Digital Download Commitment

Me.

So. I added this picture because despite the turmoil during this very moment, I was happy; super happy, in fact. Which is weird for some people to understand. That one could be in the middle of a hurricane; finding solace in the very eye of the storm is off-putting. I am the Ai of the Storm. Off-putting is my middle name. Well, it's Renee but can I live?

If you know anything of my previous writing monikers that bolded sentence makes perfect sense to you.

Anyway, did I have stress and confusion, in the very truest sense of the words, well of course, Because Law School 😓. And thank the Almighty that part is practically over (Because Bar Exam 😳). But throughout all of the ups and downs, I knew then just like I know now, that this is my journey and everything that heads my way is another lap along that way.

It is with this understanding that I am shifting some of my goals. #WalkWithMe

Because there are a number of people, at least two a week, that ask about my first and to date, only, novel: Never Look Back...I am proposing to have its 2nd Edition up and running for download and physical purchase by February 1, 2017. This is my eustress goal. I am throwing passive income out the window like 1). I got it like that and; 2). My name is Boo Boo The Fool.

This is me making a commitment; being the commitment-phobe, free-flowing Libra that I am, but I am also currently *adulting. So, I am updating/revising NLB and I am creating a seven-book fantasy novel in the process. 

Never a dull moment. 

Also Me. Get yourself a girl who can do both ;)~.

I am also studying for the Bar. Some people will say: you must do one thing at a time. No, I mustn't. Stay away from those people. THEY must do one thing at a time; allow them their limitations on themselves.

Writing is something that I do everyday of my life, that should end because I am studying? That should end because I have other responsibilities? That should end because people feel as though their reservations for their accomplishments should be mine as well? 

Have we met?

Anyway, hold me accountable to my promise. Light the way for me, as I will always see that glow at the end of the tunnel. And to conserve energy, that light will remain lit on my own path, but dim so as not to blind, in case you ever open your eyes to a darkness that you no longer choose to accept.

-- Aisis

*Yes, this is a made-up word. Creative license like a muuuuuh.

September 23, 2016 - Happy Birthday to Me!

This is 46. And it is glorious.

The Devil is Busy

#LiarLiar. 

She loved you still. 

Literally.

Specifically.

Captured your demons and buried them in a box beneath your maple tree. 

Lightened the dark road ahead, buried many pains beneath many dreams.

Believed the words, It's not you; it's me. 

And when he could finally see in himself, what she saw in thee: I'm sorry, Sweets - I can stand on my own two and I'd rather be free.

Fly away, fly away home.

Nettie Stevens...Because Science.

Nettie Stevens discovered XY sex chromosomes. She didn't get credit because she had two X’s.

Updated by Brian Resnick on July 7, 2016, 6:30 a.m. ET     

At the turn of the 20th century, biologist Nettie Stevens was driven to solve a scientific mystery that had perplexed humanity for millennia. The mystery was so simple but daunting: Why do boys become boys and girls become girls? In her pioneering work at Bryn Mawr College, Stevens discovered the sex chromosomes that make the difference.

Today would be her 155th birthday. Google is celebrating her accomplishments today — she’s featured in the Google Doodle — and so should we.

Before Stevens, we were utterly clueless about how embryos become boys or girls

Thanks to Stevens’s work — and the work that built upon it — we now know that sex is hereditary, and that dads’ sperm in particular determine the sex of offspring.

But for most of human history, this question was an absolute mystery — and it yielded some interesting theories.

Aristotle believed a child’s sex was determined by the body temperature of the father during sex. “Aristotle counseled elderly men to conceive in the summer if they wished to have male heirs,” the textbook Developmental Biology explains.

In 19th-century Europe, it was widely believed that nutrition was the key to sex determinant. Poor nutrition led to males, good nutrition to females.

And throughout the centuries, other gonzo theories abounded.

The 18th-century French anatomist Michel Procope-Couteau (the author of The Art of Having Boys) believed that testicles and ovaries were either male or female.

Procope-Couteau “suggested the best way to control a child’s sex would be to remove the testes or ovary connected with the unwanted sex; though a less drastic mean for ladies would be to lie on the correct side, and let gravity do the rest,” according to The Evolution of Sex Determination, a book by biologists Leo W. Beukeboom and Nicolas Perrin.

