now this is some news...

we all know that homosexuality is rampant in the traditional black church. in the congregation, in the choir, in the pulpit. we know this. any one of us that grew up in those enviorns can recall fond childhood memories of our favorite lesbian guitar-strumming, piano-playing youth leader or that lovable flamboyantly gay choir director. in spite of the church doctrine that preached against gay anything, these people were very much a part of our world. and if you're still involved in a traditional black church, they probably still are.

while the black church disapproves of homosexuality, and takes any opportunity to give it to the congregation straight (pardon the pun), i always thought that it was the epitome of ironic that so many members of the church that heard these anti-gay sermons time and again were as gay as an all-white liberace picnic. but that's me. the truth is, homosexuality is percieved of by the church as a lifestyle choice, not something that's in anyone's genetic makeup. there are plenty of ministries out there for anyone that would like to change but let's face it: coming out and admitting that you're gay is hard to do amongst black folk because, in spite of the fact that homosexuality is just one of many sins that the Bible mentions, it is THE sin as far as traditionalists/fundamentalists are concerned. so everyone stays closeted, or at least on the DL.

you want to talk about closeted? what about the pedophiles? i'd love to see someone do something about the priests and pastors and ministers and youth leaders that habitually molest children -- and for some reason, get rehired or get assigned to another parish or worse yet, go unprosecuted. but i digress.

instead of opting for a gay congregation, many black homosexuals insist on attending that traditional black church. and i think that's completely understandable. a bigger part of our culture and our identity as african-americans is wrapped up inside of those traditions, and many of us would hardly want to lose touch with them. so those who are black and gay keep tithing, they keep giving offerings. they keep singing in the choir and shouting in the amen corner. and yes, everyone knows who they are. and yes, no one says anything.

so imagine my surprise when i read about this sister who decides to "out" over 100 homosexuals in the collective choirs of her church via e-mails to the pastor -- one of the biggest black churches in DC. this started a chain reaction amongst those who were outed, so now the higher ups are getting called out. oh. my. goodness.

this is probably only the beginning of what could be a wave of traditional black church outings nationwide. imagine it: everyone outing every gay anybody. married men on the downlow, single men dating everybody, and everything in between. the orgies, the sex parties, the live-in lovers. this is pretty explosive stuff.

the real question is: once they're outed and everything's on the table, then what?

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

Outing campaign roils D.C. black Baptist church
More than 100 members named as gay in e-mails to pastor, congregation
By LOU CHIBBARO JR. | Jan 30, 2:14 PM

One of Washington’s largest black Baptist churches was rocked by a female member of its choir who sent separate e-mail messages to the pastor in December and January outing more than 100 church members as gay, mostly male choir members.

The outings added to the inner turmoil experienced by a large number of gays who attend services at the 7,000-member Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church, located on Rhode Island Ave., N.E., according to a gay former member who provided copies of the e-mails to the Blade.

“I will be leaving the choir at the top of the year because 80 percent of the tenors are homosexuals and act more like a female in choir rehearsal than I do,” the church choir member said in one of her e-mails to Bishop Alfred Owens Jr., the church pastor.

The e-mail, sent in December, identifies about 45 fellow church members as gay. She sent a second e-mail to Owens on Jan. 2 identifying another 62 church members as gay.

“The following people I am asking you to monitor very closely and my prayer is that you will sit them down from their ministries,” she told Owens in the December e-mail. “Because they are ushering in the presence of sin, lies, a spirit of homosexuality and sexual spirits.”

She sent a copy of her e-mails to a Yahoo list group that goes to more than 300 church members, the gay former church member said.

The gay former church member redacted all of the names from the copies of the e-mails he sent to the Blade, including the name of the choir member who orchestrated the outings.

Officials with the National Black Justice Coalition, a Washington-based group that advocates for African-American gays, and the D.C. Coalition of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Men & Women, said they have seen or spoken with people who have seen un-redacted copies of the e-mails.

“There’s no doubt that these e-mails included all those names and they were read by a lot of people,” said Brian Watson, president of the D.C. Coalition.
Owens and Greater Mount Calvary Associate Pastor T. Cedric Brown did not return calls seeking comment by press time.

Owens became the subject of media attention in April 2006 when he used the word “fag” in a sermon on Palm Sunday.

