There's Always More Love

I may cuss at yall from time to time but most people know me to be positive all the time. I always have a smile. I always say yes to favors. I always give all that I can. I always find the bright side in every situation. I always choose happiness.

Believe me, it is not easy.

It's taken years of choosing the right friends after years of choosing the wrong ones. It's taken so much trial and error. It's taken trying so many things that don't work to find the ones that do. They say the road to happiness is always under construction. I am forever perfecting my foundation, especially the cornerstone of all that I am. It's never-ending work. It''s certainly the most fulfilling.

Yesterday, again, I felt like giving up on my journey. Today, again, my foundation kept me steady. I was gonna stop saying yes to helping people. I had forgotten why I do it. I had forgotten why do this. I felt like I just didn't have any more to give to anyone. I was over it all.

Quite a few times I've been distracted from my journey. Most recently, the struggles of life and poverty keep coming up to deter me. I've done it all to counter these struggles. I've studied money. What it is. Where it came from. How to get it. How to keep it. Before I get sidetracked from this thought, let me say I've fallen into the rut of the rat race a couple of times. The things, the routine of the things, I did to get money to pay for my dreams blurred my visions and eventually let me to abandon my dreams over and over. The bad part is that they showed no promise of anything even comparable to my dreams. I won't settle. So I haven't.

I have to thank God for the people in my life, the chosen and unchosen, who've kept me on track, physically, mentally, spiritually, financially, emotionally. And I thank them by staying on track. I will make it. For myself but can do no other thing but to share every reward, every milestone, every step, every success with the people who helped me get there.

Everyone is always right on time. The only person I'll name is Brandinika because she ha no social media presence at all. She surprised me last year by reminding me that people not on Facebook read my blog still. I write for them. All three of them. For the timely posts. For the accurate cussings out. For the wise words. For my best friend always reminding me directly to never give up.

Yesterday, I felt I had no more love in me. And at that moment, my foundation showed me a mirror. All I could see was Love.

Raising The Level Of The Company You Keep

My facebook friend's list is extensive. There are very few 'friends' I haven't met in person. Oddly, I tend to run into those people after friending them on FB. It is truly collection of people I have met through my extensive travels.

In my younger days, I would have tried to hang with as many of those friends. As an adult, with a much stronger commitment to my priorities, I know that is not a great idea. Better than that, it's a horrible idea.

When I was younger I just liked the energy of being around different people. It didn't matter what kind of energy it was as long as I felt it. That has led me on an interesting journey. Today, I am more focused. The direction I head in is much more important. My 'friends' are all headed in a good direction. Everyone is not headed in MY direction. Even if you are on my level, or above, if you're not going my way, your energy could be a distraction to me. I have enough distractions.

Then there is the question of being on my level.
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In organizations/groups/social circles the only way to be on the same level is to lower one's standards. We tend to get caught up in the big fish small pond scenario. We stand out when we hang out with smaller people. We forget that we are stuck in the small pond with big dreams. My realization came in the midst of being compared to someone I considered a low-life. I had been a genius among morons when I knew my genius is much greater than
that. I am a man among men. I stand out in any crowd. It's worth it for me to pursue crowds of higher standards since I know I will continue to stand out.

In real estate, a good buy is the worst house in a good neighborhood. Some of us make the bad buy of the best house in a bad neighborhood. In the good neighborhood, the property values will continue to rise in the short term. In the bad neighborhood, the values will drop and may never rise, even in the long term...



Check your neighborhood.

My journey has taken me to the lowest of lows. I thrived. I have thrived in the middle. As I continue my forward and upward momentum, I continue to thrive. However, my momentum has slowed as I have tried to raise up people around me at the expense of my own progress and at the expense of their progress as well. By not moving on, I was blocking the way for
people around me to follow my path.

To be specific, I fell for the "book smart vs street smart" bullshit so many people came up with when threatened by my intelligence. To put people at ease, I lowered myself. I even ventured out to become "street smart." At the end of That journey, being "street smart" is really dumb. Or, at least, the way I went about it was. Almost as dumb as joining a gang. I became affiliated with criminals.

It was when my affiliations with other intellectuals became threatened when I noticed that I had weakened myself to essentially fit in...

The worst part of lowering one's self is not the loss of identity or lack of growth. It's the cost to the community at large. In addition to losing friends/associations, my community lost a leader for great while. I see the effects of my disappearance all over. In my family, in the family I was meant to build. In my community. In my nation. In so many places I see the my world missing out on its potential because I have been missing out on mine. Even now that I am rebuilding so many pieces of my life, I still have so much more work to do because of the work I didn't do when I was being less than me.

And I see this all over in so many areas. The tendency is to lower one's self to match the company we have instead of finding new company. By halting our own growth we are validating the stagnation of the people around us. The saddest part is saying we believe in abundance and growth and not allowing our own self to grow. Our world won't grow if we don't.

So I commit myself to growth so whole hearted that many associations will pass away to make room for new company. I'll get out of my own way so that the people around me can grow on their own. Don't worry! I'll leave plenty of bread crumbs and detailed notes along the way.

I'm just going where I should be so that my family, my community, my nation and my country can go where they will be as well.

It's time to break some cycles...

What I Learned This Weekend 2/27/12

What a weekend!

I guess it started Friday. I was getting ready for my writers group meeting on Saturday. You know, pretending I did everything I said I would do a month ago at the last meeting. (Just being funny) The only thing I didn’t do was keep up with my writing log. I started it but then I kept writing/researching without logging it.

