Sunday, December 8, 2013

Black Kindle - Happy and Sad

NUMBER 170

Sorry for being so late, but the last 4 weeks have been the best time of my life.  I will bring you up to date in later, but since I had drafted this blog a few weeks ago, I figure I better get this out of the way.  Thanks for being a subscriber.  I really, really appreciate all of you.

My friend of many years husband died a few weeks ago.  He was only 50 and they had been married over 35 years.  Her and I attended the same church growing up in DC, Rehoboth Baptist Church.  It relocated from South West DC to Alabama Avenue South East a few years ago.  As a matter of fact, it was just a few blocks from the Washington Navy yard where the shooting was a few weeks ago.   

I had decided I was not going to cry.  I did not know him as well as her.  Figure I would be fine and just listen to the singing and comments about him.  She on the other hand, was not handling it too well.  I didn't expect her too.  She was surrounded by family, friends and the "women in white."  You know them.  Women dressed in white who walk around the church during services giving out fans, tissues and holding on to people who may fall or hurt themselves because they "got the spirit."  I was fine and remembered those women from my youth at the church.  Then I cracked.  A comment was made from one of the "women in white" at the podium.  She announced that Rehoboth Baptist Church sent their condolences to the family.  I shattered and the tears flowed down like a faucet.  Memories of my Aunt Precious, who use to take me to the church and signed me up for bible study during the summer.  My grandmother attended the church sporadically and her sister, my Aunt Precious, was not going to let her sister's grandchild, who she was also raising, become a devil in the making.  So she was put in charge of me "becoming a Christian."  

My grandmother and my Aunt Precious funerals were held at that church and I broke down again from the memories.  I hate funerals.  I don't won't anyone to die.  In my head I know we must all die, but my heart still to this day cannot get over losing my grandmother.  I don't think I want too.  If my daughter was not around at the time of my grandmother's death, I would have surely joined her.  I did not want to live in this world without her.  My daughter keep me going and she still is.  God kept me going to.

I didn't just love my grandmother.  I'm sure most of you do love someone so much it hurts.  She was not just my grandmother, she was my whole life.  When she died, half of my heart shattered into small chunks of peas.  It just sat there on the floor of the church.  I left it there.  I didn't want it and I still see it on the floor staring at me and asking when am I coming back to pick them up.  I'm older now and I still won't go back there and pick them up. 

I shouldn't be like that.  My daughter has my heart and I love her to death, but she is a kid and she will grow up and move on like our kids should.  She will get marry to a great man (Or I will kill him myself if he treats her like shit), have a child or children and will some day see me go home.  I'm sure she will be totally heart broken and sad for a long time.  God will be there for her, just as he has been for me concerning my grandmother.  

But I'm still sad, very, very, sad.  I want my grandmother back.  I want her back.  

Oh, well, let me whip my tears and get to books.  That's the one place and world I got my grandmother in me.

CHRIS GUILLEBEAU - THE $100 STARTUP: REINVENT THE WAY YOU MAKING A LIVING, DO WHAT YOU LOVE, AND CREATE A NEW FUTURE - $9.99 - - - You know I was in the library working and saw this book.  Some business books are very boring and it takes 100 pages before they get to the gist of things, this is different.  It is just one of many books out there helping you realize your dream to have your own business.  It's not the best, but it has some good ideas.  

In preparing to write this book, Chris identified 1,500 individuals who have built businesses earning $50,000 or more from a modest investment (in many cases, $100 or less), and from that group he’s chosen to focus on the 50 most intriguing case studies.  In nearly all cases, people with no special skills discovered aspects of their personal passions that could be monetized, and were able to restructure their lives in ways that gave them greater freedom and fulfillment.
 
Here, finally, distilled into one easy-to-use guide, are the most valuable lessons from those who’ve learned how to turn what they do into a gateway to self-fulfillment.  It’s all about finding the intersection between your “expertise” – even if you don’t consider it such -- and what other people will pay for.  You don’t need an MBA, a business plan or even employees.  All you need is a product or service that springs from what you love to do anyway, people willing to pay, and a way to get paid.


MICHELLE STIMPSON - MAMA B - A TIME TO SPEAK (BOOK 1) - FREE - - - The good folks at Mt. Zion Baptist are doing their best to keep the church flowing smoothly while Pastor Phillips takes time off to be with his wife in her final days. Beatrice "Mama B" Jackson even opens her home so that the women's groups can continue to meet faithfully after some "rascal" stole the copper from the church's air conditioning unit. With her semi-estranged granddaughter and great-grandson staying in the guest room, Mama B soon has a full house.

When the interim preacher and his wife start touting messages that don't
 line up with the Bible, Mama B wonders how and if she can intervene without causing strife in the congregation or discouraging the young couple. 

However, Mama B can only take so much of this foolishness. Though her own faith might be intact, she can't have her great-grandson believing that God is a Sugar Daddy in the sky. Soon enough, Mama B will realize that there is much more at stake than she or anyone else at Mt. Zion ever imagined. And it's time to speak.
Mama B - A Time to Speak (Book 1)

MELINDA F. EMERSON and MICHAEL CRITELLI - BECOME YOUR OWN BOSS IN 12 MONTHS: A MONTH-BY-MONTH GUIDE TO A BUSINESS THAT WORKS - $9.99 - - - This book was a great help in understanding what it takes to become your own boss. It offers some serious advice on money, what is involved in running a business and how much faith you have to have.  Believe me, you need some serious faith to go out there.  It can be done and if you want to be your own boss, make this book one of your top list.  I also had a lot of fun reading it. If the government furlough didn't get you thinking, maybe you are not ready to take a faith of leap. Just leap, baby, just leap!!

Melinda F. Emerson is founder and CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, an award-winning marketing video production company. She has created productions for such companies as Johnson & Johnson, Verizon, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Citizens Bank, and Comcast. In 2000, AV Video Multimedia Producer Magazine named Emerson one of the Top 100 Producers of 2000. In 2001, she was named one of the Top 30 Leaders of the Future by Ebony magazine. In 2002, the Pennsylvania Department of Commerce and Economic Development named her a Black Business Pioneer.

CARL WEBER - TO PARIS WITH LOVE: A FAMILY BUSINESS NOVEL - $9.18 - - - If you read Family Business 1 and 2, then you are ready for a book on crazy ass Paris.  I know I am.
To Paris with Love: A Family Business Novel


















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