A journey of your own

I always wondered why so many people I used to hang out with no longer comes around now that I am pursuing my dream. Then it dawned on me that the journey I had to take I had to walk alone. There are some that will give their support and there are some that won't pay you any mind. I learned this the hard way. Some people you have to leave behind not because you want to but because they aren't capable of going where your journey is leading you. 

Some say the road to success can be lonely but I say this is the road that shows you what you are made of. The things you can and cannot handle. Never forget where you come from and be humble enough to appreciate where you are going. No one can create your destiny but you. You have to be willing to put in the work sometimes that means missing out on some events and putting in long hours. You just have to ask yourself if it's worth it. And if the answer is yes trust the process and know the right people will come along and help you shine. They will encourage you, uplift you and push you when you feel like giving up. Those are the people you want and need to have around. Spirits that are warm, kind, gentle and true. They will praise you when you're right and let you know when you are wrong. At all times they will love you unconditionally. 

So don't be afraid to walk this journey alone. It is designed for you. It is they path you are meant to take and the road to all your dreams. Define what you want your success to look like and be. Let no one else hold the paint brush of your life to paint the picture they want to see. Follow your heart, follow your mind and most importantly follow your spirit. Ask no one for permission to be who you are destined to be. Take your life in your hands, see the vision that is yours and take control of the direction you want it to go. 

Be bold.

Be brave.

Be happy.

Be fierce.

Be humble.

Be true.

Be patient.

Be kind.

But most of all

Be you.

(the photo isn't mine)

UNITY

If we can learn to come together in many situations we will learn that we are stronger in numbers. We as a people we are born givers, lovers, defenders, protectors, kings, queens we have just lost our way. The division has now been engraved in our DNA so deep that's all we know. It saddens me to see my brother or my sister devauling each other when we know what the struggle is all about. It doesn't matter how much money one has or what kind of education you have in most eye's you are still less than. 
Because of the color of ones skin hate, bigotry and killing makes him/her a target. Watching over your shoulder not knowing if someone who looks like you will try to take your life. You also look over your shoulder because of police brutality. Brown and Blacks know how hard it is just to enter into the room even harder to fit in. 
Yet we are so hateful to our own kind that we will steal and kill our own just because that person is doing better than you are. Each day we wake up we are alotted the same 24 hours as the next person, you have a chance to make your life better. When will we finally wake up and learn to come together as a community. Build our own houses, run our own business and provide for our own like we did in the past. 
Why is it so hard for us to come together? Why is it so easy to take the life of someone who looks like you? Why do we do it when we know the struggle? What is it going to take in order for us to come together? 
Media glorifies the negative of the black culture but fail to show the good in what we do. But if we stop giving them stories to tell we can take control of the narrative. Shine a more positive light on our culture and community. But we first have to want better and make a way to do better so that we become better together.

(photo isn't mine)

Adjust your FOCUS

So many times we get caught up looking at what others see, think or feel. When you have a dream, vision or goal that you want to achieve but lack the support don't give up. Stay focused on the end result, not everyone will support you but it is your responsibility to keep pushing. I know at times when you feel the ones closest to you isn't interested in supporting you, you begin to doubt yourself.

You can't allow things to blur your vision or cloud your sight. If no one supports you support yourself, if what you are doing is your passion keep doing what your doing and watch the changes arise. You have to be diligent in what it is that is planted deep within you what's in your soul. If you never make a dollar off of what you are doing but it pleases you to continue with your passion. It will be at that moment that you will start to see the change.

Often we don't want to do that in which we are called to do because we aren't making money at it. But look at it like this; I love what it is that I am doing and if it can help someone in the process than I am happy. I have been writing for years and I have made some money writing poetry, but to hear someone say " I was having a rough time and read one of your poems and it lifted my spirits", that my friend was worth more than the price of any book sale.

I'm not saying you shouldn't desire you make money off your gifts and talents.  I'm just saying don't let it become the only reason why you are perusing your dream. At the end of the day you are satisfied with yourself and what you have accomplished then it was well worth the effort.

Keep striving to achieve your dreams and don't allow anyone else opinions to influence your drive. Pray about it and most of all never let it die like I always say "Pray...Until...Something...Happens".
What every your definition of success is don't stop until you achieve it and once you achieve it set another goal. Never just settle keep moving forward and find someone else you can invest in. As always be blessed and continue to be a blessing.

Bad B¡+ch

So when did it become relevant for a woman to take pride in calling herself a Bad B¡+€h instead of a Beautiful Queen. How can we ever expect to be respected when we are the main ones disrespecting ourselves. Black women are the most disrespected, unprotected and dismissed woman. Yet we often complain about it but we forget that we are the ones on the front line of such disrespect. Why is it so important to fit inside a box when the world is a bigger playing field.

At what point will we began to take more pride in our self-worth. Carrying yourself with class and distinction is not a bad thing but this is who we are. Stop following trends and learn to be a trend setter. We are created for greatness not to be disrespected or dismissed. We need to be more role models for those young girls coming up behind us to teach and guide them. Since when did it become a job to give yourself the title of a Bad B¡+€h and not the title of a CEO, COO, Queen or whatever?

