ZEST

Just when you think life couldn't get any better here comes Arlee with the Alphabet Challenge and bam a big heaping helping serving of zest adds a different flavor to the mix. My blog for certain will never be the same. Despite being a lady of a certain age and finishing up my last semester in college I rose to the occasion and blogged my heart out. I only regret I didn't have time to comment as much as I wanted and read every one's blog every day.I am grateful to my new friends and followers and I am looking forward to making house calls on everyone once school has ended May 11th.SO THANK YOU ARLEE FOR THE ZEST...IT WAS JUST WHAT WE NEEDED! Mmmm Mmmm GOOD!

INFLUENCE: Have You Touched A Life Today?

Do me a favor. I want you to think about the person or persons that influenced you.... to buy a house. Get an education. Be a productive person. Be responsible about having children. Get and keep a job. I always tell my daughter, "you are who you hang with". Do you believe that? Who did you hang around? Who made you the person that you are? I'll bet you right now your answer to the majority of these questions are.... a family member, a teacher, some neighbor, a friend or a pastor. What's my point?
If you don't have anyone that is a positive influence in your life, anyone to teach you how to become a productive, responsible person that respect life and property and value education then what happens? Lack of discernment happens. You lose the ability to recognize differences between right and wrong, what is appropriate and what is not, what is moral and what is immoral. If you look over your life I am willing to bet that someone taught you about discernment. Do you see what an affect not having the influences of both parents (our first teachers), clergy, neighbors, and school instructors have had on society. How do we rebuild? Where do we start?
Try mentoring someone. I have mentored in formal programs and just to whomever I feel could use my counsel. I teach my adult women friends about finances, talk to young couples about marriage, nag high school boys about keeping it in their pants and encourage college girls not to give it up so easy. I think the government should pay mentors to pair up with faltering families and troubled youth. Give them bonuses if they can get that person or family to take a path forward. O.K. it is not a perfect plan but it is a start. What do you think? Who have you been an influence to? Who influenced you?

DEATH

My daughter was in first grade when we had the "death" discussion. I was told by doctors I would not survive my bout with pancreatitis and as organs began to shut down and last rites administered I groped for words to explain death to my child. Even after I beat the odds my daughter would plead a year after the fact for me to promise her I wouldn't die. Of course I couldn't do that because I knew one day that I would.
"There are far worse things that could happen to me than dying," I said to her one day. "Like what?"she asked puzzled as her eyes rolled around to indicate maybe I didn't understand that we were discussing the ultimate "boogie man," the final frontier. "I could be like a vegetable in a coma, somewhere between life and death," I offered. Her eyes popped open as she tried to wrap her little mind around that. "Suppose I was awake but couldn't move at all, couldn't talk or walk, completely paralyzed." Silence ensued as she knew someone like that and I imagined she was visualizing me in that person's place.
I am more than just a body. I have a spirit and once the body wear out your spirit goes on. So even when I die I'll come to you in different ways as my dad comes to me. On some beautiful Spring days I'll smell a hint of his cologne in the wind, or I'll glimpse him out the corner of my eye and think had I turned quickly enough I would have seen him. At night when it's quiet and I'm in bed my mind replay long ago talks and I close my eyes and feel my hand in his.
Above all my little girl, God will be there for you always. He will comfort and guide. When you are old enough to read His word you will be assured in knowing that my love is everlasting and life is eternal for those who truly believe. She's never again pleaded with me not to die.

A DREAM DEFERRED

I've gotten a challenge. You know I can't back down. Here is the challange. All you have to do is blog to the alphabets A-Z for the month of April excluding Sundays. My friend Lee invites all bloggers to participate. For more info. check out Lee's blog http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/

