Catching Feelings

Ladies, I know we catch feelings when we think....yes think we've met the perfect guy. Don't you just hate having your emotions twisted and turned in all proportions. Is that the one? Will he ever come along? Waiting is best thing you can ever do because God is preparing us individually as his princesses and He knows when to bring that special someone along. Our main focus in the process of being single and fabulous is this: As an unmarried woman, we are to be concerned about the Lord's affairs: Our aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit! (1 Corinthians 7:34)

Personally, I know I have caught feelings for a particular guy. Ya know this guy seemed so right with his love for the Lord, his sense of humor, his intelligence, his suave and debonair character, his kindness, and his compassion...blah blah...somewhat the deal for real. Then I realized how much of weirdo he was because his intentions were not clear and seemed to like every chica that came across his path (oh does he have some work to do but don't we all...but these so called men out there need to grow up for real). Catching feelings can certainly be a major distraction in su vida. Don't let em get to you until it is time, until it is time...with much prayer and supplication, being still and knowing that God is sovereign...there won't be a need to catch feelings. Instead, you shall embody the peace of the Holy Spirit. In the meantime, remind yourself: I will not be distracted by mankind. : )

Now

Hola, it's been a while since I have written. I'm sitting and waiting patiently in the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport to return my home sweet home. My flight has been delayed for approximately 4 hours. It was supposed to leave at 2:45 pm. However, there were maintenance problems with the flight going to St.Louis so they had to get another plane and that plane would then come back to Charlotte to go to Houston. Complications. Just lovely isn't it? Seems like I have been waiting forever! (Traveling by air is getting to be ridiculous...$25 for the second bag...I was able to pack less...quite unlikely for a chic of my caliber. And now you have to pay $2 for a beverage on board. What kind of ish is that? Next people will have to pay for using electronic devices on board the plane. If only gas prices were not out of bounds...hopefully that will change with a distinguished gentleman coming into office in November : )).I have managed to keep myself occupied watching shows online...The House of Payne, Project Runway, and So You Think You Can Dance. I have also managed to eat a Classic Cinnabon and 6 wings and a biscuit from KFC...delicioso. The time is now 6:24 pm and the plane has yet to arrive. Patience...oh so sweet. I think I shall write a blog on Catching Feelings. Coming to ya soon. Ciao.

Purple Moments II

late night studying for cell biology

lovely summer day for purple

out with my chickadees

pressed hair do

twist and shout

Purple Moments

This is me currently.

This was my first year at the University, seems just like yesterday.

Wearing a lovely purple dress...pic after church.

Me in my purple butterfly shirt and cute purple earrings.

My purple bed sheets and all.

Purr Chica

I'm so excited God has given me this opportunity to share a bookclub with my chickadees. It is called Purr Chica. It is for ladies striving daily to be pure, holy, and virtuous women of God. I started the bookclub in the Summer of 2006, and I'm finally kicking it off again this lovely Summer of 2008. We will be revisting "The Lady, Her Lover, and Her Lord" by T.D. Jakes and introducing "A Lova' Like No Otha" by Stephanie Perry Moore. I pray that through this journey our love lives with God will be spicened up. I love CeCe Winans new CD "Thy Kingdom Come." It is so fitting to building and strengthening our relationships with the Father and for the bookclub. One of my favorite songs is "Falling in Love." The chorus goes as follows: Keep falling in love with You/Over and over/Old things pass/All things brand new/My lips shall praise thee/Joyfully give you glory/While lifting my hands in Your dew/I'll just keep falling in love with You. It is so amazing how God loves us so much and we can embrace Him over and over again.

Beauty

How would you define beauty?
It is so vast, to me, it is...
-The bright sunshine
-The various shades of purple
-The flutter of butterflies
-A child's laughter
-The chirp of birds
-A cool breeze
-The sun's warmth
-Spring showers
-Blooming flowers
-Mama's singing
-Delicate, moist pound cakes
-Grandma's red beans & rice
-Grandma's roti
-Crown of gray hair
-Clear, crystal waters of the Caribbean Sea
-First fall of snow
-Stillness of being in a room alone
-Joyous Salvation by Joann Rosario
-GOD
-The Holy Spirit
-Jesus the Christ in His Birth, His Life, His Death, and His Coming
-Being comfortable in the skin you are in and being gracious for God's blessings.

The List

Okay, I just simply had to put THE LIST up here because of a certain conversation on this past evening about relationships b/t a woman & a man. This certain prince charming, my boo, etc. has to somehow fulfill these requirements:

FIRST and foremost, he must have a personal relationship with God and accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

He must pursue a college education (via a UNIVERSITY and proceed to GRADUATE SCHOOL) and have HIGH goals and standards for his life.

He must have it all together, from head to toe, be fit spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally, and socially.

Muy inteligente y guapo (very smart & handsome)

Compassion, Sense of humor, Security, Humbleness, Sincerity, Gratefulness, Optimism

Respect (i.e. Respect His Mother), Faithfulness, Loving, Caring, Kindness, Honesty...

Some musical talent via singing/playing an instrument and other gifts (perhaps baking/cooking, knows how to work well with kids....)

Recognize his spiritual gifts as well (to each his own ministry)

He must love me for who I am (as JESUS loved the church) and be supportive of my endeavors and give me the world hehe.

I could definitely put more but I won't go overboard. : )

Dr. Dorothy Ferebee

Dr. Dorothy Ferebee was a tireless advocate for racial equality and women's health care. In 1925 in a derelict section of Capitol Hill, she established Southeast Neighborhood House, to provide health care for impoverished African Americans. She also set up the Southeast Neighborhood Society, with playground and day care for children of working mothers. At Howard University Medical School, she was appointed director of Health Services. She was founding president of the Women's Institute, an organization that serves educational, community, government, and non-profit organizations, as well as individual patients.

