..The overwhelming feelings of anger and discouragement because of the fate of my people has catapulted my emotions into overdrive! I am black. I have been hated and devalued by others. I have been dehumanized by social oppressive systems and still somehow I am still here. Sometimes I feel like I am hanging on by a string! I just want to scream! However, I know that I Am a Miracle on this earth. Only God can give peace to the peace-less here on earth. Only supernatural power can have the ability to lend its power for possession to those who choose to take hold of it. There is no other explanation for how I am still standing in my right mind. Nothing but the power of the universe can allow such greatness to occur in one being.
My anger and pain stem from this country’s cognitive dissonance. We can no longer justify killings of unarmed black men. I will no longer ride the coattails of “Massa’s words and stipulations.” I will no longer accept the religious formation that is required of me but does not stand up for me. I will stand with those who stand with me in this fight for basic human rights to simply be. Who will awake to the truth with me? The reality is that what has been done to my people is a travesty. Those in charge of the systems that are supposed to hold offenders accountable for murder seem to be missing. There is lack of ownership in these charges and, in their finest hour of hypocrisy, they blame us. Words of identification aren’t necessary in order for us to know who they are, because their silence is telling. How do you sit idle and do nothing in hopes that things will just get better? Look at the news and let me know what you see. The violence that occurs in my community is a direct result of the violence that has been handed down to my community for hundreds of years.
Where is the mental health resources for the trauma imposed on my forefathers in order for them to be able to teach their children a healthy way of thinking? A way of thinking that does not include living in rage, anger, and hopelessness. How does one pass down good mental health unless they possess it? Is it possible to teach something you know nothing of? You can’t teach or pass on love, peace, and hope if you do not possess it; if you do not know it. With all of the violence and separation that we have endured what do you expect us to pass down? Yet, somehow blame is placed on a people that have been literally raped and torn apart! It is now time for you to take responsibility for your inactivity one way or another. Let’s set the record straight....

 Un-Censoring Black America
 Can America comprehend the de-humanization, oppression, and brutalization of Black children for over 400 years? Why is it ok to have empathy for all other causes except the cause of "being black?" I would like us to consider this fact: Black America has been censored for far too long and the time for un-censoring is now! We as a people must stand together in unity to see that justice and the right to speak up for Black people is a God given right, a right that needs no justification! Just as everyone else has the right to breathe and exist, so should the Black “race”, a people that belongs to the only true race, the human race.
Change begins with mindsets. For this to take place, we must remove old fallacious belief systems that tell us to minimize ourselves and stay desensitize to the plight of Black Americans. Examine whether or not you have allowed yourself to become numb to the truth of the brutal history that the Black community has, and still endures today. Challenge yourself to scrutinize your beliefs concerning your views of Black people. Black Americans are not inferior, weak, less than, or deserve second best, and we are not second-class citizens as portrayed by media, worldwide. We are powerful, great, educated, happy, loving, and kind individuals just like everyone else. The fact that this definition needs to be given is pretty darn crazy, but until the media begins to portray Blacks and the Black family as viable, healthy people in movies, commercials, billboards, and on T.V., we will continue to explain it. Here a few things we can ALL do to usher in a change, on the big screen and in real life.  
Stop believing the lies: Why do we have to be depicted as “less than” the majority of the time? It has to stop! We can no longer allow how the media negatively represents a "race" of people to govern our thoughts and belief systems.
Unify: We need each other and most importantly Black America needs Black America's support, period. We as a people must undo our tactically groomed nightmare of beliefs that keep us from helping each other. There’s a reason we don’t get along. There’s a reason why we won’t financially support our communities. The reason? We were taught not too. Recognizing why you don’t support your people is imperative for change.
Do something: People! Use whatever gifts and talents you have to bring awareness to Black lives. God gave us all a gift, and now’s the time to activate them. You are not insignificant, you matter, and your voice matters in whatever way you choose to use it.
Stop deflecting: One thing we must all stop doing is deflecting from the truth, no matter the issue. We can all benefit from the exposure of truth. I get it, the truth doesn’t always feel good, and that’s why many individuals refuse to acknowledge the truth. Here in America, we love to be comfortable, and we want things in and around our lives to be at peace. Well, until the truth is allowed and acknowledged and justice is served there will be no peace. The murders that have taken place over and over again with no resolve will not just go away. In the words of John F. Kennedy, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." Let's face it; we all know that our country was founded on racism.
When will we stop ignoring this fact and start changing the reality of how we deal with racism from this day forward? The time is now, and we need to unify as Americans to fix this American problem. Murder should never be acceptable by anyone ever; there should be no special rights for a murderer that allows them to be excluded from prosecution. Let's embrace each other, America; we need each other now, not tomorrow.
Sharon Blake
Mylifechronicles.org
Twitter @sharonblessedbl
Facebook Life Chronicles