All of that was nonsense, we’ve learned, thanks to Stevens.

Microscopes haven't changed much...

Wikimedia Commons

Nettie Stevens’s microscope.

The mealworms that held the secret of sex determination

Stevens was born in Vermont in 1861 and got her start in science at the relatively late age of 35, when she had saved up enough to enroll in a small startup university in California. It was Stanford, and she thrived there, earning both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree by 1900.

After Stanford, Stevens pursued a PhD — a level of education very rare for women of her time — at Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania. It was there that she turned her attention to solving the problem of sex determinism.

In the early 1900s, the idea that chromosomes contained hereditary information was still a brash new theory. The works of Gregor Mendel himself were only rediscovered in 1900 (Mendel had no audience for his ideas while he was alive), and the scientific community was trying to work out the mechanisms of how traits — including sex determination — were passed between generations.

Stevens wanted to know how (and if) sex was passed on through genetic inheritance. She was making observations with a microscope of the chromosomes in Tenebrio molitor — the mealworm beetle — when she discovered something that had eluded humanity for millennia.

Stevens observed that the female mealworm’s cells had 20 large chromosomes. The male had 20 chromosomes as well, but the 20th was notably smaller than the other 19.

“This seems to be a clear case of sex determination,” Stevens wrote in, a report summarizing her findings.

She concluded (correctly) that this difference could be traced back to differences in the mealworm sperm. The sperm had either the small version of the 20th chromosome or the large one. “The spermatozoa which contain the small chromosome [determine] the male sex,” she wrote, “while those that contain 10 chromosomes of equal size determine the female sex.”

(She didn’t call these chromosomes X or Y. That naming convention would come later.)

Her sex chromosome discovery in 1905 “was the culmination of more than two thousand years of speculation and experiment on how an animal, plant, or human becomes male or female,” historian Stephen Brush explains in The History of Science Society. “At the same time it provided an important confirmation for the recently revived Mendelian genetics that was to become a central part of modern biology.”

Studies in Spermatogenesis.

Stevens’s depictions of cellular division in Studies in Spermatogenesis.

Stevens didn’t get credit for her revelatory work — at first

Stevens’s colleague and mentor E.B. Wilson — a legendary biologist in his own right — is more commonly cited as the discoverer of sex chromosomes.

The reason is simple: sexism.

Wilson was working on the same questions as Stevens, and he published a similar result around the same time. Wilson had worked on a species where the male actually has one less chromosome than the female, which is less common in nature. Stevens’s model of an X and Y chromosome is the basis for human sex determination. Plus, Stevens’s model better supports Mendel’s theory on genetics — that some genes take on dominant roles and override the instructions of their gene pairs.

“It is generally stated that E. B. Wilson obtained the same results as Stevens, at the same time,” Brush writes. But “Wilson probably did not arrive at his conclusion on sex determination until after he had seen Stevens' results. ... Because of Wilson's more substantial contributions in other areas, he tends to be given most of the credit for this discovery.”

Wilson’s paper published before Stevens’s, and as the man with the higher reputation it’s he who has been credited with the discovery. But even though their papers were similar, it was Stevens who presented a stronger — and ultimately more correct — conclusion.

Wilson still believed environmental factors played a role in determining sex. Stevens said it was purely the chromosomes. Neither view could be confirmed absolutely at the time of the discovery.

But though time proved Stevens correct, it’s Wilson who got the credit. At they very least, they should be considered co-discoverers.

It’s a classic case of the “Matilda effect,” a term named after the abolitionist Matilda Gage. The effect is the phenomenon that women’s accomplishments tend to be co-opted, outright stolen, or overshadowed by those of male peers. Stevens is far from the only woman scientist to have this happen to her: Rosalind Franklin, whose work was crucial to the discovery of DNA, got similarly sidelined later in the 20th century.

The New York Times wrote an obituary about Stevens when she died in 1912 from breast cancer. Here’s how it summed up her accomplishments: “She was one of the very few women really eminent in science, and took a foremost rank among the biologists of the day.”

