Mothers: Self Care is Essential!

                                            

Oftentimes as mothers, in today's society, and societies past, we have taken the back seat to working 9 to 5's, 5's to 9, the third shift, making meals for kids, doing homework, the kids and yours, cleaning house, doing laundry, open houses, parent-teacher conferences, ball games, dance recitals, and whatever else anyone else needs. Women! We are such a nurturers and want to make  sure everyone is taken care because we can get branded negatively by the same society that indirectly assists us in placing the high, sometimes unattainable demands of perfecting everything, if we aren't always on our P's and Q's. The thing that most people do not tell mothers is we have to first take care of ourselves before we can fully take care of anybody else! In order to give our kids, family, and friends what they need, we have to focus on our wholeness. Mama! We cannot continue to pour into everyone else's cups, bowls, or tubs, when ours is dang near empty. Today, work on filling your cup with self love. Work on building your esteem and confidence. Know you are worthy. Know your worth! You are valuable, and you are valued. Take a bubble bath. Read a book. Go for a run. Color a page. Do some yoga. Lay out in a hammock on a cool breezed night. Take a hike. Go for a swim, or simply, lay in bed. Whatever you need to do to rejuvenate, to replenish your cup, get it done until it is overflowing. Then, my Mama sistahs, you can truly pour into others.

Love Yourself

Why I No Longer Teach: Commitment or Compromise

Commitment or compromise! These words rang out like a banging cymbal when I heard them uttered by Dr. Miles Munroe, a man who was so influential to many. He stated that he would rather stick to his commitment he made to his faith and the Most High God than to compromise his commitment, his values, his morals to serve the world. When hearing this, I was pondering a decision to leave public education as a teacher to maintain dominion over my household as a wife and mother and to run my own businesses. Hearing those words were affirmation! Too often in education, I have witnessed, first-hand, the degradation of values and ethics over policy and politics. Children are viewed as numbers rather than souls. The SYSTEM, though it has never been perfect, is in ruin and our children are paying the price; the dedicated teachers are suffering as well. I could no longer compromise my values to be employed. It came to a point of, "At what cost?" My soul was on the line, and at the end of the day, when I am at the end of my days, I want to look on my life and know I lived a life of integrity, a life of purpose, a life where post mortem, my father will say "Well done!" I am reminded often through social media, news outlets, daily interactions, that the moral standards are wasting away. Some people will judge my situation and say that I could have done what I could to change things from within. I wholeheartedly do not believe that. Culture, environment, is everything. That culture, that environment was sucking me dry like it has done to so many educators. I choose to help change it using God as the head to give these future kings and queens what they deserve, a life to live, to live abundantly. I chose to stick to my commitment. I could no longer compromise for the world.

Some will say they are not people of faith, and that is fine! But, when it is all said and done, will you commit to your beliefs or will you compromise contingently? Remember, once you compromise, you open a door, and you will have a foot outside and inside. You cannot stand that way for long. Growth does not live there. Life does not live there.