Don’t be afraid to reflect its the path to healing

My best buddy Peanut

Dear Readers, blogger Colleen (Colleenconversation.com) inspires today’s topic Reset, regroup, refocus. Colleen’s blog inspired me to encourage others to think about their lives and contemplate if it is time to reset, regroup, and refocus

There are 4-5 months until the holiday season and a New Year. I know people are thinking hey slow down It is still summer, and you are thinking too far ahead. I say why wait for a New Year to make changes. The only difference about waiting for a New Year is for a new number to change. Have you been listening to that voice in the back of your head nagging you about reset, regroup, and refocus areas of your life that you have been in denial that needs to be changed.

Let us be honest with ourselves, people make excuses about taking time for self-reflection, busy because of marriage, kids, job, school, finances, and lack of resources. I believe the reason people do not reflect on life is because of fear and having to put effort into changing. I think that people have become comfortable with being stuck or pushing the reset, regroup, and refocus mode means that their relationship or your family dynamics may change, not wanting to hurt other people; they remain stuck and unhappy. 

3 years ago, when the world was sheltered in place I was forced into the mindset of reset, regrouping my life. Before the pandemic I was like millions of people just going about my busy life, I was stuck and was not aware of how I arrived at being trapped in a pattern of running on the hamster wheel. 

When I took the time to refocus my life, I discovered clarity and the awareness of how I was living an unfulfilled life. I went to a job where I was overworked, underpaid, overwhelmed and angry, but at the same time I thought that was all I was worth. I was living in a rut and moving like a robot. There were days I felt hopeless, but instead of acknowledging my feelings I suppressed them and kept moving. 

Presently, there are other distractions to blame for our less than happy life and more excuses not to take time for self-reflection. People are focused on inflation, gas prices, new viruses, and politics. The insanity does not seem to stop, all this other stuff adds to people’s stress, panic, fear and numbs people, causing them to become distracted from thinking about what I call WIN what is important now. People say they do not have time, but the truth is they avoid reflecting about life because they may not like what is brought to their attention or the emotions that will surface.

Reset, regroup, and refocus means reorganizing, planning, deep thinking and this takes time. Question, when was the last time you prioritize your life in order of importance? People should stop packing their schedules with unnecessary activities that take them away from goals. Sometimes being busy does not mean being productive, especially when you do not see the desired results. It is time to revisit the goals and visions that you had but along life’s path your dreams got lost.

I know that is what happened to me. When I reflect how I allowed the events in my life to take over casing me to put myself last. People say life happens, I say, yes life happens but people need to learn the skill and practice of consistently and constantly evaluating their life. I use various methods to evaluate whether I am on the right track or if I am just being busy and nothing is getting done. I use vision boards, journals, every time I accomplish a goal, I write it on a post stick, put it in a jar and every three months I read them to make sure that I am staying on track.

Resting, regrouping, and refocusing my life revealed how much I was neglecting myself (no real self-care) and the quality of my life was nonexistent. I have learned to put what is important to me first, I consistently prioritize, down time is especially important to my mental, physical, and emotional well-being. I feel free, light, and experience more joy out of life. 

Thank you for stopping by Dragthepen

Reset, Regroup and refocus:

This is a very important moment of reflection

Conversations on finding and loving who I am

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It’s time for me to regroup and refocus on myself. I’m still trying to figure out where did I lose myself at? I was setting boundaries and doing great. I feel like I took 20 steps forward just to take 100 steps backward. I can no longer forget about myself and my worth. I’m so convenient to people all the time and I neglect myself for the sake of others. I don’t understand why I do that, wait yes I do. I have always been the one that people can rely on and be there for. But how many people have shown up for me? Not many I can tell you that. It’s time to do something different and get serious about taking care of myself. NO MORE NEGLECT OF MYSELF. I’m so serious this time. It’s time to create healthy boundaries and if…

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Did You Understand the Assignment?

my best buddy Peanut

Dear Readers,

Do not close your heart to LOVE. I do not know your experiences because I have not lived your life. I do not know who disappointed, neglect, abused, used, cheated, and committed acts of violence against you, that is not LOVE. I know that it is difficult to heal from the trauma of physical and emotional abuse. I know that what people do not see on the outside is broken on the inside. I know that it is not easy to bounce back from the cycle of dysfunctional relationships. But do not give up on LOVE.