An understatement indeed.

(As published on http://www.vox.com/2016/7/7/12105830/nettie-stevens-genetics-gender-sex-chromosomes)

Sineca Tsai, 2016 Graduate!

So. Proud. Of. Him.

Why is Nyla like his biggest fan...? Maybe because they share a birthday (along with my first BFF Felicia and My Auntie Charlene, lol, all on February 13! - both Ingrid & Therese are in April.)

My beautiful oldest and youngest, 9 years, 2 months, and 1 day apart...Jazzi-Phae had to work ;(, but she was there in spirit!

#Him

And nothing was ever the same...

Because Truth and Justice.

First of all, I am not a BET supporter, let's just make that clear...I do not support the music they shove among the masses and I just choose not to view their channel.


Second, how many of us need to die before there is change in our community...?


Third, I am personally on a mission.


Fourth, This. Speech.

Jesse Williams of Black and Swedish heritage.

Aryn and Jesse Williams. Her hair though...!

There is a petition - (https://www.change.org/p/boycott-abc-network-and-sign-petition-to-fire-jesse-williams-from-grey-s-anatomy-for-racist-rant) - to have him fired from his acting position on Grey's Anatomy (I haven't seen the show since 3rd-year of law school) because a number of people feel that his speech was somehow, racist. Racist?

I mean, whaaaa di raaaas? Metaphorically speaking, think of the difference between a killing caused by a murder and a death caused by self-defense. It's one thing to dislike a person for your own personal beliefs and reasons, it's a completely separate issue to hate a whole group of individuals and that hate spills over from your personal thoughts to your very public, tax paid position to serve and protect.

Below you will find his speech that played during the awards show and on a number of networks.

I send he and his wife beautiful vibes, and to be clear, I would send those same beautiful vibes whether she was beautifully black and bronzed or a cute cotton-candied Caucasian, love who you love. Stop the anger and hate mongering; it only begets more hate.

Jesse Williams, Activist/Actor

"Peace peace.

Thank you, Debra. Thank you, BET. Thank you Nate Parker, Harry and Debbie Allen for participating in that.

Before we get into it, I just want to say I brought my parents out tonight. I just want to thank them for being here, for teaching me to focus on comprehension over career, and that they make sure I learn what the schools were afraid to teach us. And also thank my amazing wife for changing my life.

Now, this award – this is not for me. This is for the real organizers all over the country – the activists, the civil rights attorneys, the struggling parents, the families, the teachers, the students that are realizing that a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us cannot stand if we do.

It’s kind of basic mathematics – the more we learn about who we are and how we got here, the more we will mobilize.

Now, this is also in particular for the black women in particular who have spent their lifetimes dedicated to nurturing everyone before themselves (Author's note: not all women, those that have spent their lifetimes nurturing. I shouldn't have to explain that to people who grew up being nurtured). We can and will do better for you.

Now, what we’ve been doing is looking at the data and we know that police somehow manage to deescalate, disarm and not kill white people everyday. So what’s going to happen is we are going to have equal rights and justice in our own country or we will restructure their function and ours.

Now… I got more y’all – yesterday would have been young Tamir Rice’s 14th birthday so I don’t want to hear anymore about how far we’ve come when paid public servants can pull a drive-by on 12 year old playing alone in the park in broad daylight, killing him on television and then going home to make a sandwich. Tell Rekia Boyd how it’s so much better than it is to live in 2012 than it is to live in 1612 or 1712. Tell that to Eric Garner. Tell that to Sandra Bland. Tell that to Dorian Hunt.

Now the thing is, though, all of us in here getting money – that alone isn’t gonna stop this. Alright, now dedicating our lives, dedicating our lives to getting money just to give it right back for someone’s brand on our body when we spent centuries praying with brands on our bodies, and now we pray to get paid for brands on our bodies.

There has been no war that we have not fought and died on the front lines of. There has been no job we haven’t done. There is no tax they haven’t leveed against us – and we’ve paid all of them. But freedom is somehow always conditional here. “You’re free,” they keep telling us. But she (Author's note: Sandra Bland) would have been alive if she hadn’t acted so… free.

