Daddeeeeee

I love my father. He was taught that a man should deny himself and all of his needs and WORK, WORK, WORK. By any means necessary. At the expense of time spent, love shared, anything. He retired and now, he has to LOOK at the life that his beliefs have created for him and its depressing. He doesnt eat, doesnt do anything. His response daily to my ,"How are you?" is ALWAYS, "The same as everyday" with much sadness. He has only one reason to live and thats to fulfill a commitment he made to his departed mom to look after his cousin. He makes the bus trip daily to sit with her as she is bedridden. His voice is fading, his drive to live almost gone. I fear that when she goes, he will too. He asked my son if he would 'REMEMBER GRANDPA'. That hurt me to my core. He is preparing us. He is telling us that he no longer wants to be here. And I dont know what to do. His life is teachig me so much about the nature of REAL LIFE. And I hurt because I cant 'change' his mind for him. But I would love to tell my dad, in a way that he can receive that its never to late to enjoy life! That your deepest innermost dreams deserve to become manifest! You dont have to settle for a a life surrounded by people who dont value or give you the love your heart desires! You are a wonderful person with wonderful gifts to share, and we LOVE YOU!! No matter what happened in your past, you are TOTALLY LOVABLE NOW! And honestly, we always have. It hurts me that you see no way out of the prison of your mind. I want you to be here to walk me down the aisle. I want you to bore your grandchildren with your stories on your SUPERB work ethic! I love you daddy! No strings attached. I dont want anything from you other than your presence and your happiness. You give so much and dare to ask for so little. I want to see you DEMAND your worth. I wish that all the things you have locked up in your body be FREE! If necessary, I am willing to miss you eternally for you to find that peace, as I know living here is hard. Please know that you taught me more than you could ever know! And I am always thankful for you! My sons will KNOW the great man that is their Grand Pie! Love Always,

Keelah

Hand me downs...

Life sucks!!!

I got an email that read...Who sets the standards that you live by? This is a question that not many people in my world ask. Me being me...I have and do! REGULARLY! I need answers, because my mind creates in me an endless amount of questions. Always has. Hopefully always will.


I look at a few of my loved ones...and I realize that they are WONDERFUL! They really are. But I have noticed over the course of my life, that more than not...they are not free. And THAT is why my apparent freedom was met with so much resistence growing up. They didnt want to stifle my creativity. They didnt set out to 'kill' the very essence of the thing that made me, who I am. They simply were passing along a set of "RULES" that they were taught, and couldnt understand how I didnt accept them as easily as they obviously had.

I am not built to just ingest everything I'm fed. It wreaked havoc during my childhood. It made me seem rebellious, when I was simply making decisions based on what was in my heart...not fed into my mind. I 'thought' about what was real. I felt inside when I didnt know the answers. My natural proccesses are tools that actually serve me well and I was bascially brought up in a world, where adults told me they knew more than me, so I should simply get with the program! I conformed to the extent that I had to to ensure survival, but my soul was NOT HAPPY about it.

I say all this to say, that work til you die, or retire (same thing) was something that was drilled into my head.
Never call off, vacations are for the weak.
Sacrifice yourself and anything resembling YOU,for your children.
Please those around you, it will make people like you.
Speak when spoken to...be seen and not heard.
Wear your hair long and straight. (men like that)
Sit like a lady. (lol)
Dont wear a ponytail every day...what kind of man will want that?
Appearances dont matter...(huh?)
Keep this clean (dont you want a husband one day?--there were plenty of these, usually from unmarrieds...hmmmm???)...

The messages I received about dont you want a husband one day confused my young mind the most, because usually in the same breath I would hear: "Black men aint shit!" or "Your daddy dont care about us!"
I would hear how my grandaddy predicted the AWFUL day, which of course was right on time for my generation, when women would not be able to depend on their men! Women would have to do it all. And in my family...so they did! And as a good 'follower', so do I!

I accepted at a young age that I would be a single parent, and I believe WHOLEHEARTEDLY that that contributed to the events that play out in my life today. I am fulfilling the prophesy that was spoken over my young eager mind, so long ago. I couldnt rebel against everything.

I realize that what you speak over your children MOLDS them. I am thankful for this knowledge. I speak nothing but affrimatives for my children. Everything I fear for them (and there are plenty), I affirm the TRUTH. NOt my truth, because I see a lot of "my truths" are janky hand-me-downs. I affirm the HIGHEST TRUTH that my mind can imagine. Because even though I fell off for a good part of 20 years, I KNOW that I am here for a reason...and I know that the way I am in the deepest parts of me, has a big role to play in that.

