Mind Set is Always 99% of the process in Life and Business the 1% is your action Steps

James Allen writer known for his inspirational books and poetry and as a pioneer of the self-help movement. He is best known for his work , As a Man Thinketh which has been mass produced since it has been published in 1903 and still stands relevant to this very day. As our thoughts create our reality and the world in which we live. Given that the world is filled with a vast variety of differences no two person's are a like and neither are our thoughts and or actions which aides in our experience in it.

Yet as we learn our family relationships, our environment, the world and who we are and the roles we play in the creation of this thing called Life. It does not mean that your truth of your experience is wrong or right. It just means that each individual speaks the truth as they know it of their individual experiences. And how we can have them and still live in peace and harmony together and rear the next generation to do the same for generations to come.

Now I am not, a psychiatrist, counselor,  therapist, pastor, politician or spiritual leader. I believe that I am more of a spiritual being having an human experience as I know that their is a being that has created all things over the years of time and have kept those under it's care, given gifts within each one.  Gifts that within each individual that comes with a senor system called discernment, intuition so to speak. There has been a lot going on in the world lately and their just seems to be no peace. So for me that can only mean that many have forgotten that if he can create the heaven's and the earth and supply you with all that you need. Why are we experiencing so much sadness and conscienceless loss and injustice world. Where is the ideal creation of life that if I eat we all eat, each one teach one, we are family? It just appears to be no value of what a Life really means. 

I believe in the commandments in the Hebrew, Protestant, Jewish, Islam scripture books. However, I have not read them all nor do I speak the language Hebrew or Arabic. I speak only the language I was taught English and a very little Spanish no other language. However, I believe in the commandments of the Hebrew books found in Exodus and Deuteronomy which include:

*The Faith of believing and honoring the one God within you although he is called my many names. 

*The Duty to honor and respect one's parents although today this can become a debatable topic. No matter I feel it should be carried out the best of ones ability and or willingness. As I can understand the facts that lie on the table which makes it a debatable topic for those whom have experience trauma, abuse, neglect and abandonment.

*Keep the Sabbath day holy. Many gather on Sunday mornings and other may honor it by spending private time reading the scriptures, enjoying their family in activities that honor and celebrate the greatness and power of the Sabbath. Relaxing  Rejuvenating  Refreshing ones spirit to bring clarity peace more love and happiness within the individuals that shows outward of their being.

* The prohibitions against Idolatry. The extreme admiration, love, or reverence for something  someone or the art to obscure issues of political significance. My understanding is that nothing is more important than the God within us and who created us all. As this can cause great pains confusing and distortion in ones being. I keep the Faith to continue to praise and pray as I make the right choice in picking my political leaders and or government officials and I also make sure that I my part in keeping myself , family and community moving forward even in times of disparity, injustice, ensuring that I am doing my part keeping the myself, family and my community safe no matter how big or small part I may play. I feel it's important to take care of our own as others may not care about the issues that pledges our individual, family and community.  However, each individual and or group may have other understandings an meanings under this commandment.

This also includes:

*Blasphemy

*Murder

*Adultery

*Theft

*Dishonesty

* Coveting

Now through my life time I have always kept my Faith as I have found that it truly is the key to navigating through this thing we call life. There were periods of my life where I questioned my faith and life itself. I learned that when you question God he will answer but the answer often times is not the one I would have chosen sometimes and it has not been answered when I questioned yet it was answered in the time I was able to understand it and some times I am accepting and some times I am not but when I show resistance there is always a lesson in it self.

For those of you that have been following me for a while now you know just as I that I am not without any sin. Just like most if not all of you, but it was in my times of sin that realized that my mistakes where just a part of my growth. I realized more about myself than I ever learned about other's although I learned to accept people for who they are and not waste any time trying to change them. My most important lesson was to trust the process and continue to show love even when no love is given. Now don't get me wrong there are many loving people in the world but the reality is the minority of people that are unable to show or unwilling to are fewer than one may think. Given love has various levels and can be displayed in many ways.

Once I became a parent I developed a level of love and honor to have such a responsibility over time it has really blown my mind honestly. As it was my journey of parenting that taught me that every part of my being was responsible for another being which I had to teach how to survive in this world. One terrifying and honorable responsibility one could ever have. Again the only experience of being a parent was the examples that I had growing up and information from books I have read along the process of gestation carrying my children. And it was my faith that brought me through many life challenges and issues I faced.

In my parenting I knew that my life as I once knew it as being my own. Soon became a life that where my every decision would not only affect me but other's that did not ask to be a part of any of my growth process but where a huge part and would share in the experience from my decisions and choices. So I soon discovered I had to choose wisely. I did the best I could with what I had before me, since my parenting experience was completely different then the one I had experienced but the principles were still the same.

