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Because I’m BLACK, bitch. ◾✊

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Iconic.

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Locs

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Locs

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The Greatest Lesson My Grandmother Taught Me

If you know me well you know many of my stories come from spending time with my grandmother, especially my sayings. Tell me something foolish or something we both know is wrong, I will turn my head, make a dramatic pause and in my southern dialect and I will say “Hu-neey [ insert wealth of knowledge here].” I get this all from Mary Ruth Smith. My grandma. There is not one grandma who can compare. So witty, loving and slick.  I’ve learned so many things from her through the years. She taught us to be strong and resourceful. I’ve seen my grandma kill and cook more animals than most people probably have in their entire lifetime. We’d spend our summer afternoons swinging on homemade tree swing sets and running through the acres of land her late husband purchased for all of his kids.  As we would swing, I’d watch fish, possums and dare I say gophers (don’t call the police) cleaned and whipped up into dinner. And I always knew when she cooked that night that later it wasn’t beef in the pot.

I liked to watch the red embers fly up

She taught me to be strong. Not just mentally and spiritually but physically strong. For years into the 21st century, my grandma kept a wood heater in her house. When we grew up she’d chop the wood during the Florida winters and bring it in and slide it in the black iron door into the heater’s fire. I used to be excited when she’d let us do it because secretly my bad behind thought fire was cool. I liked to watch the red embers fly up as I used the poker to push the wood all the way in. Grandma taught us to look after everyone. My grandma was EVERYBODY’s grandma. She took care of all the neighbor’s kids, who also called her grandma. Even the blond hair boys next door who would come to check on her. She taught us to give. As young kids we’d sit in her long black car and she’d stop and get okra and fresh eggs, etc. and make sure her friends from church had things they needed. Or she was good at sending you a card for no reason with five dollars and tell you to buy some chips (smile). She is the originator of text jargon. No lie.But this past month my Grandma taught me the greatest lesson of all. Since May my Grandma has been fighting cancer. And she was kicking its butt. She was strong and pushing, but three weeks ago we were told that the cancer had cleared but then all of a sudden it moved to her brain. Her health changed literally in three days. I rushed home to be with her and flew as soon as I could from Los Angeles to Orlando. When I saw my grandma in the hospital she wasn’t the same. She was physically not strong anymore. She was weak. She couldn’t stand. She couldn’t talk. And when I finally had strength to stand by her bedside she didn’t recognize me. This was not the same grandmother I knew. And it hurt to see her this way. We prayed over my grandma. Later that night we began to hear her making a sound and then we realized she was humming and soon the humming became audible. And we realized amazed that she was singing “Jesus.” And soon Jesus became her singing full hymns. And she now was able to speak a bit and told us to sing with her. And was even able to tell us when we sung the hymn wrong (smile). “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” She sung. And we sang with her that night until she wore us out.  What you have to realize is the three days I stayed home and sat with my grandmother in the hospital she would go in and out. She would be able to converse a little and then she would fade and not be there. Not recognize us. But what made me feel so full with joy is that even when she did not have her full faculties she was able to worship God. I sat and listened as she worshipped when she could by herself and said,“I want to serve you Lord.” “Heal my mind.” “I am healed.” “Jesus.” I listened. I wrote down the things she said and I realized she taught me the greatest lesson ever.  

I thought to myself, A’sia, what is truly in you?

So much in you that when you aren’t in your right mind what will pour out of you? Will it be of God? Will God shine through you even until the last day you spend here on earth? My Grandma left this place and went to heaven yesterday. I only mourn because I will miss her. I will miss our times when she made me fried fish, mullet or brim, that I still think the reason it was soo good is because she fried the fish in bacon grease (smile). But I am thankful that I know she’s in a better place. I know she’s in Heaven. What my Grandma left with me was the greatest lesson she could have ever taught me and my family. She taught us what it really means to have a true relationship with Christ. To be so filled with God and God’s love that even when you don’t have all your faculties it still seeps out of your soul and affects those around you. What’s even crazier is that the beginning of the year she gave me four nuggets for life that she told me to remember. I wrote them down. But I had no idea this year would be the last of her lessons she’d be able to provide. But I am blessed that I was able to witness one of her greatest lessons of all. And I will cherish this forever.I love you Grandma and I will miss you. 

See you when I get there as well.

Love, A’sia

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Your tears won’t leave a trace.

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Walked in my bathroom and saw the moonlight making this reflection through my window

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Disney could learn a thing or two from this ‘Ariel’ model who uses a wheelchair. Watch the full story here.

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Fall 2014’s Season of TV Shows with Black Female Leading Actresses

Viola Davis stars as Analise DeWitt in the ABC political thriller How to Get Away with Murder

Halle Berry stars as Molly Woods in the CBS science-fiction drama Extant

Alfre Woodard stars as the first female president in NBC’s State of Affairs

Taraji P. Henson stars as Cookie Lyon in FOX’s musical drama Empire

Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope in ABC’s political thriller Scandal

Octavia Spencer as Nurse Jackson in the FOX drama Red Band Society

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SKETCH OF THE DAY XTRA:

BLUE & GOLD

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Looking forward to a diverse Fall lineup of ABC’s new TV shows:

Blackish semi-autobiographical work will follow an upper-middle class black man who struggles to raise his children with a sense of cultural identity despite constant contradictions and obstacles coming from his liberal wife, old-school father, and his own assimilated, color-blind kids.[x] trailer [x]

Fresh Off the Boat is based on celebrity chef and generally awesome baddie-turned-foodie Eddie Huang; it will follow the journey of a Taiwanese family living in Orlando during the 90’s, trying to come to terms  with the culture of America while retaining their heritage.[x] trailer [x]

Cristela stars comedian Cristela Alonzo as a Mexican-American woman in law school attempting to land her dream internship at a prestigious firm, all while dealing with the cultural expectations of her traditional family.[x] trailer [x]

How to Get Away with Murder follows Professor Annalise DeWitt (Viola Davis), a master litigator who teaches Criminal Law 101 at a cutthroat East Coast law school, as her students compete for her attention and approval. Her most talented students soon find out that DeWitt uses unconventional methods,   [x] trailer [x]

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This will be me memorial day weekend

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