When I found out I was a Black woman….. It wasn’t until about two years ago that I found out I was a Black woman. I mean, if you look at me at face value, you will see all the beautiful features of a Black woman i.e. soft cocoa skin, rounded lips, profound nose and I can go on forever but you get the point. However, I did not identify as a Black woman, like I said until about two years ago. My very fair-skinned daughter, fed up with me, tells me, “Mom, I’m Black, you’re Black, watch this”. She gave me a documentary on the Black culture in Latin America specifically discussing the Dominican Republic and Haiti. I finally listened and watched it.

When I was a young girl, I didn't consider make-up as a passion, because for society, make-up was considered only in its futile aspect. It was considered so much as something superficial that it was inconceivable to be intellectual and take an intense interest in this distraction, reserved for frivolous people.

If you need a Netflix show to watch, Umbrella Academy is a decent pick. It's fun, interesting, and pretty heartfelt. It has a good enough story line and development to keep you engaged. It follows a group of gifted siblings who learn to not only channel and use their powers for good but to actually become a family. Being all adopted by an extremely tough and somewhat astute father, these siblings grew up motivated by their gifted abilities thereby debilitating their relationship with one another. Will they ever become a family or remain more so as a boy band, bound to break up or go on a "hiatus"? (Looking at you 1D) It's basically a massive 'sibling check'.

Why people hide behind their devices behind the veil of anonymity COPYRIGHT DISCLOSURE “All rights reserved. No part of this Mental Toughness Power Action blog publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recorded, scanning, displaying, modifying, republication, republishing, posting on any website, platform, social media, RSS feeds or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher or author. Requests to the author should be addressed to [email protected]” — Copyright 2007, CIPO, USCO Mental Toughness For Life, Coach Franco Cianflone

It's good for all of us to have an inner life.In fact it saves our lives many times. It's not a lonely space to be. It brings about feelings of love, memories sometimes not so good.You know the woulda, coulda shoulda or the worst if you're past 30 If I knew then what I know now thing. Then there are the long way home trips. I've taken them, the lost in myself,thoughts I sometimes for ever look for something new on that long way home. I think when I'm really lost in a past situation that was never resolved and that I kept to myself. We all have some real secrets, that even I hope God will overlook.Anyway I look for a new landmark along the way while driving, careful to pay attention driving but something whether it be a newly built house, or an old stone landmark from a building that had been there years ago. I grasp for change even on that trip of taking that long way home alone.Am I really alone? I know I'm alone with the radio on. Lost in a song.I gotta change my life, this is a first step. Almost if I find something I hadn't noticed before the world might be different. I can get out of those inner thoughts that make me feel responsible for a guy I never met, he knew my name. His phone call to my cell phone was desperate. I could hear it in his voice. I began worrying about a stranger. I called the number back. No luck, invalid number. I should have called 001 first..it was a long number. I accidently deleted the voice mail. Still this lingers in my inner thoughts. Then I think I've been alone for too long. Should I thank Covid? No. That will go away eventually. I'm not saying that having an inner life is bad, I have to remember not to get lost in it. It can be fun, thinking of new ideas when researching for a freelance writing blog. I stop myself and think.Who have I really talked to recently? Not many people. I'm starting to cancel out of my life morning TV. Too much of something, I'm not sure but I'm going to change that for awhile. So taking the long way home feels like I was my own worst enemy. It's still good.I see nothing wrong with a detor every now and then.

"For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again."

"Sometimes in the waves of change we find our true direction" - Unknown

It means whatever you see it as meaning. You see, if I explain it to you, it takes away from what it represents: who we are, each of us, individually, on the inside.

Not lonely; alone. Keeping me for company. Inward safety; first. I believe in the power of poetry. Like God, poetry lives in every crevice of this world. And like water, we need it to live. We need to hear it. We need to speak it. We need to write it. We need to love it. We need to honor it. Because it is us. We are poetry and poetry is us.