The Escape Drug…Social Media

Posted on by serenitisparkles

Intertwined with the digital space all around us, we sit, lifeless as our minds expand. The question is, do they expand for the betterment of all of us, or do they destroy our pieces and chip away at our bodies, one quick high at a time? Some might say, social media brings us together, that social media unifies humanity, allowing us to see the inside of each part of our world. Others might say, it is the greatest danger to all of mankind. Few will say, I don’t actually use it.

When most of us hear someone say, “I don’t really use it”, for a moment we delve into their mindset. But how? How do you stay connected to the outside world? What could you possibly do with your day then?

The actuality is that those people have filled their day with other kinds of moments within their life circle. Moments of life happening around them. Is what they do more fulfilling? Maybe not, but it is different. What we do within social media is escapism.

From the moment we log into the “network”, we are connected. Our mind races through the content and our bodies stay still. Hours can go by, and you are still locked in. You’ve lost yourself, in the physical world, and flew off into the digital realm. Using your imagination to keep the inquiry into others lives going. Like a fantasy, that can take you anywhere with the mere tap of a finger. You find answers to your thoughts. Reality is heavy, but Tik Tok so light, thus you dive into to the fluff.

The strings of our hearts being plucked with every post. We escape. Into a different world then what is in front of us.

But what IS in front of us? Like so many people struggling to put their family before addiction, we need to remember that to use this for connection is powerful, but to allow the “network” to connect you is a tragedy.

A Smile to Remember, RIP Big Daddy

Posted on by serenitisparkles

Too often we never get the chance to say goodbye.

It all happened so fast. Like a lightning bolt that strikes down a beautiful palm. My best friend called me crying. Kenya got shot. Chills ran through my body and I remember feeling so helpless. I could hear her deep pain. And I understood why. Kenya aka Big Daddy was larger than life. He had a smile that made your heart melt. Kenya was like a teddy bear. He was there to help and never to harm. All I could remember thinking was WHO could be so evil.

My best friend told me he was on life support at a hospital about 20 mins away. She told me that the whole family was there. I dropped everything and went to be with them.

What would come next would stay with me forever.

When I got to the hospital I saw the family crowded by his bed side as my best friend walked out to tell me, he’s gone.

That day ended in pain and tragedy, but what it would bring was a sign of unity never seen before.

In order to tell this story properly, let me give you some background on my experience with my best friend, Kenya and the family that you won’t know if you are just reading this.

About 5 years before this tragic day, I moved to the south from New England. My white skin and love for Hip Hop music would make me an awkward fit at the time for this heavily separated town. When I first entered the high school lunch room it was obvious that most groups were separated by color or ethnicity rather than interests or life experiences.

I felt alone at the time because I related more to the black kids in the school because of Hip Hop culture, but I wasn’t necessarily accepted by them at first. Until I met my best friend, Kenya, and the family. They just truly saw ME. Me and my best friend became inseparable and Kenya’s smile became a reassurance that I was always good where ever I was in town. I was so blessed to have each and everyone of them in my life, especially Kenya. They were the definition of what family stood for. Always together, and I was always welcome.

I had come from a broken home and family that was separated by 1000 miles. My mother, whom I was living with at the time, was suffering from breast cancer, and I just remember feeling the embrace that I needed from all of them. It came right on time.

As the years passed on I saw Kenya grow up from a boy into a man. July 4th was the last day I got to spend with him. I remember there was a cookout at one of the family members houses and Kenya was the reason that July 4th was a hit for all of us. He brought hundreds of dollars worth of fireworks and began the show. We were outside for hours that day, basking in the beauty of the fireworks show that Kenya was putting on as he poured his energy into it. He was a bright light for all of us, and that day, he did his thing. Less than a month later, he was gone.

Hopelessness and sadness filled the family circle, but like always they stuck together. As the years would pass, his brother, sister and cousins would start an event for his birthday in his name. RIP Big Daddy. In the beginning, maybe a couple hundred would show up and celebrate and the police would always try to shut it down. Every year, more and more began to come. Like a fire igniting, it would continue to burn. Whether we realized it or not, Kenya’s energy lived far beyond his death.

This year, thousands would gather in the name of Big Daddy and Ending Gun Violence. The police that used to try and shut it down, would be forced to get behind the cause.

I don’t believe that our energy ever really leaves this earth and I believe that Kenya aka Big Daddy is proof of that.

I will always miss you, but your smile lives in my memory bank to remind me that life is worth smiling about. RIP Big Daddy.

