Fear? What fear?

 could stand for fear if we let it.

Yesterday was my day to write something about the letter F. Initially the word that came to mind was the word FEAR. Ready to put pen to paper, I came across a quote from Marvin Gaye that caught my attention.  Marvin said that sin and fear go hand in hand.  Makes sense to me and after all who else would know this better than Marvin Gaye.

“Most fear stems from sin: to limit one’s sins assuredly limits one’s fear thereby bringing more peace to one’s spirit.” – Marvin Gaye, 1939 – 1984

As I started to write I got stuck. The words just wouldn’t flow. No matter how many stops and starts I had, the words were just not there. So I did what most writers do. I stopped altogether. Let it rest and moved on to something else.  After a good night’s sleep and some prayer I decided that what I really needed to do was to examine myself and my own fears.

As we age we all have those times when we fear that ache or pain may be something other than just that – an ache or pain. Our minds play tricks on us and tries to make us believe that it’s a tumor, a cancer, a catastrophic illness. I propose that this is a healthy fear because it can motivate you into action.  It can motivate you into making that lifestyle change you’ve been intending. Perhaps it is time to really start looking at your eating habits or your exercise regimen.  Healthy fear, not life stopping fear.

And while we are contemplating this time of life in this fear state, we may perhaps have a fear that one day we may end up being a burden to our loved ones. What is going to happen if for some reason we cannot care for ourselves.  What if we ultimately die? Who is going to take care our final wishes and expenses? Hmmm….  Again this should motivate one to plan and get into place these needs. Healthy fear not life stopping fear.

Examining my life I am asking myself what is that one thing that I fear most?  Do I even have fear?  Sorry, but not all of us are super saved. Fear lurks around in all of us. I just don’t give it room is grow in my life so that it will remain that healthy fear and not that life stopping fear.

The questions I am asking today are, as I reach this age, what are my expectations? How much am I relying on the kindness of strangers to come to my rescue. How much do I really trust God as a round this corner to the middle of my personal third chapter of life?

I have said it over and over again…stop looking for the magic.  Every one will eventually have to come to grips with the absolute truth that faith does move mountains and the Holy Ghost is real. The bible says that faith without works is dead. We all must come to final terms with the sin in our lives. That thing you have been lugging around year after year saying and lying to yourself that you are going to stop doing. Consider this, sins are also our bad habits, our procrastination, our anxieties, our anger and yes, even our way of handling disappointments. What work do we need to do to align ourselves up to the will of God?  How obedient are we to God really?

All of these things are sin. Sin is defined as a turning away from God and the focusing on self: making your own rules, going your own way, having your own thoughts, satisfying your own pleasures. Sin is having way too much ‘I’ in your eye.  Defining sin very loosely:  getting stuck on YOU opens the door to FEAR and fear is indeed the opposite of faith. Amen? Amen.

#soulwriter #whatithoughtwassojustaint  #gracefulaging #livingwithpride

Books by Debi Mason:

What I Thought Was So Just Ain't - Aging through God's Grace

Amazon.com (paperback)

Amazon.com (Kindle edition)

Barnes & Noble (paperback)

Barnes & Noble (NOOK edition)

ISBN-13: 978-0692236475

Release: June, 2014

Arizona Clay: A journey of self-discovery

Amazon.com (paperback)

Barnes & Noble (paperback)

ISBN-13: 9781606964880

Release: June, 2009

Follow me on Twitter:  @DebiOak

Ujima - Collective work and responsibility

Heri za Kwanzaa!

Kwanzaa is a time for spiritual reflection, a festive and joyous holiday...a cultural celebration. Kwanzaa has no ties to a particular religion. It is practiced by African people of all faiths, who come together based on their rich, ancient and varied common African heritage. Today, the seven-day observance of the Kwanzaa holiday is celebrated by millions of African-Americans and Africans around the world.

Habari gani?  Ujima 

(Collective work and responsibility)

"To build and maintain our community together and to make our brother's and sister's problems, our problems and to solve them together."

Ujima, as principle and practice, means that we accept the fact that we are collectively responsible for our failures and setbacks as well as our victories and achievements. And this holds true not only on the national level, but also on the level of family and organization or smaller units. Such a commitment implies and encourages a vigorous capacity for self-criticism and self-correction which is indispensable to our strength, defense and development as a people.

SOURCE: "The African American Holiday of Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family Community & Culture"

by Maulana Karenga, University of Sankore Press, Los Angeles, California, 1988, ISBN 0-943412-09-9

Debi Mason, Teller
Oby House Projects - Spoken Word Ministries

Storyin' With Auntie D - National Association of Black Storytellers

(510) 830-6312 cell

www.facebook.com/obyhousetellers

@DebiOak

Debi Mason, author

Arizona Clay available via Amazon.com

What I Thought Was So Just Ain't - Available now at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Kujichagulia - Self Determination

Heri za Kwanzaa!

