Here's to 2016 - A New Beginning

As I close on the end of 2015, I want to share with you something that happened just last night (30th) that showed to me once again how – and for so many others I have found out – that this New Year in particular for unique yet strangely at the same time very similar reasons is a new chance for them (and my family) to really start a NEW beginning.

I was taking a personal break on my patio “war room,” and a young black man -19yo I came to find out – happened by. Much to my surprise this stranger asked me if he could come sit and talk for he “did not like to smoke a cig alone” and he really needed someone to talk to. Right away, I could tell he was very upset and angry. He sat on my bench while I was at my table. ‘Joe’ told me he was so angry at his mom; his words were jumbled, his story all over the place.

I could lie and tell you I wasn’t at first nervous, a million fearful things going through my head especially as a single mom of three. Should I excuse myself and get in my home asap? Did he assume I was racist because of the color of my skin? Would he think I was automatically deserving of harm because I was white? After-all, it seems every where you turn ‘whites’ are being berated and condemned.

Five seconds later, I continued to hold my ground; kept my butt on my chair and admonished myself for almost giving into the fear. Naturally, and understandably, many of you would criticize me for not leaving.

But I did not. And I listened.

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