Catching Up

I’m trying to catch up with myself. J  Okay, let me explain if I may.  Being ahead of one’s time in some areas of life while being behind schedule in other areas requires one to “catch up” in order to bring alignment to one’s entire being.  Because I’ve always been a dreamer (I cannot recall a time in my life when I was not dreaming, whether while awake or sleeping) and a visionary I often keep my eyes open for opportunities to move forward, or to create new opportunities in some way.  “Your gift will make room for you” one writer said.  Proverbs 18:16.  One of the gifts in/for the art of leadership is being an opportunist by creating opportunities, not just seizing them i.e. carpe diem.  But using one’s talents, gifts, insight and foresight to create something which doesn’t yet exist in order to do something that is not yet being done.

Years ago, six years after I began writing songs and lyrics I allowed some special friends to read them as I prepared to record my first album.  After reading only a few, the wife said to me “you are before your time.  This current world and environment is not ready for you.”  I asked “but how can that be?  If I exist now and God created me to be alive now in this generation and dispensation, how can I be before my time?  When am I thus supposed to be?”  For a short minute I became afraid that who and what I am would be placed on a back burner and forgotten because what I have to offer is not desired or welcomed.  But then I forged ahead anyway and went into the studio shortly thereafter and recorded my first album “Are You Tempted to Turn?”  Sure enough, I was before my time.  My “then” audience was not ready to receive the songs and lyrics I was receiving from God, neither were the musicians “out-of-the-box” thinkers with the creativity necessary to work with me to interpret those songs and lyrics for that generation.

But how can a person be born before his or her time?  I really don’t know, but in my case I believe my problem was I lived in the future and thus I could see what, and who I could and wanted to be and do, and I put all of my energies and resources into bringing that future into my present.  By doing so I rocked the boat and sang in a different key, and danced and marched to the beat of a different drummer.  I made those around me uncomfortable for my dreams made me too large and heavy for them to support, in more ways than one.  I eventually found myself alone with my dreams, before their time.  Some special sister friends used to call me “Josephine the dreamer” because I reminded them of another famous dreamer. J  “Now Joseph had a dream and he told it to his brothers, and they hated him still more.  And he said to them, Listen now and hear, I pray you, this dream that I have dreamed:  And they said one to another, See, here comes this dreamer and master of dreams.” (Genesis 37:5, 6, 19) Amplified Bible.

 A few months ago I had a dream J in which a family member booked me a plane ticket but failed to tell me what time the flight was.  On the morning of the flight she drove me to the airport and I asked “what time is my flight”? And she responded, “Oh you have time”.  And then she dropped me off and drove away.  I walked into the airport to the desk and handed the lady my ticket for I believed my international flight to be in three hours.  When she looked at the ticket she said “your plane leaves now!”  I became alarmed for I was missing my flight.  She said “it is still on the runway, let’s go!”  And we started to take off running, when she suddenly stopped and said “wait, I will call the pilot and tell him you are here.”  She used her walkie-talkie to call the pilot and then said to me “you have time, he will wait for you.”  End of dream.

Hmmmm.  When I woke up I let my thoughts rise into conversation with God in this way:  “years ago I was before my time, but now I’m about to ‘miss my flight’ because I’m late.  How does one find the balance so he/she is ‘on time’”?  

As I often listen to the Lord ministering to my soul, I’ve been learning that one can be ahead of her time in one area of life, behind time in another, and on time in others.  (But God is never late.  He’s always on time and He can redeem time for us.)  For example, being a visionary and a dreamer energizes you to move forward towards the fulfillment of your dreams, and many times if one’s family of origin life is not a warm and affectionate one, the development of one’s character gets pushed to the side while all concentration is placed upon the perfecting of one’s skills, gifts, and talents.  So if per chance you are in the right place at the right time for your talents to be noticed and your career is created and takes off, you may be on time or ahead of your time concerning your gifts and talents, but you are behind schedule mentally, emotionally and interpersonally.  Your people skills, especially those with yourself have not been developed and strengthened, and you can be easily influenced and controlled by the whims, desires, needs and promises of others.  Inside you lack the foundation to stand on your own two feet and not be manipulated by outside forces.

 But I believe that if a person is on schedule in the area of character development she will not be too far behind schedule concerning her purpose in life.  For she would not have found it necessary to hide inside of her dreams to escape present day living.  There would be no need to play “catch up” for she would be in step with the cadence of the marching band of her life.

Many children today are born with gifts which are quickly noticed by their parents and are erroneously exposed to the world prematurely because they lack the mental, emotional, and spiritual capacity to deal with the pressures of being a celebrity.  And so do their parents.  Some people on the other hand seem to never get that break they need to move forward no matter how long they study and develop.  But the one area where we can never go wrong is the one in healthy, character development.  No matter how early or late we get started, we will always come out ahead when we take the time it takes to improve our characters.  I believe this is the one area in our society that most of us are behind schedule in.  We all have some catching up to do, because the last thing our world needs is another generation of empty-headed, cold-hearted who’s got talent and wants to be a millionaire wannabees J leading us throughout the 21^st century down a slippery slope of . . .  Need I say more?

