Taneya & Kalonji

Tonight our family went to go see Travis Smiley speak at a local church.  Hosted by Riverside Chapel Seventh Day Adventist Church, the speech was excellent and I am glad to have had an opportunity to see him in person.   He spoke on a number of topics and touched on education, politics (namely Obama), gentrification, finding your true passion in life,  and of course, black history.   We resonated with much of what he said, and he had the audience crackin’ up!

After the speech, Tavis answered questions from the audience which made the experience even more personal.  It’s been awhile since I’ve listened to Tavis on a regular basis, but I just may have to tune in now to keep up with him.   The turnout was a nice size, and there were some familiar Nashville faces in the audience.  State Senator Thelma Harper was there (we go to her family restaurant, Harpers, quite often), and local media reporter, Justin McFarland was there also.  It also turned out that I have served on a committee with the pastor’s wife! Small world

Thank you Tavis Smiley & Riverside Chapel for a motivating and inspiring evening!

Last night as I was about to go to bed I heard noises outside the window so took a look.  Saw a news truck outside and then noticed fire engines – there was a fire near our house and I could see the smoke coming from the building.  Since I’ve newly discovered that I can listen to Fire & EMS radio with an app on my phone,  I quickly connected and could hear the conversations going on.  The fire fighters rescued the guy who lived there, but he ended up dying later in the hospital.   They also rescued a female pit bull and her 10 puppies – one of those puppies died.  Very sad indeed.   The news story is here (be sure to watch the video clip).

Then, this morning we wake up to more chaos on the streets because of our snow yesterday.  Kelli took some pictures and the situation is just crazy.  Doesn’t this look like a line of cars in line waiting to go somewhere? Well, there’s no waiting – these are all stranded in the driveway of an apartment complex.

While browsing at a bookstore today, I saw this cute Vera Bradley All-In-One Wristlet that I fell in love with.  Kalonji got it for me as an early bday present. How sweet of him.    It is perfect for me too.  My DB wristlet, which is now about 3 years old, has had it.  I can be touch on my wristlets.

outside pocket for the cell phone

outside pocket for ID

inside pockets

Four little girls
Who went to Sunday School that day
And never came back home at all–
     But left instead
     Their blood upon the wall
     With spattered flesh
     And bloodied Sunday dresses
     Scorched by dynamite that
     China made aeons ago
     Did not know what China made
     Before China was ever Red at all
     Would ever redden with their blood
     This Birmingham-on-Sunday wall.
Four tiny little girls
Who left their blood upon that wall,
In little graves today await:
     The dynamite that might ignite
     The ancient fuse of Dragon Kings
     Whose tomorrow sings a hymn
     The missionaries never taught
     In Christian Sunday School
     To implement the Golden Rule.
Four little girls
Might be awakened someday soon
By songs upon the breeze
     As yet unfelt among
     Magnolia trees.

Poem by Langston Hughes

Gotta love CNN’s collaboration with Facebook for today’s festivities.  Kelli and I made our stamp – posting updates to the live Facebook feed on CNN.com live – very cool!

Happy New Year Everyone!

With this new year, I’ve moved my blog from blogspot so that it is now self-hosted using the WordPress platform.  I still have some work to do with older posts, so bear with me, but my entire online blogging history is here – from 2003 til now.   Hope you like it!

The Color Purple was on tv tonight and Kalonji called me down for my absolute favorite part of the movie. I LOVE this scene. Makes me cry each time.

Check out DH’s post on Obama’s speech last night.