Tell Their Stories

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I love that there are months to celebrate African American History and Women’s History. It is the opportunity to tell the stories of people like you and me who accomplished things that moved us further along on life’s journey.

My current photo project is inspired by a group of women who changed life for the people around them. These women taught us about freedom, self worth and beauty. They walked us to freedom through dark woods in the dead of night. They built fortunes washing clothes and combing hair. They leave a legacy that the impossible can be done.

I call them Queens because these women led when it wasn’t easy. Anyone can do it when it is easy, but these women did it when there was nothing in it for them.  When all of the odds where against them. They made a difference.

Because of women like Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, Betsy Ross we are free. We are not restricted by someone who owns us. Because of women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton we can own property and manage our own lives.  We can be lawyers, architects or millionaires. We can be what God created us to be and not limited by what man thinks we should be.

Bessie Smith was raised during a difficult time in our country’s history in 1892. She lived in the segregated South. Her parents died when she was young, so she and her brother would dance and sing on the streets of Chattanooga, Tennessee to earn money.  In 1912 she started her career as a dancer traveling with a troupe. She would later get a job as a singer, which would lead to better paying jobs.

By the 1920s and 1930s, Smith was known as the Empress of the Blues. She would headline shows and traveled around in her own custom made rail car. What was more important is she gave voice to a style of music that got its roots in America. Bessie Smith understood the blues, it was her life. She poured everything she had into it until it consumed her.

If we don’t tell these stories who will tell them? Young girls need to know you can climb out of hard times if you have perseverance and a dream.

 

Connections

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Sandy was a private investigator trying to make ends meet. She worked with all kinds of people, but only offered a few select services.  Photographing cheating spouses was one of those things. She had someone else doing the printing…

Stink was a 35-year-old Latin American man who had a variety of professions. She never questioned him on them, because she was afraid of what he would say. She had never had to post bail for him, so whatever he did he was good at it. She didn’t know his real name; she had met him through an acquaintance.

Stink handed her a manila nine by eleven envelope with stains from his morning coffee on it.

“Your girl was a freak.”

“Stink man, if I see these pictures on the internet I am going to lose my hand gun license the hard way.”

“Sand, would I do that?” He flashed a grin he used on many other women.

“Yeah, and you need to know that I will shoot you,” she said looking him in the eye.

She walked off looking tough, but the only thing she had shot lately was a target at the gun range. She knew to get her bluff in early, a trick she learned in parenting. But now it was time to deliver the bad news.

Connections is the story of a Sandy and her best friend as they find missing relatives, spy on cheating spouses and catch a few bail jumpers. This private investigator never imagined the bad guys would chase her.
Running for her life, Sandy Herrick discovered that God was the only one with her who wasn’t talking smack, trying to kill her or get into her pants. As she and her friends try to figure out who framed them, they all discover that there was more to each other than they thought they knew.
As evil forces closed in on them, they have to determine who they trust and what they believe about each other. Would this be enough to save them?

You can order Connections on:

Amazon

Createspace

We are family

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The final section for this series is Emotional. It speaks to making social and meaningful connections with others. These are the people you encounter and who influence your life. Sometimes is it family, sometimes it is friends, sometimes it is strangers on the street.

Do I think I can walk out of the house in my pajama pants to run some errands? My sisters and daughter would kill me.

Do you ever really leave BSF leadership? I have friends who still taunt me with “We sure miss you in the mornings.”

The other day I encountered a woman who tried to hold it together while she told me how her life was falling apart. I could not put words together to console her. After she had walked away, the Holy Spirit gave me instructions and I followed His wisdom.

The last couple of years of my life has focused on the connections that influence who I am.  One of the things I learned was that the only thing that last forever is your relationship with God. All of our other relationships on earth come to an end but everything else builds on that relationship with God. If you want to have peace, allow God to have the most influence in your life.

If God takes someone from your life, trust Him. He knows what is best for both of you. I had too many influences or the wrong influences. God showed me through a series of trials that things that I thought were true of people was not.  People who I did not like, He taught me to love and cherish. People who I loved, He cut from my life.

When I was younger, I had a good friend who I met in college. She had a great deal of influence in my life because we were friends. She was intelligent and well connected. She had a lot going for her. She also had some things going on in her life that God’s word did not approve of. At that point in time, God did not have the influence in MY life to counter the influence she had. God removed her from my friends list and began to teach me His ways. Looking back over my life, He was right.

