Yeah...and so, anyway...

May 15th was my daughter Clarissa's 27th birthday, and we had a dinner and a movie night at my house. My daughters told me that they wanted to start eating healthier the way I am now. In fact, they said that they wouldn't have minded eating the food that I have every day. Now they tell me! LOL! Anyway, I can't believe that the years have gone by so fast. Weren't they in elementary school just the other day? Or middle school? All three of my kids became adults overnight! And what adults they are--they are each following their own paths in life, doing what really reaches their hearts and souls. Well...according to my youngest daughter, Chenelle my son Marc has apparently become a bonafide "chick magnet" out there in Boston these days...no more shy guy! And being a Nana...it's even better than having your own children! My grandson Xavier is just an incredible bounty of joy for me. I love him beyond what can be thought of as the usual grandmother l...

God is good! All the time! This is how I commemorated the Ascension of Baha'u'llah, with prayers, incense, candles and music! Praise Him! Ya Baha'ul'Abha'!

The Shrine of Baha’u’llah with the Mansion of Bahji, where Baha’u’llah died in 1892, in the background. Tonight, I will go to bed at 7 pm. Tomorrow morning, at midnight, I will wake up, take a shower, get dressed, make some tea, light some candles and incense, and wait for 3 am, the exact time that I am to commemorate the Ascension of Baha'u'llah, the founder of the Baha'i. Others may join me, but due to living in an era when work and family obligations make observing Baha'i holy days difficult, I might be the only one here. That's all right. My home is open to whoever can be here, and if they can't, I know they are doing what I am doing. They are saying prayers for the healing of humanity, which is what the Baha'i Faith, in my opinion, is all about. This is my eternal life, the part of living that makes everything I'm doing in this physical realm, and later on in the spiritual realm, possible. I fully believe that Baha'u'llah is the Divine...

For more information, copy and paste: http://www.foodaddicts.org Are you a food addict? To answer this question, ask yourself the following questions and answer them as honestly as you can. 1 Have you ever wanted to stop eating and found you just couldn't? 2 Do you think about food or your weight constantly? 3 Do you find yourself attempting one diet or food plan after another, with no lasting success? 4 Do you binge and then "get rid of the binge" through vomiting, exercise, laxatives, or other forms of purging? 5 Do you eat differently in private than you do in front of other people? 6 Has a doctor or family member ever approached you with concern about your eating habits or weight? 7 Do you eat large quantities of food at one time (binge)? 8 Is your weight problem due to your "nibbling" all day long? 9 Do you eat to escape from your feelings? 10 Do you eat when you're not hungry? 11 Have you ever discarded food, only to retrieve and eat it later? 12 Do yo...

I'm working on a post that is a bit difficult for me to write about because I have begun to realize just how much my life has been unmanageable for years, and what it means to turn my life over to the care of God. I keep standing in the way, blocking the plentiful blessings of the Almighty, not because I want to, but I have unknowingly been living in chaos and confusion for most of my life. Cleaning it up hasn't been easy because it requires that I develop something that I'm not very good at--humility. And I have to constantly ask for guidance from God and my recovery fellows because when I don't, things literally fall apart. And I thought my only problem was morbid obesity, and all I had to do to fix my life was lose weight! Good grief...that's only the beginning, it seems. Anyway, I hope I'll be able to post about what I've been going through real soon. One thing I did do right for myself is celebrate the Declaration of the Ba'b with a friend. My...

On May 18, 1964, my little brother Richard Sydney Shortt II was born. I don't remember that particular day very well, but I do recall at some point my father drove Tam and I to Sutter Memorial Hospital on 52nd and F streets, and we parked near the fourth floor maternity ward. We got out of the car and looked up as my mother held Ricky up to the hospital window, and Tam and I waved to him. I'm sure Mom was saying things like "See? There's your big sisters down there! Say hi to your sisters; they're going to help take care of you!" As usual for me then and now, I was confused about how I was supposed to be feeling. I got the impression that I was supposed to be happy, but I had learned to be reserved about events that adults seemed to think would make me happy, like birthday parties or Easter egg hunts. All too often, I felt something more akin to discomfort or shyness. But I do remember feeling relieved that I didn't have another sister to deal with. Ta...

