Category: Uncategorized

Sunday Morning Coffee Musings: My Word for the Summer

FROM MY SPIRIT, Sunday Morning Coffee Musings, Uncategorized
Photo by Sven Huls

If you know me you know I flow with Spirit (for the most part). As I was thinking about what I wanted from the summer season and what I wanted to give to the summer, I realized I was going to need courage. My word for the summer is courage. You may be thinking, what’s Nikki up to? Is she going sky diving or cross country? No. None of that. Let’s start with what I want from the summer or better put, what the summer has for me.

Summer is a time of vibrancy, production, and growth. It is a time where light is extended, longer days. It’s a time when most people take their vacations. We slow down as well. The grass is green, flowers have bloomed, and the weather is warm (hot depending on where you are located). It’s also a time where certain things are ripe and ready for picking. There is a harvest happening in summer. Proverbs 6:8 “Provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.” Proverbs 10:5. “He who gathers in summer is a wise son; He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.”  It’s lively in the summer. Although we can sleep in, we are also awakened to the business of events such as holidays and weddings. The workload is usually higher in this season. We are interacting with each other in our communities and the world more. Summer brings renewed energy. So, what does this mean spiritually?

Summer is when we see the fruits of our labor. It is a time where we can see the seeds we sowed into our minds and hearts in spring, winter, and fall manifest. It is also a time of refinement of our gifts, talents, and growth. We gather the fruits of our labor in our businesses as well or we see the hard work and planning paying off from the former seasons. This is if you have been doing the work or learning the lessons from life or the journey you chose. Summer gives us opportunities to do something fun and new. It offers time to slow down, enjoy life, and give the people in your life your undivided attention. Put your phones away and watch a movie or the stars. Water is waiting. Summer says put your feet in the water. Put your boats in the water or take a swim. Feel the coolness. Play. It’s a reminder to play. It’s a reminder to rest. It’s a reminder that you can still work, create, but look up and live. This is what summer is giving me. Options. I think summer wants us to gather up the time and spend it wisely.

What do I want to give to the summer months? I want to give more time and attention to my daughter who is home from college. Not a summer of dragging ourselves here and there but, more of a quiet summer being at home and trying new recipes together. Maybe, a concert or two. Enjoying time with family and friends. Hosting an event. I want time with friends and associates. I want light hearted conversations. I want to work on a book or two. I want to paint. I want simplicity. Fresh lemonade. A cherry cobbler. I want to sit on the porch in the morning and drink my coffee and daydream about winning the lottery. I want evenings of rest. I want deep conversations. I want laughter. I want love. I want to smell soft scented candles floating through the air. I want to be heard.

I need courage. Courage to write again. Courage to say no to the many ways I could be pulled in different directions and become swept up in saving people and doing things I didn’t sign up to do. I need courage to be heard, to speak my mind, heart, and soul. I need courage to remove the lizards from my porch that are stuck in the sticky traps. I need courage to hike because well, there are things in the woods I don’t want to run across. If I can find swimming lessons, I will need courage. I am terrified of swimming. I will need courage to start the podcast that is calling me. I will need courage to continue the YouTube channel, the Garden of Mind. I need courage to be honest with myself so that I can stay aligned with Divine Flow.

It took courage to change my relationship with certain groups in the Spring. I think that was the start of everything. It took courage to stand my ground about not being the chairperson or co-chair of a certain month filled with activities and one tyrant for my home church. I guess I also want peace from summer. I want to be in my own world coming out to play and then go back home. I want to learn something new and that too, will take courage.

~Nikki

Watering Gratitude: How It Started

FROM MY SPIRIT, Uncategorized
Photo by Los Muertos Crew

Who’s not grateful? I mean, is there anyone that’s not grateful for something or the other? Whether it’s grateful to be alive or grateful the store had your favorite ice cream we are, most of us, grateful for something. I want to talk/write about gratefulness from the perspective of how we can “grow” our gratefulness. Did you know gratefulness could be expanded? It can start with the simplest things in life to the more complex situations in life. I am going to call this blog series Watering Gratitude. I’ll explain as we take this journey in June here at Nikki’s Confetti Life and on my YouTube channel, The Garden of Mind. Don’t forget to subscribe! Now let’s get into how “it” started.

It started when I picked up a book in a resale bookstore. I needed something. I was searching for something to help me to make sense of my life from 2010 to 2015. I was facing Rheumatoid Arthritis Diseases, Fibromyalgia, and Diabetes all in the span of five years. I also had a hysterectomy where the surgery to longer than they expected. I lost quite a bit of blood and they almost lost me.

