Another Year Wiser

So I celebrated yet another birthday!!! Like it was MY LAST!!

Went to dinner with my girls at Eatonville restaurant!! Despite people not understanding the term "reservation" we still managed to have a good time!!! I was even surprised by a friend from NY!!

Then we went out... MORE FUN!!! WAY MORE FUN!!!! "DANCE DANCE DANCE DANCE DANCE DANCE DANCE DANCE DANCE!!!"

(Thank you Big Sean)

Then I went to brunch... That was the most interesting brunch ever. Mainly because I am an entertaining junkie and the host was entertaining ALL WRONG! Then I was stuck like "do I offer all of my advice and potentially make them look foolish or do I just stand here and go hungry in this room full of people and food cooked out of order" It was also odd because I felt like one of the guys... whatever!

Then another dinner... followed by another brunch!!

But in the midst of all of the celebrations and everything I had to stop and say "Look how far God has brought me" and not just with like how many miles I am from NY! Or how I am handling this life" But like 2 Sam 7:18 "Who am I and what is my family that you have brought me this far"

Well I will allow God to answer that question this year as we continue our journey!

Epiphany

"And then it hit me standing outside of heaven waiting for God to come and get me..." -Lupe

So I guess I can admit to everyone who reads this (myself) that I do not have the most positive image of myself. Apparently this is displayed in the way I speak about myself.

"Oh hush Shaderi, you talk like you are obese!" said a fellow volleyball coach. All I talk about is losing weight and things like that. I think I'm obsessed with getting in shape.

It gets worse. I also have a bad habit of saying things like "I don't feel human unless my hair is done, my eyebrows are done, and I have on a new outfit" If those 3 aren't done at the same time then there is NO WAY you can make me think that I am the least bit human.

If you did not break out into the song "human again" from the remake of beauty and the beast then I don't even know why we are friends lol

Well I have been keeping up with my running program and I am getting into shape. People have been noticing. One of my co-workers swears that she can see that I am losing weight. (My scale says no such thing) Every store I walk into a dude is trying to get my number. I mean this has been happening only the last few weeks it's crazy. I have never received this much attention EVER!

I used to believe that people wouldn't talk to me because they just knew that I wasn't about what they were about. Well that is NOT true at all.

Then I realized suddenly that although I shouldn't care about what others think of me, it helps keep my esteem high! I have never been haughty or anything like that but now I walk around with my head up high because I can truly believe the words that the scripture says

"Your fame soon spread throughout the world because of your beauty. I dressed you in my splendor and perfected your beauty, says the Sovereign LORD." -Ezekiel 16:14

Inspiration

I know that I have been gone for a while and I am completely ok with that! I've been out living life and only tweeting about some things (which is life!)

But a few weeks ago I was inspired by this guy that I was working with (that I totally had a crush on) to get in shape. His exact words were "I mean think about it, you are getting old and you need to be in good shape" After I cleaned all of the salt out of the wound he created by reminding me that I was indeed aging -a fact I rarely point out to strangers- I realize that there was a lot of truth in his statement. So of course I couldn't just jump right into getting in shape because a cute guy told me to do so. It wasn't until I saw Raven Symone and how much weight she lost that I decided that I should DEFINITELY get in shape!

I started training for a 5k! Then I was talking to my friend and she told me to add strength training to my workouts on my off days. So I started that as well. (I FEEL LIKE DEATH! But I shall continue)

So Raven Symone was my inspiration (and the cutie I worked with)

Then I went to a friend's house and I told her of my running efforts and she said "you know what? You just inspired me to start running again" She left her house and went to the gym. I was there with the kids (Don't ever ask me to babysit! We were dropping water balloons from the 2nd floor into a measuring cup!!! But I did cook dinner)

But that wasn't it! We of course started talking about dating and marriage and stuff. And she said that I inspire her to continue waiting on God. WHAT THE CRAP!!!

I've been studying 2Corinthians1:3-5

All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.

I'm just glad that I was able to help someone else in their hard time, while in the midst of my own.

Blast from the Past

So I wrote this in 2007 and it still holds true today.

"Testimony: Volume 1, Life and Relationships"

Yes I understand that this is the title of India Arie's 3rd album but I believe that it fits oh so well. And just as the CD has lyrics like "these eyes never saw you leavin... we were the greatest story never told" and "I prayed for God's will to be done and the very next day you were gone", so does the story of my life.

I have been in that place where I felt like this was the best thing that God has done in my life. And I felt like this relationship/friendship had to go on forever because I have never been so happy before. I never took into consideration that God was trying to teach me a lesson about myself through the relationship. Like I dont know how many times I told God that "I am ready for love" and i think He finally wanted to test out my theory and let me see if I was actually ready... Turns out I wasnt!! But I learned a lot about myself during that time BUT ultimately I learned that no matter how bomb i think a person is, God defined love much differently than I did at that moment. I think we all need a little test to see exactly where we stand when it comes to 1 Corinthians 13 love. And at that moment I couldnt get past verse 3 (and thats not even an ANQ joke!)
Real quick when you read 1 Co 13 how do you read verses 4-8?? Is it just like "Thank you Lord for acting like this towards me" or do you actually want to act like that towards others???