“It takes real men to confess Jesus as Lord and Savior,” Owens said in the sermon, which was recorded by the church. “I’m not talking about no faggot or no sissy,” he said. “Let the real men come down here and take a bow — all the real men. I’m talking about straight men … praise God that you’re straight.”

The church’s web site includes a listing of twice-monthly sessions of a ministry called “Breaking the Chains of Homosexuality,” which it says helps gays change their sexual orientation through counseling and prayer. Minister Dennis Sawyers, an expert in “ex-gay” ministries, is listed as the leader of the church’s efforts to counsel gays.

The former gay member of Greater Mount Calvary who provided copies of the outing e-mails to the Blade, has withheld his own name. He used the pen name “Jeff Hammer” in his own e-mail correspondence with the Blade.

He said Owens responded to the first e-mail by calling a meeting of all members of the church’s numerous singing groups. The groups include the Alfred Owens Chorale, the Sanctuary Choir, the Celebration Choir, Voices of Calvary and the Male Chorus, among other groups.

“He said he only wanted to help people who wanted help to not be gay and that he was willing to help anybody change from being gay,” the former church member said.

The former member quoted Owens as telling people attending the meeting, “The Bible says that wheat and tares grow together but there are too many tares. When the tares outnumber the wheat I got to do something.”

According to the former church member, Owens said, “I’m going to meet with all the people mentioned in the e-mail and use my discernment to figure out who needs to be monitored or sat down from what they do …”

“My name was not on the list in any of these e-mails, but I think it is horrible,” the former church member said. “We give, pay tithes, dues and whatever, and this is how we are treated,” he said. “This is discrimination, humiliation and just mean.”

Sylvia Rhue, director of the National Black Justice Coalition’s religious affairs program and a licensed clinical therapist with a doctorate in human sexuality, said she was troubled but not surprised to hear that a large number of gays continue to join and worship at a church like Greater Mount Calvary.

“We know that many of the gays that go there like the traditional setting of a church like that,” she said. “It tears at your soul. It has the potential of causing depression, drug use and other harmful effects.”

Rhue said the NBJC recently released a publication called “Guide To Welcoming Congregations in the African-American Tradition,” which offers suggestions on how traditional black churches can be open and supportive of gays while remaining faithful to biblical teachings.

Watson of the D.C. Coalition said he knows a number of gays who remain members of Greater Mount Calvary, something Watson said he finds difficult to understand. As someone one who was raised in a church-going family in Oklahoma City, Watson said he attended services at Greater Mount Calvary when he moved to D.C.

“I did not join because the views there are clearly homophobic,” he said. “But it seems to be one of the more popular churches among black gays … I don’t know why these people keep going back there.”

Rick Rosendall, a spokesperson for the D.C. Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance, said he, too, was troubled over why so many gays would continue to attend and support a church that is less than welcoming to them.

“Our city has several welcoming and affirming congregations,” he said. “In the end, there is little that can be done for people who utterly refuse to respect themselves enough to stand up for themselves. If this particular incident wakes up some people and causes them to reevaluate their association with anti-gay churches and ministers, that could be the start of a salutary movement.”

The choir member who initiated the outing campaign at Greater Mount Calvary introduced herself to Bishop Owens as a deeply concerned member of the church.

“I am a female who has been a member of the Alfred A. Owens Chorale over five years,” she wrote in the first e-mail. “I have many friends in all of the choirs. However, people talk in my choir and I have overheard so many conversations, and pictures tell no lie.”

She added, “90.9 percent of the tenors in Sanctuary choir are homosexual. 99.9 percent of all the tenors in Celebration Choir are homosexual, including xxxxxx, but he is very undercover, aka, down low with his sex life.”

After naming more than a dozen men she claims are gay, she pointed to someone else she said was gay who “serves on the ushers board” and who “is always at gay parties drinking and drugging and is currently living with his boyfriend, Deacon xxxxx.”

She said another choir member “visits the gay clubs in the area weekly, i.e., the Bachelors Mill, the Delta, the Fireplace and Halo. He also attends private sex parties that male members of your choirs are having at their homes and
hotels.”

The gay former church member who sent the outing e-mails to the Blade also sent a copy of a separate e-mail from an outraged gay church member who was among those named in the first two e-mails as gay.

“I do not believe that someone would [have] the nerve to put my name to a list of known gays,” he wrote in an e-mail sent to Owens and members of the church Yahoo group. “This has gone too far, I am not going down by myself.”

