Transition

It’s been a while since I’ve put my thoughts on this site because I’ve been going through transition, maybe more than one and sometimes simultaneously. Without using a Webster’s Dictionary which I don’t have at this time, transition is the process of moving from one “place to another” or one state of being to another state of being. Transition can be internal and external, and we experience it often, even when we’re not aware. The elementary word or synonym for transition is “change”, but I didn’t want to talk elementary dear Watson. J

While walking home from the train station recently one evening, I noticed that the sidewalk was covered with wet leaves and I had to walk carefully so as not to slip and fall. Yet I took the time to glance upward at the trees to see that many of them had only NOT dropped their leaves, but some of the leaves were still green, and to top it all off, it had begun to snow. As I continued my journey homeward I came out of the forest of leaves onto dry and cleaner sidewalks, so I looked up and saw that the surrounding trees were bare. After the trees had dropped all their leaves the street cleaners came and cleared them away. And this thought came to me: “transition can sometimes be messy.”

I want to say we all “love” change, but that’s just not so. First of all it depends on what is being changed – are we being promoted or demoted? Are we receiving a raise or a salary cut? Are we mourning the death of a loved one or celebrating the birth of a new one? Did we just pay off our house note or has our home been repossessed? You see what I mean about change? We don’t all love change and we don’t love all changes. LOL! And I don’t think we’re supposed to, but because going through transition is unavoidable as a living, breathing, human being, we must decide that we will learn to go and grow with the flow, and that we will bend and not break when strong, and sometimes adverse winds blow.

Maybe another way to say it is we all want the positive end result of a period of transition, but the process itself, the getting there, the voyage, the transformation, etc. we would rather do without. Are we there yet? But it is in the voyage that we get to see things we would never see, about ourselves, about others, about our environment, etc. There is education in transition if we are willing, and attentive students. As I walked through those leaves I had the thought which came through a conversation I had with an American brother a few weeks ago. I thought to myself “be careful not only how you walk, but WHERE you walk. Try to walk only on the flat leaves and not the high ones or bumpy ones because you don’t know what’s underneath them.” Oooh yuck!!

My brother-friend quoted a ridiculous but true statistic of people in France who go to the doctor because they slip and fall on dog chips which owners fail to remove out of the way. This thought just made me cringe not only because of the fractures and broken bones and possible concussions, but those who landed in the poop and not just slipped and fell because of it. What a gruesome thought I know, but for those people it is a reality and has taken them through changes they did not plan. Can you imagine someone’s life being totally changed because of an unnecessary fall and maybe they are a dancer, or skater, or an athlete? Or even an elderly person who was doing just fine and then to have their last years of life turned completely upside down? Their frame of mind, how they deal with adversities will determine how they move from that poopy situation. I know, not all change is negative and thank God so let’s move on from here to a cleaner spot. J

I have found that it’s not enough to know I must change, but I must have a new frame of reference, otherwise transitioning will not only be like a boat without a compass, but a captain asking the question “where are we going anyway?” How can a house be built without a blueprint, or anything else for that matter? How can I go from here to there when I don’t know where “there” is? And once I get “there” what will I do? Am I prepared? Change just for the sake of change is just as bad as remaining stagnant. Movement without direction can be just as bad as no movement at all. Transitions can be messy, but they should have some direction.

Even in this blog message I don’t feel like I’m transitioning very well from one thought to the other because sometimes life is like that. Transitions aren’t always smooth and they don’t always make sense to our audiences, let alone to ourselves, the ones going through it. LOL!! Anyhoooo, but we keep on living and keep on learning and it is in the living and learning that we see and hear what we need to see and hear to make the necessary changes in our lives. Maybe I’m speaking elementary after all and you’ve graduated from this level, but I find that no matter how many years of school I’ve completed, I still had to use my basic ABC’s to create words and sentences. J

So what have I learned through all the transitions I’ve experienced in this year alone? And there have been so many, especially internally. First of all, successful transitions for me came because I wanted to change, because I knew I needed to change something somewhere in my life. This knowledge gave me the fuel and engine I needed to press through the challenges and negatives I experienced, but wasn’t warned about, as I traversed through the process of changing. We ask the question sometimes, “how bad do you want it?” There is something I want very much, but Holy Spirit has revealed to me I must change inside – mindsets, beliefs, defense mechanisms, etc. No matter how rocky the transition it is always successful when it brings us to the “other side”. Second, even though many times it felt like I was stuck, someone would remind me that I was just “passing through”, like going through a tunnel. It may be long and narrow and dark, but you cannot stay in there. You must keep moving until you exit the other end. Transition is like a tunnel – a thru-way. J But sometimes we feel like we’re stuck because it seems to take so long, or we experience the discomfort of a narrow bottle neck and we cannot squeeze through – forward or backward. Hmmm, transition can be an uncomfortable place, and I believe it is designed to be that way so we will keep moving and won’t build houses and such, on a thru-way. Third, I had a hope deep inside of a “different life”, something new, something I’ve never done, but only dreamed of doing. This “dream” would also feed my engine for moving forward with the internal transitioning of my soul for the external changes that could only be performed by the “new” me. Transition can be a place of hope and new vision, even in the dark. Fourth, no matter how transition comes or how it starts, on purpose or by “accident”, it is always for a reason. The challenge is to find out what the reason is and how to change to rise to the occasion. Hmmmm again, transition can be challenging, but challenges are the spice and spices of life. J I like cinnamon best myself.

