Taking Care of Home

Brotha Wynn (my term of endearment) is one of the great ones. Early, early on, when we first met (in college, back in 1973), I knew there was something different about this young brotha. First of all, I'd been raised in California, and he was from New York - spending his early years in Newark and Washington, New Jersey. And that geographical difference registered on many levels. Though of the same religious faith and background, our upbringing was as opposite as any two people could be. His formative years grew him up faster - so unlike most post adolescent young men, at 19, he knew what he wanted out of life. I, on the other hand, had no clue. God was looking out for me, though.

The journey has been full of peaks and valleys, like most. And the valley experiences, many times, have been more precious than those mountaintop respites. Through Brotha Wynn, I have seen, heard, felt, and received the love of God. For there have been so many times along this road that I'm positive it was only God's grace that sustained this man's love for me.

Reminds me of a story (and I'll be brief, I promise). I was in my favorite spot at Barnes and Noble, reading, enjoying my caramel machiatto. A very aged woman sat down near me and began telling me her life story. Unsolicited, and unwelcomed (at first)...she just rattled on and on about her late husband, whom she'd just buried a few weeks earlier. Hers had been a troubled marriage, and many times she planned to leave him. But one day, as she was reading the Torah (she was Jewish), she said a voice whispered to her "Abigail, you must love your husband." She told me she knew it was God, and she wasn't happy with His command. This woman, from the way she told it, had all kinds of earthly reasons to leave her husband. But she decided to heed the voice...and continued what she knew would be a torturous life with this man. However, the older they got, the more ill he became. And she cared for him as a dutiful wife; and he, who had not been a man of faith, asked her to read the Torah to him. Which she did... Well, the rest is pretty well predictable. He asked her for forgiveness for so many years of hell, and he accepted God into his life. Then he died.

I haven't seen this woman at B&N since that time - nearly 7 years ago. She may not even be among the living. I know she was real - though sometimes I believe she was a heavenly messenger. There have been times in my experience with my beloved, when I knew it was God keeping me above what my normal attitudes would be... and invariably, whenever those incidents occurred, I always heard Abigail saying "...you must love your husband."

Today, I'm giving honor to the man who has shown the greatest patience, endurance, and love of anyone I've known. Father of my three children, and friend above all others... Lamont Wynn is blessing my soul on a constant! (wish I had time to tell it all!)

I have said that God is good... did I mention that He's also ABLE?

I Music Because I Must!

Music has been part of my life since I came from the womb. My parents are musicians, my sister... And my formative years in the Greathousehold were full of piano lessons, band practice (I played clarinet in elementary through to high school), and choirs, choirs...and did I mention I sang in the choir? (alto voice) In college I formed a ladies trio, and we performed some of my original joints - I was blessed to have a great keyboard player, Clarence Benjamin (WHERE ARE YOU, MY BROTHA?), and he brought along his band. We rocked quite a few college events (the most memorable, the gala for the graduating class of '77 - my class).

Today, I'm director and cofounder of the singing group known as Revived! We've been together since 1999 - and have performed around the 'high desert', the Inland Empire and the greater Los Angeles area. Putting a CD together of original contemporary gospel music is yet another project in the works. (Did I mention a sista had too many irons in the fire this year?) It's been a slow process, mostly because of the actual musical compositions/arrangements that we're working with. Recording is, thankfully, not the problem - and that is due to two major things: 1. the studio owner is also one of my musicians and therefore...the project is almost a 'gratis' situation (we have a sweet deal!) 2. technology has fixed it so everybody doesn't have to be present to lay down tracks! And my crazy mix of singers (12) and musicians (3) love to remind me that they're "grown" and have "lives"! (when I send out my emails about rehearsals and calendar controls) But it's going a little slow - slower than we'd planned. And now the holidays are upon us and our annual musical events are on and poppin. This weekend we're doing a holiday concert on Saturday evening... but I'll be participating in a mass choir Messiah event that morning and again on Sunday... Needless to say, a sista is rehearsaled out! (is that a word?)

But I do it because I must... it's like the air I breathe on the real.

Writing Projects

It's going on three years since my debut title was published. One might wonder "girl, what you been doing?" Well, I've asked myself that same question. Over and over again. And, "what had happened was"...

