Is help on the way?

What's really going on with the economy? I am hearing that now is the time to invest in stocks and bonds, because the prices have dropped. I allowed my 401k to remain as it was, and October was my biggest lost! America, I do not have any money to be throwing away! We really need to get something done about our economy, or at least get some solid advice. It took me too long to get the little money I do have, and now it is all going down the drain! Heck, give me my money back! What should I do with my 401k? There really isn't any real assistance with this problem. I guess I will see if the economy gets a boost with our new President elect Obama. If any of you have any advice or suggestions please post them under comments. I will look for information pertaining to this issue, but all our situations are different. I know a consultant (Jon Cook), and he is great! I will see what I can get from him, or see about hooking up a conference call where everyone can call in and ask their questions. Once again this site is not about me, and I encourage you all to get involved with these issues. Whatever you can contribute to the site is fine, because you are giving back (paying it forward). Why do we all cry about change, but yet when we have an opportunity to make it happen we do not want to put in the necessary work to make it happen? We can no longer lay back waiting on others to make moves that will effect us! We need to take control of our own lives, and the things around us. When are you going to do your part? I dare you to make a difference in someone's life (not anyone you know...although that is good as well)! Pay it forward...God bless! Until next time...

Election Day

Today, we are going to make history. I have received lots of text messages and phone calls about getting to the poll today. My oldest daughter must have sent me at least twenty text messages within the last week about voting for Obama. I assured her that I would, but she is still sweating me about it. She is very excited about voting today, and I am very happy to see that in her. I had friends call and ask if I voted. I was talking to my long time friend/brother Mack, and as we were talking on the phone he was asking people are they going to vote today. I have never seen Mack so excited about an election. This election is so important for so many reasons. Our youth are really into it, and I have never saw so many young people excited about voting. This day can truly CHANGE the way our youth feel about a lot of things. They are about to see just how much of a difference they can make when they pull together. They will see what type of power they have when they come together as a collective. I am truly proud of all our youth that are participating in our electoral process. This has bee a learning experience for them (youth), and us as well. It is a learning experience for us, because we actually get to witness them get out and make a change. America will be heard today, and CHANGE is on the way!!! There are some polling places where lines are blocks long, and people are waiting for hours and hours to cast their vote. This is one election that America will not allow to be stolen (Bush elections)! Yeah, I am skeptical, because McCain is still hollering about how the polls are wrong, and that he can do it. I just hope the rest of America feels like me, because I refuse to accept another stolen election! I am ready for CHANGE. and it is in the process. I am still debating whether or not to go to Grant Park in Chicago today. I would like to be up close to the action, so I can rejoice with the other million or so that will be there to congratulate Obama. I want to know what was you doing today when the new President Elect was announced. Put your remarks in the comments on this page. Well until next time I am Dee...God bless America!!!

On The Road To Discovery...