So today when He starts removing people from my friends and family list, I roll with Him. When He adds people, I roll with Him.  I know it is not about me. My influeners list is short. All of the people on this list KNOW God and LOVE Him.

Take a serious look at the people you are connected to. This area of your life can take all your energy and drain you if you allow the wrong people to have influence. I look at the stop signs God has placed in my life and I know He was right.

I remember one time He gave me a “go” sign and I thought He was tripping.   I was doing a small group study through my church. I remember sitting at the little table for sign ups. I had one person from church interested in joining my group. Then I watched God surround this Ph.D student with a bunch of seasoned social workers. I remember thinking, “Wow, God that is soo cool.” We have all been praying for each other ever since. Trust Him. My small group is better than your small group.

The only thing better than my small group (and yes my sisters are part of my small group) are my sisters, Pooh and cousin Kisha. I am going to send a shout out to the travel group, WWC because I do not want anyone smothering me with a pillow on our next trip.

I spend time with these people and share life together. We don’t always agree, but we do lots of laughing. Make sure the people who influence your life can make you laugh, support you when you cry and point you to the Most High God all the time.

These are the people who influence my life. They say “That’s stupid, don’t do that.” Or as my younger sister says, “I have friends in this city and do not want to see you on a episode of Cops.” We are family.

Connections

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This mess had turned into a hot mess and she needed time to figure out how to get out of it. Everyday things got worse.

CONNECTIONS, a christian novel

She and her best friend found missing relatives, spied on cheating spouses and caught a few bail jumpers. This private investigator never imagined the bad guys would chase her.
Running for her life, Sandy Herrick discovered that God was the only one with her who wasn’t talking smack, trying to kill her or get into her pants. As she and her friends try to figure out who framed them, they all discover that there was more to each other than they thought they knew.
As evil forces closed in on them, they have to determine who they trust and what they believe about each other. Would this be enough to save them?

 

Available on

Amazon

Createspace

 

Hello Fear, before you sit down

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In 2015, I spent the least amount of time thinking about this area, but more time doing it. Today’s area is Mental or the things you plan, learn and visualize. It is usually one of my favorite areas until God takes over. At the beginning of each year, I create a plan and goals for the year.  I determine the areas I want to learn more about and set out to do it.

I plan safe things, like trips to the museum or to take a class in lighting for still photography. God tosses me in the lake and says “Swim, I got you.” God takes me on trips I never imagined and many of them have to do with the things I fear. He makes me look the thing I fear right in the eye.

What I love about this area is I get to do new stuff. I am seldom bored or lack something to do. God teaches me to think outside the box I have drawn around myself. He is teaching me to see myself as more than a mother or daughter.  More than a photographer or writer or filmmaker. As I look back over my life I see I am not staying stagnant. Life is truly an adventure.

Today’s adventure included a trip down culinary lane. For the first time, I cooked chicken fried steak. Yes, I have been a Texan all my life, but this was the first time I ever tried to cook the dish myself. I watched the Pioneer Woman do it this week. I thought it looked a little too complicated for my level of cooking. But at the grocery store today, the only thing I could find was the cubed steak…

As I work out the plan God has for my life, I enjoy watching it come clearly into focus. Make a plan. Set some goals. Yet don’t get upset if God interrupts your plans for His.  After all I set off to the store to buy a brisket, but cube steak was in my future. I did a good job and there is a sense of accomplishment.

Be part of helping others grow, not only by being an example, but also by coaching.  We should all continue to grow together because iron sharpens iron. If you are not helping someone become better, then you are getting in their way.

It is time to tell Fear goodbye. Walk in the adventure God has placed before you. Your future might seem uncertain, but God is in control. Dive in.

Destiny’s Dilemma

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Zo had a life before she came back to Fort Worth. She covered news stories for real newspapers.

Her news story ran in several newspapers across the country under her press name: Z.F. Hughes. She showed her mother the news clippings.

Hattie rubbed the clippings between her fingers and smiles. She was too tired to read them, but she was proud all the same. She laid them on the pillow next to herself.

“You have always been a smart child. Jesus knew what he was doing when he made you.” Then Hattie started humming her favorite hymn, Jesus Loves Me, and fell asleep.

 

Destiny’s Dilemma is available:

Amazon

Createspace

 

For This I Give You Praise

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My habits are not true to form of the Seven Habits because over time I have tweeked them to match my needs. The next area is Spiritual.  This is your soul, spirit and the things that make you you.