I agree that you should protect yourself from people who have no good intentions towards you. I agree that you should guard you heart, mind, body, and soul from people who will drain you of kindness, compassion, and authentic LOVE. But, if you build a wall around your heart high and tight, shutting yourself away from engaging in social setting that will help you to heal, laugh, smile and to hope; you are robbing yourself of the chance encounter of meeting the one person who will give you authentic LOVE.

When you shelter your heart and mind locking yourself away soaking in the pain of the past, this will result in becoming a bitter, angry, resentful, sad, lonely, and depressed person. I agree that it scary this complicated world of TRUST and LOVE. It is saddening to observe the high number of people who live alone because they choose to give Love only to have their life devastated by an individual whose purpose was to steal, kill, abuse, and destroy because they did not understand the assignment of LOVE.

I was young when I gave my heart away. And after years of dysfunctional relationships and living a life of trauma and emotional brokenness; thankfully, I found the path to healing, forgiveness of myself and other it has been a difficult but necessary journey. I am that person who have built the wall locking myself away from the evil hands and cruel heart of the wolves in sheep clothing. It is a lonely existence, but I feel safe. I long for the joys of companionship, the touch, kindness and warm of another loving human. Life is different when it is just one. I hope that one day that I will meet the one who understand the true assignment of LOVE .

Thank you for stopping by Dragthepen.

WHO SAID YOU HAVE TO CHANGE?

dragthepen aka conversations with J. R. Floyd

Dear Readers, 

It is not your responsibility to change someone or make them into someone different. People are capable of change, but that should be their decision. When we encounter people, the choice is to either accept them for who they are or move on. I know that it is not easy learning to deal with other people’s pet peeves, faults, and what we see as habits. Ladies there is no prince charming so get your head out of the fairy tales, and rethink revising that long wish list of requirements for what you think will be the perfect mate. Men stop fantasizing about Beyonce or Kim Kardashian. Those are plastic Barbie dolls surgical enhanced superficial women who will not look twice at your sagging belly and receding hairline. People snap out of your daydreams and look at the person in front of you growing with disappointment because you wish she or he would change. 

There is nothing wrong with wanting to be with a physically attractive person, however sometimes beautiful people come with ugly souls and bad characteristics. It is not our responsibility to nag people into becoming the ideal mate according to the impossible Standards of beauty and materialistic needs. I have learned from years of bad choices and reading and believing self-help relationship books about ” how to have the man of my dreams” for years I worked out and starved myself to create a body that men would like, only to be ignored and ill-treated. Do not feel sorry for me this was my fault, why, because the men I encountered did not asked me to change. If they were getting their needs met, they did not care about changing me because I was already what they wanted weak and desperate.

I spent thousands on clothes, hair, make up, lingerie and time and energy to improve myself to be better, so when my prince arrived there would be nothing about me that needed to change or improve. Oh, how shallow was my thinking. I was preoccupied with my outer appearance that I was not paying attention to the fact that I was suffering from low self-worth. When people struggle with low self-esteem and self-worth that is when others prey upon them because people who struggle with lack of self-confidence will allow people to change them because of the desperation to be like, love and belong.

I strived and arrived at the age of fifty-eight. Learned many lessons through difficult experiences that did make me stronger, wiser, and proceeding with caution. I do not wish for people to change to suit me because I have learned to let people be who they are and keep checking on who I am. Remember the saying, ” be careful what you wish for because you just might get it”. When you create the monster, you must learn to live with what you created.

Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water

Dear Readers 

News flash people are not recycled trash. I look around society and see how little regards people have for each other, especially in intimate relationships. Couples are disposing of their partners like they are recycled trash.

I dislike referring to people as trash, but there is no other metaphor I could think of to describe the inhumane manner people treat each other. People are not disposable, we cannot just disregard the time, energy, emotions, and love that an individual invests into a relationship or friendship to be thrown out like useless trash. It is said that ” one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” in other words, an item that one person throws away and does not see value in it another person sees potential.

People are not clothing items worn because it feels and looks good for a period, however without the proper care overtime the piece of clothing fades or becomes too small. Therefore, the item has outlived its usefulness. This is an example of how people are discarded. Clothing does not have feelings people do. I have seen people crushed by partner who brag about ” trading up” their partners for someone younger or richer referring to the former partner as “old trash.”  

I know people who take better care of their garbage than people do of each other. People lie, cheat, steal, kill, rape, molested, use, abuse, neglect, destroy, disrespect, dehumanize, degrade, belittle, take away another person’s innocence, and scheming causing another person to become emotionally broken and beaten down by mistreatment until there is nothing of value left to give. And then they are discarded like rubbish. 

People have become less valued. Employers choose profit over people. Some people in relationships choose materialism over their loved ones. Women go after the six figure salary men belittling and trash talking the hard-working average Joe. Men are more attracted to women who look like plastic Barbie dolls. We cannot view people as recycled trash wanting them transformed into someone more useful after being reprocessed. News flash human beings do not go through a trash refused process to become more useful to other people.

If this sounds like a rant, well partially it is. I disappointed and have lost hope and faith in humanity. People simply do not love and have compassion for their fellow kindred. The selfish and ill treatment that is displayed leaves me SMH. I know that we do not live in a perfect world and people change because of circumstances. What is it going to take to go back to the days of ” I am my brother’s keeper?” 

I often reminisce about the good old days when the people in the village cared and upheld standards of love, compassion, sympathy, care, and honor. Those were the days that people were seen for who they are good and honest. And nobody was thrown out with the trash.

Thank you for stopping by Dragthepen.

Be the person who you want to date or marry.

Are you like the person you want to date?

Dear Readers,

In this complicated world of dating men and women are rolling out a list of requirements for their potential partner. So here we are gone are the days when boys meets girl, boy likes girl, they are joined together in Holy matrimony and live happily ever after.

Nowadays people are requiring proof employment,  credit checks, salary requirement, ownership of property, conducting background checks, prenuptial agreements, his and hers bank accounts,the use of credit cards, expensive gifts, in addition to some women asking for a monthly allowance.

Let’s cut to the chase for the men and women who play the dating game here is a bit of advice make sure your creating the exact lifestyle that your requesting from a future partner. In other words, be the person that you want to date or marry. Let me clarify ………

If your requiring a person to earn six figures,  have an education, be stable in their profession, good health, honesty,  compassion, emotionally stable, live by good values, than the big question, is your life a reflection of these requirements? The most common question people ask is “what are you bringing to the table?” There are individuals who will hardball a potential partner to match the standards that they have created for their life. Why, because they desire to continue in the standards they have created. And in this modern time of self sufficient women, men are requirementing women to contribute more to the relationship than good looks and  being a freak in bed, and ladies newsflash men are turned off by your personal laundry list of needs to be maintained, thus the term ” high maintenance.”

And vice versa women are no longer falling for the smooth lips of sweet talking men,  persuading them to part with their money, drive their cars, and free load by moving in their space. Men and women need to grow up and act like the mature adults they claim to be. People are foolish if they expect to call all the shots and engage relationship, where they are reaping all the benefits from a personal list of requirements, using the other  as a doormat, ATM machine, and treating their homes like a pit stop dropping by to have their needs meet before quickly moving on.

People who expect to engage in relationships for personal agenda void of an emotional or spiritual connection that isn’t a relationship its a business proposition. And the sad conclusion is when the benefits run out so do these benefit seeking indivduals, moving on to the next benefical relationship. These individuals should stick with the circle of  trolls who are incapable of a legitimate  human connection.

For the mature adults who are emotionally stable, financially responsible, have career longevity, feet are planted firmly on the ground, live in reality, and are ready for a relationship, may I suggest these  requirements? Honesty, respect, compassion,  love, keep an open line of communication and  be supportive of your partners visions. Above all work together building a foundation of friendships, trust, and grow together. Don’t forget to laugh and be playful. Be the person who you would want to date or marry. If your asking your partner for 100 percent than be willing to do the same.

Join Conversations with J R Floyd on YouTube

Mr. & Mrs. GREENBACKS

Can a relationship survive Infidelity?