I am thankful for the experiences that I have had. All of the seeming opposition and failures, heartbreaks and tribulations actually strengthened me...not killed me as I believed yesterday. I am still here...and I still believe in LOVE! Even in the midst of the darkest storm. I know that what I think and how I dream has a DIRECT effect on the life I live! And ultimately the way my children will allow themselves to think and dream. I love life! And this is NEW again, to me. I dont have to live the life that anyone else chose for me. I may have when I was 10, but I dont know. And I wont. I am ALIVE!!! And I am AWARE! And that mechanism in me that drives me to strive for the best is once again functioning at a working level. I am on my way back...Thank GOD!!!

I'm just sayin.....

If you smoke and develop a nasty cough...its related to the smoking.

If the doctor advises you that it will eventually become emphysema, he is not being mean...he is being FACTUAL. Smoking causes a host of illnesses. Emphysema being one of them.

If you dont work out, and eat TERRIBLY...you will not drop pounds. No matter how old you are, how many children you have or what medication you are on. No movement and bad food=weight gain or at best weight maintenance.

I am not speaking from Ego here, I am speaking from experience.

So please, PLEASE forgive me if I cant indulge in conversations such as the above. I am currently trying to change my OWN mind about such subjects, therefore I can NOT indulge your avoidance of your responsibility. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Keelah

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Havent been on in a while. I am lurking nowadays, commenting here and there. I am not depressed or anything like that. Just letting myself settle into my new life. No new HUGE developments. Life is undeniable moving along smoother than it used to. I'm 29 today! Thats exciting!! Have a FAB day all!

I hurt...

I hurt so bad. The more that time goes on...the more I hurt. Its not like normal, when you break up and then take time to grieve. Each time I look at my childrens' face, I see him and I see our failure. I see the moments in the past, where we should have let it go...or actually made a change...but instead, we continued on as if somehow time would improve us. I really thought we were going through a 'bad patch'. We are not. It is over. For EVER.Sigh.

I listen to him. He has valid issues. I dropped the ball in a lot of ways. I hurt him too! Its not all about me. He feels that he played himself...He feels that we should have been over. The last attempt at 'us' was because of our children.

"I love you, he says, but when you gave up on you...it turned me off. You no longer cared about yourself, or me, or US. You always give up. You left me years ago..."



You know what? he may be right. If I look deeply enough, I will see that my actions state EXACTLY that, but my heart says something completely different. I simply withdrew because I know I had ish to handle within myself. But there is no way to go back in time and right the wrongs that happened.

Guess from here I learn and live. And move on.

God that hurts. The touching of my soul. The revelations. The truth. It makes me hold my breath to stop the pain. It makes me cry until I cant anymore. Every night. It makes me doubt my worth. It makes me feel so abandoned and unlovable. It makes me think its all my fault. It makes me worry that I will never find anyone who 'gets' me. It makes me think that I am going to be my mother.

I am in fact repeating the past. I am a single mom of two kids, just like she was (at least she was married to my dad, though) I too am closing my already hardened heart even more, to try and deflect some of the intensity of the pain I feel. I dont want to hurt forever. I want to let it go...but.I.cant!!! I try and get him to say hurtful things, so that I can hate him and use that hate to facilitate healing...but it is only hurting more. Help.

Questions on my mind...What does she do, that I couldnt? (pointless question that simply makes me feel worse)

Why couldnt we both just 'work it out'?

Why does this seem to be affecting me WAAAY worse than it is him?

How can he just try and fill my spot so quickly?

I hate him. I really dont...I love him. And I admire him. And I have to release him. He is not mine.

Please God, ignore my cries for reconciliation. I still believe in this process. Even when I feel like my heart can take no more, and my mind is filled with tormenting thoughts and images, I believe that this is right. I believe that I can and will love again, once I heal. I believe that I am in the fire of healing right now. I believe that one day, we will have the best relationship ever! We will do so for our children. We will share a genuine love, (albeit not romantic) and still exhibit respect for each other. My children are loved by us both and that will never stop. Please God, help me and help him if he feels any pain from this seperation as well. May you heal both our hearts, so that we can once again find your love within them. Amen