Sunday Gratitude

Sundays are for extricating myself from the normalcies of life and for using the shackle-free moments to show gratitude for the things I love. Recently, I started using a daily gratitude journal. Although some days it gets pushed aside, I realize the importance of doing the internal work to make sure that you stay grounded in peace and knowledge of who you are. Being thankful for what you have is a great way to set your mindset for being joyous in life. 

I decided to write a poem to express some of the things I am grateful for. 

 

Gratitude

Sketch drawing by Stephanie Jeannot

I love granny pajamas because they are comfortable

I love a warm bubble bath with salt because it's wonderful

I love trying new recipes out because I love a good meal

I love wearing beautiful high-heeled shoes bcecause they have a sexy feel

I love conversations with people who know how to encourage me

I love a good book by a great author because they seem to inspire me

I love to write down words or phrases that seems like they are out of this world

I love trying to do something fantastic with this head full of 4C curls.

I love a good album to spin on my record player.

I love a song I can bop to that makes my spirit enliven my dancer.

I love a blank canvas that I can draw on and then later fill with metallics.

I love a vocal exercise that gives my voice improvement

I love listening to Sarah Vaughan and her wide vocal range

I love it when I can write in a book and fill up an entire page

I love the night, the sleep, the sheets, the room that I sleep in

I love my family, my talents, the ability to use them and I smile with the biggest grin

I’m grateful for every limb, sense and leveling up opportunity I have been blessed with

I am thankful for all the times God saved me when I had been sick

And I can’t thank him enough for surrounding me with his love every day

I am not perfect and yet, in spite of it all, God loved me anyway

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If you are interested in writing prompts to help to ignite the writer in you a bit more, maybe you can try my writer's prompt book entitled, "Storming the Page: Soul Aerobics." Check it out here on  https://a.co/d/frXJrnd

Thank you again for stopping by my blog! 

Enter in Week 2 of 2023 & Beyond

One week into 2023 and here we are eight days in deep.

The year just started and it seems like an entire year already passed by. Why you may ask?

I experienced a week full of work, a wake, a funeral, and a death all in a week’s time.

 

And as we enter into the second week, I just think about all the good times that I have experienced before this moment that just seemed to add a bit of weight that I did not expect to have to carry into this new year, although no one knows the day nor the hour.

As I step into this brand-new week, I think about all the blessings that seem minor which we often overlook.  It is hard to not acknowledge the gift of oxygen that God breathes into us when we watch a person in a hospital bed with tubes down his/her throat because they cannot breathe on their own. The ability to breathe on your own is something to not take for granted. I think about people who get sick from the effects of a stroke that might cause them to be unable to walk, talk or to even use the bathroom on their own. How often do we thank God for the gift of having a voice that we can use to sing, speak up for ourselves, to talk about things that are important to us or to just simply be in our right minds?

The older I get, the more I realize how short life really is and how blessed I am to see another day and to be surrounded by loved ones. This is the year to tell the people you care about that you love them. Do not ever forsake those moments of care because you never know the day or the hour that someone’s last breath may be. Love your family. Love yourself. Pray and bless the people that you care about and share the joys of life the way that you would want to receive love from others.

Life is short. Tomorrow is not promised or guaranteed. The next moment might be your Last. Live in the moment and appreciate it. May you be blessed today and always. I dedicate my song "Enjoy Life" to you as I make my mantra for each day of 2023: blessed to see another day; because I truthfully am.   https://youtu.be/alV2ULnr9z8

Enjoy life and experience it while you still have time.

Wow! Looking Back Over 2017. Can't Believe The Year Almost Over.

Every week when I start to plan how I will go about putting together a new episode for my radio show Jazz on the JNote, I tend to look up birth dates or interesting facts about the giants of jazz that surround the air date of my show so that when Sunday at 7PM EST comes, theenglishconnectionmedia.com has a show that I actually put my whole heart into. 

So it was no different this morning when I started doing research so that I could put together an outline of what I planned to do for this Sunday’s and as I looked at the calendar to jot down the date on which my next episode would air, it became a tear-jerking reminder that 2017 is almost over. This Sunday will be October 1^st.

The stores are already selling Halloween candy and are already promoting for the coming winter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. 2017 is flying and I can’t believe it is almost over.

2017

This year has been an evolving educational journey for me. I thank God for all the days that he woke me up with a proper frame of mind. Though we tend to make our new year’s resolutions and plans, I still try to debunk the mystery around how the days somehow simply manifest themselves. So many different nuances and color were added to the budding little old me that had me feeling so connected to his nature and many of them were unplanned. I guess you just have to be ready to embrace each moment as it is being presented because you never know how time will unravel itself even if you do plan your calendar on how you want things to go. But, to have found myself in so many atmospheres of appreciation and exchange has left me feeling mingled with joy. 

The photo above is a classic example of this. Nine months and nine separate events from each of the months that have come and gone in 2017 like for instance, filming a video for my song "Enjoy Life" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alV2ULnr9z8) , singing at the Irkutsk Philharmonic in Siberia, and for the first time ever in my life, performing a set of just original music which I wrote, that made a big difference in the person I am becoming. Other things that excited me were the trip to Vermont that I was dying to take which was on my summer bucket-list, exploring Jim's Vineyard again and getting to share some of my original tunes at his amazing summer bash, recording new songs for a forthcoming project that I am really excited about, meeting some of the most beautiful tap dancers in Brooklyn and also embracing their classes and, coming back into a new academic year and feeling a little bit more confident to share information that I didn't know that I had to share on the art of singing and stage performance with some really amazing teenagers. So, if you ever see me posting about theoretical things about singing as in for instance practicing your craft or being prepared for performances, a lot of times, it is directed at them. 

2017 had it its good days and bad days. But the good days outweighed the bad and that is always something to feel positive about. I guess when the ninth month of a year comes to an end, it is okay to start thinking about melting away the limits of the year to come. I have 2018 etched in my mind and all I can do is hope to confront it appropriately. Yet, the year is not over with October, November and December set to make their appearance soon in which there is still a wealth of things to see and do. 


One thing is for sure though; 2017 will leave a lasting impact on me and will forever be absorbed in my memory. For all the silver landscapes, cringe-worthy moments, sparkles added to the routine of my days, progress from taking baby steps to taking more giant steps toward worthy pursuits, squeezing some of the ambiguity out of my life, and soaking up knowledge about the world and the person in me that I am discovering more and more each day, I am thankful.

What’s left? What’s left is to perfect who I am as we embrace the forthcoming year. Though I accept all my layers as they are, there is definitely some tweaking worth the resolve; I’ll admit that. Nothing wrong with change; no matter how you slice it.  I mean, in all honesty, we are all an amalgamation of years of experimentation on our own selves. We are presently wading in the deep waters of the 2017 version of who we are. But I trust that I'll be better than I am in the coming year. 

For me, I can say, it's time to de-clutter and to make room for the 2018 version of me. Are you ready?