When I think of spiritual, I think of my relationship with God.  He created us in His image and I believe our spirit is what connects us. The more time I spend with God, the better I understand me. The more time I spend with God, the more I love Him.

I mean when you move in with someone you like to get to know them. If you are going to spend an eternity with someone, you want to know something about them. So I spend my spiritual time getting to know God better through bible study and prayer.

I was not one of those kids raised in church so the process was foreign to me.  I was in my late 20’s before I understood that God still communicates with his people. Once I discovered that, it was game on.  I began to understand how He speaks to me and what He wants me to do.  It all started with a wonderful bible study titled, Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby. Changed. My. Life.

The most important thing I learned was all I have to be is who He made me.  Not everyone likes or agrees with who I am, but the One I have to answer to does. We get off center when we try to be other people or what other people want us to be. But if you are close to God, He will keep you centered. You ought to stay with Him just for that.

He has a plan for each of our lives. We have to trust His plan. When the children of Israel were in the desert, the Lord reminded them that they were His people. He reminded them that He was with them. As long as He is with us, there is no drought that can over take us or enemy that can over come us.

I praise Him because He taught me that He fights my battles for me. He runs my enemies out of business. He destroys them in ways I can’t imagine. As I learned in the study of Revelation this week, it is to bring them to repentance.

Spending time with God builds up your spiritual muscles, strengthens your faith and teaches you a praise dance.

 

Destiny’s Dilemma

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THUMBNAIL_IMAGE

She had heard that there was a black man who was the leader of the Republican Party in Fort Worth, but could hardly believe it.

“He knows how to talk to some white folks. He don’t get off the sidewalk when they walk up. You know he leads the Republican party in these parts. I think they call him the…the wha cha it?

“A delegate?”

“He’s the top dog.”

“A Negro is the top dog in the Republican party here?” she asked in disbelief.

“Chairman!” he said snapping his fingers. “He’s the chairman of the party. He helps people get good jobs after the election.”

Zo looked at Drew as if he had just spoken a foreign language to her.

 

Destiny’s Dilemma is available on:

Amazon

Createspace

 

 

 

Let’s Get Physical

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I am a big fan of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey.  One of the main principles is to put first things first. For more than 20 years I have been putting into practice some form of the idea of figuring out what is most important to me. When I set goals, I think about how I want to be remembered and what purpose God has given me in this life.

One of those purposes is to live a healthy life.

As a form of habit, I set goals for my physical body, after all it is my physical tool. If it doesn’t work, I won’t do the other tasks He has assigned. Getting older is not easy. I mean, I can’t read without my readers (glasses) but I don’t always put them on. Like my Aunt Maude use to say, getting old is not for the weak. (She didn’t use that term, but that is what she meant).

For the past decade, I have fought the weight gain problem and lost. When I got older, I did not lose weight as easy as I did when I was young. I am not a crazy dieter. I wouldn’t do the boiled egg diet, soup diet or the don’t eat anything diet. I have this problem with fried chicken and pie and soda. I like all of these things very much. (My fear is there won’t  be fried chicken in heaven – but I am going anyway.)

Although I was drastically opposed to working out in the beginning, my view changed. I have several people in my life who encourage others to work out and live healthy. It is the best way to live. Regular exercise can save your life and make healing quicker.  For example, I used to work out with this crazy instructor who loved making us do burpees and jump rope day. I hated jump rope day. One day, that fool sat in a F-150 (truck) and convinced us to push it around the block as our workout. (and I call him the fool. LOL)

Yet a year and a half later when I had surgery, I healed much quicker because of the strong core I developed working out with him. He has taught good principles and healthy eating habits. (Although I am never giving up fried chicken.) He has helped me make good lifestyle changes.

With my wee little human brain, I thought, God had me get healthy because He knew I would need it to heal faster.(Whenever you think you have God figured out, sit down and shut up) In 2015, I got to see what I could really do. I had some of the most grueling positions I have ever had. They required physical movement for 10 hours or more. There are moments I wanted to die because every inch of me hurt. I had no idea that something I liked to do could cause so much pain. I felt like an old lady.

As a result, I lost over 20 pounds and was able to reduce my high blood pressure medications. It was all God. As I was focused on other things, He took care of something I thought was a problem. All of the strength I had been building up over the years, the Lord used in an unexpected way and it blessed me.

Set some goals. Work towards them. Watch God bless you.

God brings amazing people into your life to bless you. Receive it.