Keep it pushing when the last thing you want to do is keep it pushing.
Keep it moving. When it’s the last thing you want to do is keep it moving.
The dam will break at some point. We just don’t know when. We just don’t know what will be the last blow.
Be encouraged. There will be a last blow. There is a time and season for everything under the sun.
I didn’t feel like pushing back. I push back anyway. I have to. If I don’t push back, the darkness will win. I have too many things to do to allow that to happen. Besides, we can see fireworks in the dark….lol
We get so many opportunities to either show up, give up, show out, or give in. I CHOOSE to continue betting on ME. What about you, beloveds?
asking for A Friend, Cassandra
#YourLifeMattersToMe
Note: Keep pushing back. Eventually, hard will get bored and go mess with someone else…
Don’t let the darkness fool you. Get out your flashlight!
I have to keep reminding myself that every time I allow myself to focus on the waves and the hard that I tend to get discouraged. Otherwise, my day goes by pretty joyfully.
The holidays are hard for me. Being alone, they remind me of Mom, now gone. I miss her.
I almost found myself wanting to wallow in despair. I refuse to allow myself that luxury. I can’t afford it. I have one life to live. I have just this one life to give. I can’t waste these moments.
Since I didn’t know what to do about my dreams, I decided to encourage other folk to continue to pursue theirs. It made me feel better. It made me forget about my disappointments and discouragement. Doing so helped me to refocus on the goals that I have for my future. I remembered I do have a future. Still.
Be encouraged, beloveds. We still have a future. There is so much unrest and unsavory things going on in the world. It’s easy to want to give in to despair and hopelessness. We can NEVER do that. Never, no never, neva, not going to happen on my watch people!!
When it gets dark, just turn on the flashlight. Remember that the sun will shine and have her time.
I turned on “We Are The World” and am now serenading half the neighborhood. Poor neighbors…I sowwy.
Beloveds, this world is what WE make it. Let’s do what WE can, in our corner of it, shall we?
I love you, beloveds. More than you know. I pray for each and every subscriber and for all of your families. Especially for the nonbelievers out there. I don’t blame a one of you. In fact, I would like to take a belt to soooooooooooooooooooooo many folk who defiantly call themselves “Christians” who act like hell on wheels. Don’t get me started…whew..*Cassandra prays for all knuckleheads, er folks, who need some serious act right and a boot to the rear or…*…..oppps….lol.
Laugh, beloveds. Live, beloveds. Life is short. Life is so much more than chasing a bag, focusing on the hard, and being disagreeable to folk who don’t agree with us or look like us. Let’s all do better towards one another okay? Mini rant/lecture over. Listening to “We Are The World” ALWAYS makes me want to run around hollering at everyone to love one another. Things keep going the way they are, beloveds, you just may see a viral TikTok with some old, crazy, black woman tearing around the neighborhood hollering “love one another, already!”
Have an amazingly, awesome day.
asking for A Friend, Cassandra
#YourLifeMattersToMe
Note: We ARE the world. What kind of world are YOU providing?
Okay, I was mini ranting about God being awfully silent, when God showed up and got awfully loud…
Me: Yada, yada, yada, God ain’t doing nada. Yada, yada…
God: What could YOU be DOING while you are supposedly, apparently, not really waiting PATIENTLY for Me to complete the promises I have already told you I was GOING to do. Notice, I did not say I may. I said “Yes” when you asked. For the millionth time. Again, what can YOU be DOING as you WAIT, beloved?
Me: Ehem, opps. Yikes.
Then, asked myself what I could be doing. I came up with a list quick, fast, and in a hurry:
Write.
Get up.
Encourage someone.
Encourage myself.
Feed myself uplifting music.
Make myself a nourishing meal.
Make a grateful list.
Yak with family.
Reach out to a friend.
Be good to me.
Read my bible.
Watch something uplifting/encouraging.
Work on my goals.
Daydream about my POSITIVE futre.
Take a walk.
Tell fear to take a hike.
Drown doubts in the shower.
Chair dance.
Sing badly.
Make a terribly corny video I have no idea how to upload/export/download or whatever in the fresh hoohah one needs to do to get going!!! Ack!…..oopps. scuze me….
The list could have went on all day. What did I DO, beloveds? I stopped complaining about God’s Silence and got loud up in the house!!……YYYYYAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSS!
