On
Being Quiet
Before
she knew it, Mariah had consumed a half gallon tub of Blue Bell rocky road ice
cream. Her emotions were so raw she’d
lost track of time again. Her body that
was no longer a svelte size seven, lumbered across the four feet into the
kitchen and rinsed the empty tub in the sink before tossing it into the garbage
can. She couldn’t afford to have ants in
the kitchen again. Malcolm was sure to
lecture and non-too nicely. Mariah
placed the spoon into the half empty dish washer which she refused to cut on
until she had a full load. She didn’t
want to get into it with Malcolm about not conserving energy. She’d just eaten a dose of sweet pain away
after he’d accused her of over drafting the checking account again.
Malcolm had been vicious when he tore into
her about being irresponsible. He made
her feel like such a worthless dumb butt. She bit back the tears as he yelled at her and refused to interrupt his
tirade. All she could think about at the
time was that this was the man who had promised to love, honor and cherish her
until death parted them.
When
Malcolm finally left for work Miriam sat down on the lime green Naugahyde couch
in the living room with the frayed lesions on the seat cushion where her butt
had shaped a permanent dimple and opened a box of Lorna Doones to go with the
ice cold glass of milk on the TV tray beside her. She knew she shouldn't indulge and she was on
her way to yet another rant from Malcolm about her weight. She could only hope that maybe it wouldn't be
so bad this time. Who am I kidding? she
thought.
With the first bite, Mariah
said good bye to her resolve to lose the extra pounds that hung around her
middle and along with it her dream that she would ever be happy again.
We’ve
all been there at one time or another.
=============================================
Where Dreams May be Found
A dream is the wish your heart makes
On the hope it will come true,
Fulfillment of that dream is the action that the body takes
To face all of the obstacles it has to go through.
Like shaking a nation free of racial prejudice,
Traveling through the hallowed halls of space
Extending the life of those who lay dying
Or to share with the world the power of God's saving grace.
Dreams are not only found in a cozy bed
On a pillow beneath a sleeping head,
You can find them in the graveyard
Buried forever among the cold and the dead.
Jesus spoke of a servant given a talent which he spitefully hid,
Unwilling to increase his master's money as his fellow servants did.
For his treachery he lost his talent to another already with ten,
To be cast into outer darkness quicker than his head could spin.
Not unlike talent, in the most inconspicuous places
Dreams may be found,
And like talent they were never intended to wind up underground.
The only thing worse than wasted talent is unrealized dreams,
Or at least that's the way it seems.
So talented soul please don't take your dreams
To the grave with you,
And miss out on the chance of being able to help make
Someone else's unrealized dreams come true.
I hope you will be inspired to find your lost dreams.
And in parting, don’t be afraid to live the dream God has for you.
======================================
=============================================
Definition
of A Dream
The
sleeping figure of a teenage girl sprawled across the bed with a pillow
covering her head. Her legs were tangled
in a crotchet throw cover which she crocheted with her very own hands. Her body lies still for she is at absolute peace
until a booming voice disturbed that peace.
“Wake Up! Wake Up! You’ve been in
bed long enough.”
The voice is that of
her mom’s brother who she resides with in Pacoima, California as his house
guest. That teenager was me and I’d
just slept for an unbelievable 17 hours straight.
My uncle, Tandy, had come into my room to
check on me to make sure I wasn’t dead.
That not being the case, he proceeded to chew me out. He spoke a little too fast—running his words
together—a little something he inherited from his father, Hosey Thomas, who’d
come here from Barbados. In no
uncertain terms he let me know that in his house all able bodied souls needed
to work or at least be out looking for work.
He also told me that the only thing I would find in bed was a
dream. He advised me that I would do
well to get out of bed and start living instead of lying there and dreaming
about life.
For the
past few years I felt as if I’ve been in bed but I didn’t dream even when I was
asleep. After so many years of not dreaming
I was motivated to search for the places where dreams may be found. To get started on this journey I needed to
know what dreams were. So I pulled out a
Webster’s dictionary, one of the one’s
you can no longer find in print—or readily find on the shelves in the library,
to see what was the definition of a dream.
The date of the volume I found was 1971 and it read: dream: 1) A series of thoughts, images, or
emotions occurring during sleep; a semblance of reality or events occurring to
one asleep. 2) An experience of waking
life having the characteristics of a dream as: (a) A visionary creation of the
imagination.
