifestyle to conform to the “norm.” People are forced into soul stealing positions and situations by FEAR and IGNORANCE; (fear of ostracism, fear of physical assault, religious bigotry, fear of legal manipulations)
It’s very disheartening to see someone relegated to a mental and emotional prison for the comfort of others.

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/…/pre…/facts-about-suicide/

https://www.nbcnews.com/…/suicide-rates-fall-among-gay-yout…

The hetero-normative mindset excuses their abnormal aggression and violence toward the LBGT community and their creation on unintentional LBGTQ martyrs (Matthew Shepard and Branden Teena). How is it that gay is considered abnormal and abhorrent but the violence and insecurities of the hetero perpetrator is acceptable?

These LBGTQ battered souls seek solace and love from the church, believing it at its word and message of love only to receive a verbal beating from its pulpits

What’s my point? – How many of our conversations offer 

hope? How many of us create a safe inviting space for someone to “be”? How many of us Know the “true” love of God? (keeping in mind that coming into the knowledge is a progressive and ever evolving process) I am often amazed about the folks who claim to know ….but find it easy to deny the love to others

I want to share this message with anyone who is struggling to concretize their identity:
“You are not under any obligation to set yourself on fire to keep other people warm. Light that remaining match in your soul, ignite the fire on the dusty cobwebs of your heart” (paraphrased Penny Reid)

Please know that the Bible that was and is used as a weapon against you also says:
Ephesians 2:10 English Standard Version (ESV)
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Psalm 139:13-14 English Standard Version (ESV)
13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

Jeremiah 1:5 English Standard Version (ESV)
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

And for you folks who loooooove to proselytize with a veiled message of hatred and condemnation ….you know who you are …all you good “love the sinner hate the sin” folks. The Bible also says:

1 Corinthians 13 English Standard Version (ESV)
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

You are enough! You are complete! You are loved ~ KB