That may have been fun or easy to answer years ago, but for teens and young
adults, it’s a question that can be disconcerting at best… and sometimes
downright frightening now that the question has become real.
Career choice is a huge decision with layers of consequence.
In Find Your Flavor, Lauren Doyle walks readers through the step-by-step
process she uses with the young adult clients she works with which
include:
Integrating your interests, strengths, and lifestyle desires to create the
recipe for the ultimate career success.
The importance of playing, experimenting, and sampling with potential
ingredients to be included in your career recipe.
How to distinguish between enduring intrigue v.s. hobby-like
interests.
Better understanding and mastering your own mind for more successful life
outcomes.
Guidance on how to get your foot in the door (or on the ladder).
Learn to use existing social networks to help you land a position in your
chosen field.
She offers specific exercises that help readers put these critical, but
often ‘invisible’ concepts to work to uncover the perfect recipe for
choosing the ideal career. Whether you are a teen considering a college
major or a young adult about to launch into a professional role, you’ll
definitely want to read this book and ‘find your flavor’ that will put you
on the path to success and life-long fulfillment.
Have you ever thought that you were alone in your struggle to have
children? Maybe you have gone through a season of depression and anxiety,
feeling alone and isolated, needing support. It is time to talk about the
truth and the struggle to overcome grief, sadness, and disappointments in
our lives.
Nothing makes us grow more than allowing our old ways to die and burying
the emotional baggage that we hold on to: the past and the pain. We want to
own it because we know nothing else. It is familiar, despite the messiness.
We carry these hard-hearted matters like heroes carrying a victorious flag.
To declare to you that the tangled narrative of my life will bring healing
to your life is certain. You choose to partner alongside me because you wish
to heal, and this is the initial step. Someone once declared, trust no one
who does not walk with a limp. Don’t trust someone who hasn’t experienced a
storm. Today, as I write these words, I walk with a physical lean, as I am
recovering from two knee surgeries. These fractured parts of my knee, my
meniscus, gravely damaged that it had to be removed, were the first of many
ailments. My ACL ligament, the one that had to be sewn back together with a
hamstring graft, is the source of my limp. Wandering around with this limp
has humbled me, only the Father knows. I own this truth of being broken and
sewn back together. More significantly, the divine surgeon has healed my
past.
About the Author
Morene S. Lim is a wife, the home-educating mom to two boys, educator, and
encourager. Morene loves taking afternoon walks, salsa dancing with her
husband, and playing with her kids, believing that there are infinite gifts
each day to be thankful for.
The title says it all. If you love farms, food and, well, love, you will enjoy this movie. If you love watching cooking competitions, you will enjoy this movie. If you are a chef or in the food business, you will enjoy this movie.
At the risk of repeating myself one more time, let me give you a brief synopsis of Farm To Fork To Love. Alice is a young sous chef at a very popular restaurant in New York, when she is invited to take part in judging a cooking competition in Kansas. Her boyfriend, Bret, who is very domineering and also happens to be her boss, is not happy about the invite, but he grudgingly allows her to go.
Alice arrives in Kansas only to find that Christian, her former boyfriend from college, is also one of the judges. When the two meet, we can tell they still have feelings for each other. While they are busy catching up on old times and what might have been, Bret pays Alice a visit. The meeting is awkward, especially as Alice has not told Christian about Bret. He wants Alice to be the head chef at the new restaurant he is opening, but her cooking must be according to his dictates, and Christian wants to know if Alice has ever considered leaving New York.
Alice is not the only one who has to make a decision. Christian also has to decide if he would accept the position as the new head of the Phillips Group his aunt Daniela has offered him as she is planning to step down. However, Daniela is also wavering in her decision because although she loves her job, she wants to find love before it is too late. And it seems she has found it in Raphael, winner of the cooking competition.
Farm To Fork To Love is one of those rare movies that can aptly be described as clean and wholesome. There is little or no kissing and no bad language. Meggan Kaiser plays the part of Alice, the sweet and charming girl-next-door type, while Maurice Johnson (Bret) is exactly the domineering type we often see in television cooking shows. Patty Lambert (Daniela), while fully conscious of her status as hotel magnate, is still humble enough to recognize what her life is lacking and to go after it.
If you are looking for clean, wholesome, and a bit slow, Farm To Fork To Love is your cup of tea; if however, you want something with a little more punch, I’d say look elsewhere. Dove has approved it for all ages.
