Even though two men pursued her, she was on a mission to save one who didn’t want to be saved. In 1912, colored people were doing better than they had ever been. She was excited about the progress, and wanted to be a part of the change. She knew it would start in her own backyard.
Find out how she did in Destiny’s Dilemma Destiny’s Dilemma
If you are in need of individual or family portraits email me at uppcreative@yahoo.com.
The best thing we can share with one another is our stories. The Lord has written out each of our lives so that it flows perfectly with His plan. He made sure that we intersect in the right places with the right people. It is our own fault if we do not recognize them. These interactions give us juice to move on to the next stop.
The Lord has given me a wealth of family, friends and acquaintances. It is one of the things I love about Facebook. I can experience moments from their lives in a way I have not before. I have seen birthdays, weddings and vacations. One person is watching the Lion King on Broadway, while another is chasing water falls in the Appalachians. Watching people live everyday in spite of life inspires me. God knew that together we would build each other up, but He also knew we would console one another because their are also losses, frustrations and disappointments.
I love celebrating with my friends as they drop their kids off at college, some for the first time. I can’t wait to see the first day of school photos on Monday. I remember most of these kids from when they were babies.
I am inspired by the stories I see. I am also inspired by the ones I hear.
This week I got the opportunity to sit and talk with people. One of the best things I learned was a woman wanted a Sunday School class for women over 80. She started it and now they have regular attendance by women in that age range. Can you imagine the conversation in a room full of women over 80 years old? I have been blessed to have many older, wiser women in my life. Yet I have never had the opportunity to call on that type of wisdom.
This tells me that until you are dead, it is not too late to start anything.
Who inspires you?
I Love Lucy has always been one of my favorite shows. While many of you went to church as a child, I spent Sunday mornings in front of the television. I have learned that God will use whatever tool He has available to reach us whether it is His word which is the Bible or an episode of I Love Lucy speaking to being self absorbed with self pity.
He used my favorite TV shows to teach me until I developed a love for His word. Now I understand who He is and what He promises. Caught in the Crosswinds speaks to some of the lessons I learned about God through His Word.
Caught In The Crosswinds is available on Amazon.
She met Hector Rios at Del Finos, an Italian restaurant on a better side of town. She always chose restaurants she had not been to, in case her client acted a fool. She wouldn’t feel bad about not returning if they got kicked out.
There was a usual spiel she went through with her clients when she was about to give them bad news, but not this time. Hector was the owner of a very successful carpet cleaning company, but even at 56 years old his mother was very active in his life. She had suspected Hector’s wife of 16 years of being unfaithful. She had hired Sandy to find the truth. Half way through the process, they told Hector about the investigation. They had decided that Hector would be the point person from that point on.
“Hector, she is not the angel you think she is. Don’t open this package until I’m gone. And I don’t plan on sharing it with your mom, even though she was the one who hired me. If anything happens to this woman, copies of these photos will end up with the sheriff.”
“She can’t be that bad. She’s the mother of my child.”
Sandy handed her the envelope.
“Don’t open it until I’m gone,” she said and picked up the check.
She was in the parking lot getting into her car when her phone rang. It was Hector. She hit ignore. People with money might not marry for money, but those without it do. Hector’s mother may have been a busy body, but she was right.
Connections is available on Amazon.
It will be coming to Createspace soon.
Connections is a novel about a private investigator who’s life and business started falling apart before it even got together. Working with her foster sister, they ran into a case and lawyer that blew everything up. 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?
The role of single mom is one that has stretched me more than any one role in my life. It has taught me what pure joy feels like. It has also taught me about living with frustration and disappointment when things don’t work out the way you plan it.
Folks come to the role of single parent by different means, but you have to remember that God placed you there. He could have left Hagar with Abraham and Sarah, but He moved her away and gave her the means to raise her son.
I chose to be a single mom. I had no idea what God had in store, but I had a faith that wouldn’t quit. I was an educated woman with a nice job and thought I had a lot to offer a child. (Bhwaaaa!) I really can look back on this and laugh because my learning started as soon as I got the baby home.
{Some times I think God listens to all of our crappy prayers and decides to teach us that we really don’t know what we are talking about. When I say crappy, I mean those self centered arrogant prayers. I believe it gives Him a giggle. I believe He delights when we see the error of our ways and say “You know, I shouldn’t have prayed for that.”}
True to His nature, The Lord gave my introvert self an extrovert kid. Every moment this child was awake, she talked. Even when I loaned her to other people, like my sister or my mother, she talked. Somewhere around her seventh or eighth year of life she could look at me and see I was full of her talk. She would say “I will be back in a little bit” and give me a few moments of quiet. {And if they are talking to you they are not listening to anything you say anyway}
So all of the crap I thought I was going to give this child when I first ventured down this road is nothing compared to the great gift I actually gave her. {And it was God’s idea} I am jealous for her because I did not get this gift myself when I was her age. My life would have been completely different if I had.
This year will be my daughter’s last year in the school program of BSF. She started in First Grade and will complete the Senior Level this coming school year. She has been given 12 years to get to know Jesus and have a personal relationship with Him. I have spent 12 years telling her this is the most important thing you will do with your life. She had been learning God’s word and have it written on her heart. I was the vessel God used to reach her in spite of myself.
It is one thing to say He is a priority and another to live it. We have missed school programs and performances because they were scheduled on Bible Study nights. We have missed parties, gatherings, tv shows, friends, families etc. We have not missed Jesus.
