Perfection

I was thinking about 2008 this week, as it is coming to end very soon! First, I thought about all the blessings of the year and felt extremely thankful! I then wondered, what lessons have learned this year…

The first thing that came to mind was being “real”! After graduating from graduate school earlier this year, I suddenly had time to pay attention. I suddenly noticed the flaws in my own life as well as the flaws that others were trying to hide. One of the reasons, I started blogging was because I wanted to be real; I wanted to put it all out there. I did not want to hide anything. Now do not get me wrong, I so understand the concept of speaking, walking and living by faith; it is how I live my life. However, some have lost the ability to be real along the way; living by faith has somehow become living or shall I say, appearing to live a perfected life. Again, do not get me wrong, we all crave perfection but most of us get it, that's not a possibility. I feel sad for people who spend most of their lives trying to create this perfect life, friends and family, not a flaw to be seen. How sad, it is such wasted energy living that way and so unnecessary because the price has already been paid for those imperfections that many are trying to hide.

We all know there was only one perfect being and that was Christ. His crucifixion allowed us to be able to live our flawed lives knowing that grace and mercy waits at the end of our mistakes. I am not saying we should willfully do wrong things because we already know we have forgiveness. I am saying sometimes we mess up, sometimes we make wrong choices and sometimes we just have dark seasons, and at the end of those, we have our Fathers forgiveness.

This year I have learned, I am flawed; I make mistakes and MOST OF ALL, MY LIFE IS NOT PERFECT! In this revelation, Christmas means even more to me. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Someone you know has lupus…

http://www.lupuspnw.org/

The Lupus Foundation of America (LFA) market research data estimates 1.4 to 2 million Americans suffer from lupus, or one out of every 185: “more people,” it calculates, “than AIDS, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, sickle-cell anemia and cystic fibrosis combined.” Lupus more often affects women who are black, American Indian, Asian or Hispanic than women who are white. Lupus also affects children and older people. Lupus can affect more than one family member, but there are no studies showing that lupus is an inherited disease.

Basically, lupus is the body’s immune system gone haywire: this disease-fighting system has lost the ability to tell the difference between foreign invaders, such as viruses and hazardous bacteria, and the body’s own cells and tissues. The antibodies meant to protect the body now attack it. Sun exposure is known to trigger disease activity, with symptoms including joint pain or swelling, fever, fatigue, skin rash, anemia, chest pains and a rash on any part of the body, most likely over the nose and cheek area in the shape of a butterfly. Lupus is also a rheumatic (arthritic) disease, and can affect the joints, muscles, skin, kidneys, nervous system, lungs and heart. The cause of lupus is unknown.

In the 1950s, a diagnosis of SLE meant a 50 percent possibility of death within 5 years. Today, there are more sensitive diagnostic tests and better treatments, which yield a 97 percent chance longer life span for someone with the disease. However, there is still no cure or specific treatment for lupus. Thursday, November 20, 2008 marked an unfortunate anniversary. It was 50 years ago the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last approved a drug to specifically treat lupus. It is heartbreaking to hear from those who have had hip replacements at an early age, men and women who have been forced to stop working, teens who are fearful they will have no future because of lupus, and women who are afraid they cannot have families.

Unfortunately, I am all too familiar with the struggles of lupus. My mother was diagnosed with lupus when I was 5 years old and lost her battle at the young age of 50. I am dedicated to helping others not suffer the way my mother suffered as well as helping families who are impacted by their love ones battle with lupus deal with the ups and the downs of the disease. I am currently Board President for the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the LFA. The Pacific Northwest Chapter serves Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The LFA is on the front lines of this effort to advance the science and medicine of lupus and to bring down the barriers that have impeded progress in lupus research. With the help of donors, researchers, and friends in Congress, the LFA is making advances toward safer, more tolerable, and effective treatments.

If you would like more information, please feel free to contact me or if you would like to donate towards the LFA’s efforts please go to http://www.lupuspnw.org/.

Sources quoted in this blog: http://www.allaboutblackhealth.com/lupus_in_black_women.htm; http://www.lupus.org/newsite/pages/zero-in-50.html; http://www.newarkmetro.rutgers.edu/reports/display.php?id=84

A Different Me...

Life takes you through difficulties; it brings joy and sometimes-great sadness, but it is all to take you on a journey that many call destiny. Many remember the difficult times in their lives with great heartache and deep pain, not realizing that the pain they are remembering was to help them grow and mature.

I have many things in my life that I know I would not have achieve if it was not for the most difficult moments in my life. The pain was to help me be strong and accept challenges to come. The moments of poor decisions were to help me make better decisions later. Your greatest pains could be your greatest accomplishments.

