ABE Post 3

#ABE
Sacrifice is opportUNITY; this is what I got out of our meeting tonight. (that and a whole lot of other things). But this is sticking with me, the discussion being that we don’t want people to see this as a sacrifice but as opportUNITY. For me, a lot of these next 30 days will be sacrificing some part of myself but with a purpose.

As Mo said in her blog post we are fasting. And yes, we are. When I think about the times in my life that I choose to go on a spiritual fast in search of hearing from and focusing on my Father my creator. I gave up things that were hard for me (or that I thought would be hard) like Facebook and chocolate. But one thing I learned is that once you stop focusing on what you are giving up (loosing) and start to focus on what you a gaining (winning) then the sacrifice is opportUNITY and not really a sacrifice. If you are doing something out of Love and with Love driving you, then you can’t go wrong.

Not to say it is easy, anything worth having requires work hard work and dedication. Something that I notice about myself personally I am willing to do more, because people deserve more. The crazy thing is as I focus and this movement and the direction it is heading, the direction we are heading my focus in not even on me. I mean I envision a great community for our people I see myself looking on from a sideline perspective with the thought of look at what we did and all the lives we helped to change and impact for the better. And I know my life in the process is changing as well but THAT is not even the important piece. *shrug*
I am a firm believer that we all can do something. The question is, are you willing to go above and beyond what you already know you can do? It is a personal question that only an individual can answer. I have answered for myself and I encourage you to do the same. We are mad about the condition of our people, our inner city, lack of support from elected officials etc. I say it’s time to really reflect on what it means to be mad about something talk about the change we need and see how much change you have inside you.

Now a brief update about my recent #ABE shopping

Yesterday I ventured out to Piggly Wiggly at Mid-Town. As I was driving over there I was thinking about how for the past 17 years I have lived in River-west. Everything was close at hand, my job, the store, the boy’s school, and our doctors. Now here I am going way the hell across town to go grocery shopping. I really had to ask myself, “Why” I have made sure that everything I was involved in was in the same box. Is it really for convenience? Or is there another meaning behind my decisions? I think about the fact that in 17yrs I have only lived 3 places and each time the opportUNITY came up for me to move, I never wanted to go past Holton Street. Because that was “THE HOOD” perhaps for the safety and development of my 4 sons is the main reason I didn’t want to move to “THE HOOD”. But I still am rethinking my prior thoughts. ANYWAY I am ranting (that is what blogging is for right?) ;)
My shopping experience at the Pig was pretty decent. I felt good about doing my weekly (maybe bi-weekly if my sons don’t eat too much) there. The prices were comparable some if not better than Pick and Save, the employees were friendly and helpful the store was pretty clean, I found eveything easily and I found most of the regular food I buy and some items I was like “ooh, let me try this.” I feel like I was depriving myself so to speak of other items because I never went anyplace new. I could be thinking to deep, but I’m glad I am thinking.

All Black Everything is not a fad it’s a movement

It’s real nigga shit ;)

MVP