I know that on the other side of this night is another day which holds events I’m prepared for, and incidents I won’t expect to encounter. All I can pray is for the joy, peace, serenity, tranquility and wisdom of how to deal with the unexpected challenges of life which may direct my life into another necessary transition. I pray for the temerity and dexterity to bend and not break, to bounce back stronger and still with a heart of love for myself and for others. I pray that my faith won’t fail me and that I won’t give up just because I cannot see my way, or I have no idea which way to take. I pray that I will have the patience to wait for the still small voice of the Lord to guide me and say “walk this way”. I pray that I will come through trusting God more than when I first entered the tunnel. I pray that I will lay me down and sleep in peace for I know my soul God doth keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Transition can be heavenly.

Peace.

The Color of France is Changing.

What is a color? When and why did we ever start referring to each other as a color? Who started this anyway? Why did it catch on and then become the bane of society to the detriment of so many who are now no longer with us? I think by now you have a feeling of where I may be going when I say “the color of France is changing”, but it’s not only France. But since I’m here and I’m able to see a few things here and there, and some people have dared to share their stories with me, then I too am daring to make some conclusions of my own. :-) What are you drinking? Coffee, tea, wine? Have a seat.

The mixing of the races is creating another ethnic group (it has created another ethnic group) within this “snow white” man’s world. The attitude and methods of racism are backfiring on this country and what was meant for evil, yes God is turning around for good. PeopleS of color have been some of the most patient and long-suffering people in the world. To endure atrocities for decades until change either eventually comes, or someone like Toussaint rises up and leads a revolt for change, reveals the, on the one hand, people who seemingly have no vision or hope, yet on the other hand possess the power to endure, dexterity, temerity, determination, and yes patience. For the sun always shines again after the rain, and it shines again to usher in a new day, signaling another opportunity to do something more, or something different towards bringing about change.

So what am I referring to when I say the color of France is changing? I’m talking about the continued attitude within this culture to not only see, but to treat and create laws that oppress people of color from other countries and nations who have “chosen” (or who have needed) to make France their home, or temporary place of refuge. Yes, we are thankful that France has opened it arms to so many of the poorest of the poor, the unwanted, and untouchables. In light of this, France has become what the Bible calls in the Old Testament book of Leviticus “a city of refuge” and I believe this is one of the main reasons God’s heart for France is so large, that he desires change for not only her survival, but what I call her “thrival”. :-) (BTW, I’m writing another dictionary of words that have never been created. Still not sure what I will call it, possibly “Webster’s ALLNTHEJEANS words of the 21^st Century” or something like that.) Also her "surthrival". I'm on a roll!!!

I have met several interracial couples in France where an African married and had children with a White French person, and then the marriage ended in divorce with the White French taking custody of the children. This blog topic is not the place for me to express my strong feelings about these situations, but to open our eyes to yes, the injustice of the system against the Africans (and other non-white French speaking peoples), and to the hope on the other side.

The French system is still white-washed, like tombstones in a grave yard = pretty, clean and bright on the outside, but full of death on the inside. Death to what? To the family, and eventually to their own race. You see, when we create something designed to cause the fall or destruction of another, we end up being the fall guy (just had to use that phrase somewhere Lee Majors.) or the fallen. Psalms 7:15 tells it to us this way: “He made a pit and hollowed it out and has fallen into the hole which he made [before the trap was completed].” (Amplified Bible) Whew!! And that’s from the book from where songs are created. Can you do the waltz or salsa or lambada to that verse? And by the way, who is “HE”? Well, you have to read verse 14 to find that out. It says “Behold, [the wicked man]. . .” hmmmmm. Five m’s that time. You can ask Miriam Webster what “wicked” means okay, and I’m sure you really don’t need a dictionary for that one.

But lest those of us who don’t rob banks, murder, rape, and pillage think we can get off scott free (Scott gets all the breaks), to be wicked is to have less than stellar motives. It starts within us, our hearts and souls. Period. I guess that just about covers everybody then at some time in life. Until a change comes. ;-) But back to my topic.