Now, freedom is always coming in the hereafter, but you know what, though, the hereafter is a hustle. We want it now.

 

And let’s get a couple things straight, just a little side note – the burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander. That’s not our job, alright – stop with all that. If you have a critique for the resistance, for our resistance, then you better have an established record of critique of our oppression. If you have no interest, if you have no interest in equal rights for black people then do not make suggestions to those who do. Sit down.

We’ve been floating this country on credit for centuries, yo, and we’re done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil – black gold, ghettoizing and demeaning our creations then stealing them, gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit (Author's note: Billy Holiday's Strange Fruit). The thing is though… the thing is that just because we’re magic doesn’t mean we’re not real.

 

Thank you."

 

Where was the racist statement in this speech? I don't understand the petition, at all, and neither does Shonda Rhimes.

RIP Alton Sterling

Leviticus 19:17-18: You must not hate your fellow man in your heart. You must surely reprove your fellow citizen so that you do not incur sin on account of your hatred of him. You must not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the children of your people, but you must love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

151.

I need a minute.

I received an email today, twenty-four minutes ago, a general email mind you, to the parents of seniors who have yet to pay for and/or pick-up the cap and gown of their respective young person…, teenager.., young adult.., heart-walking-outside-of-their-collective-bodies…



(Sineca's singing phase)

151.

Hold on a second.

I mean, admitting to long-windedness is like second nature to me, so just give me a minute. I need this moment. I swear to you, it won’t be as long as the other moments because quite honestly, I don’t know if I can hold back the barrage of tears behind these desperately mesmerizing dark chocolate orbs (I mean, I’m all emotion-filled but that writer in me, though…)

I mean. Good grief. I am literally just trying to keep my composure.

And so I write. And write. And write.

Until spent.

Until that emotion is under control.

Until then...

#Breathe. I keep telling myself.

Just. Breathe.

Shall we take it from the top?

151.

So, twelve minutes ago, I was in the ladies room at my office, bawling my face off. Luckily, I am not the full-on warrior face-paint sort of individual, because that would have been SUPER duper FUBAR (effed-up beyond all repair). Not that I have any issue with those of us that choose to care enough about presenting a put-together face-time, every time. You must warrior face-off on these “Why you so mad, Mah. Smile, Sweetheart.” types:

-Reading is fundamental. Why *are you so mad. And that should be a question not a statement.

- I am not mad. I don’t know you and I am NOT your Sweet anything.

                and;

- DON’T you statement at me (*insert angry emoji)!  Don't you tell me what to do. You don't know my life!

Well I told him. *Brushes shoulder off.

Anyway, to wrap that point up, I commend those of us who are able to accomplish this daily regimen actually because Lord knows the way my mental time-acumen is set up…

151.

As I was saying, I received this notice from Sineca’s (1) community leader at school. Sin handled it with ease, as per usual, and handed off the receipt information and the purchase date, which proved the glitch was firmly in their matrix.

The issue was resolved in less than a minute, so that's not the thing...the thing is, I all of a sudden had this rush of relief wash all the way over my entire existence.

Compared only to the moment I first laid eyes on his tiny little cocoa-infused fingers and toes.

He. Did. It. 

*Heart Chakra to Crown Chakra - Overload of endorphins - Flood Warning

He made it through.

Oh Em Flipping Gee, I'm like really bawling. Again.

The Last Little Mohican.

151.

And because you don’t know my heart, you have no idea why I am bawling-out or what exactly I’m blubbering about. But, as a retort, I will say that your thoughts are really hurtful. First of all. Second of all, Who hurt you, Misery? And, at any juncture, all the way at the beginning, I did ask for a moment and we all know how much I can talk an ear plum off...! And the writing is absolutely no different, if not exponentially worse, lengthwise and especially about the people that I love deeply.

Soulfully.

This day was never meant to happen. That’s what the nurses and doctors believed, but Are you even kidding me, God? Graduating from high school, for the most part, is an awesome accomplishment, a rite of passage, if you will. Not like the Oh- My-Word-Clutching-Our-Pearls moments of yesteryear, like before Brown V. Board (Side-eyeing Mississippi like…) when young men of color graduating from high school would literally change the entire make-up of his family and the dynamic within. No, the graduations of today are more like the You did it! moment of a young person's existence, the very precipice of adulthood.

