O L P

This one is for women only and I mean you: the hard-working, multi-tasking, putting everyone in front of you type women. DO SOMETHING FOR YOURSELVES.

Every week, at least once a week, I plan an OLP. That's Old Lady Party. No, I'm not old I just like the flow of OLP better than.........LP. An OLP represents my not-to-be-interrupted for anything ME time. I deserve it.

Why do I deserve it? Like you, I am working in and out of the home. You know what THAT means. I work 40 hours at a job (not a career). When I leave there at 11pm, I go holler at my mom who is in a rehab facility. Then I come home and do household crap: cleaning, cooking, cleaning and sex, if he's lucky! Wow! All that leaves me as one tired sister. And on weekends (what weekends?) it's back to the rehab facility to pick up clothes and to deliver freshly laundered AND ironed ones.

So once a week I throw myself an OLP with food, drink, music, travel,....just WHATEVER I WANT, because I deserve it. Ladies we all deserve that me time to preserve that peace of mind. I highly recommend it.

Peace!

Sitcoms and Brownies

I don't know how your holiday was but if you're older than 25, then the days of getting up early for an exciting Christmas day filled with magic are possibly over. Don't get me wrong. I had family, love and gifts in great abundance. The concerts I couldn't attend were broadcasted from Atlanta's own WABE. And my granddaughter, at age three, is now able to really get into the festivities.



But here are the other highlights of my holiday:



1 - I had to deal with an outstanding arrest warrant (no, not mine) of someone who later got Christmas gifts for his friend's mother.



2 - I received two Christmas party invitations. The first was from someone close enough to be called family, a warmly worded invitation. The second invitation, filled with unexpected venom and sarcasm --- confirmed by other family members --- came from, you guessed it: family.



What I do to combat negativity directed at me is to sprinkle my life with sitcoms. My list?



Frasier, Sanford & Son, Good Times (Ain't We Lucky We Got 'Em?), The Jeffersons and ESPECIALLY Married With Children.



My favorite health food is brownies. When I combine them with my shows, I can and do achieve the peace that comes of the knowledge that my family ain't the Bundy's!



Peace!

Christmas Holiday Traditions

Our family holiday tradition has always included attending the Spelman and Morehouse College Glee Clubs Christmas extravaganza. This year I deviated and, by special invitation, attended the program presented by Tuskegee University's Golden Voices Concert Choir. The director, Dr. Wayne A. Barr, was brilliant, the musicians exceptionally gifted, the soloists represented God's gifts of musical excellence, and the musical selections varied and difficult in execution. The Adeste Fideles variations played by Dr. Barr ended with a prelude and fugue type thing at the end. Had I not mistaken Dr. Barr for one of his brilliant students, I would have inquired about the 'variations', as one musician to another. And the pianist, Lynda Garcia was precise and, like so many musicians, operates in a well-deserved world of her own.


The Christmas selections from Handel's Messiah reminded me of the years that my wonderful parents took us to hear the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, under the direction of the late, great Robert Shaw. The young participants from Tuskegee University were on point, confident and had expressed presence. You can't buy that.



Years ago my grandmother started attending the Spelman-Morehouse concerts dating back to Dr. Wendell Whalum. My aunt took me to Spelman events throughout childhood. Later my uncle, who took my children and myself on a tour of Tuskegee University when the children were little and who sang in the Morehouse College Glee Club, met the woman who would become his wife, a member of Spelman College's Glee Club. Their youngest daughter continued the tradition as a member of Spelman's Glee Club, and my children were able to partake of her performances as well.

Make a connection this holiday season with someone. For what are we without our traditions? Peace!

Are We There Yet?

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of taking my 3-year-old granddaughter, Dolly, to Savannah to see my daughter. From where we live it's a 4 hour drive, so I was anticipating excitement and drama. Thankfully, the drama was so little it isn't worth mentioning. Here's the point: I picked Dolly up early and, as we were approaching the expressway, I was overcome with this unexplainable feeling all over my body. I was as breathless as a woman in love. I felt like crying for no reason. I was cold and hot simultaneously. Wow!

When we got outside of Atlanta and I had time to collect myself, I came to the realization that what I was experiencing was.........euphoria. I was happy. I was happy and didn't even RECOGNIZE IT!

People, are we there yet? Talkative children will often ask that when traveling long distances, but I'm talking to us now. Are we missing out on the little things that make us happy, because we fail to see them? Or are our periods of sheer happiness so few and far between that we've forgotten what it feels like?

Let me redirect your attention to a quote I used a few months ago:

'Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.'
Nathaniel Hawthorne

Think on these things. Me too. Peace!