Once they are gone, the world will never be the same

Posted on by serenitisparkles

There are few left on this earth that remember a time when technology didn’t absorb us. Grandparents and great grandparents born in the early 20th century can recall a more simple time. Often they tell stories of games, dinner table conversations, living most days outdoors and having to use their mind for amusement. These are the people the young generation mocks because they can’t properly use a cell phone, or social media. But what they can do, and what they can teach us is more valuable than any other lesson available on earth today. When they leave us, many of their stories, their experiences, and their mannerisms will too. We will become more and more disconnected to human interaction and what that feels like. As the years go on and the elders pass away, there will be no one left to tell us why we should put our phones down. There will be no more phone calls on the other end with people who would rather talk than text.

Handwriting will be a thing of the past as will moments where we gaze into each others eyes while speaking. The social addiction of our phones and devices will have no more barrier to fight through. Because isn’t it our elders that tell us to remember to look each other in the eyes when we speak? Isn’t it our elders that remind us that beautiful days should not be wasted behind a video game console?

The world changed right before their eyes and they couldn’t possibly keep up because what felt good for them was the memories of a cup of milk at the kitchen table with mama. Not a phone, nor a tv, nor a video game could replace what secret to human experience that they hold. Covid-19 has been killing our elders off at a faster rate than anyone could have foreseen. My hope for you today is that you read this post, realize that time is running out, and learn from those who know better than us on how to be human.

We create the box, and then try to fit

Posted on by serenitisparkles

However metaphorical this blog seems, it is actually a very simple concept of what we as humans have become. Once born, we enter the world with no preconceived notion about the world around us except what has been in us for eternity. Our souls are as pure as nature and all its elements. Yet, we as a human race grew into this existence with one defining truth of whom we would become. Our energy flows just like the river. It finds its feeling in the movements of us as living beings. It is taught everything it will become as it develops.

Our human existence has the ability to be in the state, whichever state it chooses, yet we as people decided that we would put restraints on every aspect of our nature. Rules, regulations and laws, though finite in principal are merely a creation of the laws decided on amongst ourselves.

Our natural state as humans is to feed off of the energy of the world around us and every living being it crosses paths with.

So now let’s talk about the box or boxes that were created just as boxes are made. They are structured and definite in nature, and sized in relation to those who create it. They are not meant to be fluid or adjusted as they are a fixed element on earth.

We have created many boxes in every category of human nature. Love, feelings, appearance, speech, and thoughts have all been targeted as elements to fit inside of these set boxes.

The reality is, that what lives in us is much more abstract than that. Every single human on this planet has what is called the human factor, or the ultimate level of consciousness. A piece of every one of us that falls outside of each box. Every human, no matter how much they try and define themselves, find it hard to fit in much of anything. It isn’t we are not “normal”. It is that we were never meant to be.

With the age of social media, so many of us have been more enlightened than ever. We’ve opened our eyes and our understanding to humans across the globe like never before. We have seen into the eyes of someone on the other side of the planet and they are relatable in one way or another.

We were meant to be relatable, and different at the same time. We were made with the uniqueness of our inner self. We are finally finding our voices to break the systematic boxes set before us by the “Rules”. The world is heading toward a new day. The day we finally accept that we all have that factor within us that allows us to bridge the gap and break through the boxes. I can’t wait for a more conscious world and more accepting humans.

We are supposed to be better than they were…

Posted on by serenitisparkles

This blog talks of generations. From many different lifetimes. Old and new. Most of all, the ones alive today, are being taught a lesson, we are much more mortal than we want to realize. In society most of our views come from different generations. The old versus the young. Whats the difference between our views as Gen Z and Gen Alpha than the Baby Boomers and Silent Generation?

The answer is in front of us everyday, all the time. There is a component to our growth as humans to understand where the world became more enlightened. Ideas today began because of the trendsetters of our history being “woke”. It began with ideas from many individuals, then it became a whole new world.

The internet joined all of us in 1991 when we were able to connect instantly (or at least with a short delay). It changed humanity as we would ever know it to be.

Why? Our IQs aren’t higher than the people of the past, but our access to universal information is. For the past 30 years we have been becoming informed.

