Wednesday, April 7, 2021
Thursday, April 1, 2021
Sunday, November 22, 2020
The Gift of Surrender..When my Sister Vicky Died
when you have been blessed with a large family like ours
we get to see ourselves in each other
we were blessed.. there are so many who have siblings and often find themselves trying to learn each other as unique and very different individuals
i have always had siblings that i looked up to for my soon to be 65 years because of being the last of this family of 10 or 11.. because my youngest brother died at 5
losing our oldest sister is like losing part of the air I breathe since day one
i grew up with my nephew Curtis Martinez and nieces as if they were the extended siblings all my life
all my life memories are shaped by what this family of characters, that can often get on each others nerves, that can be ever so theatrical, that are very different in each of our personalities, that share a devotion and reverence for each other, in spite of our ups and downs and even our quarrels.
Daddy was that happy provider and gave us all an anchor of love, joy, jubilation, laughter, music, dance, theatre, and proud legacy of protection to and for each other.
Mammy was the fierce, stern, strict and the most courageous family cornerstone, moral compass, rule of law, and showed us that nothing or no one could or would try to come between her love and her children. She was that... she did not allow anyone the right to disrespect her children.
And after Daddy died, she was that fortress that each one of us had to come home to, to know that her love was her lifetime sacrifice for us.
To say the least, when Vicky was diagnosed with final stage terminal pancreatic cancer less than 2 months ago, none of us was ready. I was in denial. My friend Chantal had just died. This is not happening. This couldnt be. Not to Vicky.
Vicky was to me that good girl all her life. She just wasnt wayward like me or the rest of us. She was to us this paragon on virtue. She was always demure. As a matter of fact, she had only lately started to wear red and loved it even though, she would see me in all my flamboyance, and remark under her breadth, how coskell i could be. But somewhere along the way, she got used to it, and would actually, enjoy it
She loved her, some Sonny. Her dearly departed husband. Both she and Sonny were my godparents. And she so loved her children Curt, his wife Dianne, Lisa Gylla, and her grans and her great grans with a knowing that was so intimate. She knew each one to her soul.
More than most she loved to pray. We grew up in tradition and faith. She was so devout in her faith journey.
I knew she prayed unceasingly for me, and each of my loved ones, just like she did for her children, her grandchildren and great grans.
Without overt demonstration, she was there to take care of us, of me. With a call ever so often, Grace how are you, how is Daryean, how is, and she'll list all the names of our brood. and say I'm praying for each of you in my thoughts.
And that is how I just know... love is prayer.. someone holding you up, wishing only for your wellbeing, sharing kindness, blessings and always present.. just a prayer away , and a visit.
And in her own intimate and unobtrusive way, she gifted me the meaning of Surrender.
It was not about how, whether I was a religious, or not, whether I chose to or not to practice tradition, whether i might not or choose to attend Church. In her own simplistic way, she was a source of peace, comfort, respite, hospitality, feeding the hungry, teaching, sharing, caring, and giving to each and everyone she loved and met along the way.
In the end, her wishes were to make things as simple as possible.
Nothing grand. Nothing too obvious. Her privacy was particularly important to her, because she did not want to be a worry to others.
And what a gift to me, and to all of us, is How to Surrender.
None of our presumed fixations with what is conceived, perceived or believed, just Let go and Let God.
One of the last songs she enjoyed was one our Mother Rosie would sing at our family gatherings. I so dedicate to our Queen, Vicky, Victoria Clare ... Love Continues
With a love that true Always
When the things you plan
Need a helping hand
I will understand Always, Always
And when things arent clear Always
That's when Ill be there Always
Not for just an hour
Not for just a day
Not for just a year
But AlwaysNot for just an hour
Not for just a day
Not for just a year
But Always
Thursday, May 11, 2017
Cuba, a vacation exploration for the curious traveller to discover hospitality and fresh culinary cuisine , Salsa, Afro Cuban Jazz and the best Cuban cigars for unbeatable prices
Welcome to Cuba! a local vendor cheerfully poses |
The Cuban Capitol |
For me it was enough to hasten travel plans to get to the picturesque antiquity of Cuban life before the influx of curious tourists scour its native surroundings.
My visit to Havana, Cuba is a dream fulfilled.