Resurrecting Dreams; Doubting the Doubt!
​
By
Sharon Blake

My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?!
If I were to keep it real and just, to be honest, I would have to tell you that I have asked God this question over and over again! The anger that I have felt, discouragement, pain, agony, and, the anxiety of asking God why haven't you answered my prayers was killing me emotionally. Don't get me wrong; I love God with all my heart and soul, but that has nothing to do with the disappointment that comes with a dream deferred! A dream deferred can feel like someone is ripping all hope and faith away from you if you allow toxic emotions to detour you from hope and faith.  A dream deferred can keep you hoping and doubting at the same time. The patience and faith that must accompany dreaming require persistence. Do you have patience, I ask? Do you have the where with all to sustain the doubt that would come to kill every unfulfilled dream that lays dormant in your mind? You know those dreams that you told God about, and now you have made excuses for the reality of the fact that your prayers have not come to past yet.  The dreams that you have given up on because you do not believe they will come to past. What about those dreams that you wouldn't dare tell anyone about because you don't even believe in them yourself.  They were but mere fleeting thoughts that passed through your mind, when you ponder on them you feel exceedingly joyful, and your stomach begins to turn because of a tiny possibility that your thoughts could become a reality.  But then the thought passes and the reality of the day sets in; you begin to feel the pressure of bills, work, and family gnawing at the base of your neck, and so you resign that fleeting thought and return to the familiarity of your ordinary preplanned life. Yes, you know what I am referring to because just as I have explained it, you remembered that moment in time where the thought of a something amazing quickly left your mind. I know that I have buried more than one dream in my lifetime. I have ordered the flowers and orchestrated the guest list for the service; I made sure to invite my will, emotions, and my faith to these funeral processions so that they too will know that some things are just not possible! My doubt had become greater than the reality of my true identity and because of that I put my dreams to rest! RIP Dreams was always what I wrote on the tablet of my mind and my will only for God to one day awaken me to the fact that just because I have buried my dreams does not mean that he has. Just because I had given up on waiting for some things to come to pass doesn't mean that they are not coming.
For me to resurrect the faith of the dead dreams I had to believe again. I had to know who I was for real this time. Not just because people told me who I am supposed to be but because I know who I am.  If I am who God says I am then, I must have a spectacular life to fulfill. A destiny that encompasses Peace and Joy.  I am talking about real joy that states to a dream deferred, "you will come to pass!" Can we begin to take a leap and do what is necessary to place ourselves in the position to receive what God has in store for us? God is not going to give us anything we are not prepared to receive. We must be willing to do the work. Preparation requires work and new knowledge of new things. You cannot expect God to move on your behalf if you do not move. Real peace does not come attached with having someone or something.  Peace says I will not be displaced by circumstances and people. Now, we are all human so this in no way implies that we will not feel the pains of this life. However, we can learn to deal with and respond to what happens to us without losing peace when dealing with problematic issues.  We need maturity in our thought life to tell us that we can, and will have what we think and believe.
We are thinking beings and those thoughts create who we are and who we have/will become. For some of us who grew up in fear and dysfunction obtaining a new thought life is required. Yes, it will take some retraining of our thought life. In my book The Thought Detox; Breaking Free from A Negative Thought Life, I explain in more detail how learning to think anew is necessary and needed to resurrect our dreams, to become who you truly desire to be.