Kwanzaa is a time for spiritual reflection, a festive and joyous holiday...a cultural celebration. Kwanzaa has no ties to a particular religion. It is practiced by African people of all faiths, who come together based on their rich, ancient and varied common African heritage. Today, the seven-day observance of the Kwanzaa holiday is celebrated by millions of African-Americans and Africans around the world.

Habari gani?  Kujichagulia (Self Determination)

The principle of Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) reaffirms the right and responsibility of every people to control their destiny and daily lives and to be respected as a unique and equally valid and valuable way of being human in the world. -- DR. MAULANA KARENGA  Telling our own  stories as only we can tell them.  Ashe.

Debi Mason, Teller
Oby House Projects - Spoken Word Ministries

Storyin' With Auntie D - National Association of Black Storytellers

National Storytelling Network

www.facebook.com/obyhousetellers

@DebiOak

Debi Mason, author

Arizona Clay available via Amazon.com

What I Thought Was So Just Ain't - Available now at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

 

Kwanzaa - a time for reflection

Heri za Kwanzaa!

Kwanzaa is a time for spiritual reflection, a festive and joyous holiday...a cultural celebration. Kwanzaa has no ties to a particular religion. It is practiced by African people of all faiths, who come together based on their rich, ancient and varied common African heritage. Today, the seven-day observance of the Kwanzaa holiday is celebrated by millions of African-Americans and Africans around the world.

Habari gani?  UMOJA! (Unity)

At this time of racial turmoil, confusion, police brutality and the war on black males in this country it is important that any discussion of race begin with us.  Our young, gifted and black children need to know the truth of who they are more than ever. They need to know their true history and share in the stories of our  black experience as told in a way that only we can tell it. Youth must be taught, and perhaps many of us need to relearn,  what it means to participate in the betterment of our communities.  The positive messages of today are taught through example in our homes, in our schools, in our places of worship and, importantly, in the media. Foolishness begets foolishness.  Pride begets pride.

So I will continue to celebrate Kwanzaa in my home and in any public forum available to me. I will continue to seek and strive for unity within my family, in my community including my church, in the nation and in my race.

UMOJA!

“At its core, the principle unity is about attachment - attachment to each other and, most importantly, to the values which define us as family, as community and as a people.” – The   Kwanzaa Guide http://bit.ly/1CXpct3

Debi Mason, Teller
Oby House Projects - Oby House Tellers

Storyin' With Auntie D - National Association of Black Storytellers

National Storytelling Network

www.obyhousetellers.com

www.facebook.com/obyhousetellers

@DebiOak

Debi Mason, author

Arizona Clay available via Amazon.com

What I Thought Was So Just Ain't - Available now at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

My country 'tis of thee...

The older I get the more patriotic I have become.  This is about all that has been fought for and all of the freedoms gained. This is about battles won against racism, bigotry, injustice, hate. The good fight that was fought from the time I was a little girl growing up in the sand and desert of Phoenix, Arizona. I know how hard it was for my parents to shield us from the prejudices and segregation of the 1950s and early 60s before this thing called civil rights became a reality. Those were tough times but our parents stood the course, did the right thing and fought that good fight so that I may enjoy this freedom today and write this blog post.

And those of us that are old enough to have marched and protested so that black men and women could vote, please rest assured that your tears over lives lost were not in vain. Lord, I was proud to stand in line to vote yesterday.  I have never felt more powerful and impowered.  These are feeling that have carried over into today the day after.  And because I am feeling this, I know that these feelings of strength will carry over into the rest of my days on this planet.  Thank you, Donald Trump!                                

With the outcome of this election one thing I know for sure is that I am not afraid.  I believe that the God of my salvation is protecting His people.  I vow to continue the struggle for freedom against the racism and injustice that is still very much alive and well in this country. I know without doubt that I am in HIS grip. I will take it to the streets, the internet including social media and in print and I will do whatever is necessary to keep our young people safe and out of harms way and I pray that what I do now will be the change felt by future generations..  I have no fear. I have no doubt. This is the right thing to do.  

We are living in the last days for sure. It is brother against brother, sister against sister.  We are a divided nation and "a house divided cannot stand". We are about to experience life on a whole nuther level and we have the choice to either go to bed and cover up our heads until this stink goes away or we can stand up and proclaim in the words of Langston Hughes..."I, too, am America..." 

