RiMi's blog: "Tonight"

They're everywhere. In your house, in your car, in your food - even in your clothes. You just don't realize it. What are they? Love bugs. Little signs of heaven here on earth and they're flying all over the place, even as we speak. Today, as you woke up in bed, they tickled your nose, but you're so used to them, you just went on your way. As you stood in the shower (hopefully) they buzzed around you, laughing and smiling as you got ready for your day. They were in your clothes as you got dressed for work. In your car they surrounded you with happy songs and followed you right in to your job, silently cheering you on as you start your day. They were in your food as you ate your breakfast and they will be there tonight when you go back to bed. You may not see them, but they're there. Every day. Every where. If you start to feel unloved, or life is getting you down, consider this: Today, as you woke up in bed, millions of children woke up on a mud floor. As you stood in your shower and got ready for the day 10 million people were standing in line to get a bucket of water filled with unspeakable parasites, or bathing in a river with thousands of others looking on. The clothes that you wear and the clothes in your closet are unimaginable to a billion people who only have the shirt on their back, many, not even that. Millions of children are roaming the streets right now, picking through garbage and begging for food as you drink your coffee and snack on your second doughnut, making plans for lunch. You may not have the finest car in the world, but to 50 million people, any car is the impossible dream. Millions will stand in line today and travel many miles in the hopes of being picked to do jobs that you'll never come close to being deigned to do, for pennies, or just enough food for the day. Most will not get picked. Still don't feel the love? You are the product of 100% survivors. Since the dawn of time, every single one of your ancestors survived droughts, plagues, fires, earthquakes, meteors, Ice Ages, floods, wars, genocide, homicide, inquisitions, jihads, and Roe v. Wade, to bring forth at least one offspring that was fit to reproduce. 100%. The two cells that got together to make you are full of winning genes. Spectacular, miraculous genes that came together at odds of anywhere between 40,000,000 and 100,000,000 to one. The baby that resulted from that conception then survived a risky nine months (or thereabouts) just to be born. The odds of your being YOU, and being alive to read these words at this moment are so astronomical you might as well be counting the grains of sand in the ocean to figure them. Especially if you are someone like me...who is adopted...and to think if my birth mother hadn't been woman enough to carry me 9 months...wow...i wouldn't be here. That's a lot of love. On this day of love, whether you have a special someone or are wishing that your someone was a little more special (grin), remember your love bugs. Countless little blessings that surround you every minute of the day. The best thing about love bugs is that the more you give the more you get back and they multiply like crazy. One little love bug from you could set off a whole epidemic. Chances are, someone you know or someone you work with could use a few love bugs from you today. Go ahead. Spread em' around. You've got tons to spare.