Sharon Blake
Mylifechronicles.org

​When God gives you a Do-Over!
By
Sharon Blake
 
When God performs the very thing that you have been waiting on for what seems a lifetime, feelings of joy are unimaginable. Sometimes it seems as if the very thing you are hoping for is never going to happen and we begin to question ourselves and God; Do we have enough faith, do we really believe that we deserve it, and maybe God doesn’t want me to have it at all. But when God performs a miracle you can make no mistake about the fact that it is God because you have probably exhausted every avenue to obtain it yourself and it has not worked.
For a very long time my life was nothing more than many series of painful events; that at the time I had not a clue why these events were happening.  I was simply an emotional wreck, I was hopeless to say the least and faith was not a core part of my belief system at that time. I mean how could it be every time I would try to do something good bad seemed to come and attack it. I got to the point (as a Christian) where I was bankrupt in my belief that God could really turn my life around. What I didn’t know was that all of the set-backs in my life that where happening was because I needed to learn some very valuable lessons that taught me how to love, how to have faith, and trust God.
Addiction took me to a place where I had lost so much, (myself, my kids, and some of my precious memories) that I so wanted back. I had nowhere else to turn but to God and I prayed and I did everything that I thought I was supposed to do except wait. I was so focused on wanting to get my kids back that I had forgotten that I needed to get me back first. So in my search for me I found the meaning for my pain; my pain had a purpose and I could learn from it if I didn’t solely focus on the pain but focus on what I needed to learn from the pain. After I learned how to love me and trust God something amazing started to happen. God gave me a do-over!
My relationship with my two daughters was very strained but God has restored us back to each other not only has he restored our relationships but he has given me the opportunity to get my memories back and to create new ones. I don’t remember some of the toddler years and child hood years with my girls. But God has given me the opportunity now to re-live these years with my grandchildren. It’s truly a do-over. I get to be in the moments of potty-training frustrations, finicky eating syndromes, toe nail painting, and the demands of “NO Nana”. I also get the opportunities to be a part of the joys of hearing the pitter patter of little feet going into the kitchen looking for snacks, getting sloppy wet kisses on your faces in the morning to say hey its “num num time,” and the joys of what we call “cozy cozy time” when we get to snuggle up close just to be close to each other.  These precious moments that create new memories as well as old memories that were once lost have now been restored with new precious moments that I shall cherish forever.
So when God gives you a do over cherish each precious moment. Not all moments of transition will be comfortable but all should be cherished. God truly does answer prayers.
To hear more of Sharon’s amazing story of recovery please visit her website @mylifechronicles.org.
Twitter @Sharonblessedbl
Facebook Life Chronicles

lhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/20-beautiful-women/racial-injustice-is-ameri_b_8865944.html 
Shouldn't there be a raged outcry for justice by all American citizens who own a television or a smart phone? Better yet, anyone who has internet access should be in an uproar! I mean, does anyone know the truth about America's biased judicial history towards African Americans? And I am not talking about the old 1950's justice system. I am shining the spotlight on the ever-present unfairness Black America still fights with today. History has shown us how these biased behaviors have been allowed and now have become the premise of our country. Here is a contrasted time line of how America has progressed on the matter of racial injustice.

• On January 9, 1961, headlines read, "Rioting White Students force suspension of First Black Students to integrate University of Georgia". This happened after Judge William Bootle ordered the university to allow the Black students to attend their classes. 
• Most recently, this November, the University of Missouri's Black students have spoken out on their experiences with racism in the form of racial slurs, harassment, and threats by white students. Their cries for help went unnoticed by the University's administration until the University of Missouri's football team threatened to boycott the season.

According to the news media outlets, police brutality looks the same today as it did in the 1960's. The harsh treatment towards African Americans from government officials was not uncommon then and it is not unheard of now. Today, many cases of gross murders and vicious brutality are taking place on camera. Even with solid evidence, the cry for justice by all American citizens is still not loud enough.

Can there truly be justice when the blanket judicial system does not represent the African American community? There has always been a huge disparity in our legal system as it relates to racial bias. As long as there is no "sounding of the alarms" regarding the racial injustices we see every day from the powers that be, we can assume that both our White and African American judiciaries are not concerned about racial injustices.

In order for true change to happen we as a collective body of citizens must get to the root of the problem. I believe that God (or the universe or whomever it is you believe in as your higher power) is shining the spotlight on some of the root problems in America; but, are we refusing to see the problems even with the light of the truth beaming down on them? Is it ok to stay quiet in the face of injustices because you believe it does not affect you or your community?