When you closely analyze all the problems you’ve had in life, what patterns
emerge? If you’re like Beatrice Adenodi, you see that most of life’s
problems can be boiled down to the same handful of issues. Mindless
Behaviors sheds light on seven examples of reactive, negative cycles of
human behavior and how effective communication is the answer to breaking
them.
As these seven stories examine life through the lens of mindless behaviors,
you’ll learn that if you change the way you perceive your
circumstances and actions, you have the power to change your life forever.
Let this book motivate you to gain a new perspective, acknowledge your
unconscious biases, and activate your untapped potential.
A romantic suspense comedy set in Silicon Valley, San Antonio, Texas and
Nuevo Laredo, Mexico– a young Latina elementary school teacher, Dina
Salazar, is asked by her Mexican-born grandmother to rescue her cousins from
a dangerous Mexican drug cartel. After all, her stern grandmother tells her,
she is the “smart one” in the family.The mission involves
convincing the DEA that her cousin and her cousin’s child will be killed by
the new leader of this dangerous drug cartel if they are not rescued.
Another obstacle: Dina must contact her cousin and arrange a clandestine
pick-up site in a Mexican-Texas border town. To do so, she has to recruit
help from her hated ex-fiance, her quirky brother-in-law and a Hispanic DEA
agent. Being an amateur sleuth is no picnic, but what’s a girl to do
when “la familia” calls?
About the Author
Donna Del Oro is a bilingual, bicultural retired teacher who loves her
Hispanic heritage. This labor of love was her way of immersing herself in a
culture that has always influenced her. She lives in Northern California but
regards Texas as her second home.
Do you long to let go of self-centeredness and be more eternally minded?
Do you desire to make a difference in the lost world but aren’t sure how to go about it?
Get ready, your life is about to change!
“Lord, I’ll give myself to speak for You.”
Young Yohannan had no idea what those words of surrender would mean for his life and for millions of others in his generation. Once an insecure 16-year-old, he became a missionary statesman who has impacted the world of missions and whose unbending message has touched hungry hearts on every continent.
Step into his story and experience the world through his eyes. You’ll walk right into the book of Acts. And through his telling, you’ll hear the very heart of God beating for His creation. K.P. Yohannan’s passion is contagious and spurs you on to be all for Jesus.
He chose to take the road less traveled many years ago, and today Gospel for Asia, www.gfa.org the mission he founded, is one of the most respected organizations in our time with thousands of national workers and vibrant congregations throughout the heart of the 10/40 Window.
Change Your Life Many people have said that Revolution in World Missions changed their life—and it just might change yours too!
We have all heard of Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, but did you know that nine months prior to this incident a teenager refused to give up her seat for a white woman on a bus?
Associated Press; restored by Adam Cuerden, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Rosa Parks being fingerprinted by policeofficer
The teenager, Claudette Colvin, born 1939, said the high school she attended in Montgomery, Alabama had observed Negro History Week in 1955, and she learned a lot about the Black freedom fighters like Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. That day when she and her three friends were told to give up their seats for a white woman, Colvin, her history lessons still fresh in her brain, refused. In an interview with NPR, she stated, “It felt like Sojourner Truth was on one side pushing me down, and Harriet Tubman was on the other side of me pushing me down. I couldn’t get up.”
For this act of defiance, Colvin was arrested and placed on indefinite probation. Although Colvin’s refusal to give up her seat came nine months before Rosa Park’s did, the NAACP did not acknowledge her as the one who started the Montgomery bus boycott. The reason? Colvin became pregnant at the age of 16, and the NAACP believed the face of an unwed mother was not appropriate to represent the movement, and so they chose to use Rosa Parks instead.
However, this did not stop Colvin from becoming an activist. She later joined three other women —Mary Louise Smith, Aurelia Browder and Susie McDonald—as the plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, which legally put an end to racial segregation on public transportation in the state of Alabama.
Two things struck me as I read this story: 1) Colvin’s determination to defy the law came about as a result of her school having observed Negro History Week. At a time when pressure is being put on schools to ban certain books and to refrain from teaching African American history, I think this is significant. Browder v Gayle may never have come about had these young girls not been taught their history.