I feel that I have paraded and worn my Single Mom badge for so long that today I lay it down and report that As a Mother I had the vision of rearing my children in a two parent home but due to immaturity individual life choices and life situations. I was placed on another path of parenting, which made me even more aware of my responsibilities and how I was to carry them out. So to say having a social life was not totally impossible but I had to make darn sure it was proper and fit for children. As the saying say's " If your going somewhere your children are not allowed, that means you stay with your children and not attend."  According to my dear late grandmother.

This meant that not only was I responsible for teaching my children how to read, write, count, their personal hygiene, chores, and basic life skills given that I was a young mother. However, everyday I did just that and many times I had experience times where I would have liked some companionship but knew that my children's impression and or acceptance of me as a parent would play out in the choices I would decide to make along the way so I was very strategic about going about it.

I feel blessed as I was able to rear my  children with emotional, physical spiritual, and the love of man kind and this was done by making sure that I kept and made them feel safe ensuring that they had a clean teachable environment and a healthy social growth experience over time.  Many times as a parent especially if your doing it alone as an absent parent comes in various forms and reasons. As a mother  it was my responsibility to ensure that the children understand that they were loved and that just because a person's circumstance prevent them from being present does not mean that they are not loved. This was very important to me as I prayed for the day that the a parent child relationship could have the opportunity to  grow when it came time for it to happen. Many times children are more resilient than we as parents may know or care to be aware. They observe way more then they grasp through talking with them. And when they develop their own perception of their life and how it may affect them some are open to getting to know the absent parent and other may just prefer to keep it as it is. Very interesting process as the real responsibility then lies on the absent parent and how they go about creating and or developing the relationship.

None the less I did my best to keep it fluffy so to speak because I realized that children need both their parents in their life's if applicable. As a mother and my parenting experience I learned that rearing children and the responsibility began at home but did not end at home as they grew so did I. During their school age years I found that being involved with their education was very important. It was very important to me to identify where the problems and the solutions lied in aiding them in obtaining their education and I found that many of the educator where for the children and bettering their educational system that was reported as being a failing system. 

It was through my involvement that I found that statistics and the data was reported improperly and the factors surrounding them appeared unjust as many of the programs that were in place when I was growing up were slow being take an out of the public school systems and now are broken down and created new school systems with specific life career educational mode's. None the less I was there from day care to high school. And I learned a lot about my children and other children in the school system. 

I also learned a lot about other parents and how they navigated and viewed their children's education and the school system and issues that would come up. Some parents felt that it was solely the teacher's job to teach their children.  Thus the grading scale was weird as teacher's gave points just for a student truing in their homework. If it was correct or not, correcting and getting the child to learn the lesson's appeared to be a challenge for teacher's as they were doing the job in the schools but things would fall apart on the home front. Pretty disturbing I thought, as I began to join the school community coordinator in recruiting parents for the P.T.S.O. we faced many challenges as many parents worked more than one job, parents with multiple children were unable to attend due to childcare issues, some parents felt that it was their children's job to get the lessons while in school as their life in providing for them would not allow them to take off for such involvement, some were limited in their own education in efforts to assist their children.

Many different reasons some valid some not so valid yet significant enough to effect how our school district suffered as well as the children that were attending the schools during the time. Although we faced challenges we were able to get some of the parents to come out and we began to see a difference in the school system or at least we tried to make a difference in the school system. Sacrificing evening hours to attend P.T.S.O and Board of Educational meetings. Attending events that surrounded learning how the state intended to improve our school system and how we as parents can let our voices be heard and whom we could address our issues and concerns to aide us in making a difference in our schools and for our children.

 I must say through the experience I had the pleasure of meeting and working with some pretty amazing parents, children, staff, faculty, and leaders over the years in this period of my and my children's life an experience that changed the lens in the way I view my community and the people that work in it. Despite the challenges our children made it through and are now productive citizens in the community. Yet, my community still suffers and we keep fighting however, I am not active so I am unclear as to what some of the issues are outside of the reconstruction and or relocation of students and their schools.

Yet as a community we are rearing our children. Now that I have reared mine, I often sit and observe the young parents of today and how some not all are so unaware of their responsibilities as a parent and rearing their children. I watch parents today talk on their cell phones while their children run around and play sometimes placing themselves in harm's way unknowingly depending on the age. Today is so different from when I was growing up reason being say you see a child playing and you see an adult with them but they are not paying attention to them. Say the child is darting in and out of the street in between cars or maybe running  around the corner out of everyone site or on other neighbors property and not respecting that they may not care to have the noise in front of their property or causing damage to someones property. When someone corrects the child or provide the child a warning of the harm of playing in that fashion. The parents become angry, speak in a disrespectful tone, they may even curse at the child and or grab the child and force them to sit some where and then go right back to talking on the phone. That really burns my butt but there are many young parents that are not even being parents due to the fact that their parents are parenting their child and that scenario to me is most disbursing to me as well.

