Month: July 2023

Hello, world: It’s okay to be the ostrich.

God is wise.

God KNOWS we are BOTH, at times, the peacock AND the ostrich.

We are both, beautiful and ugly.

We are both, givers and takers.

We are both, loving and hateful.

We are both, saints and sinners.

We are both, fruitful and wasteful.

We are both, resourceful and lazy.

We are both, young and old.

We are both, living and dying.

We are both, loud and silent.

We are both, lenders and borrowers.

We are both, friends and enemies.

We are both, believers and skeptics.

We are both, patriotic and antithetical.

We are both, pursuer and pursued.

We are both, chef and diner.

We are both, landlord and renter.

We are both, peacock and ostrich.

The world, beloveds, wants you to be what IT desires because it, the world, desires to strip, from you, your essence, for the benefit, of itself.

God and Life wants you to be, ALL you are, for YOUR benefit, for YOUR growth, for YOUR health, for YOUR heart, for YOUR healing, for YOUR peace, for YOUR spirituality, for YOUR joy, for YOUR love.

Once you understand this, THEN you will be able to offer the world, ALL of you. You will be content to receive all God and Life have meant and prepared, for YOU.

You don’t have to be anything other than you.

You don’t have to pay rent to the universe, meaning you don’t have to jump through 50 hoops, give 50 million dollars, dress in expensive garments, live in a mansion, work for a Fortune 500 company, have 500 bazillion likes/subscribers, toil for 50 years or 5 billion other things you could name, to be loved.

You are.

Simple as that.

Jesus, loves you.

God, The Father loves you.

I love you.

Believe us, or not.

We love you, still.

Ostrich or Peacock.

You are beautiful.

Lift your head, beloveds.

Love you some you.

It’s time, isn’t it?

Your heart is nothing to be ashamed of.

The things you have done, the things you have allowed, to your heart, are done now.

Forgive, them.

Forgive, you.

Ask for forgiveness.

Receive, forgiveness.

Move, on.

Move, forward.

Move!

And, if you are harming your heart, still, due to your actions. Or, due to allowing others, or you, to harm your heart through carelessness, dismissal, disrespect, casual treatment, infidelity, lack of integrity, dishonesty, deceit, harsh words spoken from a place of anger, rough treatment from words spoken from hurt feelings,

STOP!

Tell the world you are the daughter/son of The King. Therfore, YOU are a queen/king!

Lift up, your head.

Rise!

Know, your worth is not that which adorns you. Your priceless value is…

YOU!

It’s okay, beloveds, to be the ostrich.

You are loved.

You are NOT alone.

I love you.

Take the chance. Share your thoughts and heart. Start with you. Let me know what you think of mine.

Cassandra

#YourLifeMattersToMe

ttnette37@yahoo.com

Real talk: What time said to me.

It’s about time!

That’s what time said to me.

It’s about time you realize how precious time really is.

I used to be dismissive of time.

Especially my time. I gave my time away to any and everybody. Believing, hoping, silently pleading with them to respect my time.

Many didn’t. But that was on me. I needed to let folks know. My time was valuable, as was I.

I asked God, for miracles. He sent me time. Angry with God for only sending time, instead of what I THOUGHT I needed.

I, wasted, time. Complaining about, the things I thought He needed to have given me.

I asked Life, to show me, the way. Life gave me enough time, to figure things out, for myself.

I, wasted, time. Running to God, to vent about the unfairness, the AUDACITY, of Life, to have the NERVE, to not bow and move to MY every wish and whim. Did not Life KNOW, that Cassandra was the center of the entirety of the whole wide world AND universe?!!

I asked family/potential friends and lovers, within my heart where only I could here, to love me, support me and know me. Without the benefit of allowing them in to get to know me. Family/potential friends and lovers, did the best they could with the hidden messages and meanings I gave to them.

I, wasted, time. Their time AND my time, lambasting them, besmirching their intentions and mine, because I was too much of a coward to share and allow folk to receive or reject what I had to offer. My bad. I sowwy.

I asked my employers, to fill my life with satisfaction/empowerment/joy/fulfillment. My employers provided me with a salary, training, and countless opportunities to learn torm, to grow from, to teach, to mentor, to be mentored by, to have adult conversations with, to learn conflict resolution, the space to learn HOW to work with, alongside, shoulder to shoulder, with folk of every race, religion, sex or creed.

I, wasted, time. Lamenting raises I “should” have been given. Dismissed some teaching for being “not thorough enough”, “not taught in MY teaching style”, “not using my gifts and talents the way I think they should have been used”. And toooooooooooooooooo many absolutely ridiculous excuses to be listed within this piece.

I asked the church, to be the family I accused my family of not being. The church…*sigh*. A whole other piece for another day…

I, wasted, time. Trying to get the church to give me what only The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost could give me. Also, lol, other stories for other coming days.