It's a bitch. No doubt about it. If you've ever tried to reach the finish line after running a long, difficult race, that last stretch before you cross it is by far the hardest part. Persistence and determination are essential to reaching the end. The question is - do you have it and how much do you want it - especially when comes to that final stretch? Everywhere you look there are those who've fallen to the wayside. The landscape is littered with those who broke under the pressure and lay sprawling on your path - victims of overwhelming odds who gave up and have fallen right before they reached the goal. If you look behind you all you'll see are the defeated and spent -writhing in exhaustion and disappointment - never crossing the finish line and wishing they had one more chance. If you look to your right or to your left, those who run with you are just as tired as you are but you know the "secret to victory" and they don't. You actually believe you're going to win. More than that - You know it. Why is that? Because you've trained for this your whole life. You've run thousands of mini marathons in preparation, and you've invested everything you've got into winning this race. You've faced more opposition than Hillary Clinton, taken more hits than Mohammed Ali, weathered more scorn than Tammy Faye Baker and hit the dirt (face first) more times than not, which means that no matter what comes against you, there's no doubt in your mind - this time you're going to win. As you visualize crossing the finish line in your mind and the tickertape begins to fly, a sudden realization, like a bolt of lightning, hits you - and it sends you flying over the finish line. As the reporters gather around you with flashbulbs going off in your face, the question they all want answered is "How did you do it this time?" and "What happened there at the end?" Your answer? "I suddenly realized I was just running against myself." Silence. That's maybe not the answer they were expecting. Maybe neither were you. In every race we run in life, the only people we run against are really lesser versions of ourselves. The ones who say the wrong things at the wrong time, make mistakes, forget to be grateful, gossip about others, wallow in self-pity, give up, act selfish, judge others, get lazy, take themselves too seriously, forget to pray, find fault, dwell on the past, have negative mindsets, forget to laugh, are self-righteous, blind to the needs of others, are impatient, have not forgiven, abuse themselves, cut people off, insist on their own way, survive the day rather than enjoy it, point out fault in others, refuse to cry. . . and so on. The only way we'll ever win the race is to let go of all those failures, to break free of every mistake we made in the past and by focusing on what we could be - visualizing ourselves as the winner - as the best version of ourselves - the one we were meant to be all along. It's a little miracle we like to call "finding your wings." Today, if you are on the home stretch and finding it hard to see the finish line, let alone see yourself crossing it, take heart. The fact that you've made it this far means you've come a long way already and victory is just around the corner. Keep going! Keep believing and above all - know this - the only one who can prevent you from winning is you - a lesser version of you. If you keep your heart and mind focused on the best version of yourself - the one God created you to be, and you let go of the lesser, pretty soon you'll be crossing that finish line - and, because of your little victory, others will learn how to win their races - just by watching you. Cheering you on, RiMi

It's time. It's been a long time coming, and there's only one way to get there. The stage has been set and the crowd is waiting - on you. This is quite possibly the most important moment of your life. At this very moment you have a decision to make. Do you take the stage and play the part you were born to play the way only you can play it, or do you hide behind the curtains and watch everyone else go on stage, wishing that it was you? The world doesn't need another actor portraying a part. It doesn't need another pretender who has memorized someone else's lines. The world needs an original. The world needs you. The power you have is immense. The crowd is desperate for the real thing and you have it. Up to this point you have toyed with the idea of what you could be and you have danced around the truth, wondering what it would be like to lay it out there for all the world to see - but in the end you shrink back in fear, preferring the anonymity of playing the part of someone else - -it's safer that way. You console yourself with excuses. "What if they reject me? What if I'm not good enough? What if I fail? What if they make fun of me or think I'm nuts? What if everyone leaves me - or . . ." You fill in the blanks. Right now, as this moment, somewhere in your heart, a voice is calling out to you. It may be calling softly, or it may be as loud as day, but it's calling. What does the voice say? "It's time." It says. "This is your moment. Take the stage and show the world who you really are." The crowd has begun to murmur. The anticipation of your appearance is at an all time high. "No more imposters," they say. "We've seen enough of those." Give us something real. All your life you've had an inkling that you were somehow special. You couldn't put your finger on it, but that little voice has always been there somewhere, whispering that you have something no one else has. Because you do. It doesn't matter how you got here. It's was all just a series of events leading up to this moment. What matters is now. This is your moment to shine. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. See yourself on that stage. That stage is your life now and each and every person watching has been waiting to see that one special thing that can only come from you. No more pretending. No more copycat routines. No more hiding behind your circumstances or blaming someone else. This is your life. You decide how the story ends. Or begins. The curtain is going up now. The applause is deafening as the crowd anticipates your appearance. They've waited a long time for you to come out - although no one has waited longer than you. Sure, you'll make some mistakes. Maybe you'll forget some of your lines. Some parts of your script will get forgotten in the excitement, others will appear out of thin air, but, when the curtain falls on your life, at the very least you will be able to say in all honesty: "This is me - and I lived." Break a leg, RiMi

There is always something to be happy about. Truly happy. And if you have the audacity to find it and the courage to make it your focus, in spite of the countless temptations to dwell upon problems that don't really exist, you will have learned well, your life will be transformed, and all things will be added unto you.