The reality of the situation is: unfairness and injustice to one affects all. A race of people who have suffered through injustices throughout history will soon get tired and fed up. When this happens there will not be any rest for anyone. Remember the aftermath of the Rodney King trial? What about the Michael Brown trial? There are individuals who want peaceful resolutions to America's issues but on the other hand, we have individuals who are filled with rage and anger because they feel helpless. They are despairing because they are made to watch their sons, daughters, and family members be murdered on international television. It is like a slap to the face when some of these cases end in mistrials or the charges are delayed. The rage and anger this body of individuals feel will one day demand a payment.

We as a people must first acknowledge that there is and has always been a serious problem with racial injustice. The core of who we are as a nation must be dealt with. Ignoring the issue will not make it go away. The rest of the world is watching in disbelief as we continue to pretend that our nation is whole.

Will you stand up for your fellow neighbor when you see an injustice, regardless of the color of their skin? Or will you hurry yourself and your family members along as if nothing wrong is going on? How long will we remain silent while human beings are being killed every other day without probable cause?

In order to take action against the many criminal acts being committed within our great nation, we must not to turn the other cheek or turn a blind eye to unfairness. We must rise to look injustice in the face and say, "ENOUGH! We will not tolerate racial injustice or any injustice any longer!" If you choose to remain silent about the injustice in your community, you are not contributing to making this country better.

I take peace in knowing God will make wrongs right and in the end, He will balance the scales in America. Change does not come easy but it does come. We as a people must be willing to hold up the mirror to our own faces to examine ourselves to see how we have become so passive and uncaring. We should no longer hold bias towards another race or stay bias's within our own race. We must unite. Let's unite together and stand for justice for the sake of all our children and our future America.

When God tells you to do it again.

When God tells us to do something that we have already tried and failed at we are cautious and often wonder if this is you God. The fear, pain, and anxiety that surrounds us can and will keep us from fulfilling what God’s destiny is for our lives, if we adhere to those emotions and thoughts. But what if we did it again? What if we took the leap of faith and just did it?!!!! What if the very breakthrough we are searching for is on the other side of fear, pain, and anxiety?!!!!!!

Detoxing your thought life can be work. I am not going to lie to you about the fact that anything in life that is worth anything will require work. Are you up for the challenge? I used to wonder all the time why do I feel like this? This overwhelming sadness that would come to haunt me and the fear that would rise up in my chest that would send my heart pounding like crazy! Yet I had no control over these sensations of anxiety when they started. I would wind up in the ER and my doctors office time and time again, I mean it got to the point to where I believe I could have hooked up the EKG machine myself. My kids would wonder what the heck is wrong with mom. I was a wreck!  So how do I get rid of these insane symptoms that keep happening to my body? Well it’s been a long road to get me to where I am today and believe me those sensations of anxiety try to rise up but I quickly get rid of them so they do not get to ruin my day. Now I have control over what I feel and this is how I did it.

Our minds thought processes are very powerful and our thoughts create our reality in this world. So what we believe and think are important. We cannot just allow random thoughts to roam around in our mind, we must begin to recognize and stop negative/toxic thoughts that lead to negative emotions. For most people including me there was a time when I did not give a thought about what I thought about and or how my thought life could negatively affect my body. I would just allow random thoughts to float in and out of my mind without ever examining those thoughts to see if they where even healthy for me to be thinking about. So I saw a therapist who told me my problem was in my mind and what my mind was telling my body to respond too. I was like Huh? What do you mean? She started to take me to my past and that is where it all got revealed.

The root matter

I remember living in uncertainty even as a child. When my step-dad would come home night after night drunk we would feel scared and those feelings of fear and uncertainty ruled my everyday life because I didn’t know what he was going to do next. Well I never knew how important the impact of these experiences would have in my adult life. Sometimes we gravitate toward the same toxicity that causes us anxiety because it’s familiar. Humans like to feel comfortable and we will gravitate towards things or individuals that are familiar even if those things and people are toxic. Growing up I still found myself in toxic dysfunctional relationships because they were familiar and though this sounds strange the toxic/negative life is what felt comfortable to me. My relationships where hard ones, I gravitated towards relationships that kept me feeling uncertain.  On my road to healing I found out that uncertainty was the culprit to my unhappy reality. My experience growing up was groomed in fear, me and fear where best friends. I found out that my comfort was the cause of my anxieties.  My mind kept trying to sub-consciously catapult me into a place where the negative/toxic familiar feelings resided. Anything that felt like uncertainty triggered anxiety. I know it sounds crazy but it is real.