Lastly, I asked my heart to be all and do all so I could have all. I sowwy, my heart…*sigh*.

I, wasted, time. Trying to be all things to all people. I ended up being not very much to awhole lotta people, due to burn out. Including, to me. Especially, to me.

Over time, God and Life taught me time WAS a miracle. Time WOULD give me enough time to figure things out. Family/friends and potential lovers SHALL love me as I allow them inside. The Father, The Son, The Holy Ghost PROMISED/PROMISES to walk with me for all of my days.

It’s about ⌚.

Ah.

Aha!

Don’t you think it time,beloveds, to see what YOUR time may be saying to you?

Listen!

Tick.

Tick.

Tic…

listening,

Cassandra

#YourLifeMattersToMe

ttnette37@yahoo.com

Taking applications: Where are you, my love(r)?

Dear Universe,

I am ready.

Ready, for my boo.

Ready, to share my goof.

Ready, to laugh/rejoice, with my soulmate(s).

Ready, for my life partner(s).

Ready, for friends who will love them some me, as much as I love me some them.

Ready, to share Jesus with some folk who are Jesus with skin on.

Ready, to be among eagles, not chickens who are too afraid to live, to laugh, to love the Lord, with me.

Ready, to be around folks who will cheer me on, as I get my health together, whilst love me as I am, physical-wise: white haired, a bit baldy, black, plenty of junk in the trunk, missing a tooth but full of so much love, compassion, joy, integrity, yiipppees, empathy, support, faithfulness and too many things to be contained with words, that I have to give away as much as I can to not waste them, on the daily.

Ready, to live the rest of my life, LIVING for the REST OF MY LIFE.

I am now open, for business.

I am taking, applications.

Apply at your own risk!

Lightweights, need not apply.

Fairweather friends, need not apply.

Please know, I no longer toss around this jewel, known as my heart, lightly. You shall respect her. You shall honor her. You shall cherish her. As I do. I don’t expect you to treat me in any way other than how I treat myself.

In return, I promise to love you the best way I know how. I promise to give you 100 percent of me. Some days, I will be tired and won’t have all to give to you. However, I DO promise to give 100 percent of what I have, on the day.

I promise to make you laugh, on the regular. I promise to collect your tears and protect them as the priceless treasure they are. I promise to have a shoulder that is ever ready for you to lean on. I promise to give a boot, to your rear, liberall, as needed to help you keep some act right.

Mostly, I promise to care. I do. I will.

Together, let’s build and forge friendship(s) to sustain us for the rest of our lives.

In the meantime, Universe, I shall continue to love the whole world, whilst waiting for You to send those who shall rock my world!

love,

Cassandra

#YourLifeMattersToMe

ttnette37@yahoo.com

Refrigerator Death Match: Time to get the nasty out.

“I don’t know where you think we are going but we are NOT going in THERE!!!”

That’s what black eye peas said, when I was fixing to situate them in my in desperate need of cleaning, refrigerator shelves.

In harmony, grilled chicken went on strike with green beans, potatoes, and jello bringing up the rear.

Outnumbered, I casually grabbed a bowl of hot water and fixed myself to fixing the sticky mess.

Hhmm.

Harrumph!

Apparently, shelves and old jelly and ketchup packages had formed an everlasting friendship. They would NOT let go!

WTW??!!!!!!

*Cassandra stamps her foot and rushes to The Father’s Lap to complain about the unfair treatment.*

God: Why are you here, with ME, when you ought be cleaning up the mess YOU made? Hasn’t Yikes! and Egads! been exclaiming EVERY time you opened the refrigerator, here lately?

Me: Well, yea.

God: And, haven’t I been suggesting you may wish to take care of this BEFORE jelly and ketchup become fast friends?

Me: Okay, so, well, ehem.

God: What do you expect ME to do about YOUR self made mess?

Me: Scuze me.

*Saying a quick ‘I sowwy, Cassandra clamors from The Father’s Lap and heads back to the fierce battle.*

Cmon!

Cmere!!

Give them here!!!!!!

*Finally, finally, FINALLY, Yikes! called The Refrigerator Battle Cassandra’s way.*

Whew! That was about as bad as that incline.

Incline: WTW?! DON’T BE BLAMING ME FOR YOUR LAZY! YOU SHALL PAY FOR THIS WHEN YOU VISIT ME IN THE MORNING.

Me: My bad.

Think I shall end here before I get in more trouble. The dishes, from meal prep, are hollering at me. A worker’s job is never done, eh, beloveds?

Take care of you.

Be encouraged.

Be about being about it.

Try.

One step.

One step.

One step.

stepping with you,

Cassandra

#YourLifeMattersToMe

Prep(aration): Suck it up and add some nasty to it!

I am not a huge veggie fan.