As I faced my Maker at the last judgment, I knelt before the Lord along with all the other souls. Before each of us laid our lives like the squares of a quilt in many piles; an angel sat before each of us sewing our quilt squares together into a tapestry that is our life. But as my angel took each piece of cloth off the pile, I noticed how ragged and empty each of my squares was. They were filled with giant holes. Each square was labeled with a part of my life that had been difficult, the challenges and temptations I was faced with in every day life. I saw hardships that I endured, which were the largest holes of all. I glanced around me. Nobody else had such squares. Other than a tiny hole here and there, the other tapestries were filled with rich color and the bright hues of worldly fortune. I gazed upon my own life and was disheartened. My angel was sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together, threadbare and empty, like binding air. Finally the time came when each life was to be displayed, held up to the light, the scrutiny of truth. The others rose; each in turn, holding up their tapestries. So filled their lives had been. My angel looked upon me, and nodded for me to rise. My gaze dropped to the ground in shame. I hadn't had all the earthly fortunes. I had love in my life, and laughter. But there had also been trials of illness, drug abuse, wealth, and false accusations that took from me my world, as I knew it. I had to start over many times. I often struggled with the temptation to quit, only to somehow muster the strength to pick up and begin again. I spent many nights on my knees in prayer, asking for help and guidance in my life. I had often been held up to ridicule, which I endured painfully, each time offering it up to the Father in hopes that I would not melt within my skin beneath the judgmental gaze of those who unfairly judged me. And now, I had to face the truth. My life was what it was, and I had to accept it for what it was. I rose and slowly lifted the combined squares of my life to the light. An awe-filled gasp filled the air. I gazed around at the others who stared at me with wide eyes. Then, I looked upon the tapestry before me. Light flooded the many holes, creating an image, the face of Christ. Then our Lord stood before me, with warmth and love in His eyes. He said, "Every time you gave over your life to Me, it became My life, My hardships, and My struggles. Each point of light in your life is when you stepped aside and let Me shine through, until there was more of Me than there was of you." May all our quilts be threadbare and worn, allowing Christ to shine through! God determines who walks into your life....it's up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let go."

The Alabaster Box Regret. Oh, that we could have done things differently - if we could only turn back the hands of time... How different would life have been if we'd only known then all the things we know now. . . Maybe. Inside every person is something called an "Alabaster Box." It is the most sacred and secret place in the human heart where the precious and carefully guarded truths of your existence are stored. What you believe to be true about yourself and what you hold most dear is kept in there. Memories, emotions, heartache, love, the deepest and most profoundly felt of all your experiences have been distilled into the most potent of all elixers - the essence of you. There's a story of a woman named Mary who brought an Alabaster Box of perfume to Jesus and poured it on his feet. In her desperation and sorrow she washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair as she lovingly poured her most valuable possession on the feet of God. There were those standing around who scoffed at her gesture and ridiculed her actions, because they, who felt themselves more worthy, were suddenly exposed as imposters and she, the measure of truth. A broken, desperate prostitute, ridiculed and despised by the moral majority became a symbol for all eternity of what God really values the most. She didn't come in flashing her diamonds or wispering gossip about the neighbor's son. She didn't look down her nose at the overweight woman serving the food or notice how dirty the floors were. Amidst the glares and the sneers and even the leers, she could have qualified her life choices by pointing a finger at some in the room, or she could have pretended to be someone else. In point of fact, she never said a word. With a singleness of purpose she laid down the most priceless of all gifts before him - everything in her heart. If you've lived a life filled with regrets, been down all the wrong roads, made the biggest mistakes and carry more baggage with you than Continental Airlines, Mary is the gal to know. What I find interesting to note about her story is not her sordid past, or even her life after this encounter - but, that it is the most broken and least likely people who actually get to touch God. "I have not come to get those who think they are right with God to follow me. I have come to get sinners to follow me." Matt 9:13 In a world that has turned upside down and nothing is as it seems, the only thing we really have of any value is what's in our Alabaster Box -and it is only thing God really wants. This week if you find yourself in a mess and life has not turned out the way you planned, if you're overwhelmed by failure and consumed by regrets, if you've had more failed relationships than Britney Spears and you feel like the last kid to get picked for the team, take a tip from Mary - open up your box. The biggest messes are the biggest miracles and there's nothing God loves more than making something out of nothing and what looks like a hopeless cause to the rest of the world might just mean you are as close as you can get to being touched by the hand of God. You are loved. RiMi