France either wants the dark-skinned peoples under their feet doing the menial work and jobs they don’t want to do, for pennies; unseen, in the kitchens and toilets (don’t forget to use the back door too); taking care of their children for them while they roam other lands, then return home and start a greve (a workers’ strike) (and change one letter and it becomes “grave”, and add another letter and it becomes “grieve”. Is anyone paying attention here?) for more money because they spent all their cash and savings on vacations. Or they want to evict the colored peoples back to their own lands so they can have their precious country back, all to themselves.

But if all the non-white French people would leave France, within one or two years, then the following year the economy of France would begin to fail faster and harder than the repression we currently find ourselves in internationally. Sure there would be many jobs available and many vacant apartments and buildings where businesses operate, but there wouldn’t be enough people to fill them, and the income generated through them would disappear with the exodus. This is what the Pharaoh realized when the Israelites left his realm that wonderful day called “The Great Exodus,” and thus he chased them in the wilderness right into the middle of the Red Sea, and guess what? His economy still crumbled. He saw dollar bills and euros and pounds and yens and whatever, marching through the desert away from Egypt, because God said (the God of the universe) 400 years of oppression and slavery was enough and He wanted His people free. (Were any of the Hebrews, not recorded in the Bible, named “Scott?”) I believe in due time God will say the same to France about the other ethnic groups residing in this nation. Enough!!

A few weeks ago I was perusing through an advertisement (publicite en Francais) for clothing in one of the papers that frequent our mailboxes, and I noticed not one of the models in the 10-15 page paper was a person of color. All were white French. Yes I knew that colored people would be the ones buying the products because somewhere somebody brainwashed them to think that “white is ALL right” and that’s just not true. Yes, (I’m pretty positive in this one aren’t I with all the “yeses”. LOL!!) there are some situations where white is all you want to see, like when it snows and you decide you want to play in the snow, make angels in the snow, and even make snow cones or ice cream with the snow. Then yes white is ALL right. No other colors will be desired or acceptable. :-)

When you wash your white clothing and they come out smelling all nice, ALL white is what you want to see. The last lather when washing your hair, you want all the suds to be ALL white. By now you get my snow drift, and I’m sure you have some even better examples than mine. Write them, on YOUR blog. :-) I’ll read it and give you a thumbs up too because it will be ALL right!!

How long Lord must your people endure the white-washing of the races? This winter I was watching a report from one of the Asian countries (I won’t name any because I’m not sure if it’s Korea or China. LOL!! Just joking.) on one of the international news channels (maybe CNN) where the people pay beaucoup monies (dollars too, not just their own currency) to change their yellow skin to white. Why? To get the better jobs, to be prettier, etc. and the men are doing it too!!! Why does everyone want to be white? What’s up with that? I told you about the “Fair and White” stores and products on the streets of Paris that the Africans use trying to be lighter, and the African clerk in the store told me some do it so they can keep their husbands and boyfriends, because in this European country, they desire to be with white women and lighter skinned women. It’s as though we’re saying to God, “You made me the wrong color” or “I can do better”.

White is right and all right for those things and people who are supposed to be white, but Black is ALL right too, and Red is ALL right, and Brown is ALL right, and Yellow is ALL right, and etc. Come on people!! We must do better than this. We have to get a grip on our self-esteem and learn to see ourselves the way our Creator sees us. Yes, some of us are strange, but we’re all strange to strangers. LOL!! Period. We’re supposed to be.

I try to spend as much time as possible on a daily basis, with our Heavenly Father because the more time I spend with Him the more I learn not only Who He is and how much He loves and cares for me, but I learn who I AM. (Pun intended 180 degrees!) Yes, there I said it. The Great I AM lives inside of my heart and I’ve given myself to Him too, and it is He Who knows who and what I AM. The more time I spend with imperfect people like myself, the less of Jesus I see, because most of us don’t know Him very well, or at all. The more time I spend with people who don’t love Him and have not received His love, the more unloving I become. The more time I spend with impatient and mean people, the more impatient and mean I become. You see what’s happening here? Bad apples don’t make no apples good (spell check and my English prof said “any apples” but I prefer “no”). They all just turn bad. Jesus is the Good Apple (The Fruit of the Spirit is LOVE . . .) and He has the power to make us all good. If we let Him.

The more time I spend with Him, the more I see my heavenly Father with a twinkle in His eyes and a smile on His face, and I know He’s got a Jeremiah 29:11 plan going on in that eternity-of-eternities brain of His, and He responds to my question of “How long . . .?” with “NOT long, but long enough. Be patient and stay with Me.” When He talks like that I experience great peace and know the ball is in play, hope is in each day, and help and change are on the way. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (NKJV)

What color is France changing to? Hmmmm, I don’t know, but red is my favorite. ;-)

Peace.