In late 2014, early 2015 I unwillingly began the journey of the disability process. It was 2014 I believe when I picked up the book, Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach and her book Peace and Plenty. It was during this time I began to grow the gratitude that I had within me. I began to have a deeper appreciation for the basics in life and much more than the basics. It wasn’t silly to be grateful for a bowl of ice cream. It wasn’t unusual to be grateful for the rain. I later bought the book Something More: Excavating Your Authentic Self by the same author. Next month, I will be blogging about authenticity.

It wasn’t just those two books that helped to water my gratitude. It was also a deeper prayer life, meditation, yoga, and another book, The Sacred Yes by Rev. Deborah L. Johnson. I am now learning how to truly be grateful in all things. Even the not so good things. How can one be grateful for the not so good things? It’s not so much as being grateful for a bad thing or tragic thing happening to you but, it’s more about being grateful for what you can learn from it. It’s about being grateful for what’s next. It’s about being grateful for time. It’s about being grateful for the now. It’s about being grateful for the opportunity to heal and to maybe help someone else that is going through what you may have gone through. Helping others helps you. It fills you (which deepens or intensifies the feeling) with more gratitude and love.

Oh, there were things I was NOT grateful for when it was happening but, I was grateful when it was over. I could give thanks and be grateful that it wasn’t worse or that it was resolved. I can be grateful I am no longer in that situation. Gratitude and gratefulness go hand in hand in my opinion. So, you may see me use them interchangeably throughout this series. Yes, let’s water our gratitude and grow it to expand beyond conditions and circumstances. Happy June!

~Nikki

Sunday Morning Coffee Musings: Priorities

FROM MY SPIRIT, Sunday Morning Coffee Musings, Uncategorized
Photo by solod_sha

This “musing” isn’t technically a Sunday Morning Coffee Musing but more of a Sunday Evening Coffee Musing.

It is well with my soul.

All things are working together for my good.

Obedience is greater than sacrifice in this season.

Wealth and riches remain in my house.

BREATHE.

Although my knees are tender (from Rheumatoid Disease), I’ve had a blessed Sunday. I was able to get the rest of the flowers in the ground this evening. (This is me resting, ha! Got to use my energy while I have it.) I realized I have been in ministry for 20 years today. I also was asked to speak at my home church today and it went really well.

After resting for a while, I began feeling a little disappointed because several things plagued my mind. There are so many things I want to do and need to do. It can overwhelm me. It’s too much to process at one time. I know this came about as I had to decline an invitation to take a cruise with family. It’s just not my season, again. I have other priorities. Although, I thought last year, this year would be different.

With that said, in order for me not to sink any lower in my thoughts and feelings, and for you not to sink any lower when your heart’s desires don’t line up with your pockets or you are not seeing manifestation quick enough, you have to speak life, gratitude, and call those things that be not as though they were. I started feeling bad about not being able to do several things and I just began to quote: IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL.

~Nikki

Sunday Morning Coffee Musings: Garden Sage

Sunday Morning Coffee Musings, Uncategorized

You’d be amazed at what could happen in less than an hour. I met a master gardener. Better known as an angel. This lady took my cart and wheeled it around and the both of us put my flower bed together. She said don’t worry about Home Depot we got this. She gave me so much wisdom about gardening with just a few nuggets. She even pulled my cart up front. It was like being taken under the wings of a sage. Every gardener admired my selection.

And then I pulled my cart up to valet for my plants and the man says let me get you a number. He grabbed the number 44 which is one of my favorite numbers or any sequence of four. The lady says what number did you give her? Let me see that. She said oh you have a good number that’s the year we were born and we’re married. Are you married? I know we’re not supposed to ask that anymore in this Society. I said not yet. This may be a sign. She said it’s a good number for us.

Last photo is a Bergonia

Garden Tips:

Plant in odd numbers

You don’t have to buy so many of plants that spread like Hostas or Elephant Ears. You may overcrowd your space because they comeback every year with increase

Ferns are beautiful. Except a woodland fern will take over and they are hard to get rid of.

Look for a thick stem, healthy looking stem. Anything limp or broken needs to be removed to conserve energy.

Don’t plant them too close to each other. They need room to spread their roots.

Don’t plant too deep. Where you see it’s already planted in the nursery pot is where you plant up to.

Once you plant, break up the soil around it to give roots room to spread.