He went on to name other gays, including some in high-level church positions.

“It is so bad that in the last e-mail we are turning on each other,” the gay former church member, who sent copies of the e-mails to the Blade, said. “Although I wanted to remain anonymous, someone has to do something.”

Leaders of two of D.C.’s largest gay churches, acting Pastor Mark Byrd of Metropolitan Community Church of Washington, and Bishop Kwabena Rainey Cheeks of Inner Light Ministries, did not respond to requests for comment on the Greater Mount Calvary outings by press time.

we are devo!

more than 30 years running and devo still packs enough of rock and roll muscle to get everyone's attention in this commercial, which is a take off from their video.

clearly, getting your music in commercials or movies is the way to go.

who will get your vote?

If you have questions about how the major candidates beliefs match up with your own, a non-profit group called Glassbooth has come up with a web site to make it incredibly easy to sort through all the noise. Their motto? "Glassbooth connects you to the 2008 presidential candidate that represents your beliefs the best. " Simply take a (surprisingly!) short survey on major issues and find your best match. It even shows you their votes on issues and policy statements.

And if you're not registered to vote, they can help you with that, too.

Pass this web site along to friends before their state's primary race. (They just might need it.)

Peru Negro!

who knew that peru had black cultural traditions? i didn't. africans have a global presence that has definitely gone undocumented/unresearched in latin america. out of a population of 23 million peruvians, there are over two million african-peruvians. we really are everywhere! peru negro, a 20 member ensemble that's sparked a resurgence in their homeland, are going to perform at the world music institute on saturday night. this dance company is considered to be a national treasure in peru?

i'm very curious -- especially since my friend and i may go to macchu picchu next year.

this is why i love living in new york city: because beautiful art in every genre comes here from all over the world -- sometimes to the exclusion of anyplace else. of course, having access to these things doesn't mean anything if you don't go and see them. and let's face it: most new yorkers don't.

how do you stop an avalanche?

objectification: In order to protect themselves from other people, people put others at a distance. This allows them to see the other people as things or objects that can be treated without having to consider their feelings (if I empathize with you and hurt you, I also hurt myself). When we objectify others, we strip them of their humanity and their individuality, hence objectification is also called depersonification.

i'll never forget my first trip to prague. i was fronting james blood ulmer's power trio "blues experience raw" and everyone on the european press junket was kind of foaming at the mouth about it. we were traipsing all over europe. the pay was good, the food was good. maybe i'd get to practice my bad german when we got to berlin. fun, fun, fun.

no one had to tell me. i knew that as an african american in europe, i was in a strange and precarious position that had me dangling between those pigeonholes of icon, fetish, heroine, whore at every turn. they know who josephine baker was. they watch oprah every day. they listen to hip-hop, to foxy brown. they readily assume that all black people are inherently ignorant, profoundly uneducated, inarticulate, violent, rabidly oversexed ghetto dwellers who listen to hip-hop, play basketball (or some other sport) and eat fried chicken by the bucketful. had they ever actually met any african-americans? the answer was usually a resounding no.

at first, i thought: if that's the vibe, why bother extending myself? they had me all figured out. nevertheless, i always looked for the moments that would connect us. i couldn't help myself. it's my nature to empathize.

i had never experienced prague and after careful research and a pocket reference language book, i felt ready to explore. as i unpacked my luggage, i flipped on the tv for some visual wallpaper. what greeted me was something so familiar, yet so wholly unexpected. i felt like someone brained me in my conscience. i slowly backed away from the set, perched myself on the end of the bed and stared at the screen for the better part of an hour in disbelief.

it was sanford and son, straight outta the '70s -- with all of those grunts, those oh-so-black attitudinal inflections, those mammyfied mmm-hmm that's right! yeah, chile! fill-ins -- in german. laugh track completely intact, of course. at first it was hilarious, to hear the way they "blackened up" the german voices. i remember meeting the mexican voice of james bond awhile back and having him explain to me that when it was time to speak espanol, his voice would always be attached to bond. i got a kick out of imagining some german guy as the voice of fred sanford. but after awhile, i felt embarassed, humiliated, freaked out. in retrospect, i think i was in shock.

all i could think was, everyone all over the world is seeing this? that wasn't all they were watching, either. they get all the shows from back in the day. and they love them.