“And I will restore or replace for you the years that the locust has eaten- the hopping locust, the stripping locust, and the crawling locust, My great army which I sent among you.  And you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord, your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you.  And My people shall never be put to shame.”  (Joel 2:25-26)

Peace.

Pretty in Pink

Not too long ago I witnessed first and second hand what seems to be a common phenomenon, if I can call it that. Give me a minute, okay a few minutes to explain and paint this pretty and then not so pretty picture. Once upon a time there IS this beautiful young lady. Wow, she was (and is) gorgeous and everybody knew it. (I know I keep switching tenses on you. Please forgive me for this is a real time story with a past tense reality.) (Now did that make sense at all?) Anyhooo, all the men and women who see her cannot stop looking at her because of her beauty. She also is down to earth, approachable which makes her even more beautiful and desirable. She also had a beautiful little baby by a beautiful and handsome man. They were, to all our eyes, the picture perfect family, but they were not married. So they got married. The wedding was beautiful – I didn’t go, but I saw the photos. Which evoked another “wow”! Anyhooo, the marriage lasted a good five months and then he was gone. To say we were surprised is the greatest understatement of this decade. Were we ever!

Each time I looked at her and her beautiful child I wondered “why in the world would he leave her?” Well, the more time I spent in her presence the more I realized that she was full of herself and her beauty, and that she uses it to draw and attract men to herself – the way she dresses, walks, stands etc., whether or not they’re married to other women. She doesn’t care. All she knows is she is beautiful and she needs someone to continue stroking her ego. Then something happened. I was just a few steps away from witnessing first hand this unknown-by-many incident, which was told to me just moments afterwards. She said something that was so negative, so seemingly out of character which revealed the true state of her mind and character, I was floored. It would take too long to tell you the story for I would have to build the entire edifice for you to understand its context, but suffice it to say, the words which come from our mouths, and not just isolated words, but the statements which describe our beliefs, emotions, etc. reveal the depth, or lack of depth of our character. When I learned this about her, my question was answered: this is why he left her. She had nothing inside of her character to offer him. She was/is empty inside of hope and life. She was/is pessimistic and depressed, and thus depressing. He was drawn by her outer beauty long enough, and to the point of making a child with her, but when he married her and spent “defenses down” time with her, he found out what was beneath all that pink. Not much. :-)

Now, I know better than to make a judgment like that without knowing both sides of the story, but it’s not possible because I’m not intimate friends with this former couple. Nevertheless, you and I know there is another side to this story and that the man who left was not all right, nor always squeaky clean. I’ve no doubt, the few times I saw him that he too suffered from the “I know I am beautiful” syndrome that she has. It may be contagious among “beautiful” people. They may have had civil wars over mirror time, and other men and women looking at them too long. That pink is starting to look a little dusty and dingy now. Dusty rose pink? Maybe she (and he) was “empty” inside because of many disappointments in life that drained her of hope, and/or maybe she’s afraid to believe for better because she is empty inside. Is that a conundrum? So she uses her outer beauty, something she knows she has for sure, because people keep telling her she does, but something she’s really not CONVINCED of because she misuses it unnecessarily, and in a negative-for-others way. Suddenly that pink doesn’t look pretty anymore. Or is it the one IN pink that’s losing her luster?

I have a book called Understanding the Dreams You Dream, by Ira Milligan, in which he gives the significance of certain colors, and he says the color pink signifies: Flesh – sensual; sensuous (as in “hot pink bikini”); immoral; moral (as in “a heart of flesh”); chaste; a female infant. Now maybe you agree or disagree with some of these descriptions of this color, and surely that’s your prerogative (thanks Bobby Brown), but this space is not the place for us to debate our opinions. I however, agree with the “flesh” description, and “chaste” and “female infant” significance, for when most people know they’re going to have a baby girl, pink seems to be the most popular color chosen for clothing and walls, and toys etc. When I see a woman in light powder pink, I think of someone who is calm, relaxed, quiet, observant, peaceful, nice. When I see a lady in hot pink I think of someone who is firey or spirited, exciting and excited, hot, on the move, a fighter. I try not to think of men in pink. :-)

Recently I saw a woman of color, my color as a matter of fact, on the RER and she was wearing not hot pink, and not powder pink, but a pink somewhere in between. Her hair was platinum blond and cropped short to her scalp and her makeup was so great. I found myself staring at her to see if she was real. I thought “I could do that.” LOL!! Anyhooo, I also wondered, “is her personality as pretty as she is in pink, or is she a devil on two feet?” You see, we can use all the tools of the trade at our fingertips to create a certain look (“You Got the Look” I know I do MJ! Thanks for reminding me.) that turns the heads of men, women, children, bullfrogs, cows, dogs, cats, and snails, but what about when we have to take it all off? What about when we’re not wearing pink? What about when we’re wearing other colors on the spectrum? Are we still pretty, or do we become someone/someTHING else? Are we still that chaste person, a human being with needs, desires, mistakes? Or do we become something inhuman that needs to be caged?