In the past, for our parents and grand parents, it was information in books. But even the most avid readers of the past generations weren’t holding all the cards. Today, I can talk to Siri, search anything my heart desired, at the command of my voice. Today, I meet people from all over the world. Today, we understand others unlike ourselves. The newer generations are not better with everything that they do, but they are more informed. Equality and stability is a right for us all, not just in my town, my city, but for all humans. Gen Z and Gen Alpha will be the new way. My hope is that we realize our strengths as a generation and our weaknesses and become better humans. We all deserve to leave this world with more healing and understanding than before. Every generation is a trial on what works and what doesn’t work in our world. If we don’t use that data to make the world a more peaceful and connected place, then we have missed our opportunity.

What are we afraid of? Fearing Covid-19

Posted on by serenitisparkles

The summer of 2020 has been a challenging one to say the least.  Not because of events within my home or family, but because of the constant reminder that we should fear each other and stay “safe”.

Terminal illness is something I know very well as my father succumbed to death by liver cancer at the age of 49.  Illness is something I know well as I have an 8 year old daughter who gets the flu every season.  Drug addiction and illness is also something that has touched my life in a tragic way when I lost my aunt to her addiction.   Yet, I kept on living.

So I beg to ask the question, what are we afraid of?

Are we more afraid of a virus than we are of complete government oversight and control?  Are we more afraid of a virus than our children growing up without a childhood?  Are we more afraid of a virus than a world of social distancing and separation?  Are we more afraid of a virus than we are of fighting for our freedom?

Yesterday, in the grocery store, I made sure to mask up and go about my regular weekly shopping.  I observed people as they walked by making sure they weren’t “too close” to me.  I observed the discomfort of not being able to see if a person was smiling at me or frowning.

In my home, I have an eight year old little girl who is an only child.  A little girl who once upon a time thought anything was possible, yet now she can’t even enjoy the first day of school.  She watches as the school buses pass by in the neighborhood, not because they are picking her up, but because they are being paid to train on their routes for food drops.

My child, whose father lives in South America, cries for the moment she will see him again.  She asks me almost daily when this will be all over so she can see her dad.  For the first time, the mom who knows it all has to tell her baby, “I don’t know”.

Most people I know that have had Covid-19 (and that number I can count on one hand), are alive and breathing and living.  Those friends of mine that have had the virus are now stigmatized by the rest of the world as having “The Virus”.  Though they are all clear of the virus today, they are still excluded from family moments and gatherings.

When you ask me, What are you afraid of?  My answer is very different than what you may think during this pandemic.

I fear that this is the new normal.  I fear that we have entered a time of no return.  I fear that we will all be forced to vaccinate to live a “normal” life again.  I fear that the laws surrounding this pandemic will last beyond the virus.  I fear that people won’t introduce themselves with a hug anymore.  I fear that the government will use 5-G and technology to invade our homes and our lives in the name of “safety”.  I fear that my daughter won’t have a first day of school because digital learning proved to be more economic for the states.  I fear that she won’t be able to make a “new” friend because the parents are scared she may be infected.  I fear that small talk in the grocery store has ended.  I fear that human interaction has been forever tainted.

We are watching the powerful make decisions for all of us.  We are watching it without having real facts and statistics.  The chains have been applied to all of us, not just US citizens, but humans around the world.

I fear that the chains will not come off in my lifetime.

Teach them…

Posted on by serenitisparkles

2020 has brought clarity to everything around us.  It has exposed our greatest fears and highlighted our greatest love.  It has brought us to our knees with humility.  Through the Pandemic, the Economic Downfall, and Civil unrest, we have been given our most important opportunity.

It is our time to teach the future generations the most vital lessons of today.  We can wait no longer to be conscious of what humanity has the power to do, both for good and evil.  If we do not teach them what these lessons are, there may not be a bright future.

So let’s begin,

Covid-19 came in like a tornado and has wiped over 100,000 Americans from the face of the earth.  It has caused many to lose the people they cherish most in an instant.  The ripple effect of all of those deaths has caused us to understand that everyone’s life can inadvertently cause someone’s death.  We are humbled.  Take care of you, take care of your neighbor, life depends on it.

 

The Economic downfall has caused people to lose their homes, their savings, and their stability.  Like an earthquake, it all started to crack.  The floor beneath us started to fall out.  Work hard and save because you don’t know if tomorrow will be a day the floor is no longer there.

 

And finally,  the Civil unrest.  This is what happens to a nation of people who have been silenced for too long.  Complacency can be the enemy if you allow it to live within you.  Accepting the mistreatment of others can also kill.  Without saying a word, you can take part in allowing a system to harm the people it represents.  More than ever, in 2020, we understand that we have to speak up, our lives depend on it.