That
definition got me to thinking about my dreams and why dreaming was something I
no longer was able to do. I was no
longer a visionary, I lacked creativity, and my imaginings were all dark and
unhealthy. I had to find a way of
bringing my waking life experiences back to life. So I searched for ways to get in touch with
my emotions and thoughts and try to flip reality so to speak. As a result of my search I became more aware
of my predicament and was inspired to write Where Dreams May Be Found which is not only my continued search for answers in my blog, but ialso a poem featured in my poetry book Inspirational Verse for Those Who Hunger and Thirst.
Where Dreams May be Found
A dream is the wish your heart makes
On the hope it will come true,
Fulfillment of that dream is the action that the body takes
To face all of the obstacles it has to go through.
Like shaking a nation free of racial prejudice,
Traveling through the hallowed halls of space
Extending the life of those who lay dying
Or to share with the world the power of God's saving grace.
Dreams are not only found in a cozy bed
On a pillow beneath a sleeping head,
You can find them in the graveyard
Buried forever among the cold and the dead.
Jesus spoke of a servant given a talent which he spitefully hid,
Unwilling to increase his master's money as his fellow servants did.
For his treachery he lost his talent to another already with ten,
To be cast into outer darkness quicker than his head could spin.
Not unlike talent, in the most inconspicuous places
Dreams may be found,
And like talent they were never intended to wind up underground.
The only thing worse than wasted talent is unrealized dreams,
Or at least that's the way it seems.
So talented soul please don't take your dreams
To the grave with you,
And miss out on the chance of being able to help make
Someone else's unrealized dreams come true.
I got
the idea for the book years ago when I was active in church and wanted to share
my voice through poetry. But there came
a time when I had no desire to be seen or heard. I let go of the idea for the book along with
the dream of seeing my work in print, performed on the stage, or up on the
silver screen. Fortunately, the toggle
switch was turned back on to PLAY. Now I
am again filled with the ambition to set my inner author, poet, and
screenwriter free to live the dream that God has for me.
How
did the turnaround come about? You might
ask. Well, I’ll tell you. For starters I
was encouraged by a friend who saw how unhappy I was. Next I went back to the place where I first
started having dreams in the beginning—the house where I grew up. If you want to take the journey with me as I
continue my search or you want to read more poems like Where Dreams May Be Found, look for Inspirational Verse for Those Who Hunger and Thirst.
And in parting, don’t be afraid to live the dream God has for you.
======================================
Let’s Talk About Depression
When you feel like you're out there
all alone.
What is Depression?
One Definition of depression is a
persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest.
5 Signs of Depression that feed off
one another that I am personally acquainted with are the following:
- No Desire To Wash: Overwhelming sadness can make you
forget the last time you bathed or changed your clothing.
- Overweight: Weight gain is a by product of depression
because you tend to find comfort in food with no exercise regimen to
offset over eating.
- Sloppy Clothing: After gaining the weight you take
comfort in wearing tops that slouch and jogging pants that let your belly
bulge hang free.
- Making Excuses to Stay Away From Everyone: When you are
depressed you have no desire to go out and you don't want company because
you haven't washed your butt or changed your sloppy unwashed clothing.
- Physical Pain: The severe loss of desire to communicate with others and the overworking of your organs and joints to support the added weight can manifest itself as physical pain in your body. You start out resorting to over the counter pain killers for relief, but you eventually graduate to opiates that you get your hands on either legally or illegally, and then the cycle continues.
All of these behaviors relate to and
perpetuate one another and before you know it you find that the monkey on your
back has grown from a Chimpanzee to a Silver Back Gorilla. You find yourself
constantly trying to get out from the unbearable weight.
I wrote in my book Inspirational Verse for Those Who Hunger and Thirst about depression feeling like the weight
of the Clouds...
Weight of the Clouds . . .
There were days when the clouds hung
so low that I felt they would touch the ground and never let me up from under
the weight that held my mind in a prison designed by the enemy, the father of
all lies, who wished to have me. I was of two minds during this time. I wanted
God to save me from myself and the bad decisions I was making because I
believed that God could. But I also blamed God for not helping me when things
went wrong and not coming to my rescue. I wasted so much time waiting on God to
show up—only to realize that God had been waiting on me.
I thanked God for waiting and
promised him that I would not waste the chance I was given to help someone else
find the way to get out from under the weight of their depression.
You're always the last one to know
that you're depressed. You can get help for your depression thru therapy,
anti-depressants, and finding your way back to the place in your life when you
were happy. I tried each of those in my search for my cure, for depression is
indeed a disease. I did not find fulfillment until I found my voice to speak
out about my depression which I constantly battle with.
I will talk more about my journey
back to wellness in another post.
So until then...
Don't take what you can get.
Get
what you want.
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