So I had these thoughts that I would allow to roam around in my head, like," you will never amount to nothing in this life" and "who do you think you are anyway, you can't do this.". I wanted to branch out on my own and write but my thoughts concerning writing where toxic so whenever I would try to write I would get anxiety and feel like a failure and I would just stop writing. Thoughts of rejection rolled around in my head nonstop. The feelings of rejection that plagued my childhood were ruining my life. I would subconsciously also seek out ways to feel rejection because I needed to feel that comfortable familiar feeling. So my thoughts were saying stay from anything that rejects me, (feeling of rejection cause serious anxiety symptoms in your body because it tells your body that something is wrong) but on the other hand I had a need to feel the pain of rejection as well! My minds thought processes where in total contradiction of one another. So there was constant turmoil happening in my mind. I found out that the root of my anxiety was uncertainty. If someone is dependable and reliable I pulled away from them because my minds thought processes viewed this as unfamiliar so it rejected these normal dependable reliable feelings. This caused me more turmoil in my mind, see my mind would not allow me to recall goodness only pain stemming from fear and uncertainty. So when I met anyone who wanted to have a relationship with me that showed signs of uncertainty I gravitated towards them, I gravitated to what felt familiar but caused me so much pain.

 My relationship with God he has taught me how to face what I want to hide from.  When I feel anxiety start to manifest in my body, I set myself down and begin to ask myself some questions. What am I feeling? Is this feeling real or does it remind you of another place from a past experience? Asking myself these questions helps me to identify the truth about my circumstances and emotions. It is important to identify what it is that you are feeling, we have to dig deep to find the answers to why we feel what we feel in order to stop anxiety’s ugly reign in our lives.

Ferguson
Sharon Blake
November 25, 2014

My heart is sad about what has come about.. No indictment is what they spout. The prosecutor so close to this case but that doesn’t matter it’s only a race. A race of mothers and little black boys, a race of voices being stamped out by choices made by those whose perspective is different than another. And in that moment difference is the deciding force. What do I do? Do I shoot to kill or shoot to bruise?! Do I as a mother stay silent and cry or do I, do I rise! Should I pose the questions of why so many little black boys’ lives are being taken by men with force? Wait a minute has anything changed, is this the same old scene? Do lives matter to us if they don’t they surely won’t matter to anyone else. Do we see white mothers in the streets screaming and begging for justice for their teens? Are their little white boys being treated the same way? What’s going on how do we end this reign?
My heart is so sad today for the parents and families of ALL those who have lost loved ones because of injustices!
From the beginning races have been bought and sold at a small cost, so when will the price of lives escalate to more than gold in the eyes of those with the perspective to make the life or death choices? Has the price of black life ever risen from times past? Where’s the injustice you ask? It’s in the perspective of the individuals responsible for making split second decisions based on what they think lives are worth! All life is worth more than gold so what’s your perspective on how much you are worth? Are you teaching self- worth to others or do you keep silent? It’s time to open your mouth and do something about the injustice you see.

Good Morning!

I am in need this morning of my Saviors voice to stream into my room with a bountiful ray of joy.

Knowing that only he can supply my needs and only he will fulfill all that is hopeless and faithless in me.

See hope deferred kills the very fiber of your being, yet patience is required to deliver a thing.

So how then do we separate the two or better yet how do we change our views. To say it is not hope deferred any more but it is patience working its course.

See how we view life is critical to what we get. In other words our minds thought process must align with faith not just hope. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the EVIDENCE of things not seen yet!

So how do hope and faith differ? Faith and hope are defined in the dictionary as follows; Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing or a belief not based on proof and Hope is an optimistic attitude of mind based on an expectation or desire. Faith says it is so now, and hope says in the future it could happen.  

Faith being the substance of things hoped for means that we must have a base mindset of faith in order to receive what we need from God. We have to truly know and believe that what we set our minds to believe and focus on is what will come to pass.

 I believe that the problem occurs when we never pass from hope to faith. Hope always speaks of the future and faith speak for the now in life. So once we graduate from hope to faith we will then begin to see the fruit of the seeds of our thought process now. We plant seeds everyday even if we think we do not. Our thoughts are our seeds of this life so what are we planting.

Let’s forget about the past hoped for failures and begin to live by faith alone. Its sounds like a tall order for those who have only lived by hope but let’s challenge ourselves to live by faith today.

Sharon