God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding.

Job 37:5

WE are Americans first -- Barack Obama

Was That One by Paul Mason

There is no better way for me to say thank you and that I love you right now than to share this on my blog.  Paul Mason this is brilliant and very, very touching.  I am proud of you.  God has prepared you for such a time as this. Get ready, little brother.  Great things are in store for you.  Take your time and listen to the signs and pay attention to the wonders.  Don't expect acknowledgement from anyone or even expect anyone you know to get it. Believe me, somebody half way around the world is going to be moved and touched greatly because God has directed it to be so. Amen? Read:

Was That One

Was that one
no regrets no remorse
did it all for none
to have fun and be done
pleasure set my course
in, out and about
till one day
one was without
no love but no hate
my world as a toy
without air
a ball
tossed to and fro
over the fence
I fall
the darkness
the suspense
none to catch me
Yet One as a child
Searched
He found me
waiting for Him
Gentleness like none
game over
now has come
the war has been won

iampaulmason714
My five minute meditation and writing

(c) 2016, USA

Mind Wonderings

Sometimes my mind wonders from thing to thing. 

Skipping with joy through fields and streams. 

Relishing moments of carefree freedom

Flying high on unbending time’s wing.

Sometimes when my mind wonders

God is directing my path

Babbling stream of sediment -

Dreams long ago past

Hope - a welcoming road that is clear

Fore the things I hold sacred 

Are things I hold near.

(c)2016, USA

www.facebook.com/obyhousetellers

Books by Debi Mason:

What I Thought Was So Just Ain't - Aging through God's Grace

Amazon.com (paperback)

Amazon.com (Kindle edition)

Barnes & Noble (paperback)

Barnes & Noble (NOOK edition)

ISBN-13: 978-0692236475

Release: June, 2014

Arizona Clay: A journey of self-discovery

Amazon.com (paperback)

Barnes & Noble (paperback)

ISBN-13: 9781606964880

Release: June, 2009

Follow me on Twitter:  @DebiOak

Cooperative Economics/Ujamaa

Habari gani?  UJAMAA! (Cooperative economics)

Cooperative Economics/Ujamaa: Sharing and pooling our financial resources and goods and services for the common benefit of family and community participants with the goal of building and sustaining cooperative economic enterprises.

This practice Ujamaa grows from a shared understanding that we as humans on this planet are dependent on each other and that loving, sharing, and caring are cardinal virtues.

I am honestly doing some sincere self-assessment here.  On this, the fourth day of Kwanzaa,  I have to ask myself how much am I really supporting black business, enterprise, community efforts for the betterment of our cities, towns, communities, neighborhoods and, yes, our race?

As I look around in parts of the City of Oakland, of all the closed storefronts in black neighborhoods, how many of those were former black businesses?  As an artist and a former arts manager, I am wondering how many of those black arts endeavors have gone by the wayside due to lack of support and how many are going to make it beyond 2015?  Personally I cried when the Oakland Ensemble folded after umpteen years of teaching me to live the life of black art with pride and resilience in spite of dwindling funds from the public and private sector.  Arts organizations that taught me how to produce the art on a dime seemingly no longer exist.

How often have I said out loud or in a whisper that this item would be cheaper at the big box store?  Or, perhaps, I  just gave my good money to the foreign looking and talking man on the corner because he is in my neighborhood.  Did it ever occur to me the reason he is in my neighborhood with his stale bread and cheap liquor?  We as a people can be an easy prey.

We spend hundreds on hair from a foreign land, bought in a store owned and operated by someone that speaks little or no English. We put his kids through college and pay the mortgage on his house that displaced us through that magical word called gentrification.  And, yep, my man is driving a better car and is more technically advanced and advantaged.

This year I am going to at least make the effort to buy black and support black.  I will support black endeavors not only with lip service but with my dollars as well.  The amount of money we are all guilty of wasting throughout the year could indeed go a long way toward the sustainability of that group of black poets, those black theatre companies, black dance studios, black community organizers, black bookstores, black restaurants, black barbershops and beauty salons, black dress makers, and black cake makers.  I will not be afraid to buy a membership or give a donation to a black cause that I care deeply about keeping in mind that no amount is too small.

Books by Debi Mason:

What I Thought Was So Just Ain't - Aging through God's Grace

Amazon.com (paperback)

Amazon.com (Kindle edition)

Barnes & Noble (paperback)

Barnes & Noble (NOOK edition)

ISBN-13: 978-0692236475

Release: June, 2014

Arizona Clay: A journey of self-discovery

Amazon.com (paperback)

Barnes & Noble (paperback)

ISBN-13: 9781606964880

Release: June, 2009

Follow me on Twitter:  @DebiOak

Blessed to be a blessing ...

