GET OUTTA UR WAY

I used to live on a planet called Earth in a country called the United States of America, but I don’t recognize anything. The surroundings are unfamiliar, and breathing requires an oxygen tank because the air is deadly and toxic. While stumbling around with my oxygen mask on I’m reminded of a concept called democracy. My mind starts reeling and thoughts come pouring through such as what happened to the Constitution, civil rights, the Supreme Court, Congress, the House of Representatives, separation of church and state, privacy, human rights, friendly alliances, and allegiances? These days life feels like an amalgamation of the popular show Stranger Things and The Matrix. In other words, it feels like a simulation. Am I living inside a video game, a weird movie, or a streaming series?  The action of the current leader feels like a poorly designed video game. I’m no gamer but I raised one. Excellent video games are described as those that are beatable with a degree of difficulty. How...

Writing serves as a cathartic outlet for me. Throughout my life, I have engaged in journaling, affirmation writing, and declarative note-taking. As a believer in Habakkuk 2:2-3, which states " This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed".  I attribute my ability to discern the outcome from the outset to this practice Today, I encountered a particularly challenging interaction with an individual employed by the city government. His behavior was characterized by rudeness and an air of superiority. While in his office, I envisioned how he would interact with individuals who could not formulate a well-thought-out action plan. Despite the early hour, his apparent disgust and anger towards my submission of the appropriate paperwork, and my respectful demeanor seemingly overwhelmed him. The city official displayed an inflated sense of self-importanc...

Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, reading paperback fiction books was one of my absolute favorite things to do. My home was filled with books, periodicals, and several types of music. My mother would go to a popular New Orleans department store and buy specific books for each of us. My older sister and I would get so excited when she came home from work with those paperback books. Oftentimes after my sister finished reading her books, I would read them. She is almost four years my senior, so her books had a more mature subject matter. This one specific book has stuck with me. Well, not the book because I do not remember all the details, but there is a line in the book that has stuck with me. The book is entitled *There Must Be a Pony* by Jim Kirkwood. The main character, Josh, has a dream, and if my memory serves me correctly, he was in a barn, and there were just mounds and mounds of horse manure. As he was shoveling through the manure, he exclaimed that underneath all this shit, the...

Is there value in emptiness. That sinking feeling that kind of starts in the stomach and moves up through the chest into the throat and in the eyes and sometimes leads to tears. Today I had a fairly good day at the office. I had some boxes and bags of clothes that belonged to my father who passed away in February of 2022. The exterior of the boxes were marked dishes. As I was opening the boxes, I thought you live your whole life and then the things that you valued end up in boxes in storage units and that's it. I just kept unpacking, and my brother was there, and he had gone through several bags of things that had also been in storage for a few years. Both of us was going through the motions of sorting and clearing through things my brother wanted to keep, give away, or donate. Later we did our usual talking on the way home. I dropped him off and felt gratitude for our banter on current events. When I arrived home, I got off to myself and had dinner then this feeling of deep emptin...

  A few weeks ago I started a YouTube channel called Serendipity Shena. You might think what a strange name. So what does the word serendipity mean? "Serendipity in American English is  (1). an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident, (2). good fortune; luck".  I believe life is full of opportunities whereby we unintentionally find valuable discoveries by chance. I wanted to create a space for me to share two things I love talking about politics and religion. I know these two topics alone have destroyed countries, marriages, friendships, and the list is endless. However, I enjoy taking political and biblical information and applying it to everyday life. The first video for the channel was approximately two weeks after the recent inauguration of the United States president. The word that permeated my mind within the initial days post-inauguration was distraction . People that I had conversations with were becoming fearful. frustrated, and hopeless in a short ...

 Living in Southeast Louisiana our world revolves around weather events. We have become experts at living with hurricanes and flash floods. Our winters consist of at most ten days with morning temperatures in the mid-forties. So, imagine the shock when meteorologists forecasted four inches of snow on January 21, 2025. The snowstorm brought ten inches of snow to New Orleans, tying the record set in 1895. The snowstorm also brought near-blizzard conditions to the city. The New Year 2025 came in with a terrorist attack and many beautiful souls lost their lives and suffered horrible injuries on historic Bourbon Street. The city of New Orleans was numb. Even thinking about it now is earth-shattering. So, the shock of receiving a large amount of snow last month could only be described as magical. It felt so light and airy easing the heavy solemn mood that had eviscerated the city commonly referred to as the Big Easy. We had no experience with driving or walking in the snow. It didn't mat...