Yeah...and so, anyway...

I guess I'm not supposed to be distracted from what I'm doing right now, which is: 1)Celebrating one year of intense recovery from food addiction and a loss over 80 pounds as of October 1; 2) Being fully present in my life and taking the "next right action" instead of pondering and daydreaming about the future all the damn time; 3) Marveling at the fact that God has kept me serene and abstinent while placing my mother in a skilled nursing facility and dealing with all the legal/emotional issues of being her conservator while my father continues to drink and wonder why Mom can't live with him anymore. I had to take action to ensure that my mother receives the care she needs, and my Dad can't care for her anymore. No one in the family can. I feel guilt, sadness and anxiety, but I still eat only my three weighed and measured meals, one day at a time! This is truly a MIRACLE! Praise God! He is God! All are His servants, and all abide by His bidding! 4) My favo...

(Yes, I know the title doesn't make sense. It's a Kikongo word for a type of bean that grows in the jungles of Africa that without reason or warning, makes up its own mind when it wants to flourish. When manguwansi decides that it has fed the people quite enough, it shrivels up and dies. It is quite temperamental. Manguwansi is also the nickname for a friend who doesn't think much of himself, and exhibits behaviors reminiscent of his namesake. I pray for him nightly. This is an open letter for him. Life has brought me some unexpected gifts lately. In a space of one week, I am getting a date with my orthopedic surgeon, I have granted the opportunity to create three different programs, two program are focused on teaching basic and creative writing skills to adults, and the other a character education program for the preschoolers who live in my apartment complex. And all of this is flexible enough to be happen around my surgery. Why did this happen? Not because I'm "l...

...I just wanted to get up to date and let y'all know I'm still amongst the living! First things first--recovery is working today. I had to lose some more of my severely entrenched "self-will run riot" and gain a lot more fear and respect for my addiction. I am truly, 100% powerless; I'm more convinced of that every nanosecond. People have told me, "You're doing so well; the weight is just melting away!" Well, they can't see into the malevolent tsunami that is my food-addled brain, and how much praying and talking to God I have to do to keep eating my three meals a day and all the rest of the stuff that I do on a daily basis. It isn't me doing this; I swear. I have never turned away from my family's homemade macaroni and cheese in the entire fifty years I've lived on this planet. But I did just that this past week. Twice. I'm going to skip the food "porn" description of the Shortt family's baked macaroni and ...

Due to a disputes with AT&T over cell phone charges that were part of a service "package", I no longer have DSL service. Serious bummer. I signed up with a very cheap (under $10) dial-up service, but since I've run into technical difficulties reconnecting the phone line and in the process, knocking my monitor into a blank screen, I won't be online until someone bails me out of this mess. I'm using a computer at the community room of my parent's apartment complex right now. But I'm going to be calling every tekkie I know to get back on line. In the meantime, stay tuned, y'all. "I'll be back."

I really liked this article, and I want to thank Philipe for posting a link to this blog on his site. Please click on the link to this blog. It ties in with what I was talking about in my previous blog, albeit a bit indirectly. There are a lot of difficult questions in life, and while I have found answers to some, others remain beyond my ability to comprehend. That's way it is--an never-ending search. I began the search as child, and while I can't say that I've found the definitive answers to life's perplexities, I believe that I have developed a relationship with the Eternal Source that will provide me with the answers I seek when I am ready for them . Only God knows when I am ready. I certainly don't. I would also like to invite any Baha'i reading this blog to post a story detailing why they made the decision to become a Baha'i. I do have a few suggestions (hint,hint) that you could include. No pressure, of course. ;-) 1. When did you become a Baha...

I'm a base brat; I grew up on Air Force bases all over the US and Southeast Asis. Because my family traveled so much, I was exposed to different people and cultures at a very early age, and I met a lot of people who seemed to be just as kind, patient and loving as Christians. In fact, many of them were even more kind and patient than the Christians I knew. I couldn't and wouldn't believe that God would condemn them to an everlasting fiery hell just because they were not Baptists, or Methodists, or Pentecostal or...whatever. And besides, why are there so many denominations of Christianity in the first place, with each one claiming to have the number one direct pipeline to God? Which one is "right"? I was bothered by these questions at a young ag4e, even as early as seven or eight years old. In fact, at five I was frightened by the concept of God burning people who did not accept Christ as their personal savior, and I would cry at night for the poor souls who...

Nobel Peace Prize winners speak up for Iranian Baha’i leaders Posted using ShareThis I'm posting this as a follow up to my previous blog on the persecution of Iranian Baha'i leaders. I'm grateful to Barney Leith to posting this story on his blog so the news won't get buried under a dogpile of celebrity hyperbole. Keep it going, folks, the world needs to know what's really going on while the certain Western leaders remain clueless about the realities of life in the Middle East, and why their policies seem to be failing. I could say oh-so-much-more. But I won't. I am a Baha'i. That's all that matters.