Mocha Your Destiny

Sometimes life throws you curveballs, and the easy and "human" reaction is to run, hide, and give up. But life and our future isn't about what's given to us or what is thrust upon us... life is about how we react to it. For me, a prime example is my car blowing up in Grovetown, Georgia.  I hadn't even left the east coast yet. A week on the road. A job I loved. Family I love. A studio I love. All that was gonna take me to California was a crazy notion and a legend lime green car. When that blew up, i wanted to explode myself. I wanted to run. I wanted to give up. But, i stopped and said "no, I'm going to determine my path, even if I have to go through hell!"  I gave myself ten seconds to have an internal meltdown... then I problem solved. And I made my own way. I wasn't going to be a victim of circumstance, I was going to make circumstance my beeyotch.

Cuz I knew things wouldn't always go my way. In fact, that often never happens. My last post was on the eve of a nation-wide car explosion. Donald Trump ended up getting elected.

I can't described the sadness that struck in me and the better part of the country symbolically.  I've had 8 formidable and dynamic years maybe screwing up or minorly succeeding on a local level, but at least my life boat was attached to a ship with a captain who is a visionary. Inspiring. My generations MLK Jr or JFK. President Obama, from seeing him on YouTube, to meeting him, to campaigning for him, to now- he was the symbol that the world could be great and anything is possible. And that symbolically crashed down on me. Faced with the threat of losing our nations progress, my health insurance, and our reputation as a taker-in of those seeking freedom- it struck me on a personal level. But then I remembered Grovetown. I remember realizing I lost my phone and my car and most of my money in the matter of minutes during the biggest adventure of my life.

And then I remembered that when I tell the story of my life, it crescendos to that very moment. The moment it all "went wrong".  Since that epiphany moment last night, I've started going back on those "fears" and seeing them as welcomed and needed motivation. Maybe Barack Obama wouldn't have ever happened had President Bush not been so ineffective. Maybe I woulda never made it if my car never blew up. Maybe I wouldn't have built my studio if not for my unexpected and idiopathic thyroid disease and surgery. I can spend all my life counting the maybes, but I'll just say I'm happy. Every messed up thing has lead to greatness. So maybe I'm not in control of my destiny. Maybe I'm just making a strong case for "God works in mysterious ways" and "Fate".

But I've always and even said in an old song, "fate'll only take you so far where you're going to... the opportunities arise- The rest is up to you."

I can't wait for my trip to chilly fall in CT for THANKSGIVING!! And Black Friday!  And seeing my friends and NYC and my studio and my godson and especially my family and Chris.

I am blessed and hoping I can have an amazing and safe trip while Cali holds down the fort in Cali 😂 talk soon... finally got my singing voice back. Working on the rest. Peace and love