Then there are young parents that get it and I mean really get it. They are rearing their children and ensuring that they are safe at all times. They conduct themselves as a mature adult when it comes to  concerns and or issues with their children in the community and show appreciation for the help in keeping their child safe and sound when playing. So there are a variety of parents and parenting styles that also have an affect on our children.

My point in this blog is that even though people aren't perfect , but with faith and the ability to work together we can change any circumstances but it's how we view ourselves an our role in it. Is it important enough to sacrifice and accept the process that is not a quick fix but one that requires you to stretch yourself beyond your limited thoughts and be open minded in bringing about change in our own lives and the lilfe of others in the face of resistance, challenges and dangers. Sometimes we can have all the faith and do all the mature positive things and negative things still happen to us and for us.  As without the positive negative things how would we be able to appreciate the gifts that come out of us as individuals and a people.

As I said that I am not without sin nor to profess to be more than a mother with children and grandchildren now. I just wanted to point out that when you think and act on bringing about change and you begin with the first step toward it. That it is going to require sacrifice, change, will and determination along with a strong faith that your efforts will work. But not without discipline , open mindedness , the ability to work with other's even when you may not agree, accepting people for who they are and not changing them but changing how you interact and or deal with them for the greater cause especially in parenting successfully.

 

  As our children grow so do we and it is not until there is a time of change process do we really see how resilient our children really can be when given the proper foundation to do so. As a parent sometimes we have to check ourselves and evaluate if we are being the example for our children to follow. And there are many times throughout the parenting cycle that you will see either you are or your not based on the children and how they navigate through the world. 

I will continue to mindful that every child deserves a life that will enhance them emotionally, physically, and spiritual as it ensures they are balance or at least give them something to work with as one day they will be on their own navigating through this thing called life and we want them to be able to make the best choice and keep the value of how precious a life really is and how amazing it can be if we all just work together. As God gave us all that we need to make it through however, it's our responsibility to do the work it bring those gifts out into the world for the betterment of the world and the people in it. 

As a parent there is no greater gift than to see your children doing their best. No, it does not mean that they will always be perfect because as human beings no one is ever going to be perfect. You just want to strive to be the best and do your best no matter how little or how small in life. Because in the scheme of it all we all are just passing through it's the importance of the foot prints we leave behind that will make all the difference. In Life, Love and Liberty for all. { Laughing } But seriously,  I know I was on my soap box tonight but the sadness that is in this world makes it very challenging to stay positive all the time as many things have been written about and spoken on yet it does not stop the experiences that we are having. When one suffers the whole suffers so let's figure out how we can stop or at least ease the suffering. 

Is it the parenting or is it the children? My take on it is there's a strong possibility of the both in some incidents and other's are just due to circumstantial situations all based on one's mindset and their view of life as a whole that is the factors in the outcome. No one ever said that this life was gonna be easy but we have to  find a way to live together in peace and harmony. We must learn to live and not envy other's. But I guess that's why we have good and bad as without it we have nothing to debate about.  My final note, only the individual can determine how they  will govern their own life and family so I pray  we continue to be the majority and continue with taking care of our own and the minority will eventually grow to get on board in efforts to make this world a better place for the generations to come. 

My mother often talked about the books of Revelations so much so that she said it was going to get worse before it got better. And the looks of my community today, I can say she was correct yet some how I know a better day is due for my community and the people in it. We just can't give up the fight as it's one that has been being fought for years and it is not  over yet.

According to the spiritual books the world's end has accrued time over time and yet there are those named in the books that lived to tell the story for many generations and I believe that we too will have the ones to live and tell the stories of how we made it through in faith love peace and harmony. Because from where I sit everyone has faced the challenge of keeping the commandments and remaining positive all the time reason being if we had the world would not be in the state it is today

 Let me know how this writing resonates with you.

The old saying is It takes a village to raise a child and from where I stand the statement is still relevant today. I believe that it's the only way to save generations to come.  Our African figurines tell a story and are a beautiful addition to your home  office, living room, library or where ever you fill lights up your home. Heritage culture and story telling all apart of ones cultural experience and education. The world is now my teacher and my faith is the navigation system that I choose.

Here I stand grateful...........