I am fully aware that we can’t do anything to fix the problem of homelessness in the bay area. Yet I am also moved to an awareness that says we can ignore that feeling of helplessness and do something, anything for people that are less fortunate. 

We come in contact with the homeless each and every day.  Something that I read said that many would greatly appreciate it if someone would just acknowledge their existence.  One homeless gentleman said that he would rather someone look them in the eye and say no to his request for money or food or whatever than to do what we all are guilty of – we treat that homeless man or that homeless woman is if they were invisible.

My heart grieves when I hear a saint of the Most High God say that most of the homeless are drunks or drug addicts or that they choose to be homeless. Some, maybe, but not all. I wish I could say that this thinking was not true of us on this side but I just heard it and I am sure that Jesus heard it, too. Yes, there are those with mental issues but I have to think that their condition must be exacerbated upon the realization that they have no place to go but the gutter, a trash bin or a shelter where they are disrespected and treated as so much of nothing.  Think about it. What would this condition do to a mind that is already fragile and perhaps broken?  It is time for us to change the way we look at the world. If the Lord was not on my side, where would I be?  Where would you be?

So, instead of just thinking about the idea and talking about it, I am doing it. I following my heart in obedience and making  the determination that this Christmas is going to be different for me.  I don’t have much but what I do have is a blessing from God.  So, without a doubt, God has blessed me so that I can be a blessing to someone else. This is going to be a very merry Christmas. Amen.

Blessing Bags

Gallon size Ziplock bags

Items that could go into in the bags:

chap stick

packages of tissues

toothbrush and toothpaste

comb

soap

trail mix

granola bars

crackers

pack of gum

band aids

mouthwash

$2 cash (could be used to make a phone call, or purchase a food item)

hand wipes

you could also put in a warm pair of socks, and maybe a Starbucks gift card

Stories From Granny's Porch, 2016

Donate Now

#oakager   #soulwriter 

Books by Debi Mason:

What I Thought Was So Just Ain't - Aging through God's Grace

Amazon.com (paperback)

Amazon.com (Kindle edition)

Barnes & Noble (paperback)

Barnes & Noble (NOOK edition)

ISBN-13: 978-0692236475

Release: June, 2014

Arizona Clay: A journey of self-discovery

Amazon.com (paperback)

Barnes & Noble (paperback)

ISBN-13: 9781606964880

Release: June, 2009

Follow me on Twitter:  @DebiOak

Granny's Porch, 2016 : preserving the art of story

Our fundraising campaign starts today! Follow this link: 

 https://www.gofundme.com/d9anh2bg  

Opening in Oakland, California, February, 2016: Stories From Granny's Porch. This is a creative project of Oby House Productions featuring the artistry of Debi Mason. First presented on the Lyceum stage as part of the 14th Annual Kuumba Fest of the African American Council of the San Diego Repertory Theatre in 2006 Stories From Granny's Porch shares a view into the lives of those most affected by gentrification in America's cities. Told through the eyes of Granny Arilea Bell, these stories of Montezuma Streets most colorful characters come to life. Pre-production audiences have laughed out loud, shed a tear over the reality of homelessness, addiction and abuse and danced in the aisles to the jazz/blues and gospel rifts of a live combo of musicians. Want to support this project and have your name listed as a true patron of the arts? Search Go Fund Me for Granny's Porch and contribute today! We thank you and appreciate you greatly.

#oakager   #soulwriter 

Books by Debi Mason:

What I Thought Was So Just Ain't - Aging through God's Grace

Amazon.com (paperback)

Amazon.com (Kindle edition)

Barnes & Noble (paperback)

Barnes & Noble (NOOK edition)

ISBN-13: 978-0692236475

Release: June, 2014

Arizona Clay: A journey of self-discovery

Amazon.com (paperback)

Barnes & Noble (paperback)

ISBN-13: 9781606964880

Release: June, 2009

Follow me on Twitter:  @DebiOak

In the Shadow of 9/11

I will never forget the day. I was on my usual travel from Escondido into San Diego down the beautiful Pacific Coast Highway. I am praising the Lord as I watch the sunrise over the ocean and the cliffs  actually excited about the possibilities of the day.  I felt good and I am sure I looked better than I had in years.  I was saved, sanctified and sober. A lovely day.

My friend Mark was at his usual place selling the Tribune in the middle of the road. I always did think that this was an odd place to put a stop sign. Waiting to move forward I see that his cheerful good morning face was not there. He was but I noticed, as I sat there some five cars back, his well weathered face  had a look of something that I did not really understand.

You have to understand that Mark started my day five out of seven days a week.  I knew his story and he knew mine. We were both working a program and sometimes, I have to admit, in the year 2001 it was still a struggle for me.  Mark was what I needed to keep me sober for just one more day.  We never had long conversations just the one or two minutes it took for me to buy a morning paper and be on my way. But that one or two minutes meant so much to me and I am sure to him as well.  It was as though it was a daily confirmation that we can do this.  That strange little white man made a tremendous difference in my life and I doubt seriously if he ever realized it.

 

This day, September 11, 2001, started off strange. It was the end of a summer quickly approaching fall. Something just felt different.  I did not realize it at the time but there was a great shift happening in the spirit realm. I ignored it and turned up the gospel music and praised a little louder.

When it was my turn at the stop sign Mark leaned in and whispered, “They are bombing New York.”  “What?” I said, “Ain’t nobody bombing New York.”  He had that look of serious so I paid attention.  It really was happening and I felt like I was on some kind of drug trip. Suddenly that familiar feeling at the pit of my stomach coupled with a kind of nervousness that I knew so well, from years of being in trouble or about to be, welled up.

An idiot man behind me honked and startled me. No excuses but my first instinct was to flip him off which I did with such exuberance that when I looked in my rear view mirror I knew he got the message to not mess with me.  Making my way to the freeway entrance, I switched on the radio. Sure enough they were bombing New York.  Terrorists had high jacked a passenger plane and flown it into a building in crowded New York City.  It was later in the day that heard that another plane had crashed into the Pentagon and yet another had crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

I’m not sure if we weren’t all feeling a fear that we had never felt before. The crowded 101 was moving in slow motion. Not one car was moving faster than 15 miles per hour.  All of the cars that we passed day after day and never paid much attention to now contained real people, with real lives, with real fear etched across their faces.  We looked at each other. I mean we really looked at each other that particular morning.  It was other worldly.

I reached my place of employment in time to see on the television the second plane hit the tower. None of us that were crowded around that small television could speak.  We watched the news coverage silently and then the unthinkable happened.  The towers fell.  A silent scream bubble up in my throat. Before they knew how to edit I saw what I didn’t want to see. I saw lives tumbling from that building. Bodies and body parts mixed in with everyday stuff . It was horrible and it is an image that cannot be erased even after all of these years. 

It wasn’t as though I had never seen such atrocities in foreign lands played out on the most powerful of all mediums -  the television screen.  These things happened everyday in some part of the world. Even the Oklahoma bombing paled in comparison.  As twisted as it may be, the Oklahoma bombing was an inside job. But the World Trade Center?  These were foreign folks that crossed that imaginary boundary that said that this kind of terrorism could never ever happen on our shores.  This was America after all.  This was sacred and protected territory, right?  We could never be hurt or harmed by anyone other than ourselves. Amen?

But it happened and the Trade Center did fall and three thousand plus souls were lost. No matter the color, the creed or politics their lives were erased and we were helpless.  This is what scared most Americans the most on that day. We finally realized that we’re not invincible.

My way of looking at America changed.  I like so many stopped being naïve. This country is a mess. We have in-house issues that we have not been fully addressed….racism, poverty, homelessness, gentrification, senior health and welfare, police brutality, immigration….   We have the power to change things for the better here and we don’t exercise that power.  We are so busy blaming the legislators, the president, the powers that be. We blame the Mexicans and the black folks and the poor and the baby boomers.  We blame everybody for everything and we waste time doing it. This is exactly where those that are looking from the outside in want us to be.  We are terrorized and full of fear. We are much like the lost platoon that sees movement in the jungle and they end up killing each other.

I am an American. I could not survive as a Syrian or anyone oppressed and shut out in a Third World country.  Am I privileged? Far from it. Does not anything that is happening in this city, this community, this country affect me on a daily bases? Most assuredly and most deeply.  Each day I wake up and ask the Lord to show me what I can do today to make this a better place. Even if my job for today is to write this simple treatise in the shadow of 9/11. 

#oakager   #soulwriter 

Books by Debi Mason:

What I Thought Was So Just Ain't - Aging through God's Grace

Amazon.com (paperback)

Amazon.com (Kindle edition)

Barnes & Noble (paperback)

Barnes & Noble (NOOK edition)

ISBN-13: 978-0692236475

Release: June, 2014

Arizona Clay: A journey of self-discovery

Amazon.com (paperback)

Barnes & Noble (paperback)

ISBN-13: 9781606964880

Release: June, 2009

Follow me on Twitter:  @DebiOak