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Social Media Scams The Anti Aging 3 Min video Wrinkle Cream Makeover on Facebook
this is with the bags and the gentle application |
OMG the Bags have disappeared in under 3mins |
The plot thickens... so with a firm NO... I defer to give any card number
Called the Customer Service Number provided by the bank, and the hired help is adamantly stating that the order I placed was for a monthly subscription
The Social Media Entrepreneur ReAction
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Trinidad and Tobago Carnival! a Tsunami of Revelry, Music, Dance, and the Best Escape to Reality
In urban dictionary, warahoon describes dem wild indian who use to live in trinidad long time ago look at them warahoon running like asses.
"You sounded great…thank you very much…you do not know how lucky you are …there are very very few countries in the world where people get opportunity to do this much music together… I know you take it for granted…but it's a wonderful situation…I hope it never dies…it's a very very rich heritage. Thank you very much.
- Sometimes when yuh at Carnival, yuh partying non stop. The weekend of Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago yuh start feteing from Friday, Saturday, Sunday till Jouvert Morning. Sometimes, you doh even have time to check yuh own pulse -. describes a good dose of the Carnival celebration
- Jouvert
- Monday Mas
- Tuesday Carnival Laniappe
Brazil Carnival showcases their Samba Dance Schools, New Orleans glams the avante garde and fierce outrageousness during their Mardi Gras celebrations, Trinis Play Mas without ceasing.
Thursday, January 1, 2015
My Top 10 Discoveries on Social Media Engagement
1. Person to Person conversations are so Yesterday
Instead of conversations, I can script a post to say my thoughts, themes, ideas, philosophies, discussion, and disregard the arguments in nano seconds of typing.
2. Technology is more entertaining than it is boring
For a gregarious introvert, the oxymoron of personalities, I am more fluid in my virtual communications.Open communication shared with others is a daily exercise of new and informational exposure.
It is very engaging to see the personality types exposed by the candor of their reflections. People display their political persuasions, their religious enthusiasm, or their atheism. There are the stereotypes, the misinterpreted, the bigots and the zealots.
3. Maintain neutrality or don't feel the mandate to pontificate
The public exercise of virtual freedom is not a space for open warfare. In the fractured schematic of the virtual world, there are; the dictator and spectator, the communicator and relator, the orator and berator. In the expose and the narrated, the truth and the fiction, the traveled and the traversed, the philosophical and the unsophisticated personality types are sharing in the popular culture of virtual reality.4. Viral is relative
Stars and media thrive on viral excess. To have star power and become a brand like the Kardashians, any and everything that can arouse twitter and reaction are viral worthy.Kim Kardashian poses with her butt implants for a cover shoot. It is newsworthy.
Nicki Minaj and the Anaconda salacious video antics are viral material.
The less clothes worn by Rihanna and Miley Cyrus for public events, that's viral value. This is news, viral and epidemic
Viral is momentary. The stars get their fame and until their next spectacle event is publicly posted, their viral fortune continues to expand.
5. The economy of virtual spending
Online grocery shopping is more expedient and ever better bargains can be easily found by performing specific searches. Either store pick up or home delivery, these choices are better than the picking, parking, loading frustrations of instore purchases.One of the best online purchases for 2014 was the Overstock.com Barbie Doll Dream house.
The labor of love for my granddaughter Raylynn by her Dad to put this together Christmas day was beyond priceless. But the joy for Raylynn and her look of complete bliss, are beyond words or money.
6. Isolation and Introspection are not because of loneliness.
The choice to experience a rich virtual education does not diminish the absence of human encounter.When social media posts share the nostalgia of homelands far away, there is connection. In the misery of all that seems trivial, when you are uplifted with a kind affirmation, the essence of harmony of lives becomes more evident.
7. Sharing is Caring
Sharing pictures, and posting about common interests introduce people to one another.For some they are entertained, others may need to politicize. To some, praying and seeking faithful are shared interests.
8. Virtual Optimization is Visibility with personalized hashtags
Online exploration of vacation destinations has excited my travel curiosity. The pictures to world destinations with sun, sand and beach are my most favored posts. My hashtag #LifeisaBeach is my virtual tour posts of destinations to visit.#Ihopeyoudance is a favorite post that I regularly share. With many dancing styles, the line dancing with the over 55+ to the newest hip hop movements with ages ranging from 5 to 95 are my zest potions to share with all.