I have always known writing is my destiny. Before I started school I hid under our kitchen table cloaked in secrecy by the lace floor length table cloth left to my game of choice "scribbling." With an eraser less pencil I scribbled on the blank side of discarded bill envelopes. In those days I envisioned myself as a "secretary." Later when I learned my alphabets my writing skills advanced to jotting down every family member's order at supper. It didn't matter to me we all had the same order. I just had to write something. In middle school I started reading "Nancy Drew" and the "Hardy Boys" mysteries. It was the spring board to my starting to write real stories. By the time I was in high school I advanced to writing one act plays. One of them made it to my high school stage. The play received a standing ovation. It was that moment I knew I wanted to pursue writing as a career. Then it happened. My senior year my parents explained why I couldn't go to college to be a writer. "There is no such thing as a black writer. You need to concentrate on something practical," my parents said firmly. It was no need to bring up Niki Giovanni or Maya Angelou, you just didn't disagree or question your parents that way. A dream deferred.Writing kept returning to me like an old lover whose advances to put black ink on white paper I continued to rebuke. Three decades after my parents senior talk, I read of a writing contest in the newspaper that made my knees buckle and my heart beat loudly in my head. Fingers poised over keys I succumbed to my lover and the sight of my words on the computer screen filled me with an ecstasy of pleasure I could not have imagined. I was finally where I belonged.

New York And Dan Rather

I was ten years old when I first saw Dan Rather through welled up tears on a black and white t.v. It was also the first time I saw my dad cry. Dan's voice was the voice of absolute certainty during a time when no one was sure of anything. President Kennedy's assassination stunned a world that was now transfixed on the television set. Dan Rather's voice was authoritative but at times even his voice faltered. I liked and admired him for his humanness that day. We needed to know it was o.k. to be human and show emotion. If the ultimate professional could show pain then it was o.k.for us to mourn such a loss. I hoped one day I could tell him what a comfort he was to a little girl, her father and a nation that terrible day.

My best adventure in N.Y. was having dinner at the 21 Club with the Rather's. Wait a minute some of you that know me are thinking, is Debra leading some sort of double life? We thought she was just a common everyday person. Ding ding ding ding! You are right but just because you are a plain common person doesn't mean you have to live your life like that...plain & common. Remember this if you take away nothing else from this trip. It's your life and you can live it the way you want. No woman can be as sweet and kind as Jean Rather. Dan was just non pretentious. They acted as though it was a treat for them to meet me! I was Cinderella that night. I arrived in a black limo and left in a white. My husband and I became quite emotional when Dan spoke of his meager beginnings and how the "can do" spirit of Sam Houston University where he and my husband went to school got him where he is today. We know a little something about that "can do" spirit. In fact like Dan we are living proof of what you "can do" if you believe in your dreams. This is why my blog name is Dream Weaver and I have that wonderful quote at the very top. Are you making your dreams come true? Are you waiting for something to happen instead of making something happen? Life is yours for the taking so what are you waiting for? FYI...since its opening every president has eaten at the 21 Club (remember Barack and Michelle did so last year) except "W" jr. This has also been the backdrop of many movies like Sex and the City. It is also the meet and greet place for the stars and dignitaries and such.

10 Reasons I Love New York. David Letterman

Happy New Year to you all and sorry for the delayed posts, but I'm baaaak! Now let's continue our trip to New York.

Here I am waiting to go in the Ed Sullivan theater to see Dave, the CBS orchestra, Paul, and the guy with the red hair and the voice!

I made lots of friends standing in the cold waiting to be prompted on what to do & NOT to do as a part of the studio audience.

Did you think those people were laughing at Dave's jokes that loud on their own?

I met a single lady from Austin who was a cut up like me along with a cute couple from the Carolina's and we just screamed and hollered and partied like we were old friends. AND this was before they let us in the studio.

I sat in the third row center and at times I was so close I wanted to just join him on stage. Dave is thin, really thin and Paul Schaffer is short really short, and that red hair Coulter guy's voice is deep, really deep and he was hot really hot.

The guest was none other than Barbara (Wa Wa) Walters! She is so tiny and fragile but her head is big, really big. I admire her so much! What a legend. The guest band was "Mos Def." He is a rapper, and I didn't know his music but he made a really good movie with Bruce Willis and I liked him in it. Quite the actor.

Did you think I would go all the way to New York and not pay a visit to RUPERT at the Hello Deli. Dave did lots of skits here and I always thought Rupert was a stand up guy. So un assuming over his star status and down to earth. I was on the money. Rupert is one of the nicest guys. We chatted, gossiped, and basically solved the world's problems in about an hour and a half. I had the David Letterman sandwich which was so good I bought one to go. Rupert told me to be safe and visit him again the next time I was in town. Awwwwww. This is why I love N.Y. Want to know how I got tickets to the show? A story in itself I assure you. Ask in the comment section and I'll give you every detail so you too can follow in my footsteps.