Take the Time to Tell Your Story

One of my favorite writing exercises is the six-word story.  The point is to tell a story in six words or less.  Seems simple, right?  This is often a challenge for me.  Someone will ask me a question and rather than give a straight answer, I will take the circuitous route via the yellow brick road to get there.  Yes, I am a storyteller and like most stories, our life cannot be captured in six words or less.   

But it got me to wondering…  Why is it that our lives have been brought to rushing crescendos where we speak as if our language is based on the social media culture in captions and 140 characters?  Why not take the time to actually listen to someone without being distracted or rushing him or her to get to the point.  Has our world become so empty that the great storytellers of old will soon be forgotten?  Can you imagine Aesop, the Brothers Grimm, Han Christian Anderson, Sufi, Anansi, the Parables all boiled down to make it snappy and interesting?

So I decided that today I am no longer going to apologize for being long winded.  I will no longer compromise the integrity of a story for the sake of your short attention span.  I stand up in solidarity to the storytellers of yesteryear.  They were able to spin a yarn full of silver and gold wisdom and truth.

Today take the time to tell your story in luxurious detail with all the plots, lessons, fables, villains, and heroes woven in words with magnificent color. 

“I'm a storyteller: the crux of the matter is to reach beauty, poetry; it doesn't matter if that is comedy or tragedy.  They're the same if you reach the beauty” ~Roberto Benigni

“You’ve Got Big Dreams"

Recently I answered a tweet poll done by Essene magazine that asked “Who is a Black actress in Hollywood that inspired us and why?”  Immediately I thought of the legendary actress, dancer, choreographer, director, and producer Debbie Allen.

As a teen, I watched her portray Lydia Grant on the television series Fame.  As she so eloquently stated “You’ve got big dreams?  You want fame.  Well, fame costs.  And right here is where you start paying … in sweat.”

The three things that Lydia Grant taught me about dreaming

1)      Hard work and Practice~, If you have a dream put in the time and do the work necessary to make your dreams come true. 

2)      Dance like Everyone is Watching~ You never know who is capable to help you with your dreams.  So let everybody know what you are doing and scream your dreams out loud!

3)      Respect~ Lydia Grant commanded respect with no apology and no excuses.  Thus, I learned to respect myself, respect my art, and to respect others.  I learned to keep my back straight, my head held high and to strut my stuff.

Yes, Big Dreams take vision; take belief but most importantly action.  It is true that the formula of inspiration, motivation, dedication, and perspiration propels your dreams forward.  Big Bodacious Dreams have Big Pay Offs…  

Today Dream Big!

Theme for the New Year

Happy New Year!!!  This time of year, many of us are disappointed with the New Year Resolutions that we made.  Perhaps we have not lived up to them or have already fallen off the wagon.  Be gentle on yourself and scrap the idea of a resolution for the year and live for today.

Today, live in the now by creating a theme for your year.  A New Year’s Resolution tends to focus on one area of your life (e.g.  I want to lose more weight, make more money, and get a new job) but it does not get to the heart of how you want to live or what you imagine your year to be like.  How do you want to show up in the world?  Do you want a year of love, joy, peace, happiness, creativity, fun, risk taking?  Think about it.  What is your theme for the year?

Once you have decided on your theme apply it to all aspects of your life so that you embody it in everything that you do.  It becomes the intention of your year.  You are not resolving to do anything; you are thematically living in the moment to become the best person you want to be.

Want to up level your theme year? You can do this by finding activities, friends, books, music that help you on your journey.  I love creating Theme music for my year. Create a song list so that you have your very own theme song so that when you show up on the stage called life, you step into the greatness of who you are.

Happy New Year.

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson