I first heard this song on a local radio station in Fayetteville, NC. After hearing it for days on end, the station switch hands and I heard the song no more. The lyrics spoke to me when I was finishing my first published novel under the same name. I had a different title for this book, but Chained & Bound seemed more appropriate.

Meet Maxine and Paul (2008).

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MUA: Cathy Fisher

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I look back at my pictures from then until now and think, “Wow!” I did those?  I almost cried looking back at my video, “How It All Began” because I can see how far I’ve come.  Years ago, I kept writing poems about finding my identity, and never knew the calling was to photography.  I consider myself a full-time photographer now because it’s all I can think of when I’m at work on my 40 hour job, and when I come home from work, I am into all things photography.

I feel this way about my work now – which has perfected itself over these few years.  Imagine another three years from now!

Video on Youtube.

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I opened my front door, walking out to the porch and said to myself, “This is a perfect weather to go for a walk.”  Since I was coupéd up in the house whole morning doing edits, I wanted a break.  I’ve worked a lot at my new job lately, where my customers would always say, “It’s so beautiful outside…and you’re in here.”  I usually always responded that I sit in my car on my lunch break taking in the breeze and sunshine.

I told hubby, “Let’s go for a walk.” and of course, I took the cam.

Heidelberg is so beautiful around the spring time and my hubby and I don’t really get to enjoy it.  But he even took the initiative to buy us bicycles, not only to exercise, but to enjoy our surroundings.  We have farm land around us and yes, sometimes we really smell what’s growing – last month we were smelling onions when the grass is watered.  Now is the season of the white asparagus and most of the restaurants have this vegetable as the main course.  The picture above was the hay grown for the cows – a beautiful span of greenery.  I am surrounded by beauty all around and I love how my life has been these past couple of years.  I think of this and I remember a phrase in front of Oprah’s latest magazine cover: Live, Love & Thrive! That’s how I’m living my life now.

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So for tonight’s menu I turned to FoodNetwork to get some pointers for the coconut rice I had in mind.  It opened up more tastes buds for other recipes.  So I started making an avocado and pineapple salsa (didn’t have mangoes) with spinach, which was so good.  I was hungry and couldn’t wait on the Spicy Mango Chicken Wings and had the salsa salad with the Spicy Mango Shrimp.  Talk about de-li-cious!

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No, the fish wasn’t burnt…

Kimana made a basket of flowers for me

The movie “White Chicks” was yet again, still funny

Alone Time – A Time to Reflect

When I was younger, I used to remember going under the covers every time I heard the boom of the thunder during a thunderstorm. I would become afraid and wouldn’t dare stand next to a window.
Now that I’m grown, the window is the first thing I run to when it’s raining outside. One thing that I would miss if I were to sell my home is the tiled seating area around the garden tub in my master bathroom. I would miss when I would grab a book, whether it be the Bible, romance novel or a writing pad, and sit on a cushion with the window cracked open, listening to the rain.
Have you ever done that?
It is the sweetest thing ever.
I now enjoy the rumbling of the thunder and the sharp flash of lighting that fills the sky on a dark night. I sit and listen and sometimes i have nothing with me as I enjoy the tapping of the water as it hits the roof. And for all you Caribbean readers out there who has lived under a galvanized rooftop, you KNOW it is the best thing to sleep under.
Nature has to do its work. Whether it’s the snow that falls and ices the ground to seal all the grim on the ground that causes illness; or the rain to fall to water the plants and fill the seas and rivers and lakes; or it is the turning of the leaves in fall and the greenery that awakens in spring to remind you that there is life again in all things – a NEW DAY in everything under the sun.
It is the chime of the ice cream truck that lets me know that summer is coming and let’s me know that I lived to see another day, another year, another time to succeed in what I do. I am perfecting my talents every time God wakes me up. It is not in the degrees that I get from schooling, or the articles I read from writing and photography paraphernalia – it is God giving me one more chance, one more day to say “Allyson, I still got a job for you to complete.”

The novels are coming, the photography is coming, the gifts I have are coming because I’m taking the time to show on what is right for me…. Not what other people want me to be.”

Life certainly has changed for me since 2009, uh? God was surely looking out and I never took the time to pay attention.  I think I need a thunder-storm to come soon and a window to sit by!