But just a tiny bit sweeter for my Choo-Choo Bears, my Sin-Sinna-Who-Got-The-Keys-To-My-Beamer, My Gator Boots (OMG, if you know why I call him these ridiculous names, just stop reading now, otherwise you'll be bawling right along with me!)...for my SinnaMiniBuns, for my BooBear, ya know the Boo Bear to my Yogi Bear...

Well, let me be clear, lol. Sineca is much more cerebral than celebratory. This elation is not from Young Master Howell, himself. He pretty much takes everything in stride. Being an Aquarian, he's just so cool on all active and inactive fronts (unless we're talking Call of Duty, where he is extremely UN-in-stride, hollering at folk to just never ask him to let them join his Mission, like ever, in the history). On so many beautiful levels, he's just never considered failure, despite the complications, and neither did I. I knew the risks, and I knew his humble health beginnings and more importantly I knew from his fiery competitive nature that he was blessed from birth and not only would he survive; he would THRIVE!

#BeWaterMyFriend - Bruce Lee

He isn't into basketball, although his genetic make-up and his cousin Julian would belie this thought. He isn't very much into football, although his on-field technique and his Dad would belie this thought. He is, however, into Muay Thai Kickboxing, could quite easily kick a hole into someone's chest actually and loves to spar with said Dad. I have NO IDEA (2) where this fighting spirit came from but thankfully it was honed in, regulated (insert smirking Emoji here) and put to good use.

Children who are loved by both parents benefit immensely. (6th Birthday)

151.

That's how many days I watched him fight for his life, and my life. Watched him lay in an incubator hearing the nurse whisper the unlikelihood of Sineca making it through the night having been born at a 23-week gestation, as if he could not hear them. They told me to prepare myself for what could be a really rough but ultimately peaceful evening. I laughed at her then because I knew his life was meant to be. She didn't know the power I knew of, she didn't know his sister was a 23-week preemie and she was as close to perfect as any person breathing could ever be, she didn't know his brother was gifted in untold categories, she didn't know how desperately his father prayed for him; a chip on and off the old block. 

I watched him that night, breathe in and out. Trying to keep every eye open, even though I had just given birth and had been heavily sedated; I willed him to live, to hold on to this life. Promising its beauty and my word to never leave his side.

And I did not.

And still to this day: I do not.

I keep my promises.

He has been the Prince of peace ever since he took his very first breath, bringing nothing but his calm nature. He went from an incubator the size of a bread box, to a crib so gigantic that it swallowed up both of us. His tiny little 2 pound 5 ounce frame and mine just slightly larger, in a crib that the two of us could simultaneously fit in with room to grow. Me, Sineca and his innumerable tubes, tines, and toys made that space all our own. Back and forth, from one test to another, incubator, operating table, head bleeds, stomach ulcers, lungs filling with mucus, and blood and other foreign fluids, failing from over work, incubator, crib, back to 80% oxygen, reminding him to breathe because he kept forgetting, like literally, even though it was NOT his job to remember but mine to do so. I was supposed to breathe for him, in my big ole belly. But nooooo, somebody just had to be born early. 

...151 days.

We watched families in despair. Saw them come in and bowed our heads when they had to leave for the very last time, without their bundle of joy, as I sat willing him to rest but also forcing by sheer osmosis for his soul to be strong. Epitome of the strong silent type, Sineca enjoys his life day by day and I don't know why he was spared; that is not for me to know. What I needed to know was faith.



Why he is here is between he and The Almighty One and somehow that email reminded me of that and that: We. Are. Here...

Right now. And this is where a brand new journey begins.

And.

I thought I'd be ready but I am so not ready.

My Sineca was the onliest (3) one. 

BIDMC

And people always laugh at me when I speak of him and then they see him, because they expect him to be this small church-mouse quiet individual.