 

As we smile around the world through our selfies and group photos, we are missing our sparkle.  We are losing our light as hopelessness grows within all of us.  Teach them that strength and respect for one another can save us.  Teach them to walk back into the light we once knew.  Teach them so that the smiles of the future will never be so grim.  Teach them…

The Conscious Mind…Ever Flowing

Posted on by serenitisparkles

We, as humans, have the most powerful force within all of us.  The conscious mind.  Many people across all continents are becoming more and more conscious of the world around us and our place in history.  Our bodies are bound by limitations, but our minds are only confined to what we allow.  Anything and everything is possible if we think it.

That doesn’t mean we can do anything, it means we can think greater than ever before.  With our bodies being forced to sit still, it gives our minds the opportunity to flow freely.

A free mind is a conscious one.  One that is not bound by the opinions or restrictions society has placed on us.  It is an ever flowing thought process, searching for the meaning of it all.

As we sit still, our minds have the ability to go deeper into the meaning of what it means to be human and what humans can do to benefit the universe.

Energy is all around us.  Energy is what makes us.  Positive thinking can influence an entire nation and uplift everyone it comes in contact with.

A positive mind that chooses to be conscious has the capacity to heal all wounds.  A positive, conscious mind has the power to shift the entire world into healing.

We are all in pain right now, together.  We are more connected than ever before.  It is imperative that we allow ourselves to influence one another.

My daughter asked me about burials when people die.  She said, “Mommy, isn’t that cruel, to bury a dead person under the ground.”

I replied, “Honey, you and I will not be buried.”  The you that makes you you will live on.  It is called our soul.  Our soul will leave the body.  The body is simply our shell.”

That explanation sparked a feeling of faith and belief in humanity.  If our energy is all knowing and forever powerful, than we need not fear any virus, war, or tragedy that this life on earth brings.  Our energy, if given the right thought, can be at peace knowing we will prevail.

We were all placed on this earth at this moment.  We were all placed here to witness the greatest threat to humanity.  This threat will only empower us to think deeper and let the light in.

Every moment that goes by adds more to our conscious mind.  All the pain we feel adds courage.  Courage adds strength.  And strength, in our core, will allow us to become the most powerful and conscious minds this earth has yet to witness.

Stay strong, my friends.  We are rooting for each other.  I have faith in all of us.  I have faith that the peace we have been searching for is right on the other side of tragedy.  So when we speak to someone we love, our energy exudes influence.  This world may have been tarnished by the unconscious.  It may have been overcome with negativity.

It is time for the conscious mind to take back the power and influence and bring about love.  The greatest energy of all.

The Bright Side

Posted on by serenitisparkles

As we watch the coronavirus consume our news outlets, our cities, and our way of life as we once knew it to be, we must look on the Bright Side.

I am not one to wallow in sadness, nor am I a person to let the pain overcome and lead me into depression.  So personally, I choose to look on the bright side.

With thousands of people dying all over the world, the bright side may seem hard to find.  But to survive this pandemic mentally, we must.

So what is so great about this moment in on earth.

I live in Atlanta, GA.  Traffic is horrendous, the party scene is non-stop, money rules the city, noise from the traffic is loud at all times of the day, you never seem to have time to spend at home with your family because work is first, and it is more common to eat out then at home.

The Bright Side:

  1. Traffic is obsolete.  When you absolutely need to leave your home and go to the grocery store, you can be sure to enjoy clear roads, and effortless transit.
  2. There is no party scene.  The party is in your home, with the people who matter most.  Partying now consists of things other than drinking and hanging out.  The party can involve a game of Monopoly or  kicking the soccer ball around outdoors.
  3. Money no longer rules anything.  Whether you are rich or poor financially, you are stuck at home.
  4. There is no noise from the cars and trucks.  You can sit outside and feel as if you have gone to the rural countryside.
  5. The work you do now is consumed with how to keep your family with positive minds and hearts.  You no longer have to leave your home for 12 hours to work those two jobs, missing important family moments.  You are required to stay home and work on your family.
  6. Home cooked meals have become standard, and Mc Donald’s, Burger King, or Taco Mac have become a thing of the past.

Most importantly, we have been made to focus on what is vital to our lives.  It isn’t the party, it isn’t the celebrity, it isn’t the money.  It is simple.  Our family, our home, our shelter, our food, and our inner peace is what matters most.  Covid-19 has become the catalyst that saves humanity.