Hey, what's really going on? Well I hope that we are now on the right track to discovering/re-discovering who we are, and what we were put on this earth to do. A lot of us get side tracked with a quick fix rather than a permanent fix. That is because we lack the discipline to do what we must in order to the correct things the correct way. You feel me? Well I know someone knows what I am talking about. We want to jump out there and get things without putting in the necessary work. When we do things that way we lose in the long run, because we have to do it over and over again just for the moment of gratification. When we could have done it right the first time and had permanent results. I was a young boy when my father taught me this parable "you can give a man a fish and he eats for a day, but you can teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime" (unkown). Believe me it takes more effort and thinking to do wrong, or to take bogus short cuts then it does to do it the correct way. You have people out there on the streets that thought they found a shortcut (hustle) to life, and they are still hanging out there on the corners or where ever it is that they hang. Think about it! People have been hanging out ten (10) to twenty (20) years getting high, or just hustling. Now while they were sitting out there hanging out doing their so called thing, others were going back and forth to school and work getting their piece of the pie. Those that were doing the right things bought cars and houses that they did not have to worry about the government trying to take, because they were gotten by the wrong means. They also did not have to worry about the police kicking in their doors at any moment, because they were living foul! On the other hand, those that were out there on the street (probably back/forth to prison) set back and watched others as they gained things in life while they just set there taking up time and space. Do you know anyone like that? Well truth be told we all know someone like that! They have an excuse about why they can't do this or that, but all along they just do not want to put in the work to get what it is that they need. We as a society have adapted to the quick fixes in life, which does not cure problems but only symptoms. When you keep doing the same old things you are going to keep getting the same results or worst! Therefore, deal with life or it will deal with you. I want you to think about how much effort goes into crime. Let's look at the drug dealer, now this person has to be able to know if their product is good; if the price is good; how much of a profit they will get; how to distribute; who to distribute to; where to distribute; how to market it; who to pay and how much to pay for working it; security; and let's not forget the inevitable someone watching out for the police. That one is bound to happen sooner or later. Now if a person can sit back and devise a plan to do all that they can surely go to business school and run a legit business without as much effort as they would have to apply to run an illegit business. That shows that this person has to have some type of skills, but they are all being thrown away on a nightmare, not a dream! The end results no matter how you look at it is a nightmare! There are no shortcuts in life, and you only have one life to live. Live that life the way it is suppose to be lived. There are so many people that wish they had the opportunity to start all over again, but for one reason or another they will never get that chance. If you are reading this then you do have a chance to do the right thing, so get on board and let's discover the champion in you. God has not allowed you to come this far to be a failure in life. As you know we only have this one life to live, so live it!!! Are you really living, or are you just getting by on this or that? Do an inventory on yourself, and start making the necessary changes today. In discovering/re-discovering yourself there are a lot of things that you will learn that were in you all along just laying dormaint. You only need to activate those things, and you will begin to see the world in a new way. Your thinking will no longer be the same, nor will your thoughts. On each of my pages I have various sites where you can get assistance with the tools you need to get ahead in life. I know it is not easy breaking away from a lifestyle you are accustomed to. I can relate to this one very well, because I had an addiction but it was not drugs it was the lifestyle I lived. I did what I needed to live the life I thought I was suppose to live, but as you may very well know it costed me fifteen years of my life. That was only because I got off easy. You cannot expect to go through life and not have to pay debts for what you done in this world. It may not catch you right then and there, but it will catch up to you. I thought once I was incarcerated, and that I asked for forgiveness for my sins that God was going to free me. hahaha Yeah, I saw plenty of others get out through loop holes in the law, or for other reasons. I kept saying "I said i'm sorry'. Then I would throw God words back at him saying you said if I confessed my sins they will be forgiven, and that anything I asked in your name I will be granted if I believed. Now this is what made it difficult for me, because I was going through some things and I didn't think God was listening to me. People kept telling me he is just getting you ready for what you need to do, and that he was saving my life. I told God "if I am still in here because you are trying to save my life then just let me take my chances on the streets." You see how dumb we can be at times. What if god had listened to me? I would be dead, or probably spending the rest of my life in prison. I really wasn't ready, because I still had some stinky thinking. I was going to jump right back down, and get my money and then some. God sometimes allows you to go through things, because certain things must be experienced in order to be appreciated. It sometimes takes situations to make you the person you are meant to be in life, even if those situations are harsh ones. Take a look at all the pressure that is on coal that is in the earth. Now after that coal takes so much pressure it then becomes a diamond. Well in life that is the way a lot of things work. Because then we can be appreciated by others with the lessons/experience we bring to the table. No one can take your path for you, because what is meant for you is what will make you the person you were meant to be. Here's a short story about a caterpillar that was in a cocoon that was trying to get out, because it was changing into a butterfly. Well this guy saw that the caterpillar was having a hard time squeezing through the little hole in the cocoon, so he snipped it and made a bigger hole for the caterpillar to slip through. When the caterpillar made it through the hole it was not the butterfly it was meant to be, and it could not fly. You see the tiny little hole in the cocoon was designed to squeeze the fluids out of the caterpillar body and into its wings to make it able to fly. You see God created it that way, and only he know why things are the way they are. That caterpillar was meant to go through something, and it never became a butterfly because someone interfered with that "going through something." Sometimes in life we just have to go through something in order to be the butterfly we were meant to be ( I read about the butterfly years ago in a daily bread devotion). I later learned that I could not call God on his words when I was not living up to his words. I was not going around telling anyone about God, which we all are to spread the gospel. I also thought that to be a christian was weak, especially in prison. One day a guy asked me are you a christian or something? I was offended, and I said no I am not religious but I am spiritually inclined. What they heck does that mean? Then there were others that said "I don't play with God I will get saved at my own timing". Little did they know if they weren't with God, but knew it was a God they were playing with their salvation. Anyway, I thought once I gave it all to God all would be forgiven, and that I would be released. hahaha The word does say he will forgive you, but it did not say that you will not have to pay for your sins. There are consequences for everything that you do. I just thought if I got into the word that I could sway God to cut me loose. I am sure that someone else can relate to what I am saying. I was looking for a shortcut, but I had already taken a lot of shortcuts that landed right where I was in prison (my wilderness). You name it and I tried it as far as ways of getting out of prison. There was already a path selected for me, and that was through those prison doors on the date that God had allowed me to see. I can thank him now, and I did back then sometimes. As I said it is hard to give praise when you are going through some things. Well I started surrounding myself with positive people, and I started doing positive things. I found favor even with the prison administration, well not with them all. You always have those that will try to keep you down no matter how much you have changed, but it won't work as long as you remember the change is for you not them! Therefore, no matter what they think it won't matter, because you are doing you. I discovered a lot in me that I did not know was there. I learned that there is nothing that I cannot do when my mind is made up, and of course with the power of God. Who are you? Until next time...