The world will convenience you that you have to be a certain way, live a certain way and do as it say do. We have been conformed and misguided to believe this is the way to be because of social society. I'm not trying to judge or look down upon anyone I'm just merely stating some of the things I see. I live the life I live but I don't live my life in accordance to how someone else said I should live.

So with that being said if that is your worth so be it but if your are ready to think outside the box. Reevaluate your life and make a change. May many blessings be upon you.

 

@therealmonya

The strength of grace.

In life we are given so much grace daily, often too many times we don’t use our grace with wisdom. We tend to get caught up in helping people that no matter to what degree you go they just won’t make better decisions to have a better life. Once we realize that we can’t save everyone that’s the moment you can decide to focus more on being able to discern who is more suitable of the remaining grace that you haven’t given yourself. I am all about uplifting others and helping others out but I am never about wasting my time on someone who just isn’t willing to make a change in their life. I always say to change a man you first have to change his mind. If they can’t change the way they think about themselves or their situation then change won’t come.

In life we all have something that is coming against us whether it is at the work, home or our own personal issues. For each situation there is grace given, if you always chose to give it away stop complaining when there is none left for yourself. Stop getting mad at other people for prioritizing their life, issues and circumstances. You too can do the same thing if you chose to, yet you sit there waiting for someone else to come along and do so. My early years I allowed people to use me, run over me, manipulate me in more ways than one because I wanted to help them or better yet save them. It has taken me some time to learn this lesson but I have finally learned that if I can’t work out my own issues then I can’t help anyone else work out theirs. Often at time when I’m working on me and helping someone at the same time we both are able to open our eyes to see things about ourselves that had that not happened we would have never seen it.

The key to it all is to be able to give to yourself that in which you so desire to give to other people. Never take from those who do the same for you to give to someone that doesn’t. In my younger years I always found myself trying to help out the people that treated me the worst and those that always were there to help me I treated them the worst. I had to sit back and reevaluate what it was I was giving my grace to, so once I did that I realized that I had taken advantage of those who truly cared for me for someone who was just using me. I was able to help someone who didn’t care for me much life better in opposed to helping someone who did care for me. I tell you I was screwed up in my thinking process but I had to learn to change the way I think about things.

I found out that I needed more grace for me at times and how I was using my grace for those who didn’t need it made me feel like a fool. But that in itself was not the right way to think because my intentions were good I was just directing them in the wrong direction. I too had to learn how to change how I saw things in life it wasn’t easy but I saw that it was worth it. So the more I thank God for his grace the more I see that I have to share but it all started with me. I could not continue trying to help someone when I wasn’t helping myself first. I couldn’t continue to preach to someone if I couldn’t live by my own sermons. I confess there was a time when I was a hypocrite but that was a cross I had to bare and shame I wore until I changed me. Because of his GRACE I am a new person, woman with wisdom and understanding.

The point I am trying to make in a nutshell is that use your grace for you first then and only then will your grace for others be more effective. My dream, goal and desires are to help, uplift and inspire those around me. So in order for me to do so I have to be the BEST me first, may God’s grace reign over you as well as it has for me. Blessings ~Monya~

Food For Thought

The moment you realize that the glass is neither half empty or full. But how long you can hold on and carry what's inside of your glass. Blessings ~ Monya ~

It is time to look at the times we are living in and wise up.....

This speech was broadcast by legendary ABC Radio commentator Paul Harvey on  April 3, 1965:

If I were the Devil . . . I mean, if I were the Prince of Darkness, I would of course, want to engulf the whole earth in darkness. I would have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree, so I should set about however necessary to take over the United States. I would begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: “Do as you please.” “Do as you please.”   To the young, I would whisper, “The Bible is a myth.” I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what is bad is good, and what is good is “square”.  In the ears of the young marrieds, I would whisper that work is debasing, that cocktail parties are good for you. I would caution them not to be extreme in religion, in patriotism, in moral conduct. And the old, I would teach to pray. I would teach them to say after me: “Our Father, which art in Washington” . . .

If I were the devil, I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull an uninteresting. I’d threaten T.V. with dirtier movies and vice versa. And then, if I were the devil, I’d get organized. I’d infiltrate unions and urge more loafing and less work, because idle hands usually work for me. I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. And I’d tranquilize the rest with pills. If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine yound intellects but neglect to discipline emotions . . . let those run wild. I would designate an athiest to front for me before the highest courts in the land and I would get preachers to say “she’s right.” With flattery and promises of power, I could get the courts to rule what I construe as against God and in favor of pornography, and  thus, I would evict God from the courthouse, and then from the school house, and then from the houses of Congress and then, in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and I would deify science because that way men would become smart enough to create super weapons but not wise enough to control them.

If I were Satan, I’d make the symbol of Easter an egg, and the symbol of Christmas, a bottle. If  I were the devil, I would take from those who have and I would give to those who wanted, until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. And then, my police state would force everybody back to work. Then, I could separate families, putting children in uniform, women in coal mines, and objectors in slave camps. In other words, if I were Satan, I’d just keep on doing what he’s doing.

Paul Harvey, Good Day.

It's time to wake up we have been sleeping long enough. We as a people need change and a wiser way to create change.