Planting Hope

A Man Named Pearl found his muse by reuse of refuse:

Wintley Phipps on Amazing Grace

CAUTION: This testimony is a powerful fusion of the spiritual and the factual; watch at the risk of being moved and informed!

"There is a universal fear, that of a lack of confidence in yourself."

Could YOU touch the sky without hands? Really? This Outlier and Flier did just that!

Mission Statement

I am a serial optimist waging an incessant march against negativity.

Powering the World Without Pollution?

From THINK.

Inventor Lonnie Johnson graduated from Mobile's Williamson High School and Tuskegee Institute. His Super Soaker brought summer fun to a whole new level. Now's he's figuring out how to power the world without polluting it!

A Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

What would you do if you knew the end was near? Pray? Shout? Cry? Mourn? Well, Professor Randy Pausch continued to get the most from life via a trademark display of courage, aplomb and humor. His Last Lecture is a TALL act to follow.

Love's Echo

As a very content Business Systems Analyst pursuing loftier career goals turned Personal Caregiver by tragedy turned Independent Contractor by necessity, I really felt Lillie Love's (RIP) testimony regarding management of the vicissitudes of life:

I have learned to just let the universe give me what it is I need.

Ms. Love's tour of duty on the physical plane ended recently at 53 years but she's already greatly contributed to NPR's StoryCorps oral history project, a most valuable body of work. She was very persistent in pursuing the opportunity to listen to the stories of our American lives and found whilst in pursuit of her passion that love itself was her greatest reward:

...Love really is all there is-as trite as that sounds. All the other stuff does not matter in the end. When you take your last breath, you remember the people you love, how much love you inspired and how much love you gave.

Ms. Lillie, I never met you but your posthumous words matter greatly to me since I'd become greatly discouraged over the last few years watching the validation I'd worked so hard for in all spheres crumble into the vapor trail of my mother's final transition. Your words now reside on my insides and in the minds of others smothered by the griping of the calloused and the wining of the bored.

May we be so blessed as to count our wealth by those we loved... at the gateway to eternity.

A thought from Martin

We stand in life at midnight, we are always on the threshold of a new dawn. - MLK

Frederick Douglas: Will It Pay?

Frederick Douglass once lamented that in America the great question always seems to be "will it pay?" Quoting from Revelation 14:6, Douglass admonishes:

"…if such a people as ours had heard the beloved disciple of the Lord, exclaiming in the rapture of the apocalyptic vision, "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people;" they, instead of answering, Amen Glory to God in the Highest, would have responded,--but brother John, will it pay? Can money be made out of it? Will it make the rich richer, and the strong stronger? How will it effect property? In the eyes of such people, there is no God but wealth; no right and wrong but profit and loss….[Our] national morality and religion have reached a depth of baseness than which there is no lower deep."

Mr. Douglass, the same greed roams today exponentially magnified by technology that spans the globe at the speed of thought. We've got work to do...

Reflection from Job...

God knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. - Job 23:10 (NIV)