If someone is different from you - in the way he looks, thinks, believes, behaves, or speaks - it doesn’t make him bad or somehow “lesser than”. It just means he’s…different.

Is there someone you look up to, someone who’s strength and integrity is admirable, who perseveres under difficult circumstances, who treats people with respect, who makes good choices when it would be easier to compromise on his or her values? These are the unlikely heroes in our lives, mentors and role models who make us better by being in our lives. Not perfect people - no one is perfect- but caring people who make a difference. I would not be who I am today or where I am today without mentors and role models.

This journey of life is short and unpredictable, filled with challenges and rewards, valleys and mountain top experiences.  Let’s take every opportunity to show compassion and kindness to those we love.  We should never leave their presence without them knowing that we love them.  If we have disagreements, if we have to discipline our kids, if we are betrayed by a coworker, if friends disappoint us…at the end of it all we can still affirm our love, because you never know if it will our last chance, last encounter, final time.  Love big, forgive freely, no regrets.

This is not how I thought I would be spending my Saturday back home after holiday travel. First weekend of the New Year. I had important things planned, like a hair appointment, and other stuff. But here I am curled up in bed with 102 temp, and aches and pains all over.

Are you a “new year resolution” person?  I am. There is something enticing about starting fresh, turning over a new leaf, and beginning again. It’s liberating to put the past behind me with all the failures, regrets, disappointments of the last year, and start new.

Today I choose

To be anxious about nothing,

But to pray about everything, with thanksgiving,

And Your peace that surpasses all understanding will guard my heart and my mind.

Three and a half hours. The total amount of time it takes to get from Goodfellow Air Force Base to Sheppard Air Force Base is about three and a half hours. I’d made the trek before – 4 other times to be exact – and so when I turned on my audio book and cruise control, I put my mind on auto pilot. About 45 mins away from my final destination, I started hearing an unusual noise….it was almost like a high pitched thudding, if you can imagine that sound. Over the course of about 5 minutes, the noise became louder and more persistent.

My heart is full. As a mom, there is no greater joy than spending time with your children and seeing them happy, healthy and loving life. That doesn’t change when they're adults and live half way across the country.

Christmas is my favorite time of year. I have fond memories of Christmas growing up in Jamaica. We didn’t have much, but we had what mattered - family, friends, food and fellowship. I remember we would always get a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve, and we would decorate it with lights. Gifts were simple, but so very appreciated. There was always a whole heap of food: curry goat, ham, rum cake and sorrel.

When my kids were little, I looked forward to this time of year when they would participate in special holiday programs at school and at church. My all time favorite performance was in 2004. Alexia was a 4th grader, David a first grader, and Julia was in kindergarten at Kings Grant Elementary School. They performed “Let there be peace on earth” together in the holiday program. They started the performance lined up with Alexia in front, David behind her, and Julia behind him. Alexia started the song, and when it got to David’s part he stepped out from behind her, and then Julia did the same a few lines later for her part. They sang individual parts, and sang together.

In June 2017, 2 weeks after graduation from high school, my youngest daughter Julia at age 17 went off to Basic Cadet Training (aka bootcamp) at the United States Air Force Academy.  I am so very proud of the choices my children made to serve our country, but I have to admit that it’s hard for me. The Academy is not like other colleges. Once they show up for “I” Day (Inprocessing), it is as if they step across an invisible line that takes them from being your child to being an independent, self-sufficient adult. One step.  And life is forever changed. There is no gradually easing into the transition.

One of the many themes that emerged for me as I watched the show was the David & Goliath parallel. How does a fledgling nation defeat a world super power at the time? It took the courage, savvy, sacrifice and perseverance of everyday and unlikely heroes like Alexander Hamilton. The opening lines of the first number of the play asked the question, ”How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence, impoverished, in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?”

I opened my email on Thanksgiving morning and could not believe what I saw. “You won the HAMILTON lottery” was the subject of the email. I gasped in disbelief. I was in mild shock. For 18 months since moving to Pennsylvania I have been faithfully entering the lottery for Hamilton tickets. But every time I would get the notice, “Try again. Sorry, you did not win this lottery.” I had started to wonder if it was silly to keep trying. The odds were against me it seemed. But the day before Thanksgiving, I entered one more time.

In the summer of 1991 when I was a rising senior at Howard University, I had the opportunity to do an accounting internship with Exxon Yemen division in Houston, TX. My mom’s good friend Valrie was a nurse who lived in close by Missouri City. She was generous enough to allow me to spend the summer with her. There was one small problem. I had no way of getting from the suburbs of Missouri City into the city.

It’s November 1st and I am listening to Christmas music. (It is officially allowed starting today!) We moved into our new home 4 days ago. As I sit on the floor surrounded by boxes and unpacking glasses and china, all boxed up for the last 15 months since we moved from Virginia, I am overcome with emotions of joy and gratitude and sadness all mixed together.