Sometime between now and whenever there might be a time when we meet as friends. In meeting we will be doing something timeless and new....saying hello in person for the first time. That all important first moment when so many impressions are formed should be perfect but will most likely only be human. Real and flawed with a certain amount of humor and just a dash of presumption. I look forward to meeting another humanbeing and learning just a litttle more about what it means to be alive and enjoy the simple pleasure of a new friendship beginning.

Terence L. Brooks, 12 FEB 2008

Beautifully stated....

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,                 but by the moments that take our breath away.

George Carlin

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will.

You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken.

You'll fight with your best friend.

You'll blame a new love for things an old one did.
You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love.

So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.

~anonymous~ 

Live to love all of your friends (and me) and a miracle will happen everyday..... You will be loved!

"Don't be afraid that your life will end,
be afraid that it will never begin."

Peace, Love and Joy.... always

 

Terry

Peac, Love and Joy!

FYI...This sounds like a great opportunity for someone .. I wish I knew someone.

Please distribute. Just passing this information on in case you know of anyone that may be interested...

See below.

A full scholarship for a single mom; housing provided for mom and up to two kids.

The Sister Thea Bowman Foundation has four scholarships for African-American single mothers and their child to attend the College of St. Mary in Omaha, Nebraska. The Foundation will grant $30, 000.00 over a period of four years to the College of St. Mary on behalf of each student. In return the College of St. Mary will match that grant with an additional $24,000. The student must be an African-American single mother who has completed high school. She must be from low income housing. She must be able to gain admission to College of St. Mary. She need not be Catholic. Each student will have an African-American mentor during her course of study at the College of St. Mary. Each student will also have an African-American host family from Omaha who will also serve as mentor. Each mother may take up to two children with her to the College of St. Mary. The cut off age for the child is nine. Each mother will live in a dorm with other single mothers and their children. This dorm has been especially renovated to accommodate mothers and their children.

If interested, please contact:   Mary Lou Jennings, Executive Director of the Sister Thea Bowman Foundation at: marylouj11@aol. com

Life’s end

 

The summit is behind me as I descend to nothing

On the way up my brother fell to strife

I lost loves and friends to troubles and pain

I have survived longer than many without knowing why

Now I have lost a child

Without knowing why

Everything I did as a child was learning

Everything my young eyes saw was marvelous and challenging

As age and experience turned into knowledge I grew to know limits

My limits of mind and body were announced in transition from youth to maturity

Age is such a timeless word that implies much

As a child age was a number that represented freedom

The older you were the more responsible

The older you got the more you could do

You were allowed to make your own decisions and that led to living

Wanting love and finding it

Learning loss from losing love

As an adult age is a limiter

Having dreams and seeing them ripen or dissolve

Each step forward represents loss

Something changes

But that means something is new

Each loss represents opportunity

Chance sits squarely in the lap of hope only to be spilled when reaching for the brass ring

Not always but often enough to teach the fear of change, of strangeness and of adventure

I have been there for friends in need and have had friends there for me

Amazingly none of us ever seem to really know how much the other cared

Until there is a need

How much we mattered to each other

Until there is grief in loss

Slowly I descend from this life

A second I step, a minute I step and hour, a day, a week a month, a year I step forward

Ever forward for there is no turning back

Time only permits one direction

Even as memories tug and pull me back to when and where I can not go there

What was can never again be

Not a single moment can be relived outside the mind

No word spoken taken back

No action taken reversed

Ever forward I plod like some staunch hero

But really I am just living my life in love and sorrow

And remembering the good and bad of it

Knowing that with all that behind me I am truly old

Older, wiser and not done yet

Never finished with the mysterious trials

Not done trying to find my way

Not giving up or giving in just giving pause in respect to life

To love, to loss

And not done with life until I step forward into eternity

 

Terence L. Brooks

For LaDonna and Carlotta

15 August 2006

What was then is now

People are the key. If a few learn and teach a few more who then teach more the word will get out that it is we, the common people, who make this world what it is. Not the few elected officials or those who have assumed power. Leaders are empowered more by a lack of action in opposition to their actions than by position. The phrase, ‘I fear no evil because I am the baddest mother fucker in the valley!’ is only true because the common folk make it true by empowering the leader. Anything given can be taken away. Anything and when a leader offends so many by his indiscriminate actions then the people must rise as one to remove him. All will not stand but there must be a sufficient number of voices to shout him down!

 

Terry

 

The Prophet said that God has said,
"I cannot be contained in hallowed places.
Heaven and earth cannot hold Me.
But I am contained by true hearts.
If you seek Me, search in those hearts."

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

Translated by Aneela Khalid Arshed. Copyright 1999

Favorite Band or Musician: Any group I'm sitting in with but I will always love the folks who used to jam at Rich's Lounge in Wieasbaden, Germany.
Favorite TV show: I think I relate best to Gilligan's Island or I dream of Jeanie, I just love that Barbara Eden.
Favorite movie: Has to be 'Big Trouble in Little China.'
Favorite book: 'The Stand' by Steven King
Favorite sports team: I am from Pittsburgh and as my friend JR would say "need I say more?"
Favorite food: Anything that can be killed, cooked or just served. I love to eat! Chowing down is one of life's greatest pleasures. But still; Sushi is heaven.