He:

• Speaks his mind ceremoniously
• Is witty and comical and acerbic
• Has grown so much over the last year
• Laughs at most of my jokes, even the ones that I mess up
• Logically makes assessments far beyond his years
• Thinks he know EeevveRryyThing
• Has great taste in movies, if not music (#Goodgrief)

But quiet...? Uhm...No. Lol. 

Young Master Howell

I speak of all my children in the most coddled emotion because where else would a man have such uncharacteristically unconditional love, respect and understanding, in his growth from atom to adult, if not from his mother, where he incubated, for like eons? My children are all such awesomely upstanding people that my praises of them seem foreign to mothers and others who are unable to express themselves. Use your words. Some people feel that to love them this way spoils them, that they wouldn't be ready for the world. The world is harsh, there is no reason for a mother to be. A mother should be grateful for the gifts of life, to be handed a child of God and given the opportunity to show Him how much you love Him, thankful to be chosen the caregiver of His most precious cargo.

Y'all got me preaching up in here this afternoon and I am the least religious person on earth. Lol.

Anyway.

My beautiful baby wasn't supposed to make it through that first night. *Cue tears* Every day was touch and go. My past, his dad's...we begged The Almighty One not to make him suffer for our misgivings, misfortunes, and misdeeds. Give me his pain. Give me his ailments. He was never expected to walk and talk on his own, let alone master subjects like algebra where one must compute precisely, history where one must recall and regurgitate logically, and computer science where one must…uhm...master the science of computers, scientifically?

Obvs.

Because Math.

#Duhhhhhh.

I mean, I'm a law school graduate (4) for goodness sake, not a medical student. I don't do mathematical computations.

And.

Anyway.


Look at God.

I am so happy.

And proud.

I am so proud that he has proven to himself just how beautiful life is, how our lives have been further enriched because the Almighty One knew I could handle that little life, that I'd be the best vessel for his growth and I that when this day came, I'd be ever grateful for the opportunity and the challenge.

(Sineca at his first concert as an adult; Future and his Purple Reign tour. His first ever concert was his brother's show in Philadelphia.)

(Peter Parker phase. It took Sineca a full 9 years and 11 months before he acquiesced to NOT believing he was Spider-Man.)

(1) Meaning of Sineca: Still waters, elevate. They do and he did. Oh hell, I’m going to need more tissues.

(2) Have we even met? Lol
(3) *When cult leader Jim Jones had his followers drink that drink (Hence the phrase, Don't drink the Kool-Aid), there was one woman, Catherine Hyacinth Edwards Thrash, who was hiding herself from a minor infraction deserving punishment, subsequently falling asleep, under a bed, and missing the command to drink that drink and when interviewed, her words above have always haunted me. She said, out of all these dead people, it's just me left, I was the onliest one…
*Onliest is obviously not a word, but neither were Bootylicious or Gigantinormous until they were. #Sheeple (insert rolling eyes emoji). I'on't see y'all telling Bey she made up a ridiculous word. And what Bey got on ya girl, but money? (Smirking Emoji. Obvs.)
(4) Well not yet, but in a few days ;)~...but go on and holla atcha girl!        

It. Is. Done.

           I am more than a conqueror.

Because Love

What would you tell your younger self...?

I've been Power to the People since inception.
(*Insert smirking Emoji, RBG flag, and fist in the air.)

That's baby Me somewhere around four-ish.

How.

Cute.

Is.

This.

Little One?!

When I think about my Life; I'm thankful. Super thankful, in fact, that I am a woman filled with love & light, empathy & understanding, humanity & compassion. And, contrary to popular belief, none of the above descriptions mirror a weakness. It actually reflects the deepest strength. And it took me a few adult years to accept that Love is my power. Love is my strength.

#iLove.

That's just what I do.

Regardless of what YOU do.

#LoveIsAlwaysTheAnswer

Love is the light in my darkest days; the Life in my most iniquitous nights.

...and there have been too many to share and, truthfully, I no longer keep count and I haven't in millennia.

...and I've been here just that long.

...and I've loved You just that long. In this Life and in the next.

The problem that others seem to have in recognizing this light is that 1). They just don't have this light and so they can't see it or understand it; and 2). I am not like the others, independence set aside, yet and still -- I do not need. Like. Ever.