            I was aware of it though. I realized the value of my research time in The Think Tank. The Think Tank was a gift from God. In addition to The writers group that I can walk to once a month, I have this wonderful group on my favorite website where I can talk about things that matter. We talk about the stuff I write about and the opinions are very diverse. I get new perspective on my articles and new topics to write about.

            Also, some old topics come up. Sometimes there are topics that I have overlooked or ignored. This week, the issue of domestic violence came up again and again. I had written a blog about domestic violence posed as a letter to a girl I was interested in. In the letter, propose that since her current boyfriend beats her, I can beat her better. It derived from a play on the word beat (Violence) and beat (Sexual). It evolved into the letter as it is now.

            The funny thing is, it was written almost a year ago while I was in jail. Right after I got out, the person in question added me a friend on Facebook. Or so I thought. It took attempting to share with my writers group. Sharing the letter with my step mother, some shit chat with my dad and a separate inspirational message from Tony Robbins to convince me to give away the fear and just do what I know to – write.

            Turns out it wasn’t the same girl. (I think) Either way, I’m willing to give up myself in order to start the dialogue up. And I think I did that.

            Sunday was the best. THE BEST!

            I felt a way about skipping church but I felt something good coming. It started early. As I was sprinting down the street on my daily ‘hour of power’, my dog Angel went a little crazy and tried to run across the street. My attention was diverted to two men. One seemed I little familiar. Upon slowing down, I realized it was one of my best friend’s Scooter standing in front of his in-laws’ house. So we reconnected. I lied and told him I forgot his number. The truth was I hadn’t gotten a call back from him in so long (years) that I didn’t bother to call when I got back. I sent him a text message after the run so he would have my number. He actually sent me a text back before I left for my later engagements so that was good.

            Then I was supposed to borrow some clothes from Mike so we could go out later. As it would turn out, my dad came with two beautiful shirts he couldn’t fit but that fit me well! I asked about some shoes and got blessed with some nice wing tips. The day was getting better.

            I got to watch my sister and niece playing video games together. They spend a lot of time together but something about Super Mario on Wii that makes me feel a way. A good way! THEN I got to hang with my boys Seth, Greg and Mike.

            Greg picked me up so we could go support my boy Seth’s latest promotion. On the way to the bar, I picked up a suit and another shirt from Mike’s. It was a wonderful gathering to watch the NBA All Star game. Being around a lot of former acquaintances, good, legitimate ones, made the All Star game viewable. Then I got to catch up a bit with Seth and Greg. That was REALLY the best part of watching the All Star game. I am slowly settling down back into L.A. and I’m loving it!

            So everything worked out. Mike ended up at a party on the same block I was on. Talk about stars lining up. I threw on a sport coat and transferred my extra, just in case, gear to Mike’s car. Then we caught up with another Xavier Alumn at the W. There was a cool vibe. One woman caught my eye but she was with a douche bag. I got to sit for a minute which was glorious! as I had been standing up in shiny shoes for a few hours. After a bit of chit chat with Mike, we decided on gong to the Maxim party.

            The Maxim party was in a Mansion above Sunset. There was a shuttle to the party. Mike and I anticipated a little finagling to be able to get on the shuttle. As good fortune would have it, the only trouble was the LONG assed wait to get on the shuttle. It seemed the entire party showed up at the shuttle stop at the same time.

            Eventually, we made it on the shuttle and to the party. It, was, all, worth it! We immediately forgot the wait. Not only were we around a few of the most beautiful women in L.A., we were surrounded by some of the personable. And there was an open bar which meant all the caffeine I could handle.

            I could go on about the party but let me just say it was worth not going out much if that type of party is where I end up. I got home at 5. I was so tired/wired I locked my sister out and fell out, then when she woke me up at 7 am I could barely go back to sleep. (Barely being able to go back to sleep for me is like not being able to sleep at all for a normal person) My feet still hurt at 11:35 the next night. And it was all worth it. The whole weekend!

            It was a glimpse of what life can and will be like being back home and I’m in Love all over again. I’m in Love with writing. I’m in Love with life. And most of all I’m in Love with LA. L.A. means more than some streets and clubs. L.A. is my family, my friends, my life. Everywhere that I’ve been and everywhere I’m going is all about L.A. That’s never changed. I just needed this weekend to remind me.

            I’m LA! I’m home! That’s it. It’s going down! 

Dining Out Rules

Current mood:Drunkish
Category: Food and Restaurants

Dessert is the whole point of the meal. You should go out for what you cant have at home. You cant have someone serve your entire household. You can have iced tea at home. Sweetened to your exact specifications. I am also sure you paid your water bill if you are going out to eat. It is only connoisseurs who drink water. Dining is an experience. Most people don't do it often. So when you do do it, do it well. Drink (alcohol or fresh squeezed something), eat (everything, including dessert), and be merry (don't go with people you don't like).

On the last one. My friends and I (at least the ones I will go out with) either take turns paying or split it all evenly. Separate checks are for people you will never see again. If one person in the group cannot afford it, cover them until they can. Who knows when that will be you. On both ends, you either need to be the friend who can help out or be the friend who can admit they can't afford it. And you both need to be able to accept the others situation. If you cant be friendly with your friends, you all aren't friends. Hence, don't go out with people you don't like.
Everything else is self explanatory. Drink, eat, be merry! And be good

..tippers that is.