HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year 2009!! It seems like only yesterday that I was excited about the “new beginnings” that came with 2008. Well I’m back!! It didn’t dawn on me how long it has been since I sent a FFTS until my friend Suzanne called me asking about it and then a few days later at our department’s Christmas luncheon Gwen and Dr. Stanfield mentioned that they missed these articles as well. As I checked my folder for articles written but not yet sent, I found a plethora of blessings that I’d forgotten. I couldn’t believe the messages stored that were written in part or in full, but don’t worry I’ll reveal them soon. However, most of you know that for me the New Year brings a new revelation for which I am honored to be the vessel.

As I was getting my planner together for 2009 and reflecting on what my expectations for this year would be I happened across several quotes that I’d written in my planner throughout 2008. While looking through them it was then that I realized how much I really love quotes and the impact that they’ve had on my life. It was then that I realized that the two things that have kept me focused, sane, and at peace were scriptures and quotes (in that order). So as we begin a new year I’d like to start off 2009 sharing with you the quotes that have blessed me and helped me along the way. I pray that they will bless a part of you as well.

Over the holidays I borrowed my brother’s Katt Williams DVD. That’s another one of my greatest loves, comedians, because most comedians keep it REAL and after dealing with fake people in my community, in my family, on my job and in everyday living it does a body well to just listen to someone tell it like it is. So while watching Katt and enjoying one of the best gut-wrenching laughs that I’ve had in a long time my ears perked up when he said, “You have to be in tune with your star player.” The star player is you and in short what he was saying was that we go all day trying to please other people but we never spend any time pleasing our star player. So in 2009 I have vowed to take his advice, be a little selfish and stop trying so hard to please others (family, friends, co-workers, associates) because believe it or not no matter how hard you try you will never be able to please these people. Katt said that you need to be concerned with yourself; we need to look in the mirror and ask ourselves, “How are YOU doing today?” Hey I like that and I have declared that this will be my daily ritual because how I am doing IS important to me. So if you can take anything from that I hope that it would be that you get in tune with your star player-YOU. Moving along – the quote that my children have grown to hate was taken from Will Smith’s movie The Pursuit of Happyness. “Do what you have to do and then you can do what you want to do,” this is a valuable lesson for all. Now if you’ll allow me I would like to share a few from my collection, believe me when I say that this is a few because my collection is huge and grows more each day. I hope that these few will speak to your spirit as they have done mine. “If you don’t do something to change/increase what you are, you’ll never change where you’ll go.”–Robb Thompson. “It’s a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you’re trying to lead & find no one there.”-F.D. Roosevelt. “If it was all about stability you wouldn’t need faith.”–Sherri Shepherd (The View). “I don’t believe in just ordering people to do things. You have to sort of grab an oar and row with them.”–Harold Geneen. “There is room enough at the top for everyone.”–Trish Magee. “If heaven made him, earth can find some use for him.”–Chinese proverb. “There is nothing noble about being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.”–Hindu proverb. “No child is born a racist.”–Unknown. “Don’t ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.”-Robert Frost. These two spoke volumes; both were from my children’s school. One was attached to my oldest daughter’s syllabus for her English class – it read, “No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.”-Atwood H. Townsend. The other came attached to the bottom of an email from the Dean of Students at my daughters’ school; it is my hope that this becomes the mindset for everyone in the education field. “I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess the tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or dehumanized.” -Haim Ginott. Wow! Now that was deep! And finally, “Your gift will make room for you and bring you before great men.”-Prov.18:16. This one reminds me of my aunt; she was my biggest fan when it came to my articles. She always told me that one day my articles would be in a book or different magazines. Unfortunately she didn’t live to see that day but I still believe because anything is possible….. ~NSBIG