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Bold, Brown, & Beautiful

"She's cute for a dark skinned girl."  "Stop acting light skinned." We've heard all these phrases. Some of us even say these phrases. But under the surface what do they mean to us? The other day I walked by a young girl with a cute puffball ponytail. She complimented me on my hair and I smiled, exchanging compliments with her. As I kept walking I started to wonder if she liked my hair because it was long and straight or if she really, at about 8 or 9, liked my teased mane. It may sound conceited but I really worry about our female youth. I automatically thought about the infamous Oprah baby doll episode. Then I thought about Chris Rock's 'Good Hair' documentary. One thought led to another and I wanted to hug every little brown girl I saw because the media pushes so much on them I just want to protect them. But then I thought about it and in this situation you sort of have to work from the top to the bottom because if we're the li
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Thanks.

At this point in life I have so much I could complain about. School. Work. Family. Love. You name it, I can complain about it. But I won't! Because the flip side of these possible complaints is that for every single one, I can find more than one thing to be thankful for. We ask for so much. I ask for more freelance gigs, I ask God to wake my Adam, I ask God to send me someone to pay my tuition, but I realized I don't need more things to thank him for I need to be more thankful. When I figured this out everything around me began to make more sense. So. Today I wasn't in the best of moods and I felt like my patience was being tried but instead of lashing out I looked up because there's so much to be thankful for I won't waste a second pondering what ifs and why nots, instead I'll be thankful for what I do have, because I know there's more where that came from. Ten Things I'm Thankful For 1. God. The power of prayer. The FAITH I have in his ac

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Music is my boyfriend. When I'm down and out, it makes me smile! It's the perfect balance of venting, praying, and listening to some good music that keeps me afloat. I was texting my silly goose  Cali  and I thought about how much music can really help you through a situation. The Bible places a huge emphasis on hope, faith and love so I got to thinking about a couple of my go to songs to help me out when I've lost hope, I'm lacking faith and in need of love. Don't get me wrong, prayer, personal time, venting, and all that are good modes of restoration but what's life without a soundtrack?? 1. HOPE India.Arie, There's Hope India.Arie said it well:  "it doesn't cost a thing to smile, you don't have to pay to laugh, you better thank God for that..." "that's when I learned a lesson, it's all about your perspective..." I remember a time that I felt down and out and I almost CRIED listening to these lyrics. I

Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Programming...

Hey guys! SO, I think I've finally got my mojo back! Lately I've let life get me down and I've been in this FUNK. I stink you guys! But I'm pushing forward and I SEE THE LIGHT! *pause for dramatic 'epiphany' music* In light of everything that has happened I think my withdrawal is acceptable however, from a business standpoint, it's NOT acceptable. I'm not beating myself up but I am pushing myself forward. HARD. Last week I had the wonderful pleasure of attending  Kitty Bradshaw's  5th Blogiversary and there I won a 10 Day GM car rental to be used for a future car ride. So many topics in my head, so many blogger meet ups and events on my schedule. It took me a while but I'm coming out of this funk and I'm SO thankful. Sometimes you just have to sit and be. I sat. I'm up now. Hey ya'll hey!!!!     @ms_shady (instagram/twitter) E: shadesofmarketing@me.com  

Dear Diary...

Dear Diary, So. Clearly I haven't posted anything in about two weeks. I blame this little fact on LIFE. Well, actually, I would LIKE to blame life but I think I will blame REALITY instead. Life goes on around me and mentally I sometimes shut down. Luckily for me, when it comes to work I move in autopilot so I don't have to be fully present mentally to get the job done physically.  Well. At least that's what I thought. These past two weeks that I haven't written I lost two people very close to me. One I grew with for almost a decade and one I've watched grow. One whom I share a bloodline with and another who is family but doesn't share a drop of blood with me. I pushed myself to keep going because I know life will keep going around me and I fear I'll get left behind. I force myself to bury my emotions because I don't want to appear broken, although if anything were to break me this would be it. I force myself to not only stand up straight and shake it off

numb. or not.

TheFreeDictionary.com defines 'numb' as: " emotionally unresponsive ."  I thought I was numb but I'm actually the complete opposite of that. I've felt every emotion imaginable in the past 24 hours. Denial, frustration, anger, confusion, pain. I've laughed, cried, screamed. I took a walk. I took a nap. I ignored some calls. I answered some texts. I think I'm still in some weird, warped form of denial. The loss of a loved one is insane. It's motions you go through and emotions you're absorbed in. And it never gets easier. In fact, I feel like as you get older and as more people begin to return home way too soon it's like, "oh no, not another funeral!" When I was younger I wasn't where I am religiously or mentally. I didn't fully understand the power of having your whole life ahead of you and making every moment count. I surely didn't understand that you can't question His timing. You rely on it daily so to que

An Open Letter to Wendy Davis

An Open Letter To Wendy Davis: THANK YOU. You are an off screen gladiator in a suit. A teenage mother who graduated from Harvard Law, with HONORS, is a strong woman in general but you went above and beyond, literally standing for what you believe in, and for that I am thankful. I am not a Texas resident. I am not even a fan of Texas legislation. I am also not a fan of the staggering abortion rate in Texas. HOWEVER, I am a WOMAN and I firmly believe in my right to choose. For every one of us that stands strong in support with you there is someone who stands in opposition. There are naysayers who believe your thoughts and opinions are far from genuine and your political outreach is a ploy to increase your political reach. We live in a country where slavery was once the norm, women are currently underpaid in comparison to their male counterparts and same sex marriage is frowned upon and ruled against. America is not the 'land of the free' it is a stomping ground for big gover