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Dear Readers, Today’s topic: infidelity, cheating, being unfaith, side piece 

I like to establish ground rules before diving into this subject. When referring to people in relationships, I am not talking about people who are chronic cheaters. I am referring to people who pledge in their hearts to be in an exclusive relationship or marriage vowing to forsake all others. 

People who are in a committed relationships and outside of the relationship to engage in a sexual relationship with another person, you are a cheater because having a side piece is not a part of the deal. To my readers, is it worth mending a relationship when a partner cheats? And here is the big kicker, the double standard, women who forgive men who cheat, but on the other hand, men will not stay in a relationship and forgive a woman who cheats on him. Why is this? Could it be that his manhood is challenged? 

Cheaters give all kinds of reasons for being unfaithful. However, is there any true justification for being involved in a sexual relationship when engaged in an exclusive relationship or marriage? The sad part is the innocent people who are caught up in their cheating partners sexual entanglement, the cheater doesn’t realize or care at the moments that they are getting their jollies off, that when the cat is out of the bag, so to speak, that there will be people who feel betrayed, scarred, and emotional broken. 

The Excuses 

1. A man who considers himself a committed bachelor, he uses this non relationship status as an excuse to have sexual relations with multiple women.

2. If the fire of romance dies in a relationship or one partner becomes physically unattractive. The cheater uses this to make the innocent partner feel guilty. 

3. Lack of sexual satisfaction or boredom.

4. The thrill of sneaking around and tasting the forbidden fruit.

5. Couples who marry at an early age and have not had sexual experience with other people. 

6. Men blame their spouse for not pleasing them or that she has lost interest in being intimate. And vice versa for the women who cheat on their male partners. In other words, the cheater is saying that their partner is not enough. 

I can imagine the pain, mental anguish, and emotional frustration the innocent partner struggles through. The first time it happened to me I walked in on my cheating partner. The second time it was a rumor that got back to me. When I confronted my partner, he confessed. I trusted men who cheat, and justify it by using lame lines like, “I love my spouse ” or ” it was just sex it did not mean anything” and ” it was a mistake.” So, am I to understand that each time the cheating partners planned to meet with their outside piece it was a mistake?

I am going to leave this right here….

Thank you for stopping by dragthepen 

We Must Get to the Root of the Problem

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Is the issue about gun control or something deeper?

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Biden’s plea to the American political system is that we can no longer stand by and allow these mass shootings to threaten the lives of innocent people. My question is why are the American voters quiet on this issue leaving the decision in the hands of lawmakers who will not budge on the issue of stronger gun laws? Why is this country giving young people the right to bear arms? Why isn’t the entire human population in an uproar and force the political system to act on behalf of the people who they elected to serve? 

I began this post by asking a question: are these mass shootings about stronger gun laws or deeper social issues that no one wants to address? Granted that we do not live in a perfect society, however, ignoring social issues that influence these mass shootings is not going to make them go away. There are too many excuses given for the individuals who commit these crimes, they claim mental illness, abusive homes, bad parenting, and bullying. What about the rascal factors that fester in the minds of evil people who prey on marginalized groups who they deem to be a lost cause to society? 

It is not enough to take to social media and post prayers and voice outrage. We have become accustomed to living in a world where the taking of a human life is commonplace. It is not enough for the politicians to flap their lips and walk the floor of congress with meaningless chatter trying to convince the American people the answer is not in stronger gun laws. During his speech President Biden drew reference to the fact that we are the only Country where these mass shootings continue to happen. 

I fear that we are living in a country where ” for the people by the people” no longer holds true. It is the people who are bending government to their will because politicians are greedy for power, position, and money that they sell their meaningless souls to the highest bidders. We live in a country where we say, ” land of the free and home of the brave ” from where I stand there are groups missing from the “WE” in this equation. 

Our political leaders are mothers, fathers, grandparents, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, somebody’s nephew, cousin, and niece. In other words, they have family just like the average American, yet their hearts are like stone. This country is running red with the blood of the innocent and defenseless. It is shameful. 

In the words of Reverend AL Sharpton 

” No peace No justice “

Thank you for stooping by Dragthepen