I just stopped ’round to ask somebody what they were going to DO…NOW. Not, tomorrow. Not after they have allowed fear/dread/doubt to beat the fresh hell out of them all day.
What are you going to do NOW?
asking for A Friend, Cassandra
#YourLifeMattersToMe
Note: There will always be something going on. What we will do about those things? I’m done whining and complaining about things. I’m changing things I can. I’m mitigating the things I can’t change. I’m living with what is.
Life is about making connections and corrections. I’m doing my best to make as many positive connections as I can. I’m doing all I know to make as many healthy corrections as I can.
Be good to yourself as you do the same. Have an amazing today.
No more retreating. No more surrendering crucial ground.
I’m done giving up on me. I fight for me now, with all that is within me. Life is much too short to do otherwise.
Don’t give up. Not just yet. Life will give up its bounty to us. We just have to keep fighting one day at a time. We just have to keep on keeping on. We have to just keep encouraging ourselves and others.
There’s too much in us for us to quit. We can. We have to.
Lift up your head. Turn on the light. Put one foot in front of the other. Let the past go. Embrace the future.
Draw your own line in the sand. Declare what you will and will not put up with. Live your life with intention. There are no victims here. We get to choose our actions, our emotions. Our behaviors every single day. Choose well.
asking for A Friend, Cassandra
#YourLifeMattersToMe
Note: Choose you. Choose your dreams. Choose to love. Choose to care. The world needs what only you have to provide. I love you.
Note: 😎😁. More men need to speak up on women’s behalf. Where yall at? We love and support yall. Support us back. Asking for ALL the ladies in the house.
We simply choose to make things harder than they need to because things don’t/won’t/didn’t do as we want them to all the time.
Life could give two hoots about what we want. Life is going to life. Life is going to work with those who work with it. Life is going to work against those who work against it.
Simple as that.
Life is not hard. Hard is hard. There IS a difference. Once you understand this, beloveds, life becomes quite simple…😎💯🥰🫶
Be encouraged. Stop making life so hard. It’s…hehe. You fill in the blank.
asking for A Friend, Cassandra
#YourLifeMattersToMe
Note: Have an amazing day. Be encouraged. Things will work out as they need to.
God spoke when I shut up whining, er, complaining, er, praying. 💯🤣
Nuff said. I sowwy, Father. Oops.
*Cassandra promises to stop all the carrying on and to carry on*
Geez, Cassandra…
Kinda hard to hear, beloveds when we are full of fear, doubt, despair, apathy, hopelessness, and all their friends.
This last year has been teaching me HOW to accept the fact that I am just one human soul trying her best to make it in the world. Simple as that.
I can understand now why I have not yet been able to find a job. The universe keeps standing in my way so I can face the fact that I am more than what I produce. I used to define myself on how hard I could run myself into the ground for everyone in the world.
I was raised to empty everything I had and to pour it into everything, into everyone, everywhere.
Don’t get me wrong. I love giving. I love extinct myself. It’s the overextending that gets us into trouble.
The world would have you believe you HAVE to continually be there for people twenty-four hours of every single day, or you just don’t count a matter. This is simply not true.
I am 56 years old. I have been working most of my life. I had work non-stop for most of that time.
Before the tornado last year, I have never taken an extended period of time off. I had been struggling for the last few years before that. I was tired. I was exhausted. I need to break so badly.
My spirit kept telling me. I needed at least a year off to rest. In fact, my heart had been asking me to take a year off to just rest, write, breathe, and see what life had to offer.
I told myself I couldn’t. I had to be there for everyone. Someone might need me in that time. I had bills to pay.
I used every excuse in the book. Yet, I was so tired. I began to resent being at work. I loved my job. I enjoyed the people I worked with. Still, I was tired, and I wanted to take a break.
The tornado decided things for me. I was torn. At times, I am still torn. Muscle memory tells me.I should be working myself into the ground still.
God tells me to rest. I fought with guilt for many months. Even now, I fight with a tad bit of guilt that I should be doing SOMETHING to help SOMEONE. To be doing SOMETHING for some reason or other.
Inadvertently, the tornado has given me the year off I have been craving for, for the last decade or so!
God knows I NEEDED this time to truly heal. I had never given myself permission to grieve mom’s loss in 2016.