Sodium nitrate

Plant the day before a rain if you can

~Nikki

No Spend April Logs: Week 1: How It Started

FROM MY SPIRIT, Uncategorized, Woman Power Up

Fail!

The very first week of April I went to Macy’s with my mom and spent money on something I did not need.

Let’s roll back tape. So, I knew I was going to spend quite a bit during my birthday month in March. I have no regrets about that. Okay, one regret. I could have saved that splurge that put me $80 over budget but, since it’s something I can’t return, I may as well let the regret go. I decided in March that April would be a NO SPEND month to reign me back in. I have things I need to do and things I want to do and saving money is one of those things. I also want to be able to enjoy myself while I save. But to what extent? Is that possible? Plus, it’s going to take more than a month to save what I want to save. One should always save. I didn’t go on any vacations last year. Going out of town for a conference or chaperoning my daughter and her friends were not a vacation. I do want to get away this year and I DO care where I go. I care that it is budget friendly.

Since I failed the first week, I decided that April 9-May 9 would be my month mark. I also decided that I needed to understand WHY I wanted to FAST from spending and what were the rules to this? What could I buy and not buy? What did I hope to gain or accomplish? I have not had the best of luck when it comes to saving. What do I mean by that? In the past whenever I save, something happens. It seems I can’t get to where I want to be as fast as I would like to.

I had car trouble this week. ASTRONOMICAL the cost to get my car fixed. Once again what I had saved has dwindled right before my eyes. At least, it’s almost and not completely wiped out. Maybe that’s not a bright side but a partly cloudy side?

~Nikki

Let God Support You

FROM MY SPIRIT, Uncategorized
Photo by Krivec Ales on Pexels.com

Let God support you.

You think if others are not supporting you, God isn’t either. False. Don’t project on to God all of your concerns about the authority figures in your life, friends or relatives. God is not involved or part of the dysfunctions of a hierarchical society. Trust God’s love. God would not only heal you but God will support you as well.

~Nikki

Sunday Morning Coffee Musings: Weird Evolution Spaces

Sunday Morning Coffee Musings, Uncategorized
Photo by EYAD Tariq on Pexels.com

Getting used to this “evolved” me is like driving a new car. You know how to drive but you’re unfamiliar with where everything is. The car and you aren’t one yet. It feels different. I’m reacting differently or either reacting the same but quickly correcting myself. I know I have work to do because we will always be working on ourselves. Well, those of us that understand that life is about growing until you leave this realm.

I’m in a space where when it comes to some choices, no matter what I choose, it will work out. And that feels strange. It feels strange because things haven’t worked out for me the way I believe or thought they would often. Maybe, I am really starting to believe and understand that things will work out when you try. I mean when you really put forth effort and make informed or the best decisions you can make. Maybe, it’s starting to work out when you mature. When you listen to others that know what they are talking about and have actually lived this life for a while. Maybe, it’s because you have more experience and you have grown in ways you never thought.

I’m also in a space where alignment is happening and I can actually see it. I can SEE it happening. Such a contrast from my year of endings last year.

~Nikki

April Showers: Arguing for Limitations

Uncategorized
Photo by Joey Kyber on Pexels.com

ARGUE for your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours. – Richard Bach, Illusions

🌺Do not argue for anything that you do not want to experience.

🌺If you do not like where you are, then why do you argue to stay crystallized in it? If you really want to get over it, through it, past it, out of it, away from it, then you’d come to God instead of going to people that validate the state you are in. You think that’s support and on some level it is.

🌺But the type of support God offers is to move you beyond all of your baggage and to heal your wounds so that you can be used to your fullness and to your full glory.

🌺But who would you be without your sob story? Your excuses? Your pain?

🌺I don’t know all that you’d be but I do know you’d be FREE.

~Nikki

I Had a Birthday This Month

Uncategorized

I am one of “those” type of people that celebrate their birthday ALL month long. My birthday marks my NEW YEAR for me personally. During this month, I do things I enjoy most and try new things. I take advantage of the things going on in my city during this month and I allow myself to get out more than usual and to rest more than usual. Things are changing on how I do this. I am more intentional of those in my space and I am also more open to those in my space. This may seem contradictory but, it’s not. For example, I met up with a diverse group of women whose birthday was in March also. There were Pisces and Aries in this group and it was an enjoyable space of laughter and pleasant conversation. Finally, my beautician and I got to hang out in another space of excellence. The conversation was very diverse among us at the table and the service, food, music was so good I felt like I was being pampered while I dined with an array of small plates and cocktails.