#Familying with immediate members of family, with friends and those who are no longer strangers are the bonding connections that are continued in my posts of shared and common interests,
9. Virtual is the new Actual
Being socially engaged is not just a virtual experience in social media, it is my highway to the world or people, places things to do and things to see.Virtual is the new Actual
10. Be authentic and Just be You
People who are engaged are individual and unique and esoteric and normal in their day to day lives and activities.
For those who are uncomfortable with radical issues, doctrines, ideologies or dispositions, social media will be a dubious challenge.
For those who are enthusiastic about being the person they are and can value all that is diverse and all encompassing, the authenticity of self is all that is really needed.
Engagement in virtual reality and the experience of social media and social networking are filled with exploration and discovery
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Nostalgia, when Tradition and Reality collide...the yearning of Christmas of yesteryears
fondest family Love and Blessings |
The baking, from the sweet bread, the white bread, the sponge cake, and the fruit cake were the virtual cravings to my empty palette..
Many family friends and colleagues posted pictures and told stories of the magic of smells coming from the family homes and kitchens. There was bounty and abundance and varieties of holiday feasts. The pictures were tastes of homesickness that were agonizing.
The cuisine, the breakfasts, the lunches, and the dinner spreads were all too many. Everyone shared the sumptuous feasts that families overextend themselves to bestow consumptive indulgences on all tastes and palettes.
And in perspective, the sentiment of tradition pierced deeply in the solace of invisibility.
The meaning of tradition is all too real when the tradition of meaning will more than likely become extinct as years go by and memories are no longer treasured.
Why does the song O Holy Night bring tears to congregations when sung at a midnight mass service? In the nostalgia of the ethereal hope that the Savior message of the Christ born occurs, this song evokes imagery and pageantry of the celestial. The melody of the words, "O night Divine, when Christ was born" it renders a bewitching spell of angelic harmony of birthing and renewal.
So it happens for many Catholics and other Christian denominations and even to strangers who become families.
The tradition of ritual and Church is perpetuated in the repetition of the liturgy, the doctrine, and the romance of the sacred. All of the splendor and majesty that comes with the Christmas theme, with Hannukah, Kwanzaa festivities, and other festive holiday practices are steeped in holistic reverence.
Even the ritual of the materialistic excesses, the shopping, the buying, the gifting, the expenses, and the displays are typical and requisite holiday occurrences. They are the traditional norms today. These are the themes of most commercial spectacles of tradition.
For the tradition of holiday gestures to be replaced by the insularity of modern isolation, it becomes a reckoning of the axiom: Out with the old, In with the new.
To reminisce on what made a home for the holidays is to recall the stature of the "homemaker".
The homemaker is for me the presence of the intangible. Is this not the Christmas story? Is this still the message of Christmas? This humble birth in a manger story, a symbolic theme of Peace and Goodwill is the defining message of the Season.
In the perception of the mercenary traditions of now, busyness is the norm. The things that we have are mere tokens of opulence. There is a perfected farse that we no longer need to belong. It becomes natural to be apart because we have become so proprietary. All the busyness of our sophistication, the talents we have, the things we own, and the insularity that makes us distinct from others, enable our separation.
The nostalgia of tradition wanes.
As I reflect on the paradox of the manger story, the lowliness of the birth in a manger, the woman Mary.. who despite all fears and doubts and criticisms accepted her chosen calling, the Joseph, partner, who companioned and provided intimate stewardship to family and legacy, and the life source of birthing, the child, the innocence, the meek, the gift of the Presence, the lure of sentiment is aroused in promise.
Sentiment is not love.
While there is the challenge to constrain sentiment, practicing love distills even the murkiest distancing in life's path of obstacles and challenges.
The cherished memories of the warmth of home, the traditions of the family shared, and the making of a home, without much of all the things that today represent value and worth, are the anchors of history that justify tradition and legacy.
Now, it makes sense. The feeling of nostalgia, when tradition and reality collide. and the reason for the Season becomes singular endeavors of private exclusivity.
In discovery, to become home and to welcome others to share the gift of home are deeper and very lonely sentiments.
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