I should be. We grew up on fresh vegetables. Meat was a rare treat. Coming from a large family, mom had to make due with what we had and made our food do what it needed to stretch feeding 13 kids and a dad. Wow. Whew.

Mom would toss left over this, what in the fresh hell is THAATT!? and make super tasty meals. I never felt poor. We weren’t. We just did not have a lot of funds, let alone discretionary ones.

We learned the valuable lesson of enjoying life with little in the way of material things. We were our own company. Since there were so many of us, we had our own ⚾, basketball 🏀, 🏈 teams.

We would have track races, in the middle of the street. We would line up, on the painted white lines. Straining, taunting, deliberating over who would win the race.

Two combatants, the other bros/sis lining the street, on both sides, cheering on the fierce gladiators.

Ready.

Set.

Go!

Hooting with laughter, feet pounding hot pavement, us Scott’s would be about it, doing our level best to defeat one another.

Sometimes, us young ones raced each other. Leaving the older siblings to duke it out.

Other times, us ALWAYS picked on little sis and bros would challenge the others.

YYYAAAAAAAAAAASSS!🥰

I appreciated being raised healthy. Over time, alas, I used long work hours, being lazy, fifty million other reasons to grab junk/fast food. Fast food has a way of killing your act right real fast!

Slowly, I have been getting back to vegetables. I love green beans so no problem. It’s the rest of the lot that peer forlornly at me, longing to be chosen.

A bit ago, I reluctantly ordered two cans of black eye peas. When they arrived, I shoved those bad boys to the back of the cabinet. They have forever been hollering me to add them to my meal prep.

Tired of their accusatory look and carrying on, I drug them out of the tomb, from whence they came and sadly, poutedly, pointedly sniffed my way into tossing some nasty, black eye peas, to my meal prep. Supposedly, black eye peas are considered to bring prosperity, financially, when eaten for the new year or some kind of yearly ritual situation.

Making sure NOT to kill two poor, innocent birds, with one stone, I decided today would be the day to add a bit of nasty to my diet. Who knows? They may help me beat some young, muscular, possible marriage material hunk, as I get about getting my health life in order.

I shall jog, discreetly, allowing aforementioned muscular, young stud to sweep this 54 year old ready for love young lady off her nasty eating feet.

*Thinking of her love of a name she just did not know, Cassandra dropped her writing and got to getting some nasty in her diet.*

Ready.

Set.

I go!

Come with me.

Cassandra

#YourLifeMattersToMe

Take out the trash: Stop feeding the gnats.

I needed to take out one bag of trash.

It was hot.

I was lazy.

I was tired of fighting with the heat and gnats that surely were belched from the seat of hell, itself.

One bag, of trash, turned into two bags, of trash.

It was hot.

I was lazy.

I was tired of fighting with the heat and gnats that surely were belched from the seat of hell, itself.

Two bags, of trash, turned into three bags, of trash.

Three bags of trash were now blocking the dishwasher and the sink. Annoying. I had to move the dumb bags in order to load the dishwasher and use the sink.

On top of that, the gnats appeared to have invited ALL of their friends to join the party.

Now I found myself:

Hot.

Lazy.

Annoyed.

Deciding that lazy was much too costly for me, I went ahead and took out, the trash.

Apparently, gnats are annoyed when we take out the trash and have some act right. Gnats took lazy to bother some other lazy, not having their act right saps and left me to be about being about it. Who knew?!

Note to self: Keep your act right acting right no matter what the who is going on in your life.

Check.

Okay, so Yikes! just told me fingers are pointing to the kitchen for clean up duty as punishment for not having my act right acting right.

I sowwy.

Later, taters. I know enough when to beat the heat 🔥 and bust a move.

Keep going. Keep taking out the trash. Oftentimes we get to hollering at God and Life about gnats that are flourishing for no other reason than laziness or not holding ourselves accountable to do the things we know we can and need to. Get it!

Remember:

You are loved.

You are NOT alone.

Keep on being…YOU!

WTW!?: Keep walking.

WTW?!

Fresh hell!

😳

Somebody could have warned me getting back in shape is hard?!!!

WTW?!

I must admit, beloveds, I seriously considered quitting, mid walk. Beats the heck out of me how I would be getting back home. All I knew, at the time, was it was hot, geezz Louise it was hot, fresh hell it was hot and dammit it was hot!!

Also, I had 50 good reasons why God and Life should carry me the rest of the way home. 49, of which, had something or other to do with it being so blasted hot!

Plus, I manipulatively manipulated, I was old! I was broke! I was fat!! I was lazy!! I was out of damn shape!!

God: Whose fault is that you accept these poor and untrue excuses?

Me: Mine.

God: Quit carrying on and hit the bricks!

Me: Geez!! Okay!