I spent time with three of my closest friends. With one friend, we went to a Women in Arts Exhibition that is in its grassroots stage. We had good food from a food truck and went for ice cream afterwards. We sat on my porch and had a variety of conversations. I saw one of my favorite women in ministry by myself but was divinely positioned next to a young lady I was able to bless and that blessed me! One of my friends and I went to see Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. I have always wanted to see them! My other friend and I had dinner, cocktails and saw one of my favorite performers in Memphis. Jazzy. I went off on a couple of adventures by myself. A girl needs her “me” time.

On my birthday, I invited friends and family to join me to hear my favorite reggae bands in the city. I think most of us had a ball! I know I did. Food, drinks, music, and family. The musicians in this band are some of the bests in this country if you ask me. I love to see musicians play with excellence and enthusiasm. You can feel it and they never disappoint which lets me know they hone their craft.

I wanted to go on a shopping spree and I did go on a mini-shopping spree. Now, it’s back to budgeting and balancing the books. I have issued a NO SHOP APRIL!!!

~Nikki

Women’s History Month: Behind Hollywood on the Set Scenes

FROM MY SPIRIT, Uncategorized, Woman Power Up

By Tokunbo Salako  with AP   •  Updated: 14/03/2023

Given the enormous success of Everything Everywhere All at Once at the Oscars, you could easily be forgiven for missing one of the night’s other significant and memorable moments for women. 

The ceremony also saw costume designer Ruth E. Carter become the first Black woman in history to win two Academy Awards. 

Four years after winning Best Costume Design for Marvel’s Black Panther, she took home her second honour in the category for its sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

As lead costume designer, Carter played a crucial role in making the film a cultural phenomenon with her garments helping to bring the fictional country of Wakanda to life.

Here is a partial article about the history of black women in costume design by Shelby Ivey Christie. Link at the bottom for complete article.

Until the late 1950s, black actors appeared on screen mostly as slaves or domestic workers, leaving little room for creative costuming. Hattie McDaniel’s Oscar-winning role as Mammy in 1938’s Gone with the Wind is a prime example of this kind of caricature casting; her wardrobe was marked by a house dress, an apron, and a headscarf. Similarly, when James Baskett appeared as a plantation worker named Remus in 1946’s Song of the South—a role he won an honorary Academy Award for—he did so in the type of plain, tattered pieces synonymous with poor blacks at the time.

1957: Carmen Jones

“I’d have to say my favorite costume moment is Carmen Jones,” shares Stacey Beverly, a Hollywood costume designer who’s worked on Girlfriends, The Game, and Black-ish, among other projects. The 1957 classic stars Dorothy Dandridge as Carmen Jones, a factory worker who, outside of her blue-collar job, wears a now-famous look: a curve-hugging red pencil skirt and black off-the-shoulder top. This was significant—not only were audiences seeing a black woman portrayed outside of a domestic role, but that black woman was also the epitome of glamour, dressed in luxe fur coats, dresses cinched at the waist, and hoops (gold hoops, to be specific, which were not de rigueur in 1957). Dandridge made history as the first black woman nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award, and while she didn’t win, her portrayal of Jones did succeed in sending an empowering message to scores of black women.

1966–1968: Batman and Julia

In 1966 Eartha Kitt was cast as Catwoman in Batman—a role that saw her costumed in a tight leather catsuit and mask, bringing the sex appeal and allure of black women onto the small screen. Two years later, when Diahann Carroll became the first black woman to star in a TV series by landing the title role in Julia, the milestone was also a seminal moment for black costume design. A widowed single mother—which many black women could relate to, as the U.S. had entered the Vietnam War three years prior—Julia had an impeccable wardrobe reflective of the times. As the ’60s ushered in a fashion awakening that saw a departure from classic A-line silhouettes and an embrace of mod styles, Julia was costumed in swing dresses, paisley prints, and leisure suits; her hair was worn in the short, asymmetrical cut popularized by Vidal Sassoon, and she completed her looks with round-toe shoes and nude lipstick. Black women finally saw themselves as active participants in American pop culture and trends. They weren’t just the women who scrubbed the floors and burped the babies, they were now professionals, earning their own money and curating trendy wardrobes. Mattel partnered with Carroll to create a Julia Barbie, and in 1969 Carroll won a Golden Globe for the role.

https://coveteur.com/2019/02/22/history-black-costume-design-film-television/

~Nikki

I love fashion and I wanted to be a fashion designer growing up. It was the only dream I had had for a very long time. It still burns within me. I like anything that involves clothing. However, costume design in on another level of creativity and imagination to me.