Merry Christmas to You!

When I was but a little girl, first thing on the morning of Christmas day, I would run down the steps to see what Santa had brought for me and it made me feel good when he came and left me exactly what I had hoped for, even though I had fallen over a few times before finding my feet. My favorite gift ever was this cute little red Michael Jackson jacket. 

I was so into Michael Jackson back then that I wanted everything him; the doll, clothing, accessories. You name it. I guess you can say, being the little dot in the world that I was back then, Michael Jackson probably influenced me to want to sing in a way, watching him sing and dance across the television screens when I could barely spoon feed myself. If you were to scroll through my playlist, you’d still find a large list of songs that he sang featured there. He had a unique way of reaching different classes of people as an audience and making what he had to offer naturally sticky ideas; so sticky that they last with us even until today. His music never loses its flavor.

By flavor, I mean something like this. I used to visit my cousin Reggie at his law firm in the city all the time where we’d talk about music. He was an entertainment lawyer and had this law firm and I liked to be around that atmosphere. So, I’d go to his office and he always did this very peculiar thing. He would open a brand-new pack of Juicy Fruit gum, put one of the five sticks in his mouth and about five minutes later, he’d open another stick and put the next one in his mouth until he had the whole pack in his mouth because after the one stick lost its flavor, he wanted new flavor to keep the good taste in his mouth. Sad to think that the world has lost him this week, of all weeks with it having been less than a week before Christmas. I realized though that everything can’t be A1 like the awesome sauce, all the time. We always assume there will be positive outcomes when it comes to this life. 

Unfortunately, colon cancer had a different plan for him as its force, left him to nestle away into the arms of Jesus. But his flavorful memories will never leave us, as the flavorful music of Michael Jackson.

Made me think that if anything to have as a resolution is to plan on changing to make the world better for myself and others around me in the 2018 year that is about to embrace us. As a resolution, maybe we could trust in who we are and being ourselves without feeling bad. We could see the rows of marigolds in every clear day that we are blessed to see. We could decide to express our ideas and skill sets and not shy away from them. We could make sure to balance work and life so that we give just as much time and dedication to our loved ones as to the tasks that we have to complete. We could realize that the world is our oyster and find a piece of joy to hold onto in the spirit of being a part of it and try to understand each person’s place in it as well. Life is short and we should try to diligently embrace every little nuance of it while we still have breath.

And as Christmas is upon us, I realized why there may be many with a holiday heart. My cousin died and now the intricate details of what the holiday heart really means, pops at me in a totally different way. But if the true reason for the Christmas season is Jesus and Jesus represents life, light and grace that keeps us and also blesses us to a climb a new ladder into the pearly gates when our day comes, it means that this is definitely not the day to gather and hoard feelings of hurt. It is also not a day to feel guilty or to exercise sophistry but instead to smile, enjoy the savory flavors of the loved ones who are still here with us and enjoy life, while we still have it. For we must hold on to the joy that we have, while we still have breath and also pray for those who no longer do. I mean, in truth, any day could be your last in the jungle. Make sure to live before the day that your light is extinguished. We celebrate the days that we are blessed to see and the good memories and people that we feel very connected to who make our worlds wonderful.

Speaking of wonderful worlds . . . I want to thank you all for helping to make my life wonderful. You read, you watch, you listen and the fact that you support my creativity in this fascinating way, makes my life wonderful; almost as wonderful as the children on 107^th Street in that Elmhurst, NY block where Trumpeter Louis Armstrong lived, that made his life so wonderful, he penned the song “What a Wonderful World.” The flavorfulness of this song still overflows into my heart. I dedicate this rendition of Louis Armstrong's tune that I performed live with the JNote Quartet which featured Mike Benjamin on bass, Danny Dalelio on piano, Stephanie Jeannot on vocals, Herb Lewis on saxophone and Napoleon Revels-Bey on drums to you. 

This cover was performed live in New York City at Club Bonafied located at 212 East 52^nd Street in Manhattan. Here is wishing to you the happiest and merriest Christmas ever. That you might find a bit of joy to hold on to and peace to make your world wonderful.

God bless and enjoy!