Do you ever have times like this? Times when you want to experience something familiar, and then you try and travel roads already travelled. I mean things like hang out with people from past periods in your life or do things that you use to. It seems like whenever I have tried to do that the acts seems so foreign, even if I have done it many times in the past. I believe in those moments, I am supposed to be experiencing something new, something different.

That leads me to the title; today I think I am a different me. I have tried things I have never tried. I have done things that I thought I would never do. I have achieved things I never thought I would. Finally, I have loved as if I never knew I could. In order for me to achieve those things, I just mentioned I had to leave things in the past, and embrace that my deepest pains have created a different and better me…

NBC: Obama elected 44th president

NBC: Obama elected 44th president

Illinois senator to become first African-American executive in U.S. history.

Tuesday, November, 4, 2008

A couple of things make this election life changing. The first being, eight years ago people all over the United States, particularly many Christians got behind a man because they believed he believed the same things they did. Eight years later, this country has suffered greatly for the decision to elect that individual as president. Therefore, I ask should beliefs be the only qualifications, for the highest position in the United States. In my opinion, no it takes far more than beliefs. The last president lacked many skills; he lacked the ability to make sound decisions, he lacked the ability to hire the right people and lastly he lacked the ability to see beyond his own needs. While I respect Senator McCain's war record, I think he lacks the same skills as the current president. The ability to make sound decisions, Sarah Palin, really he chose Sarah Palin. The ability to hire the right people is a skill that he lacks; whether you love or hate Senator McCain he ran a poor campaign and that reflects on his ability to hire the right people. He has an inability to see beyond his own needs, Senator McCain cannot see beyond his own desire to become president, so much so he will pull any gimmick. He has “Joe the Plumber” campaigning on his behalf because he thinks he is the everyday middle class. I do not think so, let us just say I cannot relate to Joe the Plumber and I consider myself very middle class.

Second aspect that makes this election life changing, Senator Obama is the American dream. He did not come from privilege and he worked for all that he has and so did his wife. They grew up with the same issues as many of us and he is smart. When he speaks, he makes sense. He truly can relate to what we are experiencing and he gives us hope. Senator McCain is more of the same, family connections and a lack of qualifications.

It is an amazing time and it is sad that so many Americans cannot look at the facts and make a sound decision but instead they have resorted in spreading so many lies and untruths.

November 5, 2008 is going to be an incredible day...

Normal......

I think all my life; I have been searching for normal. The funny thing about that is my life has been anything but normal, and even funnier for someone who craves normal, I have pretty much taken it all in stride. I remember feeling very different at young age, not in an abnormal way but in a way that spoke of purpose.

What is normal? Webster says it is according with, constituting, or not deviating from a norm, rule, or principle. As a teen, I would party with my friends and then stay up the rest of the night reading a book. I wanted to appear like everyone else, which was the partying because that is what teens do. Family life proved to be anything but normal so I tried to control what I could. Some things I could make look very normal like being the typical teenager, college student and young adult. I partied but got good grades and I always had a plan, a plan no one else knew.

After college and during my stint in the military, I finally settled down, I still kept trying to be normal. When I joined my church 10 years ago, I was having babies and most of the women I met were in the same situation, we all were homemakers. I pretended homemaking was to be my life forever but deep down inside I had a plan to return to work as soon as I put my youngest children in school. I never said a word because it would have appeared not normal for my particular group of friends.

It took me a while but realized, I am made in His image and He has many images. I still do not know what normal is but I am starting to love that am not!

Sex

Who would have thought, that teenage sex would be staring us in the face during the presidential election? We have a 17-year-old pregnant girl (the daughter of the Republican VP candidate) and the alleged father a self described 18-year-old red neck planning to marry. Yes, I keep asking myself is this for real?

I cannot imagine ever requiring my 17-year-old daughter to get married. My daughter at 17, a wife and mother, it would make me incredibly sad! The sad part of this and any situation like it is the child is going to have bare the brunt of the two of them trying to grow up way too soon. I am the product of teenagers forced into marriage and I was never allowed to forget it. I was the reason that both of their lives should have been so different. I had a front row seat to their immature decisions and discussions.

I believe, the Palin's have the many problems that we all face, I just do not agree with how they choose to handle them. I do think, like many people, they have made sex this naughty thing. We all know that when you make something naughty it becomes even more desirable. I think people also make sex the only means to communicate love, leaving teenagers to believe it has to be the next step in the whirlwind of emotions that they may be feeling at the time.

I do not know why the Palin girl decided to have sex at 17 but one thing is for sure she is going to need her mom more than ever...