I wrote this yesterday after reading a news feed from National Public Radio (npr.com). I posted it on Facebook, but since it didn't go through Blogit, it didn't show up here. Today is my Punkie's (my oldest daughter Clarissa) 27th birthday, and I'm feeling nostalgic. Not for childbirth, mind you. That hurt, tremendously, and I was very tired and sore afterwards. It's amazing that I voluntarily went through that agonizing process two more times before I'd had enough. But anyway, twenty seven years ago I pushed that very red and pissed off 6 pound bundle of dynamite from my womb, and the phenom known as Clarissa Ellen Doutherd came into this world. Mother and daughter had many trials and lessons to learn from each other. One of them was high school. Clarissa was unwilling to go ("I'm NOT LEARNING anything, Mom!"), and I was tired of the arguments, especially since I could completely empathize with her. Her high school was a joke. After a lot of soul...

I guess this is going to be a TV cartoon series or something. It doesn't matter; I'm watching it. See, told you I've never grown up! Clarissa and Chenelle roll their eyes and walk away whenever I talk about my comic books, but Marc gets it. We talk about comic books all the time, just as we did while he was growing up. Excelsior, as Stan Lee always says!

su-sur-rus: a soft murmuring or rustling sound; a whisper. It's also the name of Sacramento City College's literary magazine. I should have figured there would be trouble last Saturday when the 4:24 p.m. Regional Transit bus number 21 from Sunrise Mall to Mather Field light rail station was late. It was more than late. It never showed up. There was a group of young men sitting on abandoned, overturned shopping carts at the bus stop when I arrived. They seemed to be so casual and unconcerned that I assumed they were just hanging out. After forty minutes, I was getting anxious. Where was the bus? I searched Coloma Road once again for any sign of a dark blue and bright yellow bus, then turned to the boys. "Are you all waiting for the bus?" "Yes, ma'am." If I wasn't so upset about the bus, I would have been surprised. Five young black men wearing baggy jeans, sweat jackets and tennis shoes referring to me as "ma'am"? Either I look o...

First, an explanation of the pictures: At the bottom, on the left side is a picture of me at my highest weight, which is unknown. Last Wednesday, after attending my weekly AWOL meeting, I showed this and the other pictures to my fellow group members. They were stunned, to say the least. They estimated that I had to have been 400 pounds. I will never know because I didn't come anywhere near a scale, and I was avoiding any contact with physicians or any other medical professional. I knew I was morbidly obese, and I felt like I didn't need them to elaborate on the obvious. I also didn't want to hear about "cutting back" on the amount and type of food I was eating, or make "healthy lifestyle changes". It wasn't that I felt they were wrong for trying to help me. They were doing what they had been trained to do, which is help keep people alive. Looking at this picture reveals how dangerously close to the edge I had come. Did I realize what I was d...

The picture on the left was taken on July 4, 1967, Angeles City, Luzon, Philippine Islands. The occasion was my parents' tenth wedding anniversary, and my sister and I, with the help of our housekeeper, Audrey (upper right corner of the picture) decided to bake a chocolate cake for my parents. It turned out flat, probably because we didn't know how to adjust the oven temperature. Not to mention that Tam and I couldn't wait for the cake to be done, and we kept opening the oven door. Richard and Mary Shortt married in Mobile, Alabama on July 4, 1957, Independence Day: a celebration of a forthcoming war, with all the fireworks. What a fitting time for my parents to take their vows. You can't see much of her in this picture, but that's my Mom standing on the left with the knife in her hand. I guess my Dad figured it was safer to take the picture. On the opposite side of the table from Mom is my sister Tam, eight years old, and peeking around me is my little brothe...