why don't i love them? because much of it looks like a modern day minstrel show that, in its better moments, reinforces some pretty foul stereotypes. what scared me is that those shows were probably much of what formed ideas and opinions about me. i have to admit, it was pretty strange hearing some some white european someone used the "n" word on me a few days later on a gig oh-so-casually, in that hip-hop way, which of course made it okay to say it. when he saw (and heard) how shocked and angry i was, he blurted, it's hollywood! it's rap music! it's not me! and i was like, sure it's you. it came out of your mouth, didn't it?

and that goes double for hip-hop videos that denigrate black women. thankfully, they don't get BET in Europe -- yet. They have a viewership of 90 million in the US, Canada and the Carribean -- but those videos that are featured on BET Uncut in the middle of the night, the ones with the half naked sisters shaking so hard that their clothes fall off? those play everywhere. and they love them.

i'm channel surfing the other night and i see bob johnson, the black man that started BET, passionately defending hillary clinton with all of the self-righteousness that he could muster. i can't think of any self-respecting african-american that doesn't think this man isn't the scum of the earth, for more reasons that are fit to print. here's my top three:

1. bob has a long history of exploiting african-americans for his own monetary gain. he sold low cost programming that focused on sex and violence. that's a good business move because it makes him an enormous amount of money, but it's bad for the community. who cares? bob didn't. "I never really embraced that notion that BET was an heirloom that belonged to the greater black society," bob says. "BET was a business that had a great impact on African-American society, but it didn't belong to it. And so, my thing is that we want to contribute, we want to add value. But we have to operate according to the philosophy that you have to exist in a world where business decisions have to be made based on business, not on political notions or social agendas."
2. bob paid the people who worked at BET near-slave wages. again, if you're in it to make a lot of money, this can be construed as a good business move. this was bob's approach. "i'm in business to make money," says bob. and he has. he sold BET to Viacom in 2000 for 3 billion dollars, becoming the first black billionaire, at least stateside. think about all of the natural resources and untold riches in africa, and so i consider shaka zulu and many other great african leaders to be billionaires many times over. but that's me.
   
3. how can Viacom -- white owned and operated -- run the only black network on tv? by using the same formula that bob has so carefully built. sure, gangsta rap saved the music industry in the 90s. some of what they created -- like NWA's Fuck Tha Police -- was powerful and relevant and necessary. but then somewhere in there, everyone began to believe that the use of the "n" word, the violence, the materialism, the objectification of black women that rap and hip-hop sold to the world as art was actually black culture. and because everyone loved hip-hop and rap so much, it became something that everyone wanted to emulate. (white) people who consider themselves to be "down" with hip-hop use the "n" word all the time, whether they're talking about black people or themselves. black women are casually described as 'hos on nationally syndicated radio programs. the black beauty paradigm has shifted away from natural beauty to what's video ready. the houses, the cars, the money, the appearance of wealth -- this has spawned a cottage industry of its own, from pimp my ride to MTV cribs to CMTs trick my truck. it's a lifestyle. though he would scarcely acknowledge it, this is bob johnson's real legacy.

everything slid into this money-making abyss that left no room for anything but shuckin' and jivin,' because that's what brought in such huge capital and making money is all that any of these people cared about. especially bob. the snowball of 2ost century minstrelsy in media that started with al jolson and stepin fetchit and amos and andy kept rolling down the hill with good times and sanford and son until it became a BET avalanche. interestingly, no one knows how to stop one. you kind of have to let them stop themselves.

who knows if that avalanche is going to bury us as a people or not. it definitely feels like it will, whenever i deal with someone who'd rather objectify me than empathize.

sex tourism

this is an old story (it came out last november -- i thought i'd post it anyway) but not really. sex tourism has probably been around ever since someone invented the word "vacation." evidently, this sort of thing has been going strong in the west indies for quite some time. i fell into a conversation about it with a jamaican who told me that sex with the natives was the reason why lots of people travel to the carribean and it's an important part of their economies. once i did a little research, i realized that this was true of a lot of places all over the (third) world. but female sex tourism was something that i wasn't aware of. has anyone but me and a few of my friends seen the movie about female sex tourism in haiti called heading south? and hey -- what about how stella got her groove back? wasn't stella a sexual tourist in jamaica, an older woman of means looking to check out the "local talent," and then unwittingly scoring with that coveted beautiful younger man? the only difference is that stella took her prize home -- with disastrous results.

the world expects black women to be sexually demonstrative and aggressive but when white women behave that way, everyone gets nervous. clearly, the white female version of sex tourism is especially taboo. when the "white woman as sexual predator" concept makes everyone rethink the notion of sex with barely legal tender after turning a blind eye to the white male pedophiles who frequent southeast asia, it gives one pause to wonder.

would this be as offensive if it were white men pursuing african girls? is (white) female sexuality really that intimidating or disgusting? or maybe it's the fact that they're so blatant about it. i imagine that with a stronger European economy, we'll be reading more stories like this -- especially in other parts of Africa and with younger people.

