I’m sort of excited about Spring being around the corner in a month, March 20, 2010. No more boring, drab winter clothes. Every season, should signal a change, growth and movement forward. I’m grateful for those changes.

All this snow, along with some other “old” things I’ll talk about next week, was beginning to get me down. I think it was the lack of sun light for close to five days with all the blizzard activity. But I’m seeing a light at the end of the tunnel (and its not an oncoming train). And I’m grateful for it.

Snow Storm 2/5/10

I hate to get all weather lady up in here. But there is a major winter storm event that will strike parts of the Midwest, Southeast and Mid-Atlantic per the weather channel over the next few days. I remember last year I was like “I just want it to snow one time”. Well now I change my mind, partly because its snowed many times since my initial request. And everytime it snows, I gain a pound.

I think that is so sad, especially about all this snow on a weekend.

But the silver lining is, I’m getting tons of personal projects done. And I’m grateful that I can always find the silver lining.

Bob Ross

I don’t know if I’m aging myself here, but back in the day on PBS there was a man named Bob Ross. He was a painter. He had a great big a!ss afro. And for some odd reason I found comfort in this, eating my cheetos and sometimes doing my homework. I was 7 or 8 if you Really must know. Anyway he’s up there in my book of childhood icons with Mr. Rogers, Captain Kangeroo, Grace Jones and Barbra Streisand.

I know Bob Ross has been dead for at least 10 years now. The parodies are kind of funny in a “what the he!ll kind of childhood did I have anyway” with a little “thats sort of insulting” on the side. Only people who really stood for Bob Ross could understand. Does anyone understand?

I’m grateful for satire and irony. And I’m glad that I still don’t take myself all that seriously…most days.

More Time, Not

Sometimes I feel like the 25th hour is always running away from me. I know yall are saying: “Comeback, there is no 25th hour”. But I’m gratful now that I have a little bit this morning to master the mess on my desk. And God is it a mess.

Lorraine Hansberry

Is it wrong to love your own blog? I think the love has to be some type of internal litmus test on how likley you are to have and maintain one. Or maybe even how insane you are.

To keep plugging away at ideas, beliefs, concepts and make revealing assessments (your own time capsule which could easily be found by your curious kids in 15 years).

But all in all, I’m grateful for it.

I’m not going to lie. I’m not really in the holiday spirit. BUT I have so much to be grateful for. Comeback Daddy has been moved to a regular room, its been a long road since that hospital in Talladega-and his heart stopping three times. He’s been stable since Birmingham and out of ICU. I asked him if remembers “going to the light”-he says he doesn’t. So once again I’m headed to the deep south. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. The alternative could have truly suck!ed.

Gratitude Friday started about a year ago after one beloved blogger took to Friday rants. And for a few Fridays I would participate and then something weird happened, my day would get worse after I complained and ranted about more things that were sucking about my Friday or just my life in particular. So I decided to do Friday posts that encouraged people to talk about what was going well in their lives. And as the law of attraction goes-that which you speak about and focus on becomes bigger GOOD OR BAD. So every Friday, we give acknowledgment to those things in which we are grateful. All blessings flow through the act of gratitude anyway and it sure does make the day go by faster.

Josephine Baker source Life

As for my gratitude, I’m just grateful to live in a time where reinvention is possible. I think often about going to visit Josephine Baker’s house in France, the Château des Milandes. The history of her, her home and her career around the time of its purchase and subsequent loss is a REALLY depressing read. Whether it was the time she lived in as a black woman living abroad, other internal issues whereby she found no way to dust herself off and start again-or a combination of both, I’m grateful that I live in a time where beginning again is possible. I know I’ve written before about the function of this blog and the role its played in my life-and even re-thinking its name.

The Comeback Girl, has often made me making perpetual Comebacks-constantly beginning again in relationships, personal goals and even the way I see myself.

But maybe the constant revision and the beginning again- is what life is really about.

Imitation of Life movie scan

2010 is going to be a momentous year for me on every single level. I think I’m even going to change the name of this blog, mainly because I no longer want to make Comebacks. And as I’ve said before, words are powerful. And its completely exhausting being consumed with making a comeback every moment of your waking day. Sometimes maintaining a great, joyful and prosperous life is even better. I’m no longer in love with the struggle, but that’s too heavy for yall today and its another blog for another day.

But on this gratitude Friday I got up thinking how sometimes I’ve fallen in to the bandwagon trap. Last night I was listening to a speaker online who basically stated:

“Our brains are wired to imitate others and then hide the fact that we’re doing it.”

I’ve fallen victim to this with the clothes I’ve bought, the handbags I carry, the people I like, even given the fact that I was raised to march to the beat of my own drummer, to be my own person. But the older I get (and the more I live in the DC metro area) I realize that most people, including myself sometimes, are mere drones. We get into the habit of regurgitating soundbites of why we don’t like someone, or why we can’t live somewhere else, why we we drive the cars we drive, etc.

Over time all these reasons of being and doing, become someone else’s or a culmination of groups of people. I’m fascinated at how others influence us more than we ever could imagine.

And on this gratitude Friday, I reject the B.S. I’m grateful that I see more clearly than ever that I don’t need for other people to help form my opinion of who I am, the people who I like and associate with, where I go in my free time and what I want to ultimately do with my life. I’m grateful for embracing truly independent thinking and being totally bored with the sound-biting drones.