Dreaded Phone Call

I purposely slept in today.  After waking the boys up for school, I left them to fiend for themselves, and crawled back into my warm bed.  At the ages of fourteen and soon to be twelve, they are capable of getting themselves off to school without my help.  Except for the occasional, "Momma, I can't find my...," I'm really not needed after the initial wake-up rouse.  Soon they won't need me at all, because one of the new rules is that EVERYTHING they need for the next day is already set out the night before.  I know you might be thinking that should have already been a rule.  Well it has been a rule, it was just not being followed.  With the New Year came the resolution to be more organized and stress-free.  Being prepared for the next day is an easy thing to do, they just needed to do it.  They now see how much smoother their day starts off when they don't have to hunt things down.

Getting back on topic, I slept in today and on the occasional roll-over, I thought about the fact that I hadn't turned my computer on yet so that I could hear my Magicjack ringing and the fact that my cell phone might be out of hearing distance, so I prayed that the school hadn't been trying to reach me.  It was ten in the morning before I even thought about getting up but then, as I was thinking about rolling back over to see what kind of dreams were waiting for me on the other side, I heard it.  My cell phone started ringing and my heart sank.  It sank further as I heard my fiance' say, "Hold on."  He reached the phone to me and mouthed, "It's the school."  I took a deep breath and said hello.  "Hi Ms. Martin, this is Ms. So and So," the voice on the other end said.  "First, let me tell you there's nothing wrong."  I breathed a sigh of relief, and listened attentively.  "We're having a Black History program and wanted to know if you would be a guest speaker?"  Wow, a guest speaker at my child's school, one of my goals for this year.  "Of course I'd like to be a guest speaker at the program," I said.  After she told me all the details, I hung up the phone elated.  They wanted me to read some of my poetry from my book and perhaps set up a table.  Unfortunately, I didn't have any books on hand, nor could I afford to get any, but my mind was already working on a Plan B. 

I'm typing this post today with new found joy in my heart.  Struggling to make things happen on a daily basis in my life, sometimes I get discouraged when nothing is happening.  Then, before I know it, an opportunity comes knocking at my door.  I may not have any books on hand, but know that I can still type up a book ordering form for interested people.  I'm pretty sure that I can come up with a creative way to make some money on that night.  I'm determined to use this opportunity to showcase all that I am.  Who knows what kind of opportunities will become available from this one event?  One thing is for sure; I have until the twenty-third of February to get prepared for my moment in the spotlight.  As I said in an earlier post, success is when preparation meets opportunity and here we are, opportunity has come knocking, let me go finish preparing.  Until next time..."Live your life by loving yourself."

Super Bowl Sunday

Today is Super Bowl Sunday.  Guys and girls around the country will be glued to the tube, despite their favorite team not fortunate enough to make it.  Honestly, I like watching football, but could really care less who makes it to the Super Bowl.  In my opinion, may the best team win.  This year, I'll have to favor the Pittsburgh Steelers as they've been coined the underdogs.  They've won plenty of Super Bowl rings, but this year, they're considered the underdogs.  I can identify with underdogs.  Despite their success over the years, how can they now be considered the underdogs?  I've had many successes over the years.  Would consider myself blessed beyond measure, but still I could be considered an underdog.  The definition of underdog is one who is expected to lose a competition or struggle or is at a disadvantage.  Yep, that's me, at a disadvantage.

I've definitely been struggling for a while now.  Making sacrifices over the years for the good of the family and second guessing if I made the right decisions along the way, I continue to make small strides towards my goal of  continuing to be a successful mother, entrepreneur and writer.  There has to be an end to this competition of me against the unrelentless world.  It's like, I'm saying to myself, "I know I can, I know I can, I know I can," but the world is saying, "No you won't, no you won't, no you won't."  But I will because I'm not going to give up.  Each day I wake up with the thought that this could be the day that it all comes together for me.  That day has to come eventually.  Am I so different from all the other successful people who worked hard to get to where they could actually say, "I made it?"  It is said that success is when preparation meets opportunity, well Lord knows I've been preparing for the longest time, so eventually opportunity is going to knock on my door and my preparation is going to open it and say, "Welcome, I've been waiting for you to come."  And together my preparation and opportunity will walk out the door, hand in hand, as my success. 

Not sure how I started off talking about Super Bowl Sunday and ended up talking about my success, but if you've read any of my other blogs, I've been known to go off topic.  But even in my off-topicness, hopefully I was able to say something that encourages you, my reader, to keep striving for your goals.  Never give up, no matter how rough and tough it gets out there.  If the world has classified you as an underdog, just remember that just because you're an underdog does not mean you can't or won't win.  It just means that you're expected to lose because of all the disadvantages you may have.  But even in disadvantages, there is the word advantages and you are capable of DISmissing the dis in advantages.  Until next time..."Live your life by loving yourself."