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


Older White Women Join Kenya's Sex Tourists
1 in 5 wealthy female travelers in search of young men, locals estimate


By Jeremy Clarke


MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Bethan, 56, lives in southern England on the same street as best friend Allie, 64.


They are on their first holiday to Kenya, a country they say is "just full of big young boys who like us older girls."


Hard figures are difficult to come by, but local people on the coast estimate that as many as one in five single women visiting from rich countries are in search of sex.


Allie and Bethan -- who both declined to give their full names -- said they planned to spend a whole month touring Kenya's palm-fringed beaches. They would do well to avoid the country's tourism officials.


"It's not evil," said Jake Grieves-Cook, chairman of the Kenya Tourist Board, when asked about the practice of older rich women traveling for sex with young Kenyan men.


"But it's certainly something we frown upon."


Also, the health risks are stark in a country with an AIDS prevalence of 6.9 percent. Although condom use can only be guessed at, Julia Davidson, an academic at Nottingham University who writes on sex tourism, said that in the course of her research she had met women who shunned condoms -- finding them too "businesslike" for their exotic fantasies.


The white beaches of the Indian Ocean coast stretched before the friends as they both walked arm-in-arm with young African men, Allie resting her white haired-head on the shoulder of her companion, a six-foot-four 23-year-old from the Maasai tribe.


He wore new sunglasses he said were a gift from her.


"We both get something we want -- where's the negative?" Allie asked in a bar later, nursing a strong, golden cocktail.


She was still wearing her bikini top, having just pulled on a pair of jeans and a necklace of traditional African beads.


Bethan sipped the same local drink: a powerful mix of honey, fresh limes and vodka known locally as "Dawa," or "medicine."


She kept one eye on her date -- a 20-year-old playing pool, a red bandana tying back dreadlocks and new-looking sports shoes on his feet.


He looked up and came to join her at the table, kissing her, then collecting more coins for the pool game.


"JUST UNWHOLESOME"


Grieves-Cook and many hotel managers say they are doing all they can to discourage the practice of older women picking up local boys, arguing it is far from the type of tourism they want to encourage in the east African nation.


"The head of a local hoteliers' association told me they have begun taking measures -- like refusing guests who want to change from a single to a double room," Grieves-Cook said.
"It's about trying to make those guests feel as uncomfortable as possible ... But it's a fine line. We are 100 percent against anything illegal, such as prostitution. But it's different with something like this -- it's just unwholesome."


These same beaches have long been notorious for attracting another type of sex tourists -- those who abuse children.


As many as 15,000 girls in four coastal districts -- about a third of all 12-18 year-olds girls there -- are involved in casual sex for cash, a joint study by Kenya's government and U.N. children's charity UNICEF reported late last year.


Up to 3,000 more girls and boys are in full-time sex work, it said, some paid for the "most horrific and abnormal acts."


"PREYING ON POVERTY?"


Emerging alongside this black market trade -- and obvious in the bars and on the sand once the sun goes down -- are thousands of elderly white women hoping for romantic, and legal, encounters with much younger Kenyan men.


They go dining at fine restaurants, then dancing, and back to expensive hotel rooms overlooking the coast.


"One type of sex tourist attracted the other," said one manager at a shorefront bar on Mombasa's Bamburi beach.


"Old white guys have always come for the younger girls and boys, preying on their poverty ... But these old women followed ... they never push the legal age limits, they seem happy just doing what is sneered at in their countries."


Experts say some thrive on the social status and financial power that comes from taking much poorer, younger lovers.


"This is what is sold to tourists by tourism companies -- a kind of return to a colonial past, where white women are served, serviced, and pampered by black minions," said Nottinghan University's Davidson.


"LIVE LIKE THE RICH"


Many of the visitors are on the lookout for men like Joseph.