In Deuteronomy 11:18-19, the Lord instructs us to teach his word to our children. I have been faithful. I have done what He requested of me. It is pure joy to be able to do something you know pleases the Lord.
Statistically the odds are against children who come from single parent homes. But the Lord tells us that our days will be many if we teach His ways to our children. There are many things we do not have, but we have the most important thing. Jesus.
If you are struggling with your child, it is time to let the Lord lead with them. BSF will start up in September. It is time to enroll them and teach them God’s ways. As parents, all we can do is tell them about God. His spirit will do everything else.
A black man and a white man were trying to gain her affections, which Zo leveraged to her advantage because that was the type of woman she was. Her current situation was like fish frying in hot grease and she needed every bit of help she could get.
This historical novel is available at:
Amazon:Destiny’s Dilemma
An African American woman moved home to take care of her dying mother giving up the opportunity to experience a world beyond segregation. Zoraida Hughes Williams finds that some things have changed about her hometown of Fort Worth, Texas while some have stayed the same, like Hell’s Half Acre, an area where saloons, prostitution and gambling runs wild. Like most of the residents, she wants to keep her head down and stay away from trouble, but it comes in the unlikely form of an Anglo Baptist preacher. He messes up everything and almost gets them killed.
She was going to make him wish he had succeeded in killing her. All the evil pirate did was piss her off. Her good sense had left her and she was going in hot pursuit of him. She would show him he messed with the wrong black woman.
The first book in the Privateers series is available for $2.99 on:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01158FWZS…
A single young woman is tricked by modern day pirates losing everything she owned. As she tries to figure out what happened to her belongings, her world crashes around her as government and private agencies treat her as a suspect. Determined to find the man who did this to her, she stumbles onto a government top secret. Finding this modern day pirate turns into a race against lethal forces.
Over the past weeks I have had the privilege of photographing couples. I have met young couples and old couples. Some married a few years, while others have been together for decades. Some with children, many without. Their children were grown and gone.
I learned a lot about the condition of their couplehood by the way they looked at each other. While many would have us believe that marriage is something that is on the way out, I have seen something that disagrees with that stance. When people get an idea of what it is really all about, they will embrace the idea.
As a professional photographer, I meet a lot of people. I can snap hundreds of shots in a day. Many people put on their “taking a picture” mask. It is my goal to crack that mask and get to the real person underneath. Some days I am successful, some days not. While trying to crack the mask on folks, I learned something with couples.
After having couples do a few tradition poses for their portraits, I ask them to look at each other. This moment tells me what these two people think about each other. They can hide everything from me and the camera, but when they look into the eyes of their love, truth comes forth. In most cases this is where the giggling starts. He giggles. She giggles. We all laugh. The photo shoot is pretty fun after that.
Now there were some couples who looked at each other and nothing happened. (I am single so it did take a few times for it to register that there was something going on in that marriage.) I just smiled and moved on. I felt sorry for them because they were missing out on what the others had.
The only thing better than taking the photo was watching the couples look at the photos of themselves. I remember one woman repeated over and over “Look at me and (his name).” The sight of their love for each other surprised her. She was overwhelmed by the sight of it.
I don’t get tired of men telling their wives they are beautiful. I do get tired of women blowing it off. I watched a man badger his wife because he thought she was beautiful, but she didn’t value his opinion. Yet, I love watching the love stories play out.
The Lord has allowed me to see all types of stories played out. I have watched a curmudgeon turn to jelly at a glance from his sweetheart and a wife who was ill, reach up and kiss her husband out of love. They all had their role to play in the relationship. The ones that were most secure where the ones that knew what role they played in the relationship.
Moments like these make me wait with anticipation for the man God has for me. I want to giggle at the sight of the man who loves me.
For the first time in my life, I dog sat. This year, I am really stepping out of my comfort zone. I am not a pet person, so I was quite amused by pet behavior. It was new to me and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The dogs were charming, irritating and funny.
I realized I am not cut out to be a pet person. Pets have too many characteristics of people but none of the reasoning capacity. They were much smarter than I imagined. They opened doors, threw fits and read me like a book.
I got amused watching the dogs interact with each other. Loulah, a Cathoula/Shepherd mix would tease the chihuahua, Roscoe, who was tied down with just a limited area he could roam through. The chihuahua was the newest to the mix and had not adopted all of the house rules, so he had to be limited. Loulah is a sweetie, but she has her moments.
Loulah would get the squeaky squirrel dog toy and take it to Roscoe. She would walk around him, like musical chairs, while he chewed on it and made it squeak. And just when he was comfortable, she would snatch it and run out of his range. She would take it to another room, them after a few seconds would skip back into the room with it, but careful to stay out of Roscoe’s range.
I got a kick out of watching. Roscoe fell for it every time. Loulah definitely enjoyed it.
That is what Satan does to us. He tempts us with something we think we want. We get to chewing on it and comfortable with it, then he snatches it from us and takes it out of our range. When we are good and dumbfounded by it, he skips back in with it between his teeth taunting us with it.
Needless to say, I am not amused when I am tricked by Satan in that way. Unlike, Roscoe, I have God’s word to guide me. Last month’s verse was Psalm 19.
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul,
The statues of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple
The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
If Satan is taunting or tempting you, there is a place you can go so that you don’t keep falling for it over and over again.
UPP Creative Media 