What of this man?

Is there a boundary to the rights of mankind? Can I be free while my brother of blood and earth is held hostage by color or place?

I wonder not at the depth of my sadness when so many who have walked before me have been struck down in ignorance for giving voice with the breath needed to live. This speech that motivates so many to anger and violence is as a lighthouse to many more across the globe. We have lost the Martin Kings and Malcolm's of another time to the indiscretions of today. It is not something to be proud of or an umbrella of protection to stand under. The leaders of today who we allow to represent us are the voices that the world knows. Each statement made by Jesse Jackson and the others is condoned by our reluctance to speak before and after him.

I am lost as to what my future choices should be. Am I to risk myself in standing for a dream or shall I continue to cower in the shadow of those who have stood before me walking that dangerous road? Am I?

This is not a war of bombs and bullets but words supported by deeds. Where are the deeds that lend truth to my convictions. Where is my courage? I have never faced down the deepest parts of my disappointment in this modern race of man. I cry over the wasted enlightenment that is so often forgotten when the dollar is weighed against the heart. Without judging myself too harshly I must admit to failing as a man of color to stand for the better future for all people. Is it me, my family, my people, my country or my world? Are any of these tied together in my life or are they all pieces of different pies? Can I play a game when I am not invited to take a turn?

I wish to share knowledge, I wish to share food, love and life with all peoples without concern to the preciseness of the logistics involved. Who will buy the food and build the schools? I want to know but will I give myself to find out?

I don't know, I just don't know.

Terence Lee Brooks 2006

All I can say

Sometimes as we go through our day it is hard to grab the bull by the horns and get each task done perfectly. There are days when it is just enough to survive the situation and walking away is ‘just good enough’ to be acceptable. Sometimes it’s just best to cut and run leaving humility to those people having a better day.

We should all decide the merits of continuing any operation based on the value achieved versus the investment of time. Sometimes we have to cut our losses and exit as gracefully as possible.

If you find yourself in a situation that is not currently looking as favorable as it once did …. Stop, evaluate the problems you are having, possible outcomes and make a decision based on the facts to achieve the best possible outcome. After deciding on a goal you should put all your effort and energy into accomplishing your desired goal.

 

Terry

 

What of my brother

 

To be honest with you I feel that 'we' (black Americans) are our own worst enemy in that we prey upon each other rather than pray for each other. Do you get it? Can you see the difference?

 

How long can you hold your breath before the light dims and the room spins round? Let the seconds be as decades and you know it is time to breathe.

 

God gives the tools to man. A gun is a tool. Once upon a time without a gun most people could not have survived on this land. Today that same tool is both a boon and a danger. None of us know what God's plan for us is but we must each play the hand dealt as best we can. I don't know if I am participative or passive. I have been in another place within myself and now try to recover what I once found easy, simple living. I can't preach of responsibility without taking any but I can see the mines in my road and I will try to remove rather than avoid them. Again, as I can! As I can because I am not fully here or sure of myself in this place. I do what I can to help others but my mission is protected. I'm not a volunteer in the 'Big Brother's Program' though I would like to be and I do not set the pace for my fellows in anyway but deed. I have spent time of late as an anchor for some and a burden or bother to others. Is this a role? Am I trapped to be wretched by the past or do I have the strength to move on? Time will answer so long as I truly seek a way.

 

It is not apparent to most but I do a combination of prayer and conversation with God. I pray for our soldiers, sailors and airmen. I pray for any ambulance or emergency vehicle that I see. I pray for those driving and those riding. I pray for those awaiting rescue and those awaiting capture. I now also pray fro the families of these hardy few who may lose a loved one to service. I pray for the people I pass on the street who I know to be less financially sure than I. I pray for the choices that the young people I see in the city of Richmond on Friday and Saturday nights may make because they are trapped within their role of student or youth. I converse with God openly through questions whose answers I seek while passively awaiting sign. I am here for something. There is nothing on this earth that is not a part of the Lords plan but the choice that man has been given means that God must have a backup plan for each of us to ensure that His design is supported by our lives. Where I have played a part of the plan's recovery and I have been responsible for the patches I am unsure. But so long as I live I will ever be committed to giving my momentary best to the good against the bad so help me God!

 

Terence .L Brooks

 

Hmmm, How Am I

 

Life is life.

It does not make treaty with us so much as be survived.

Why if it is our life are we not more in control?

Does not really matter.

Each passing moment is gone.

We  live to just actually prepare ourselves for the unknown.

This drama of design, good or bad, will come  unbid upon us.

We are as cattle in field awaiting the hammer.

Is it not fitting that we should lose ourselves to the unknown oblivion? 

Or should we prance about draped in pride as if we look around life’s corner to the next second?

I think not.

I believe that we live in this now as dreamers who fathom only their next wish as it is whispered.

As people who, behind a façade of self importance, behave as if the control of destiny were wrested from God and delivered upon them as gratuity.

How then might I be treated by this ‘Life’ we are within should I admit to never knowing what comes near be it friend or foe?

How then would my life be in these times?

 

 

Terry Brooks