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Easter PSA

We are at the halfway mark of Holy Week and there is something that has stuck in my craw for years.  It’s time for another PSA/ “Grinds My Gears”segment.

*Drags soapbox to the middle of the room, steps up and taps mic*

Excuse me, excuse me.  May I have your attention please?

As you all gear up for Easter/Resurrection Sunday and are buying all these pastel colored dresses, Steve Harvey suits, hats, and finery, it grinds my gears when some of you people randomly do stuff  and accept things just because they are in popular culture.  Here’s a biology lesson just case you all didn’t know, rabbits/hares/bunnies DON’T lay eggs.  Never in the history of the world has a rabbit or rabbit-related organism laid a multicolored, painted, glitterfied chicken egg.  Not the Cadbury Bunny, not Bugs Bunny, no daggone bunny lays eggs!

When The Lord rose from the grave and the stone was rolled away there was not a bunny sitting at the threshold with the angel waiting to announce His resurrection.  There wasn’t a rabbit there pooping out colored hard-boiled eggs and jelly beans on top of pink plastic grass.

Just as a bit of history for you, chicken eggs were dyed red by early Christians in Mesopotamia to symbolize the blood of Jesus shed on Calvary. The shell represents the tomb of Christ and the breaking of the shell a symbolic representation of his breaking the chains of death.  The Easter egg custom was adopted by the Catholic Church in 1610 A.D. by Pope Paul V.  We as Christians can see the egg as a symbol of resurrection as the egg contains new life within it. How this morphed into adults hiding cooked eggs that were dyed the night before while watching the Ten Commandments is beyond me.  Hiding eggs in the grass, trees, bushes, under cars, etc. has to be one of the stupidest things I have seen.  Kids are fighting and pushing each other out of the way to get an egg that you know they won’t even eat, it will decay in a plastic basket next to pink and blue marshmallow Peeps that will NEVER decay.  You know that at least one of those eggs won’t be found and less than a week later as it rots in the sun, just out of sight, you will be complaining about a sulfur smell and dumbfounded as to where it is coming from.  I have no issue with Easter eggs as long as you understand and explain to kids the symbolism behind it.

To do something, anything for that matter, just because it has always been done (tradition), just because, and/or without the right context is off putting and asinine.

Your ignorance is showing, tuck it back in, nobody wants or needs to see that.

And that my lovelies is what grinds my gears!

*drops mic, climbs down off soapbox, places a purple dyed egg covered in glitter on the ground and exits stage right*

Even the bunny is confused...

Even the bunny is confused…

easter-bunny-2

Food for Thought

T. Nicole

 

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Bowed But Not Broken… Tried But Not Defeated

Hey there my Lovelies! As another work week draws to a close I breathe a sigh of relief and of disappointment. This week has held pain and upset that has shaken me and nearly broken my will. Yet here I am, fingers flying across my ergonomic keyboard still here.

So I went to one of my routine 3 month follow-ups with my Rheumatologist on this past Tuesday and since she saw me last I had been hospitalized due to my chronic asthma and a subsequent lung infection. True the infection took more than a month to get over and I felt like something I had pulled off the bottom of my shoe but I was still standing. Upon hearing this, she promptly and unceremoniously said that she couldn’t treat me anymore; that her medicine/treatment had nearly killed me twice (I think she was being a bit overly dramatic but then again… it isn’t like she was lying I was REALLY sick) and that I would have to wait until medicine could catch up with as complex of a case as I am.  Read the rest of this entry »

 

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A Setup for Disappointment

     I see churches, none in particular or that I will name specifically in an effort protect the guilty, that serve up this superficial, “it is all ok” Christianity.  They impress that once you become a Christian, give you life to God, all will be perfect. Nothing bad will ever happen to you again, God will give you the big house, the fancy car and the ideal mate.  Everyone will adore you, you will walk about in gardens of flowers and fruit trees, reminiscent of the Garden of Eden and lounge about all day without a care; and life will be smooth sailing until we all get to Heaven.  I don’t know what kind of dog and pony show these people are running but they are fooling people and this is how believers become despondent, disillusioned and disgusted with the church and with God.  The latter entity is not to blame; it is man who has perpetrated this fraud!  God never promised you that once you gave your life to Him that nothing bad would ever happen to you ever again, that life would be a completely positive experience from here until eternity!  Paul followed the teachings of Christ but was persecuted and wrote of the thorn in his side.  He asked God to remove it and He said “No”.  The thorn is the one thing that sticks with you that doesn’t let your forget that God is God. 

     The unpleasant, irritating and obnoxious things that happen to us are not all caused by nor the fault of the enemy; it is not always the devil out to get you.  Some of the bad things that happen in our lives are pre-destined by God Himself… no, don’t look at me like that!  God has what is in your best interest at heart and no, He doesn’t want to see you suffer.  However, He does allow certain things to happen in order to prepare you, to build your trust in Him and so that you know, recognize and accept that it is only He that keeps you.  Other negative things that happen to us are of our own design, construction and implementation; we are the perpetrators of our fates.  Our entire repertoire of bad decision-making comes from the free will that God granted us upon our creation.  God made us a spirit confined to a fleshy prison.  There is always a war raging within us, the Holy Spirit doing battle against our worldly desires.  There is an old Native American parable that states that within each man are two dogs fighting for dominance, one good and one evil.  When asked which one wins, the person answered, “The one I feed the most”. 

