I love quotes...yes I do.

Natural hair is a glorious movement, rapidly spreading like a sunrise. Now that it's daylight there is no excuse not to be apart of it. Naturally Obsessed blog via Camille Reed via Twitter

Daily Medidation - Being Still

Exodus 14:14 The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still."

Lord Jesus, I take this moment to stop my running and my personal efforts to win freedom. I am standing perfectly still physically and spiritually so that I can see the salvation You have already provided. If anything happens, it will happen by Your Spirit, not through my might or power.

Daily Meditation: Relax

"If you relax, it comes. Don't seek, don't search, don't ask, don't knock, don't demand - relax. If you relax, it is there. If you relax, God shows you the way".

My First Weave!

Here are some pics of my first full weave. I'm having so much fun with it.

Daily Meditation: Seeking the Lord

The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. - Psalm 34:10 (NIV)

This is the perfect meditation for me today. Sometimes I realize I get so caught up in praying: "Please God do this, please God do that", instead of making my requests known to Him, trusting His promise, and spending the rest of my time seeking and praising Him.

Have you ever felt like your prayer is a wish upon a star? When I get in this mode of praying where I'm asking Lord, Lord please, I need to remind myself that as long as I'm seeking His face - I will lack no good thing.

From my heart to Your ear Lord, I'll seek You first.

Here I Am

These are some powerful words from Marvin Sapp's new album. I feel like he read my soul writing this song.

Here I am.

I’m still standing.

Here I am.

After all I’ve been through.

I survived every toil - every snare.

I’m alive. I’m alive.

Here I am.

There were times when I almost gave up.

And I’ve cried and said “Lord, it’s too much”.

El Shaddai – He was there all the time.

By His grace – He is keeping me alive.

By His grace and mercy – I’m still standing. Standing.

I’m standing in the presence of the Almighty with power and a testimony.

I’m standing here today with one thing to say, “Lord, I thank You”.

Here I am.

After all I’ve been through.

I survived.

I’m alive.

Here I am.

All the pain I had to go through – it gave power and a testimony.

I'm alive. I'm alive.

HERE I AM.

A Return to Self: The history of my natural hair journey

My natural hair journey actually began in 2006 when my stylist in Delaware, Ebon, encouraged me to stop relaxing my hair. He promised he would take really good care of my hair without relaxing it - so I haven't had a relaxer since September 2006.

With a stylist like Ebon, I used to get my hair done every two weeks and you couldn't even tell I wasn't relaxing it. I would drive from Baltimore to Delaware every other weekend, on a pretty regular basis to get my hair done.

Here are some pictures from that time:



In Spring 2008 when I was six months pregnant, I decided the drive every other weekend was getting to be a bit much. So, I started asking about stylists in Baltimore who knew how to handle natural hair. I didn't want to sit in somebody's chair every other week and hear that I should relax my hair. A co-worker actually introduced me to her stylist, who not only knew how to style natural hair, but had a gorgeous head of natural hair herself. So, in March 2008 I started going to Kim in Owings Mills.

Here are a few photos from that time:


After having Trey, I started wanting to wear my hair curly more often. With a new born baby, it became increasingly difficult to find time to get to the salon, and when I straightened it I just felt like I was going to end up bald headed. So, I started searching for products and ways to style my hair.

Here are some photos from that time:


I had a lot of fun during this time. Whenever I look at these photos I always see a bit of radiance in myself that I don't always see when I'm straightening my hair. I guess I'm most comfortable being in my own skin.

This past summer, I visited Kim and she said my hair was breaking a lot in the back. I'm not sure what that was attributed to, but it most likely was because my hair was lacking the needed moisture. So, I had her trim my hair and started straightening it again. I bought a Red flat-iron, some Chi silk infusion and felt like I could live like this forever.

Here are some pictures from this time:



Pretty good, huh? The reality is, I'm not a hairstylist, so while I may be able to curl it to look good, I wasn't taking good care of it in order to have healthy hair. My dream is to have a head of thick, healthy, natural hair. Every now and then, I get tired of feeding into the stereotype that in order to have pretty hair you have to have long, straight hair. When I feel like that I'll wash my hair and pull it back:



But last week I decided my hair deserves more. So, I visited Kamaria Creations near Old Town, and got two-strand twists professionally done. I love them! I'm setting out to go a year without heat-styling my hair. Protective style for me it is.

Here's a few pictures of the twists:



One week later and my hair has grown like a weed. As a friend on Twitter commented: "happy hair will do that!". Indeed it will. So, I'm so excited, because tomorrow I'm going for my first ever FULL weave. I was concerned because I know nothing about buying hair, and I wasn't sure the hair I ended up getting was going to look good. Then I found this YouTube video discussing the exact hair I bought, and it eased my worries. The only other time I've had a weave was for my wedding, and even then it was just a partial weave to make a full bun.

So, I'll let you know about the weave experience tomorrow!

Until then, I'm enjoying rocking the twist-out:

I'm so glad

I'm so glad that weaping may endure for a night, but *JOY*, sweet joy, unspeakable joy, comes in the morning.

I'm so glad that I have the most amazing little munchkin in my life. He wakes me up this morning by raising my shirt and laying his head on my belly then saying "mommy...mommy...mommy" in his sing-song way.

All the troubles of yesterday are gone, and today I'm shining brighter than ever. I'm so glad.

Starting Another Blog

So I'm starting another blog. Yes, another blog. Lately I've had trouble writing on my Of Service blog, and I've somehow experienced writers block in writing for Examiner.com, which I get paid to do. Tonight, I need a place to release some of what I was feeling, and my hard copy journal wasn't working. I needed to hear back from people - or to feel like someone else just may read it, so I decided to start this blog - so I could do just that.

Today, as all of my days have been for the last few months, was power packed. I was on task and busy with work, took care of a few things for the Scentsy business and made my next hair appointment to get my first ever full weave. (Which is all apart of my journey to not straighten - flat iron- my hair for a year). I'll be the first to admit that I don't know a thing about buying fake hair. The only other time I've had a weave was for my wedding, and my stylist had to call the hair store and tell them what he wanted me to get. So, I went to one of the few hair stores in Albuquerque with a picture in tow of the brand, type and color I wanted. The owner's automatic response was that he didn't have that hair. Instead, he ended up selling me a much more expensive hair - and $233 later - all I can think was dag...I was bamboozled.

On top of that, we woke up Sunday and my munchkin's eye was closed shut. I was so worried he had pink eye. After packing him up and heading to After Hour Pediatrics (which is a fantastic place) and finding out they didn't open until 2, we went back home, munchkin napped, and we headed back to the doctor's office at 2 only to find out we needed an appointment. So at 4:50 we returned to the office and the service was great. Thankfully, pink eye wasn't the issue, but munchkin did have an ear infection. So, of course, I called his father to tell him what was going on.

I had a many break-down tonight because I couldn't believe his father hadn't called to check on him. This all plays into my fears that fatherhood for him is becoming out of sight and out of mind. I've also been worrying and praying lately (yes I know the two don't go together) because I feel in my heart that munchkin is starting to notice other kids have mommies and daddies around....and that well hurts my heart.

So, these are the things I needed to write about tonight. There's much more in my actual "private" journal, but sometimes you just need to release in a very public manner.

I'm resting on Marvin Sapp's new song: He Has His Hands On You