A Tribute to Nobody "Take time to care, for you may be among angels unaware." A word to the wise - watch out for the nobodies. You know the ones - people who seem to blend into the crowd; the faceless, nameless souls you pass by everyday and almost never notice. The "Plain Janes" and the "John Does" who have somehow turned being invisible into an art form. For every person who draws attention to themselves, either intentionally or unintentionally, there are hundreds who go by undetected, yet they are the ones who hold far greater power and influence than any public figure whose every move is made known. Getting too deep for you? Consider this: For every act of terrorism, it's not the leader of the terrorist group who carries out their evil plans, but the silent followers. The nobodies who slip by unnoticed and set off bombs or fly planes into buildings, leaving mass destruction in their wake. For every campus massacre there was a nobody or a group of nobodies whose hatred and anger grew silently to deadly proportions while even those closest to them were tragically unaware. The most newsworthy and sensational of all human tragedies and triumphs comes not from the "somebodies", but the nobodies who made everybody sit up and take notice. "He seemed such a nice quiet man...a good neighbor...I had no idea." "She came from nothing and built an empire..." You know the story. We all do. Then there's the other kind of nobodies - and it's those that I want to speak to you about today, because the nobodies are actually the somebodies who deserve our attention, not the other way around. If you're a nobody today, this is dedicated to you. It might interest you to know that the greatest people who ever lived were not the best looking or the ones with the most money or advantages, but the ones who had something much more valuable to give. The greatest among us are not the leaders or the superstars or the wealthy entrepreneurs, but the least likely heroes, who's unseen and unsung acts of selflessness have, collectively, changed the world. Know anyone like that? How about the childcare worker who cares for your child like it was her own while you work each day, or the family member who takes care of an aging parent. Or the nurse who takes care of your aging parent. The teacher who inspired you to learn or the friend who always knows just what to say at just the right time. Maybe its even the less noticed nobody like the neighborhood woman who picks up garbage along the street every evening just to make it nicer for everyone else, or the quiet one in your office who always seems to do more than their share and never takes credit. Perhaps its the cleaning person who goes the extra mile and turns down the corners of the toilet paper or the garbage man who comes back for your trash after his route out of kindness, or the greeter at Wal-Mart who is working way past retirement or the bag boy who not only bags your groceries but unloads your cart - with a smile. What about the little old ladies who make quilts for the needy and sew toys for poor children, or the social worker who is on call 24 hours a day. The mothers and fathers who still wear shoes from 1973 so their kids can have everything they need or those special needs kids who work at jobs no one else wants and do it with all their heart. "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Lao Tzu Did you know: When Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize, she was asked, "What can we do to promote world peace?" She answered "Go home and love your family." Building on this theme in her Nobel Lecture, she said: "Around the world, not only in the poor countries, but I found the poverty of the West so much more difficult to remove. When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, I have satisfied. I have removed that hunger. But a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society - that poverty is so hurtable [sic] and so much, and I find that very difficult." You don't have to be Mother Teresa to be a saint. In fact, the most beloved saints were actually - nobodies. Everyday people who stepped out of their comfort zone and saw that nobody was more important than anyone else and everybody deserved to be loved. Today, celebrate the nobodies in your life by making it a point to notice everybody - every day. Seek out the invisible people around you and make them visible by giving them your attention, even if it's just with a genuine smile. The tiniest acts of kindness can influence entire populations, and you never know which nobody in your life will be the next somebody who changes the world for everybody - and it all starts with you. Be a world changer. You are loved, RiMi

What a nite. It's my first nite off in 7 and I'm bored as hell. All my friends went out and my man is at work. I watched a couple of movies...drank a few beers and here I am.