Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield was born into slavery in Natchez, Mississippi somewhere between 1817 and 1826, to Anna Greenfield and a man whose name may have been Taylor. According to an 1854 article in The Tri-Weekly Commercial, “her mother was of Indian descent, her father an African.”

In the early 1820s, Greenfield’s mistress, Elizabeth H. Greenfield, a former plantation owner who moved to Philadelphia after divorcing her second husband and emancipated her slaves. E.H. Greenfield worked with the American Emancipation Society to send 18 formerly enslaved residents of the Greenfield plantation, including Anna Greenfield and two of her daughters, to Liberia on August 2, 1831, aboard the brig Criterion.

Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield remained in Philadelphia. She studied music as a child.

In about 1851, Greenfield began to sing at private parties, debuting at the Buffalo Musical Association. From 1851 to 1853 she toured as managed by Colonel J. H. Wood, a supporter of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, who would not allow black patrons into her concerts.

In 1853, Greenfield debuted at Metropolitan Hall in New York City, which held an audience of 4,000—white patrons only. After the concert, Greenfield apologized to her own people for their exclusion from the performance and gave a concert to benefit the Home of Aged Colored Persons and the Colored Orphan Asylum.

She performed in concert halls around the world.

Done on purpose, deliberate.

Live intentionally.

Are you expecting good things?

Most of the time we expect things that are good, but sometimes, people who worry expect the bad.

This month let’s focus on the positive expectations.  Look for the small things.

They will happen.

I learned something this week as I was waiting on the train that takes me to work.

The train I was waiting on was about three blocks away. I could see it sitting at the station. It was late, but not moving.

After a few minutes of frustration, I asked out loud, “Why is it just sitting there?”

Another person waiting responded to me.

“It can’t come here until the southbound train gets here.”

Looking southward, there weren’t even lights heading in our direction.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yes,” they said.

True enough, once the southbound train got to our station, the one I was waiting on left the other station heading our way.

This caused me to think.

Some of us are waiting on things to happen in our lives and are growing frustrated because they are not.

PERHAPS there is a series of things that need to happen that do not have anything to do with you.

Maybe you need to ask the question of why you are still waiting.

Maybe you need to realize that some times it has nothing to do with you.

Maybe you wait patiently until it is your time.

Manage your frustration. Don’t give up. Trust God’s timing. He is always right on time.

Planned Interruption.

Some days you need to plan the interruption. In the middle of your list, throw something in there that interrupts the flow of things. Maybe it will take you off the beaten path. Maybe it will give you new ideas that rejuvenate you. Maybe it will just give you a break from your ordinary routine.

Learn to embrace the interruptions.

Hope is one of those things you do not keep to yourself.

This is something you share causing it to grow.

The more people that have hope, the better this world will be. If you only give one other person hope, you have made the world a better place.