WWKD-What Would Kayleah Do?

During the first few months of getting to know Rockford in 1999, I noticed a since-closed pharmacy store on East State Street, near St. Anthony's Hospital. Best Buy was a short walk away before they moved further east. The name of that store as escape me over the years, but I did get something over there that I still have to this very day: a stuffed teddy bear. Okay, before you start wondering what's a 42-year-old person like me doing with a teddy bear, it as an important saying on both its sweater and wrist: WWJD? By now, you should all know that means "What Would Jesus Do"? It was a little bit of a craze in the late 1990's to get everybody interested in getting their spiritual thing together, or something like that. There never was a day when I attended church service back home that I didn't see someone with those initials on a pin or something. Those who see me in church would notice a similar pin on my name tag. I've had it for as long as well, 15 years. 

You may be wondering what's the point of this blog here? Well, this morning I woke up early and hoped that Mariah and I would one day get ourselves back into an apartment. This coming October we would have lived here for a full calendar year in this motel. No anniversary needed here. We basically can't even have anyone visit us. Their rules, not ours. I do keep reliving the nearly 9 years at the old place. Yet times change. So did the economy, which eventually forced us to move somewhere else. I should have been thankful of at least having a roof over our heads, a bed to sleep on, and food in the room. Once again, I looked to the future instead of the present. 

I try to be a little optimistic while being pessimistic at the same time. There are over 300 million people in this country, and yours truly can think that I am the only one that's too busy dreaming about what went wrong in the past instead of learning from them. My dad, who passed away about six years ago this month, was crabby, stubborn and tempermental. All of that got inherited by me. One thing was different about us-he would call young African-American kids that infamous epithet that I won't use here, because that's not me. Never was. Some old black folks will never change their spots, right?

In the midst of the summer months, I do forget to remember to take time out and thank God for what He was done for me to this day. Yeah, shame on me for forgetting. I am thankful for those people that I have met in the last 14 months. You don't know how much they have helped me. I want to return the favor.