Now this lesson that I learned unfortunately did not come overnight but OH how I wish it had!!! I mean I had to go through a whole lot more before this lesson was over. I went through the Wile E. Coyote stage i.e, chasing after something that does not belong to me. But while I am there let me talk about something real quick. Have you ever felt as if you were the road runner?? Teasing someone, letting them think that you were gonna slow down just a little so that they can have you, just so that they could chase you?? Think about it. I feel that we all want to know that somebody wants us and we will do whatever we can to make that person keep wanting because it makes us feel better and raises our self esteem just a li

ttle even though we know that they will never ever catch us!!!

But back to when you feel like the coyote. When you are chasing after something that does not belong to you. And you spend all of your money and time trying to set up the perfect opportunity to catch it. And you never give up no matter how many times your plan does not work. And sooner or later you realize that you chased something straight off the edge of a cliff and there is nothing supporting you AT ALL and you are about to fall face first back to reality. The question is what do you do after that fall??? Do you then realize that you need to rely on God at all times or do you just get up and start with another plan to catch the road runner??

Well it took me some time but I decided that I want to be supported by God no matter what the cost, no matter how nice the person was, no matter how happy I was, and most importantly no matter how much i wanted that person to be my husband. No matter how much we want to hold on to something from the past. We need to realize that if God took it away that means that He has something greater in store for us. Wintana just told me that "in life you can only upgrade with God" And that joint is soo

true!!! I mean as sad as I am to see some people move move move right out of my life (dreamgirls style) Like I truly thank you for the lesson and "I want you to know that I'm better because you taught me how to give"

But this time I'm trusting God fully because I have come to know, understand, and re

ly on the fact that He said "I know the plans that I have for you... plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Thinking

Thinking

I wish I didn't hear these voices

These small whispers of my thoughts

That make me second guess all my choices

Recalculate my chances of...

Well why should you even know?

I keep them locked up

Inside my mind

And replay the scenes in

My mind's eye.

My occipital lobe is working over time

Because every time I think and see you

I can't seem to ask you...

Well why should you care to know?

And every time I hear you speak

Well my temporal lobe causes a

Malfunction in my cerebellum because

The sound of your voice makes me weak,

Which causes an involuntary rise in my heartbeat.

Synapses fire, dopamine levels rise

Thinking and rethinking makes me feel high

And I'm glad my Frontal Lobe is fortified

Because if these thoughts got out I'd surely die

But you can’t see inside my beautiful mind

So you will never know what I’m thinking

My life...

So a good friend of mine told me that I never talk about anything that actually pertains to how I feel about life. We went back and forth about what songs I could use to describe my life. The winner is....

"I lay alone awake at night

Sorrow fills my eyes
But I’m not strong enough to cry
Despite of my disguise
I’m left with no shoulder
But everybody wants to lean on me.
I guess I’m their soldier.
Well, who’s gonna be mine

Who’s there to save the hero
When she’s left all alone
And she’s crying out for help.
Who’s there to save the hero
Who’s there to save the girl…
After she saves the world
After she saves the world.

I bottle all my hurt inside,
I guess I’m living a lie.
Inside my mind each day I die
What can bring me back to life?
A simple word, a gesture
Someone to say you’re beautiful
Come find this buried treasure
Rainbows lead to a pot of gold.

Who’s there to save the hero
When she’s left all alone
And she’s crying out for help
Who’s there to save the hero
Who’s there to save the girl
After she saves the world…
After she saves the world.

I’ve given too much of myself
And now it’s driving me crazy
Sometimes I wish someone would
Just come here and save me…
Save me from myself

Who’s there to save the hero
When she’s left all alone
And she’s crying out for help
Who’s there to save the hero
Who’s there to save the girl
After she saves the world…
After she saves the world."

-Save The Hero by Beyonce

Speak up!!! I can't hear you!

So last night I participated in a step competition. The team worked really hard. Our steps were really intricate. We were beyond precise. The show had a theme, we were ready for war...

The problem was that we had never stepped at such a huge scale event before and so we treated it like we would treat a normal step show. Nobody heard anything that we had to say. We were told that we looked amazing and that everyone liked our steps but they just wished that they could have heard what we had to say.

At the show essentially were just going through the motions. We did our best to make sure that we ministered but that is not how it came off to the campus. Of course when thinking about this I can't help but think about how I live my life as a Christian.

I do my best to live a life that lets other know that I am a Christian. But sometimes I wonder if people who see what I am doing know that it is because I am a Christian. You know some people may see everything that I do as just being a good person. It would suck if nobody knows that I am a Christian after all of this.