     This is where we get to superficial Christianity.  The Word says, that as we mature as Christians we cannot be only milk-fed like children but must become meat eaters.  Thus, you must take the easy to digest with the more difficult to digest. The easily digested part of Christianity is that God loves us, He loves us so much that He sent His only begotten son, Jesus, to be a sin offering for us.  The only thing that He asks in return is that we obey/keep His Commandments.  The harder to digest part of the Faith is submitting to God’s will for our lives, killing our flesh daily, accepting that even if we believe we are doing everything right, we sill always fall short of the glory of God.  So when you only give the masses superficial “Christian” teachings, you are stunting their growth.  If you feed a child only formula and never move them to solid foods, you are inhibiting their natural progression into adulthood; they will begin to waste away.  The same holds true for us as intelligent human beings, we crave knowledge and understanding. It is only when you take the easy with the difficult that you are cultivated, groomed and moved to be all that God call you to be… Personally I prefer steak over hotdogs any day.

Blessings and Happiness

T. Nicole

 

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Know your Judas

Hello and happy Monday my Lovelies!

Many times we all hear people talk about how much they can’t stand their haters, how they wish that they (haters) would go away, stop hating and get something of their own.  I dislike haters as much as the next person but I have come to know that haters serve a purpose.  What purpose do they serve you ask? It depends on your particular situation. 

Read the rest of this entry »

 

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Creed is AWESOME!!!

Happy Monday my lovelies!!

I know I have been absent the past couple of days, my heart and soul were bruised and I needed to go into solitude in order to patch myself up. Friday, Saturday and today were rough days for me and I was getting beat up from all sides. I gave my hubby tickets to see Creed for his b’day (May 7th) and honestly I like Creed but was a bit reluctant to go due to my mood and generally downtrodden spirit.

But I went anyway, out of consideration and deference to my husband. What I thought would be an ok concert turned out to be a communion with God! My spirit was ministered to, my bruised and bleeding heart and soul were mended, renewed and clothed in a new set of armor. I give a HUGE shout out to Eve to Adam and Creed for bringing me peace and giving me a chance to let go of all that has been threatening to drown me.

Good night my dearies, until tomorrow!

Blessings and Happiness

T. Nicole

 

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“The Alphabet Game”

     Today has been a rough day for me, to say the very least.  This week in general has been one that has tested my patience to the inth degree. Something happened to me today that caused me to take a step back, a moment of self-reflection and compiling a persona inventory of sorts.  This “thing”, action, occurrence, for the lack of a better term, shook me to my foundation and made me question my self-worth, my ability to function in a professional capacity even.  And I know that it shouldn’t have affected me the way it did, I am stronger and better than that.  As a matter of fact I have a sign posted in my cubicle to remind me on those days when it all seems to be too much that I can do and be better.

     I have done several spiritual inventories before but this time I think it is time for a personal one. Read the rest of this entry »

 

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Emerging As a New Me

Anyone who really knows me knows that I am random. I can be easily distracted by squirrels, puppies and butterflies, drawn to their seemingly random patterns and actions.  Something that my mom and I have in common is our love of birds and butterflies.  I adore butterflies, I will stop everything that I am doing to marvel at their magnificent hues and delicate nature. My sister and I share an affinity for many things, seafood, wine, happy hours and the occasional tattoo. Several months ago we went to our favorite tattoo parlor, The Electric Chair, for late night sister time.  While there we both got inspirational tattoos, hers was words of faith, mine was a butterfly.  Read the rest of this entry »

 

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Look At Me!!

Happy Monday my dears!! 

 I felt a need and pulling on my soul to write something today that may touch someone.  I overheard someone saying in the office one day ( I work in a cubicle farm so you can overhear almost EVERYTHING a certain someone says… Posting about that person to come later) that they wanted to be famous, even if it was for something really bad, at least their name would be known.  It got me to thinking that their desire to be famous/known/recognized isn’t really all that uncommon. 

Everyone wants to be admired, even the most basic creature does things to draw the attention of others; fireflies flash lights in a beautiful display, male peacocks splay their azure hued feathers proudly. Today it seems that everyone wants to be famous, even for the innocuous things. Reality TV stars are having random and staged encounters with John Q Public on national television, fighting, cursing, semi-nude, or beleaguered; movie stars who are making millions of dollars per picture, music sensations touring the world and posing in designer fashions.  Everyone wants to be seen and revered, fawned over and adored.  And yet, the most prolific and famous person of any generation past, current or to come, was the exact opposite.  Read the rest of this entry »

 

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