Seeds

I am a firm believer that you reap what you sow.

With that said know that "sowing" does not always have a negative attribute attached to it.  Sowing can also have a positive outcome.

I believe in sowing into my environment, family and most importantly those within my contact.  As you begin a new week, I'd like you too reflect upon your actions and words.

Do they uplift, encourage, support, bring joy or love into someones life?

Do they give them inspiration, challenge them to make better decisions for their life, push them to evolving into greatness?

Sow, into those you care about.  Plant seeds of hope, determination, victory, love, prosperity, promotion, and peace into their lives.

Learn to stop tearing people down via what your presume that is going on.  Learn to wait and get the whole story before making your own assessment on what you think is the real story.

Learn to be honest with yourself and your friends. Wake up and say something positive and NOT "Damn its Monday again"  Or "eff my Life".  See, that negativity that is attached to your mood is like a magnet and it brings other negative issues and people into your life.

You may not realize or even care that there is power in the words you speak, but until you do -- you will keep on encountering those same negative, ratchet people that you "so called" detest and most certainly are not alike.

Seed into your life by making up your mind to see things with less of a pessimistic view and more of a hopeful view.  We all have our own book of life, chock full of experiences. One book is no greater or less than another, it is the lessons we come away with that determines the quality of life we will live.

The saying goes, your "Talent will take you further than your Character can keep you" You maybe on top today but if your character and integrity is crappy -- trust me you will be on your way back out that pinnacle of success door just as quickly as you walked in.  So to guarantee, your permanent seat at the table, begin to seed positive words and deeds and let the harvest of those seeds manifest abundantly into your life.

FNR (from my Inspirational book called one day I will stop being lazy and put all these together in a book)

Connected... the POSITIVENESS in Social Networking

It is my belief that people do not effectively use Social Media because of their own negative opinions associated with this medium or ineptness.  Too often we read about people who have encountered internet bullies aka E-Thugs, hackers, murders, psychopaths, stalkers or just your basic creep.  However, I am here to put flight to those negative images.

Over the past 10 plus years, I have been an active user of Social Media.  I remember when I first started there was mainly AOL Chat, with all their "rooms" and a variety of discussion boards where you would interact with others on specific subjects.

Eventually, I moved on to Yahoo Groups.  Yahoo Groups was similar to AOL Chat however because Yahoo was soon becoming the most popular search engine of the time it broaden its scope to also include topic based rooms.  These rooms you could leave public or make private, invite whom you chose or allowed  people to join freely.  Around this time other social networking sites were popping up on the scene, the one that I took a liking to was Black Planet.  Black Planet was designed as a social networking site directed towards people of color.  The subjects, news and content was all generated towards African-Americans, it allowed you to create your own "Pages".  You could alter the color, font, graphics and your pictures all on one page.  Whereas Yahoo just had a profile that you filled out your relevant information on.  The other cool thing about Black Planet is you could scroll through other members pages.  I believe this site was one of the forerunners to many of the dating sites we have currently.

Moving on from Black Planet, there was the ever popular, youthful MySpace.  MySpace stepped up what Black Planet had created. Made it more succinct allowed you to add music playlist, photo slide shows and was not centered around your ethnicity. It also targeted a younger audience,  like Black Planet and other similar sites, MySpace allowed people to connect and build relationships.

Fast forward to 2012, we now have an innumerable amount of dating sites, discussion forums, networking sites by subject and generality which allow many the ability to meet and also build relationships.  Through the years I have definitely connected with hundreds of people via these sites and I have seen several people who were able to do the following

a. build successful business ventures via people they have met on social networking sites
b. build successful and lasting friendships via people they have met on social networking sites
c. build successful intimate relationships via people they have met on social networking sites.

The populous that created successful business ventures have been able to maneuver through the offline and online world in such a way that they have remained relevant and been able to allow their business to grow 100 fold because they tamed the online beast early and understood that in today's society you must have presence as a "shop front" so people are able to gain accessibility to all the worldly pleasures they would obtain if the left their home.