Flashing a dazzling smile and built like an Olympic basketball star, the 22-year-old said he has slept with more than 100 white women, most of them 30 years his senior.


"When I go into the clubs, those are the only women I look for now," he told Reuters. "I get to live like the rich mzungus (white people) who come here from rich countries, staying in the best hotels and just having my fun."


At one club, a group of about 25 dancing men -- most of them Joseph look-alikes -- edge closer and closer to a crowd of more than a dozen white women, all in their autumn years.


"It's not love, obviously. I didn't come here looking for a husband," Bethan said over a pounding beat from the speakers.


"It's a social arrangement. I buy him a nice shirt and we go out for dinner. For as long as he stays with me he doesn't pay for anything, and I get what I want -- a good time. How is that different from a man buying a young girl dinner?"


(Editing by Daniel Wallis and Sara Ledwith)

travel tips from this blackgrrl on the go

yeah, i know. you're not me. but if you're anything like me (and who isn't!), you'll need something on this list. i intend to do quite a bit of traveling this year, so i thought i'd touch on and review my favorite grrl gear and share it with all of you.

1. flip flops. put your shoes away and put these on when you get to the airport. if you do, you'll be the one to breeze through security.


2. a well-equipped pda. it's nice to have all the information you need on a city in the palm of your hand. and other stuff too. like an up-to-the-minute currency converter. a clothes size converter. and basic phrases in a dozen languages, stuff like where's the bathroom and when is the train leaving and who do you think you are. heh. stuff like that.


3. noise-cancelling headphones. this is essential, for obvious reasons. although they're pricey, they're worth every nickel. believe me -- when you're stuck next to that bratty screaming kid, you know you'll wish you had them. i highly recommend BOSE.


4. a pocket roll-up piano. if i can get to a flat surface, i can practice the piano. amazing.
5. an ebook reader. i want one of these more than i want an iPhone. of course everybody's got their version -- sony's is beautiful, amazon's looks straight outta the 70's, like tandy manufactured it -- and everybody has drm issues. they've got to get all of that straight before i pay $299 for anything. i'm sure apple will come out with their better, more streamlined and way more expensive version and blow everyone else's completely out of the water. i don't care. the idea of taking 160 books on the road with me without having to actually tote them around is very appealing. in the meantime, instead of buying the latest crap fashion magazine at the airport kiosk, lose yourself in a graphic novel. i highly recommend Fun Home.


6. basic black tea -- preferrably Earl Grey. because somewhere in there, somebody's going to work your last nerve. you'll need a cup of tea to calm all the way down and unless you're headed for the UK, you're not going to get it. case in point: nobody seems to have any decent tea anywhere down south. (and no, Lipton doesn't even rank.) getting decent black tea (twinings, for example) is a trip and a journey. you don't walk to the bodega at the corner, new yorkers: you get in the car and drive to the piggly wiggly, the cub foods, the red & white. and then you have to find parking. and then when you get inside, you have to find the right aisle. really, it's too much. way easier to reach into my purse and pull out some lapsang souchong. (oh, and watch out for that flavored non-dairy coffee mate. it's a lu-lu.)


7. a sports bra and running shoes. because no matter where you're going, you will feel the need to hit the gym and run a mile. i eat like a longshoreman, so working out is essential.


8. of course you're bringing your laptop. but if you're without an iPod or an iPhone like me because you're not ultrapayloaded just yet, you might want to join last.fm -- if there's an internet connection, there's always a ton of great music.


9. a digital photo frame. this is a beautiful thing. all your happy moments, ever changing and at a glance. last -- and if your skin is anything like mine, certainly not least...


10. khiel's lotion, lip balm and hand cream and liquid soap. i can't even walk to the mailbox without these products. because it's a dry, dry world out there. and i'm the blackgrrl that needs moisture constantly.

more than plenty

new year's day, nyc 2008
Originally uploaded by queenesther

happy new year, world! God bless us, everyone.

i have no resolutions this year. actually, i can't remember the last time i actually made a resolution on new year's eve. i do better with an ever-changing list of goals and priorities, and a very clear head. talk doesn't cook rice.

i can say that there are three things that i have right now for which i am truly grateful:

1. a clean bill of health
2. the Godsent love in my life
3. beautiful songs that are on constant rotation in my head

for the moment, all of these things are more than plenty.