I had never given myself permission to grieve the loss of having to uproot my life and move to a state I had never lived in when the job decided to close where I was working with 60 days notice! I had 60 days to find a job, find a car, move myself to one state while helping my sis move to another.
On top of THAT, I ended up losing more than 3,000 dollars after being scammed by a “friend” who had a truck and business who I paid, upfront, to move my things and move sis and her things.
None of that happened. The driver never showed up. I ended up having to lose EVERYTHING except what I could pack into the car I eventually found. I ended up giving most of my things away and leaving the rest on the literal curb for folk to pick up.
I had no choice. I had to be working in my new town in two months’ time. In the meantime, I still had to work.
In the meantime, we had to convince our mom to have her leg amputated, or she would be dead within the next few hours/data. Initially, she said no. So, I had to have a possible last call with mom. I didn’t pressure her. I supported her decision. I prepared to let her go. She had the surgery.
I moved. Alone. Mom made it til that Christmas morning, 2016. She died. I kept working. No break. I was tired. Sooooooooooo tired.
No time to grieve the loss of mom, my money, my things, my sense of self, my bearings. On top of this, I now had to support two households as it took sis and my income to survive.
Things worked themselves out but left me a tired, in need of a rest, worn out, devastated, secretly dying inside person who desperately needed TIMS off.
Toss in a few illnesses, some bad storms, a few terribly tough work situations, and you can image the mess that was me BEFORE the tornado.
Starting my blog, five years ago, was the beginning of healing for me. God told me to write after mom died. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. I couldn’t bear her loss. I can’t bear it now.
I say all that so you can understand I really did need a break….lol
I am finally resting. I am finally grieving all my losses. I’m finally giving myself permission to feel all the things I have not allowed myself to feel since 2016. It has been hard. It has been lonely. It has been difficult.
It has also been joyful. It has also been freeing. It has also been wonderful. It has been hopeful. It is been many things.
I understand why God has been silent. He knew I needed this time to hear from my own heart. He knew I needed this time to be still. He knew I needed this time to understand I am much more than what I have done in my jobs and for others.
I just stopped by to let someone know it’s OK to rest. It’s OK to give yourself permission to grieve a loss. It’s OK to understand that you don’t have to understand all the time.
I am also here to tell someone there is true healing and peace on the other side of grief and hard.
I’m sorry I went so deep for a bit there. My heart needed to let all of that go. Thank you for allowing me the freedom to do so here. I am free from all of that pain. Yes, I miss Mom terribly. Yes, those were some tough days. Still, they help bring out the best in me. They brought me to this blog. They brought me to you!
Life is worth living. Even when it’s hard. You will get through what you need to get through. Keep moving forward. Keep looking up. I love you. So does He
asking for A Friend, Cassandra
#YourLifeMattersToMe
Note: Whew, eh? Be encouraged. All things really will and do work together for good for those…
For the life of me, beloveds, I can NOT figure out how to do anything electronically. Yikes and Egads!
This is making figuring out HOW to get things started super aggravating. Not so much annoying. Just annoying having no idea how to find the things I have saved, download the things I have recorded, upload or export whatever in the fresh hell I need to export/upload/download ALREADY SO I CAN GET GOING ALREADY!!!!! OMG, CASSANDRA, ALREADY!!!!!
I have spent several satisfying hours trying to figure out the apparent indecipherable! Ack.
Trying, for ME, feels awfully good, beloveds. I gave everything to my job. Everything. I did NOT stop until I mastered things. Yet, for MY dreams, it didn’t take a whole lot to get me down and discouraged.
I can’t even say why. I have all the faith and belief, in the world, for the entirety of the world. For me, though, I guess getting kicked in the teeth a billion times will/can have you questioning if things are meant for YOU, know what I mean?
I stopped by to encourage folk to keep on trying. Even when things are:
Confusing.
Frustrating.
Maddening.
Whatever your ‘ing appears to be, today, keep on keeping on. Things WILL get easier. Things WILL get better. They will. Just make sure YOU become better, not bitter, because things are driving you up ten walls and back.
I forgot about all the things I had been fretting about…lol. This is just a nice reminder to keep the most import thing the most import thing!
Be good to you as you figure things out, okay? Who wants coffee??
asking for A Friend, Cassandra
#YourLifeMattersToMe
Note: Whew! Life sure is lifing, ain’t it? Hang in there.
Why Can't I Be Loud?! 