 The segment that created successful and lasting friendships learned how to utilize the online tools of chat, discussion boards, emails and video conferencing to build personal friendships without ever meeting each other offline.  These friendships for some have developed into some of the most genuine and endearing friendships than some have encountered in their offline lives via school, work or organizations.

Lastly, you have a portion of people who skillfully learned how to turn casual conversation into intimate relationships that resulted in marriage or long term relationships.  Through the years, I have only met five couples that were able to accomplish this awesome feat.  Now this is not to say there are not more, but these are the ones that I know about.  I am sure if you ask around you will also find many people who have met their partners online.  Several months ago, I connected with a wonderful lady on Google plus who has a penchant for cooking and food photography.  When I tell you, this woman is awesome in her talent, believe me.  She and I began communicating regularly and she shared that she met her husband through a popular dating site.  Recently, they welcomed a new addition into their family, she gave birth to a beautiful baby.  I also encountered another couple that met on a popular social networking site.  They also were able to build a  wonderful friendship which manifested into a strong relationship and soon they too will welcome a new addition within their family in the winter.

The purpose of this blog is to share the POSITIVENESS within Social Networking.

I can attest, that some of the friends that I count very close to me are people that I have met through the years on social networking.  I encourage people to begin to look at your interactions on the net and not see them as a big ball of harm and negativeness. Push through the stereotypes and fears others share with you that do NOT know how to utilize Social Media.   Realize, just like with anything you must execute wisdom and judgement.  Just like you wouldn't leave all your windows and doors open, then leave your home; you wouldn't place or share all of your life with the wholeness of the internet population.

Stay connected it is the key to all things wonderful in your life!

I win!

So I have committed to a lifestyle change.  I have always had good eaten habits, so I thought!  I was vegetarian until I was 15 years old always made good food choices, again so I thought.  I was taught early on in my life how to make wiser choices in food but never was advised on the benefits of exercise.  As a young adult I hated exercise!!!!  So now that I am an adult, it truly has been a emotional, mental, physical and spiritual challenge to get up and have some form of physical activity in my life.

I never connected how my grandmother was vegetarian, was morbidly obese and died of obesity related issues.  Her issue like mine was inactivity.  She did not see the benefits within physical exercise at all.  In my youth actually there were activities I was told specifically I could not participate in just because of the uniforms and clothing associated with those sports.  Such as cheer-leading, gymnastics, tennis and volleyball.  My grandmother believed a young woman should be covered and it was inappropriate for a young girl to have her limbs out and wear short dresses or shorts even if it was sports related.  I see how this influenced the way I viewed sports for a woman.  Before my mother passed she was an avid Tennis player!!! I even remember her taking me to buy my own racket, her favorite player was Chris Evert.  She even had some Chris Evert Converse sneakers she would play Tennis in, yet when my mom became sick and eventually passed all that stopped. 

I also had to re-learn a vegetarian diet and realize that it was not a diet that was based solely on processed soy products i.e Boca, Lightlife, Loma Linda, Morningstar, or Worthington products.  I have been using ALL of these products in one way or another for close to 39 years.  I never took the time to look at the nutritional label and see the volume of sodium within these products.  So although they were vegetarian, the amount of sodium in these could kill a horse!  Now, if you eat these products, like anything all things are fine within moderation but not everyday OR every Sabbath dinner.

I have also say, in this process I am so grateful to my brother James Beard award Nominee Chef Keith Rhodes, owner of Catch and Phun Restaurants.  Keith has taught me a lot about food balance, how to make healthy vegetarian food, what organic is and how it relates to the produce you select, food sustainability, why purchasing local foods is better than something shipped in and many other important issues dealing with food.  

This change in my life has affected me so much Spiritually.  Exercising I found myself praying more.  Before, during and after my workouts -- at first saying Lord give me strength, LOL!  However, further into this change it has been not just give me strength but truly "Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me" Psalms 51:10 and "Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body."  1 Corinthians 6: 19-20.  

I am proud that I am making even better food choices BUT I am most proud of the fact that I am slowly learning to like exercise and realize the benefits of it.

I have lost 25lbs with much more to go on my 5 feet 11inch frame but I am definitely committed.

So I guess, I win!