DEEP WATERS

Hey everybody! Remember me? I haven't been here in over a year. And I won't waste your time with all the reasons why. I will say the underlying reasons are: 1. I am really busy with family and ministry work 2. As much as I love writing, I have spent almost a year and a half telling myself that I'm too busy to get it done (See reason #1) And the thing is this... A quick survey of the current state of my home would reveal a kitchen sink full of dirty dishes, baskets of laundry to put in dresser drawers and floors needing to be cleaned and vacuumed. (I did manage to thoroughly clean my bathroom this weekend, so all hope is not lost...) Anyway, since I don't see life getting any less busy, I've decided to apply my butt to the seat* and commence writing here again. But enough about my blog reunion and on to why I'm here... For about a year now I have had a book idea, and since I haven't begun writing yet, today it remains just that - an idea...

Hurricane Harvey is a national tragedy.  If you're like me, you've watched the footage through tears - footage of ravaged homes, destroyed landscapes and lost lives. Raising four children of my own, I struggled to watch an interview with the mom who lost four children in Harvey. My heart breaks for her and so many others. Yet I had a thought while watching the many Texans that stepped up to the call to help their fellow Texans during the storm and in its aftermath... Hurricane Harvey might be a wake up call. I believe Hurricane Harvey, and tragedies like it, could be a wake up call for a nation that's becoming more and more polarized. You see this polarization everywhere... CNN, Fox and MSNBC news. Our Twitter feeds. And should I even mention the vicious comments and fights on Facebook these days? Just name the topic, and folks are fighting over it - Black Lives Matter, Civil War monuments, immigration, Alt-right marches and demonstrations, and on and on... G...

This week was one of the most discouraging in our country in some time. Sure we've lived through deadlier weeks - soldiers falling while fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, 9/11, the Boston Marathon Massacre... And yet there's something that darkens the heart and minds of Americans when we witness fellow citizens - especially our young African American males - gunned down in the street and during routine traffic stops.  There's something that oppresses the human psyche when w e witness police officers, charged with the oath to protect and serve , gunned down and murdered by a gunman motivated by hatred and racism. (And as a military veteran that served in Afghanistan, possibly out of mental illness and PTSD.) There's something hugely wrong about weeks like this... And yet we are a resilient people. We have persevered through many difficult times. We have stood together and marched together, hand-in-hand, in solidarity of heart and mind. We can ...

Last night, I finished the final episode of the History Channel's TV miniseries Roots . To say I was pleasantly surprised at the historical and emotional depth of this remake of Alex Haley's 1977 miniseries Roots, based on his personal genealogical history and biography, would be an understatement. I was a young girl when I watched the first Roots with my family, and I'll never forget how much that movie impacted me so many years ago. As a matter of fact, as I watched the first episode of the remake, I sadly thought, My parents would have loved this movie. I'll miss talking about this with my Mom tomorrow. Well, in honor of my sweet parents, and my other ancestors that have gone on before me, today I want to share three themes from Roots that moved me. I could probably list ten, but here's just a few that spoke the loudest to me. 1. We African Americans were blessed with strong and brave ancestors I loved the focus on the pre-slavery era of African s...

There's been quite a buzz over a certain Huffington Post article this week. I first heard about it when a friend shared the article link on my Facebook timeline. (Thanks Mr. Mitchell!) Well, I thought today I'd give my take on this cool project and add to all the buzz. So what's all the fuss about?  I'm so glad you asked... The buzz is over redheads. Specifically, redheads of African descent. Redheads like the two that live in my home... My Brown Gingers - Kalin and Jada So of course I found the article "Photographer Explores the Beautiful Diversity of Redheads of Color" quite fascinating.  The HuffPost article features London-based photographer Michelle Marshall and her project that documents Black and mixed-race redheads.   "I want to stir the perception that most of us have a 'ginger' as a white caucasian individual..." says Marshall. " As we struggle with issues of immigration, discrimination and r...

A day after a grand jury decided not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of an unarmed Michael Brown, I must say -- I am weary.  I am weary of reading and hearing this same news clip over and over again. And I am weary of writing and rewriting the same blog post over and over again. I wrote this same post when Trayvon Martin was killed. I wrote this same post when Mark Zimmerman's trial ended in a not-guilty verdict . And I'm certain I wrote this exact same post when Michael Brown was killed . Maybe you - like me - are ready to discuss a different topic. Maybe you'd like to move on from the issue of race relations in the US.  Maybe you're weary too. But we must speak. We must write. We must persevere despite our weariness and disillusionment. More than anything - we must have HOPE. And it's in the spirit of HOPE that I write today. It's with a heart clinging to hope that I share what I'm hoping for i...

If I know one thing for sure, it's that racial issues in the United States are still alive and well. And although African Americans now have the right to vote, own property, attend desegregated public schools, etc. etc... I still find myself saying every so often - "Wow, and it's 2013." Take this story, for example: One of my friends, who happens to be African American too, took her two daughters to see "The Butler" last week. Her daughters were deeply moved and amazed at the narrative of history being played out before them. They had learned very little of this history in school, and they wondered why. I too have questioned this lack of the "whole-story" in our country's history lessons. I think the answer is found in the rest of this story. So... one of my friend's daughter's plans to try out for a part in her private school's production of "The Great Gatsby." In order to prepare the students for tryouts,...

This week my mind returned to the issue of race in our country. I've recently written about race as I revisited the  20th Anniversary of the Rodney King riots . (Coincidentally, this same Rodney King was  found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool on June 17. Rest in peace, Mr. King) Our Sons Are Trayvon examined the balance of justice and mercy in the racially-charged  murder trial of George Zimmerman. I've also written about results of the 2010 US Census and what those results predict about the changing face - literally - of our country. And of course I had to write about that book that had us all talking about the history of race in the South, The Help. Recently two occurrences got me thinking about race once again: one being the  election of the first African American president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and the second being my husband's participation in a local panel examining and discussing race relations in our community. Let's take a l...

“Can we all get along?” Five words. Spoken by an assaulted man. Repeated countless times since that day twenty years ago. Last week marked the twentieth anniversary of the Los Angeles riots incited by citizens furious over the acquittal of four L.A. police officers that had brutally beaten L.A. resident Rodney King . Rodney King happened to be African American. The officers happened to be Caucasian. And while Rodney King was no saint (he was a 25-year-old convicted robber on parole at the time), his speeding violation and intoxication didn’t warrant the inhumane beating he received at the hands of the men commissioned to “protect and serve.” And when those overzealous officers received an acquittal, the city of L.A. turned upside down. The upheaval from those riots led to more than 50 deaths and $1 billion in property damage. After three days of riots, King emerged from seclusion to speak those infamous five words, “People I just want to say, can we a...