I’m not just talking about women here, but men too. We all must be careful about the “colors” folks are wearing when we meet them, for they may not be true representatives of the person inside. What do I mean by “colors” this time? Well in my last topic we used it to focus on race and ethnicity, but this time I’m referring to character and personality. See, I’m a visual (and visible, LOL!!) person. When I sing, listen to music, and hear other voices I see lines, images and colors. When I see people’s characters and personalities through their voices and words, I see colors. Most of us have heard phrases like “green with envy”, “black sheep of the family”, “green with jealousy”, “blue blood” (what does that mean?), “red hot mama”. Okay I think you get my drift. When I see and think of a rainbow I think of life and second chances, the sunshine after the rain, Noah’s Ark, and Dorothy and Toto trying to get back to Kansas. Too bad all those animals couldn’t just click their hooves and skip the flood. LOL!!

What kind of person am I when I’m wearing black or red, brown, electric blue, gold, green, white or pink? One thing I’ve learned through studying Psychology is that colors affect our moods, and thus sometimes it’s best to not wear certain colors when going for an important job interview, for instance. Not only do colors affect our moods, but they also speak volumes to those we meet, even saying things we’re not intending. Hmmmm. Many times we make assumptions about people based on the color(s) the person is wearing, until we hear them speak. Then our illusions are dashed. Or maybe confirmed. LoL!! All isn’t necessarily bleak though. (Dorothy and Toto do make it home safely in one piece.)

Psychology, the Bible and the Holy Spirit also helped me realize that humans are multi-dimensional beings: we are Spirit, soul and body and thus we may appear to have multiple personalities from time to time depending on the weather (SAD: Seasonal Attention Deficit, for example), hunger, lack of sleep, lack of exercise, etc. And I’ve learned that some people do have multiple personalities, and this is real life for them, not another Sybil movie. Our characters are shaped and our personalities created by and through our life’s experiences, whether our needs are being met or not, how long we’ve had to make do with what we’ve never had, just trying to survive life, and so on. Many people change with the seasons, others change with the days, while still others change by the hour, with the speed of a pendulum. Hang on if this is you, or if you have to often deal with people like this. Nevertheless, underneath all this drama and dust is the true person’s color, which sometimes comes up for air. Sometimes we may find ourselves talking about someone who just rubs everyone the wrong way, but in a footnote we will say that “He/she has a great heart, a big heart, he will give you the shirt off his back.” That’s who the real person is, the one the world would like to see more of and more often. (Not naked of course, but you know what I mean.) Remember the long ago television game show, “What’s My Line?” Each contestant would be asked something about themselves, a series of questions, and the one asking the questions had to decide which of the three hidden persons with whom he or she wanted to take a chance. “What’s my line”? is another way of asking “who am I really”? What is my true color?

One more real life phenomenon, if you will indulge me. Have you ever taken notice of the colors of the walls and logos of restaurants? Most of their colors are oranges, browns, and reds. Studies have proven that humans are affected subliminally by colors and these specific colors evoke the need and desire to eat. Could this be one of the reasons that fast-food customers eat more (the longer they sit inside the restaurant) and thus are usually larger than those who usually prepare their meals at home (or buy at the drive-thru)? Just a question, you can answer on your own time. This is not a test! :-) Also, has it ever happened to you that you can eat a large meal before going to the movies and still find room for popcorn? It’s not just because of the aroma, but also because of the colors in the lobby and theatre before the lights are turned down. About myself I’ve noticed that whenever I’m wearing white for instance, I desire yellow, red and brown colored foods, so I end up eating a hotdog or hamburger and French fries (not German or Italian or American Freedom fries. Just French.) to get the yellow mustard and red ketchup, and the chili and or beans. How do I know this about myself? Because it’s inevitable that I usually drip some mustard and ketchup on my white top, and it’s not easy to get it out. I have the stains to prove it. :-()

Pretty in Pink. Hmmm, most females are truly pretty in pink when they wear it well, but of course we cannot judge a personality by the person’s clothing and makeup. It could just be a mood swing, so it’s safer to wait for the statements that come from within before deciding how pretty she or he may or may not be. And by the way, I know men can wear pink – ties, shirts, sweaters, but I truly prefer a real man to leave pink for the ladies. That’s just my personality. ;-0

Peace.