*Stomping up the stupid Incline, Cassandra completed her walk, contemplating the stupid upcoming stairs.

Stairs: You shall pay for that!

Me: I sowwy.

Keep going, beloveds. Change can be tough.

One step.

One step.

One step.

stepping up,

Cassandra

#YourLifeMattersToMe

Keep going: When it gets harder.

Life has jokes.

Especially when you tell life you’re serious about your goals and dreams.

The second you tell Life I will, Life will send your will on a test of wills. Who will win? Who know? God does which us why He will stay out of your fight with your will, Life’s Will, the enemy’s will, circumstances’ will, situation’s will, family will, job wills, along with all the other wills and will not of life.

SHEEEEEESSHH!

No fair!

Life does NOT play fair. It appears to cheat, you lament, fervently, to God. God only shrugs, stays out of your way, gets back to reading the news, troubled by man’s act rights appearing not to act right…*Cassandra decides to mind her bidnezz and leave God to His cutting up chillin.*

Life, just as soon as you declare, loudly and proudly your intention to FINALLY live your life with intention and intentionally sets out to make you PROVE your intentions to be true.

Wham!

Pow!

Heat!

GNATS!

Rats.

Thankfully, for me, there were no rats. Can not stand pests. Life, though, has made Itself enough of a pest I have gotten used to all this hard.

I have learned how to adjust in, thrive in, conquer in, love in, rejoice in, kick tail in, keep walking in, keep trying in all this heat, hell and high water life keeps finding to throw at me.

Life knew and knows I can take it. Just needed to show ME, so I could KNOW and EXPERIENCE I got this.

I got this?🫣

I got this!!!!!!!

As do you, beloveds. Keep going. The steps will seem harder because they will be harder. Don’t fear the hard. Enjoy making those diamonds, called rocks, that will get caught in your shoes as you walk through all kinds of unknown inclines and challenges.

One step.

One step.

One step.

How big or small the step is beside the point. Just keep moving.

moving with you,

Cassandra

#YourLifeMattersToMe

Keep walking: Incline unknown.

No idea my street ends on gradual incline. Sure would have been nice to know as the return walk gradually ascends leaving me gasping.

Walking early yesterday morning, I didn’t notice. Walking at high noon was an altogether horror show of what the fresh hell and where the world is my muscular knight of marriage material!

On top of the incline, the heat, the dear God in heaven why I why in the fresh hell did I want to get healthy anyway, I had the horror show coming of the stairs.

THE STAIRS!!!!

WWWWWHHHYYYY MMMEEE, JESUS?!

Finally, finally, thank heavens finally, I confronted the bane of my existence:

Stairs: Hit it, Cassandra.

Me: Take pity on me. I met incline, for the first time who does NOT play fair or mess around. I am soooo tired I forgot to put neither in front of not. Which is neither here nor there but take pity on me.

Incline: Not my fault you waited 7 years to introduce yourself then got to me late from sleeping in so you tearfully advised me in the high heat. Just as heat told you, not MY problem, Cassandra.

Heat: True that. I told night to tell you to stop messing around. Night’s day would be done, leaving you a tired mess.

Me: The air-conditioner felt night.

Air-conditioner: Hey! Don’t get to blaming me.

*Tired, hot and annoyed, Cassandra left incline, heat and air-conditioner to argue, gave stairs the bird, er, a high five, and clamored up the stairs.*

Whew!

Moral of the story? How the heck I know? Too busy gasping for air. Keep going yall. No matter what. Heat and all. Incline and all. Stairs and all. Get to the top step. One step at a time.

One step.

One step.

One step.

One step.

Cassandra

#YourLifeMattersToMe

Stay in the ice, er, fight.

Stay in the fight.

You can take the heat.

You will beat the heat.

Lift up your head.

Look around you.

Look how far you’ve come.

Look at how many have given up because of the heat.

Yet you welcome it.

Despite the heat.

Because of the heat.

For you know the heat is nothing but the temperature.

The hotter it gets the better you go.

The hotter he gets…

The hotter you get.

Go along with your bad self.

Stay in a fight.

You are winning.

winning with you,

Cassandra

#YourLifeMattersToMe

Note: Due to this high heat I have become a master ice maker. I have got an ice making down to a science. I have learned what kind of containers to use. I have mine that some containers are just to the brittle. I have learned when I have used too much water. I have learned when I have not used enough water. I have found the perfect container to put the ice makers in. So that the water will run down into the container and not the freezer.

Stay in the fight, beloveds. Keep learning how to make your ice. You will learn what to use what not to use and how to use them. Life is short. There are times when the heat will be unbearable. Yet you will bear up under the heat. Keep walking. Keep rejoicing. Keep believing. You don’t allow your feelings to have the last say. I am on my way to an early morning walk. I don’t feel like going. That’s why I’m going. Walk with me. We go!