Dorothy Celeste Boulding was born in 1889 or 1890 in Norfolk, Virginia. Her father's parents were former slaves. While she was young her family moved north to Boston, Massachusetts, where Dorothy and her brother Ruffin grew up in the middle-class neighborhood of Beacon Hill. Her family enriched her childhood, serving as excellent role models. With eight attorneys among them, discussions about law dominated the household. One of Dorothy Boulding's uncles, George Lewis Ruffin, was the first African-American graduate of Harvard Law School and later became Massachusetts's first black judge. "All I heard at the table was 'your honor, I object,' or 'answer the question yes or no.' Yet all my life I wanted to be a doctor."

Since she was a child, Dorothy Boulding wanted to help cure the injured. While her friends played with toys, she doctored ailing and injured animals, "I would nurse and help the birds that fell out of trees, the dog that lost a fight."

After graduating from English High School with highest honors, Dorothy Boulding attended Simmons College in Boston and decided to apply to medical school and she was accepted into Tufts University School of Medicine. Although she graduated among the top five in her class, she met a blockade of racism when she applied for internships at white hospitals. So Dr. Boulding moved to Washington, D.C., for an internship at Freedmen's Hospital, the precursor to Howard University and one of the few hospitals under African-American administration that provided health care to the black community.

After completing her internship in 1925, Dr. Boulding opened her own practice in a derelict area of Capitol Hill, without ambulance service. To augment health care in the neighborhood, she persuaded the trustees of the Friendship House, a charitable segregated medical center, to open an adjunct clinic for African-Americans. The new facility was named Southeast Neighborhood House. She also set up the Southeast Neighborhood Society, with playground and day care for children of working mothers. That same year she joined the faculty of Howard University Medical School, and became the founding president of the philanthropoic and educational Women's Institute.

In 1930, Dr. Boulding married Claude Thurston Ferebee, a dentist and instructor at Howard University College of Dentistry. A year after their marriage, the couple had twins, Claude Jr. and Dorothy. Tragically, their daughter contracted flu and died at age 18.

The Great Depression of the 1930s was devastating to the poorest members of society. In 1934 the philanthropic sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha (the first African-American sorority, founded 1908) sponsored the Mississippi Health Project to bring primary medical care to the rural black population across the state of Mississippi, who struggled to receive even the most basic health care. Dr. Ferebee served as medical director of the project which was active for two to six weeks every summer from 1935 to 1942. Dr. Ferebee, a long-term member of the sorority, was elected President of Alpha Kappa Alpha in 1939.

Through contacts with the United States Public Health Service, an endorsement by Senator Byron Patton (Pat) Harrison (D-Miss), and the State Department of Health at Jackson, Mississippi, the project sent mobile medical units into regions of poverty in the rural South.

Alpha Kappa Alpha members used the Mississippi Health Project to bring federal attention to the needs of African Americans in the rural South. In the face of hostile, intimidating, and suspicious white plantation owners, project participants launched smallpox and diphtheria immunization programs in ramshackle communities of black sharecroppers. They also tackled widespread malnutrition and venereal disease.

In 1949 Dr. Ferebee was appointed director of Howard University Medical School's health services, a post she held until 1968. An active member of the National Council of Negro Women, she succeeded her friend Mary McLeod Bethune as its second president from 1949 to 1953, and expanded the organization's efforts to eliminate discrimination against minorities in housing, health care, education, and the armed forces.

In the 1960s, when President John F. Kennedy appointed her to the Council for Food for Peace, she toured Africa for five months, lecturing on preventive medicine. She died on September 14, 1980, in Washington D.C.

-From the National Library of Medicine

Celebrating Black History Month

February already, wow! Time sure does fly. Anyways, I will be updating my blog with wonderful, strong, and beautiful black people who have inspired me and keep me pressing on. First up is Dr. Justina Ford. Thanks for making the way for black women in medicine..pediatrics and gynecology..right up my avenue.

Biography from National Library of Medicine...
Dr. Justina Laurena Ford challenged and overcame gender and racial barriers in her medical career to become the first African American woman physician licensed to practice in Colorado. In 1950, just two years before her death, she was still the only black woman physician in the state.

Born in 1871, Justina Warren (later Ford) grew up in Knoxville, Illinois. She is sometimes known as Justina Carter Ford, although the name Carter—actually her sister's married name—was not used by Justina Ford. After her graduation from Hering Medical College in 1899, she briefly practiced medicine in Alabama, but moved to Denver seeking a place where black Americans would have more opportunities to practice medicine in the expanding West.

Three years after earning her medical degree from Chicago's Hering Medical College, Dr. Justina Ford settled in Denver, Colorado in 1902. When she applied for her license to practice medicine, she was told by the clerk, "I feel dishonest taking a fee from you. You've got two strikes against you to begin with. First of all, you're a lady, and second, you're colored." Ford often referred to this double barrier to her career. In her later years, she said, "I fought like a tiger against those things"

Despite her early encounter with the Denver bureaucracy, she managed to establish a long and notable practice there, specializing in gynecology, obstetrics, and pediatrics. Like other black physicians, she was denied hospital privileges, which required her to make house calls for many years. Known lovingly as "The Lady Doctor" during her fifty years of practicing medicine, Dr. Ford estimated that she delivered thousands of babies for families from many different backgrounds.

Eventually, she was allowed to practice at the Denver General Hospital and was admitted to the Denver Medical Society. Four months before her death in 1952, she is quoted as saying, "...When all the fears, hate, and even some death is over, we will really be brothers as God intended us to be in this land. This I believe. For this I have worked all my life."

Phillipians 1:9-11

And this is my prayer: that my love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so I may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-to the glory and praise of God.