I got tangled up in too many commitments. Things I said "yes" to when the answer was clearly, "no", or "not at this time". On my desk at this very moment, laying peacefully beside me, is the unfinished manuscript of my next project "This October". I even have a publisher who expressed interest in reading it, and is waiting. Unlike "Come, Joy!", this project is not a book of poetry. It is my maiden voyage across the ocean of short story writing. I'm nervous, excited, crazed, giddy...numb, and, dare I say it... blase' about it.

The basic theme of the book is my call to my sisters for the restoration of "the sisterhood". The stories are vignettes telling the tales of our struggles, strengths, and weaknesses - but all for the rebuilding of our families. I've seen far too much disregard, disrespect, and alienation going on in our interpersonal relationships. From partnering to parenting, from the backyard to the schoolyard, there have been devastating blows and attacks against us as a culture and a community. It is a book that my brothers will hopefully embrace and enjoy...but I'm speaking to and through the sisters. Some of the stories were taken from real life situations and retold, with permission, with sensitivity. There is humor that inevitably rises from the deepest places. And some of the stories were woven and spun straight from the cracks and nooks of my own experiences and observations (my "book of pitfalls").... True lessons infused with fictional elements that keep it real. (a category I like to call "faction") The moral of the stories is the same. We must bring back loving, model it, and perpetuate it throughout our generations. The title, "This October"... has everything to do with a personal epiphany... and that's all I'm able to share on that ...

"The Woman In My Attic" is the title of what will eventually (hopefully) be my memoirs. I use that word loosely, however, because I don't really believe anyone would be that interested in my life and times.... Originally, about 8 years ago, I wrote a poem of the same title, in the third person. It created quite a bit of attention...folks wondering (I was sharing on an online poetry site back then) who this woman was. From that experience I began to write pieces with "her" in mind... and the readers and other poets began urging me to put a collection of "her" poems in a book. Intially when I set out to publish my first book, it was going to be the "Attic" collection. But then I became impressed (strongly) that it would not be my debut title. It became clear to me that the fullness of time had not come for "the woman". And I also began to see that the woman in my attic is, indeed, me...several years from now.

We shall see...

In the meantime, I've got work to do that will hopefully see me with my second work at least by NEXT October!

Solid as a Rock

I think we all remember, or have some understanding of what it means when we use the word "solid"...Speaking in the vernacular, or ... using the colloquial expressions of our region (and our times), we acknowledged, in the affirmative, when someone spoke a truism. "Solid, my brotha... right on." Or, if we needed a favor we'd say, "Hey, my sista, can you do me this solid, one time?"

"Solid" is a powerful word - an adjective with over 20 definitions (I researched it, you know)... and I dig them all. Before I went to the dictionary (dot com - ha!), I tried to think of as many definitions as I could on my own. Words like, "strong", "firm", "secure", came to mind. And there are more: "of substantial character", "having 3 dimensions (length, breadth, thickness)", "whole or entire", "real or genuine", "financially sound or strong", "thorough, vigorous, great".... I mean, it was amazing to see so many definitions associated with this five-letter word!

I'm at a place in life where I'm taking stock, reassessing, reviewing, reflecting... and standing firmly on a foundation laid many years ago. At my age, it's not even cute to find too many flaws in the infrastructure; cracks and leaks in the framework must be repaired with a quickness (simple mathematics: more time behind me than ahead of me). I am thankful that I've been blessed with lessons from my own personal book of pitfalls... experience has taught me some things. And the most remarkable piece is, I have access to all the tools necessary to keep it funky, fresh...and "solid."

God is good... 

"S/he who has ears, let them hear"....

Greetings and Salutations

I've finally gone and done it - created a blogspot for myself in what is now commonly known as "the blogesphere". Catchy, and so correct. This is an ever evolving world, and since the coming of the world wide web, we're able to bridge distances through cyberspace in nanoseconds. It's exciting...and scary at once. But hey, you'll never accuse me of being a "sissy la la"...I'm in, I'm game.

So after trying my hand at occasional blogging over at another site that shall remain nameless, and reading the more seasoned bloggers out here in the blogesphere, I've worked up the courage to get it going on. What I hope to accomplish...is still somewhat fuzzy. But I can say that I'm interested in exchanging ideas with people who enjoy staying informed; I wish to be edified in the process.

I'm the new blogger on the block, ya'll... pleased to make your acquaintance.