2) You may not always receive the recognition you deserve, but that should not stop you from joining with others who are fighting for the same cause you believe in. Most of us have only heard of Rosa Parks, and so we never stop to think of the thousands of unnamed persons who rallied behind the organizers of the boycott to elicit social change. Let us follow the example of Colvin and those who “believe[d] that a way will be made out of no way.” — MLK
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Today is International Women’s Day, a day set aside to observe and celebrate the social, economic, and political achievements of women worldwide. Women have worked hard to achieve the status they enjoy today. They can be found in the boardroom, at the helm of Fortune 500 companies, in the courts of law, in operating theatres, and in the halls of Congress. Today, the United states boasts of its first female Vice President, Kamla Harris.
Still, gender equality remains an elusive dream for women all over the world. In some countries, girls are deprived of a formal education and women are not allowed to work outside the home. Here in the US, women are still paid lower than men. According to the Pew Research, women earned 84% of what men earned in 2020. However, this percentage varies according to age group with the smallest wage gap being among workers 25 to 34.
The United States Senate – Office of Senator Kamala Harris, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
All this being said, women continue to make their voices heard in the workplace, in social activism, and in the home. A home without a woman/wife/mother is just a place to eat and sleep. It’s the woman who nurtures, cherishes and brings some sort of balance to the home. She fills hungry bellies, heals bruised knees as well as broken hearts, and makes sure your socks match.
On this International Women’s Day, I salute all the women out there, and especially female writers. We cannot all be a Jane Austen or a Maya Angelou, but in our own small way, we are turning out books by the hundreds —not just romances— but sci fi, suspense, detective, you name it, we write it. So, to my fellow female writers, I admire you, I applaud you, I celebrate you. Not just today, but everyday.
Read more about the great achievements of women here.
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Fort Lauderdale is the city you never want to leave, states the beginning of an article on the government’s website. Located along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in the US state of Florida, Fort Lauderdale boasts 165 miles of scenic, inland waterways, giving the city the well-deserved designation “the Venice of America.”
Fishing in Fort Lauderdale Copyright mine
The city is also home to a number of museums, libraries, and cultural centers, including the Riverwalk, which features the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, the hub of the city’s arts, science and historic district. The famous Las Olas Boulevard offers the finest in fashion, dining, and entertainment.
Fort Lauderdale is a bustling city with its own airport, The Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and accommodates a number of industries, including marine, tourism, manufacturing, real estate, and others. Just as diversified is its population with whites making up 46.6%, followed by blacks or African American, 32.2%, Hispanic or Latino, 18.5%, according to a 2020 census. American Indian, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander make up the rest.
Fort Lauderdale is named after three forts built by the United States during the Second Seminole War. The forts were named after Major William Lauderdale who led a detachment of Tennessee Volunteers south to capture Seminole agricultural lands and battle the Indian warriors.
Among the first settlers in the 1880s —when Florida was controlled by the Spanish —were slaves who had escaped from northern plantations. Immigrants from Bahamas, farmers and craftsmen looking for opportunities also came to Fort Lauderdale. They settled in the northwestern part of the city called “colored town.” Here they faced school segregation for their children and Black Codes that kept them in a new form of bondage. Black men paid a dollar tax for the schools and the children had to pay for tuition. By 1901, when Fort Lauderdale was still part of Dade County, the county had 20 schools for whites, but only 6 for blacks.
In 1907, blacks in Fort Lauderdale got their first school when white pioneer Tom M. Bryan donated a one-room building on the west side of N.W. Third Avenue, but this was later torn down to build an ice plant. Black children then either had to go to private homes or to Knights of Pythias Hall at N.W. Fourth Street and Fourth Avenue, while still expected to work in the fields after school and during the winter harvest.
Finally, in 1923 the Broward County School Board agreed to open a “colored school” in Tuskegee Park. Joseph Ely became the school’s first principal when the school opened in 1924, and named it in honor of James Hardy Dillard, a white man who had helped foster good relations between the races. Today, there is a Dillard Elementary and a Dillard High School catering to middle and high school students. Local officials began integrating the schools in 1961, and by 1970 all the schools of Broward County were fully integrated.
As Black History month comes to a close, we honor the lives of those who suffered and died in order to blaze a trail for us to follow so we can enjoy a better life. I don’t think we should be afraid of our history. Black history is a painful one indeed, but when we look at how far we have come, we can hold our heads high and be proud of what we accomplished. “The mixture of pain and anger, from past experiences, are the most sincere colors to create new horizons on my canvas.” ― