I have love to give, beloveds.

As do you.

Before we do, we have two, which shall be nameless, who are preparing to prepare for my next sneak attack.

Ha!

NONE can withstand my cunning, my sheer brilliance, my…

Huh?

No fair!

*Cassandra wipes whipped cream from her eyes in time to see Valencia and Silent Knight diving behind the 🛋 couch.*

Fooooooooooooood Fight!!

*Cassandra snatches up some chocolate donuts setting her feet to hurl couches way.*

Hhmm. No need in wasting good 🍲 food.

*Cassandra invites all for dessert 🍰. Need to get properly fueled before shenanigans can be properly commenced.*

patiently plotting her next victims, er, move,

Cassandra

#YourLifeMattersToMe

Note: Life has been especially hard. Work. No mom. Health. No mom. Finances. No money. No mom. Thanksgiving next week. No mom…*sigh*.

I have told insomnia and comfort eating to kick rocks. I have been doing my best to stay on schedule.

It’s important, beloveds, to understand that the especially hard times really do pass. They seem to take a forever to move on. They do. The trick is how WE choose to end up AFTER the storm has passed. Will you be:

Bitter?

Hopeful?

Faithful?

Faithless?

Loving?

Closed off?

Afraid?

Fearless?

The choice is ours. I choose love. Still. I choose joy. Still. I choose hope. Still. I choose faith. Still. Why? Mom would want me to, for one.

Also, because life can be hard/unfair but so what? Don’t get me wrong. I miss mom every second of every day. The holiday season becomes a never ending mine of trying to keep from losing mine.

That bitterly cold morning they buried mom, I thought I would never laugh again. Thought I would never hope again. Believed I would never have joy again. I have done all those things and more.

I told God, Life AND The Universe to kick 🥊rocks! I was:

Angry.

Angry!

ANGRY!!

It took a while. A loooooonnng while, beloveds, to make my way 🔙 back to life, to living, to trying, to caring.

What got me back?

God: Take out the trash, Cassandra.

The Universe: Load the dishwasher, Cassandra.

Life: Get out of bed, Cassandra.

Be encouraged. If you are currently going through, mad at the whole damned world, tired, tired of giving two hoots and wondering why you are still in the fight, fight on!

Take out the trash. Load the dishwasher. Get out of bed. Life awaits and you got thangs to do.

Speaking of which…

*Seeing that Valencia and Silent Knight has fallen for the innocent let’s have dessert ruse, Cassandra lobs a nerf ball at both and dives into the closet.*

Stay in the game, beloveds. Speaking of which, if you have any good sneak attack ideas, shoot me an email. Help me keep it moving these next days. They are super hard. Miss you mom.

here,

#YourLifeMattersToMe

Note: NO time. Shenanigans is hot on my tail…

• SUNDAY WITH CASSANDRA. IT ME!
• MOVIE SATURDAY WITH CASSANDRA🌎🎬👩🏿‍🦼🍿🌎
• (no title)
• Today…
• 🎬 MAYBE THEY WEREN’T “TOO BLACK.” MAYBE I WAS STILL HOLDING THE RULER. 🪑🔑Beloveds,I told you I caught myself watching Black romance movies and thinking:Too loud.Too boisterous.Too Black.😳And the Holy Spirit convicted me.Then I watched Deliver Us from Eva.WHEW.👀Because suddenly I wasn’t only watching Eva.I was looking at the ruler I sometimes used to measure everybody.Let’s start with Eva.She’s intelligent, professional, beautiful, protective, loving, bossy, controlling, loyal and complicated.All of it.🔑She doesn’t have to become either the Angry Black Woman Who Needs Taming or the Strong Black Woman Whose Every Choice Must Be Defended.Eva needs correction AND Eva deserves dignity.She helped raise her sisters after their parents died. Protection became part of her identity.But eventually protection sometimes became control.⛓️ If I don’t manage everybody, everything will fall apart.🔑 I can love grown people without controlling grown people.Her sisters need a key too.You cannot keep handing somebody the clipboard to your life and then get mad because she keeps writing on it.🤣Eva has to stop managing.Her sisters have to start owning.Everybody gets a chair.🪑And YES—THE MEN TOO.🤣🪑🪑🪑🪑Ray begins by deceiving Eva.That matters.But eventually “the problem” becomes a person to him.Eva.And Ray changes.🔑 Sometimes genuinely knowing somebody destroys the caricature we created from a distance.But Ray deserves his own humanity too.He’s working, dreaming, saving, flawed, funny, romantic, masculine and tender.He doesn’t need to become a CEO before he’s worthy of love.There’s that ten-times-better ruler again.👀Then Mike.Mike has a legitimate frustration with Eva’s interference.His solution?SIR. SIT DOWN.🪑🤣Because here’s another key:🔑 A legitimate grievance does not automatically make every remedy legitimate.Pain deserves acknowledgment.Choices still require accountability.Then Tim made me ask:What does a Black man have to look like before we consider him “man enough”?Dominant?Always in charge?Never soft?Never uncertain?Why?Tim doesn’t need more masculinity.He needs his voice.🔑A loud Black woman shouldn’t have to shrink.A quieter Black man shouldn’t have to perform dominance.Both get chairs.And Darrell?🤣Some people are intellectual heavyweights.And some people are…Darrell.🤣❤️HE GETS A CHAIR TOO.Intelligence isn’t the admission price for dignity.Sophistication isn’t the admission price for love.Black people are allowed to be ordinary.Goofy.Messy.Wrong.Funny.Tender.Brilliant.Ridiculous.Rich.Poor.Loud.Quiet.Human.And suddenly the Holy Spirit’s conviction went deeper.Maybe I had become nervous when Black characters weren’t representing us “well enough.”What will THEY think?Why are they so loud?Why aren’t they more polished?More educated?More professional?More respectable?More…acceptable?😳And suddenly I’m not watching a movie.I’m conducting a performance review of Blackness.⛓️That’s exhausting.Because Black characters should not have to carry the reputation of an entire people on their backs.And sometimes, without realizing it—we help load the backpack.That was part of what the Holy Spirit showed me.Not merely:Cassandra, look at them.But:Cassandra, look at your ruler.👀Who handed it to you?Why are you still carrying it?And I knew part of the answer.Ten times better.There was love and survival inside what Black folk taught me.They were preparing me for an unfair world.But:“You may have to be ten times better to receive the opportunity”can quietly become:“Black people SHOULD be ten times better.”NO.❤️‍🩹I reject that.Black excellence is beautiful.Black dignity is unconditional.Eva gets correction and dignity.Ray gets tenderness and accountability.Mike gets frustration and responsibility.Tim gets quietness and voice.Darrell gets goofiness and dignity.The sisters get love and agency.Nobody has to become less Black.Nobody has to become ten times more human.EVERYBODY GETS A CHAIR.🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑And maybe that’s what the Holy Spirit was really asking me:Cassandra, why are you still holding the ruler?😳My answer?I’m learning to put it down.🔑And maybe you have one too.Race.Education.Disability.Age.Money.Accent.Religion.Politics.Body size.Mental illness.Addiction.Sexuality.Somebody whose life simply doesn’t look like yours.Don’t perform an answer for me.Be honest with you. For, HIM.🙏🏿What ruler are you carrying?Who handed it to you?Who have you measured with it?Have you measured yourself with it too?And if the Holy Spirit is showing it to you, maybe He isn’t giving you the ruler so you can beat yourself with it.Maybe He’s saying:Child. You don’t need that anymore.Put it down.🔑❤️‍🩹Pull up your chair.🪑Let somebody else pull up theirs.And let people be fully human in front of you.Including—you.👩🏿‍🦼💃🏿❤️‍🔥🌎Asking for A Friend,Cassandra#YourLifeMattersToMeNote: One step. One step. One step. You are loved. You are NOT alone. Keep on being…YOU!Unapologetically His.Unapologetically yours.