I want. I care. I love.

...but I do not need.

It's as simple as that.

It is unfortunate, in some circles, that men and women view these terms in disproportionate ways, need and want. It seems as if men need to feel needed while women want to feel wanted and somehow or another over the years, never the twain shall meet?

Really?

Not. Really. 

I so have the answer: 

LOVE. 

It is the end-all, be-all, cure-all method.

Unselfishly. This is so not about you (singular). It's about the two of you (plural). Two people. Not one. You. Collectively.

I mean, can it be explained it any clearer?

You would think it was like, Rocket Science. This is so not that complicated.

Align those chakras and get at me*.

Some people only see the love they choose to recognize. They see how they love or want to be loved. The unfortunate never seem to grasp the understanding of how someone else wants to be loved, and there inlies the problem.

You must learn to Love.

Unconditionally.

The how's and why's can be reconfigured.

And I said all of this just to literally explain that nothing but Love will show you the way or ease the pain & to express that I know this because I practice it everyday.

And, if you missed that memo, I put the onus squarely on your shoulders. I live in love everyday. It wasn't always love for Ayesha, that I've had to work on, but I've always loved my people and the humanity that we display.

So. I'm working on my older self by reminding my younger self of some important things.

-- If I could tell Ayesha Reneé anything, before she was Baby Doll or Stormy Weather, before the babies and the boyfriend, before Life and ultimately law school, before the wind shifted beneath her wings, taking her on journeys untold, I would tell her:

1. Absorb the love that surrounds you.
2. You are enough.
3. Don't ever be ashamed of how you love, who you love, or who is not worthy of your brain peace.
4. Always dance.
5. You absolutely deserve that happiness.
6. Go to Harvard.
7. Don't ever let That One Go.

It was all in HIS plan and it was all worth it...because, truth be told: Look at God ;), look how beautiful it all turned out...

#ItsJustASayingPleaseDoNotGetAtMe*
#LikeNotUnderAnyCircumstances

Goodnight, Moon...

Huffington Post Article Repost

----------------------------------------

Mars Appears At Its Brightest Tonight As Planet Moves Into Opposition

The phenomenon comes a week before Mars will make its closest approach to the Earth since 2005.

 2 hours ago

• Nina Golgowski Trends reporter, The Huffington Post
  
  
  
  

Get your telescopes ready — tonight’s sky is expected to be a bright one.

Mars will be the brightest it’s been in two years as it undergoes what’s called Mars opposition, an orbital placement that puts the Earth directly between the sun and the Red Planet.

As a result, Mars will be brightly illuminated by the sun’s rays, making it the brightest object in the Earth’s sky, just behind the sun and moon.

“From our perspective on our spinning world, Mars rises in the east just as the sun sets in the west. Then, after staying up in the sky the entire night, Mars sets in the west just as the sun rises in the east,” NASA explains on its website.

It’s a phenomenon that happens once every two years (or 26 months), about the time the Red Planet takes to completely orbit the sun.

On Sunday, NASA estimates that Mars will be 47.4 million miles away from the Earth.

Amateur astronomer Dr. Ian Musgrave, from the University of Adelaide in Australia, has recommended stargazers use telescopes if they have the chance.

“From the point of view of someone standing around looking into the sky, it is just going to be a bright dot,” he told Australia’s ABC News. “But even if you have a small telescope, the disc of Mars will be big enough to see details and maybe even the polar cap.”

Those who miss Sunday’s event, worry not.

NASA/JPL-CALTECH

Stargazers have May 30 to look forward to as well, when Mars will be the closest it’s been to Earth since 2005.

May 30 is expected to be an even bigger show. That’s when Mars will make its closest approach to the Earth since 2005, coming about 46.8 million miles away. That process is called the Mars Close Approach.

From May 18 to June 3, the planet will appear brighter than usual because of its placement. By mid-June, it will start to become faint, as Mars and Earth move farther apart in their orbits around the sun, NASA explains.

Those will miss this month’s festivities will have to wait, but fortunately not a lifetime. The next Mars Close Approach is on July 31, 2018.