Honor Your Gift!

(This post has a whole lot of random thoughts. Just Warning You!!)

I have been thinking a lot about vision, purpose, gift, (Whatever you want to call it.) and I really believe that every person has a purpose for being on this planet.

So, last night I was watching Whitney Houston's interview with Oprah Winfrey, and they talked about her voice and her purpose, and my mind started racing.

I thought about if Whitney's purpose on this earth was to use her voice to bring other people joy. If her voice was her gift, I wonder did she know that, and if she did know that, then why would she abuse her gift? And if she did not know that her voice was her gift, maybe that is why she abused it. (I hope that you are following me.)

So, I started thinking about the idea that if people do not discover their gift, then the world would be missing something. Maybe the world would compensate in other ways for a person not discovering their purpose, but it still would be missing something.

Let's take Zora Neale Neale Hurston and her books. I really believe that one of her purposes for being on this earth was to write great books, and not just any books but books that told women stories, African American stories etc, and I wonder what would the literary world be like if she had not honored the gift that God gave her....(Trying to image the world without Their Eyes Were Watching God, Seraph on the Swanee, Dust Tracks on a Road.)  The world would be just fine maybe, but it would be missing something.

This morning when I got to school, I asked the students if they believed that everyone has a purpose for being on this earth, and they all agreed that they think that we do. So, I gave them the challenge of finding their purpose or gift and to be conscious not to abuse it and not allow anyone else to abuse it. We talked about what the world will be like if they do not discover their passion and live it.

In my mind, I went a step further and thought about what the world would be like if Michelle Obama had not honored the calling of challenging people to be healthier, if my mom had not honored the calling to make beautiful clothing, if I had not honored the calling of supporting people in living their best lives through literature, if Frederick Douglass had not honored the calling to be an abolitionist, what will the world be like if you do not find out why you are here, and honor that?

We had an incredible Black History program today, and I was thinking about the kids and their purposes. They were on the stage singing, dancing, playing instruments, reciting poetry etc. They were all contributing to a Black History Program that almost had me doing one of those ugly cries. And, as I was watching them, I was really hoping that they all knew that they are gifts and that they have gifts, and I really hope that they honor their gifts.

I'm just thinking.............................................

Picture of Booker T. Washington. I am so happy that he honored his purpose
of leadingTuskegee Institute so that Tuskegee could produce me, The
Commodores, Tom Joyner and many others.

"Chronicle of a Death Foretold" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I love a good story! There is almost nothing that brings me joy as much as a good story. And, if a story has characters that look like me, then I am really completely overjoyed. However, I must admit that I will give almost any book a try.

Chronicle of a Death Foretold was recommended to me, and of course I love a good story, so I gave it a try.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a Latin American writer and his most famous books are One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in Time of Cholera. (I loved Life in the Time of Cholera.) Gabriel Garcia Marquez is considered to be one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. He pursued a self-directed education that resulted in his leaving law school for a career in journalism." So, without a doubt, this man is incredible.

I went into this reading of Chronicles of A Death Foretold with an open mind, but I knew something was wrong when I started to read it, because I had to force myself to pick it up again the next day. I didn't read it for a few days, and when I tried to pick up where I left off, I couldn't remember what I had read before; therefore, I had to start over.

In any situation that is not working, I always try and make sure that I am not the problem. In my current life coaching class with the wonderful, magnificent Iyanla Vanzan and Robert Pruitt, I came to the realization that many times people will "produce worthlessness in their lives and make it about something or someone else." So, with this book, I decided to make sure that my mind was not preoccupied with other things, and I was giving this book a fair shot.

So, I tried reading this book again from the beginning, and I must say that this is a book did not speak to my heart. It didn't leave me excited or even make me want to go out and tell others about it. I was really relieved when I was finished so that I could get back to the business of reading something that I really enjoy and that speaks to my heart.

The plot of Chronicle of a Death Foretold "revolves around Santiago Nasar's murder. The narrator acts as a detective, uncovering the events of the murder second by second. Literary critic Ruben Pelayo notes that the story unfolds in an inverted fashion. Instead of moving forward... the plot moves backwards.  In the first chapter, the narrator tells the reader exactly who killed Santiago Nasar and the rest of the book is left to unfold why."

I normally love books that tells the reader what happens and then spends the rest of the book telling why, but this book had a lot of characters that did not seem to be important, and even when I found out why Santiago was killed, I did not feel like WOW, I felt like Ok!

So, after identifying that I was not the problem, I came to the conclusion that I do not have to love every book like I am suppose to love everybody. I have the right to say that I did not love this book, but I still think that Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a great writer, but this one was just not for me.

The lessons that I learned from this experience is that we must give things a fair try and then decide whether or not we like them, and just because I did not like Chronicle of a Death Foretold does not mean that all of Marquez's books are bad or even that this one is bad, it just didn't make my heart happy, but I still think that Marquez is a great writer. (Not liking broccoli does not mean that I hate all vegetables.)

Hey, don't throw out the baby with the bath water. (Writing this quote has me laughing out loud.)

The Honorable Gabriel Garcia Marquez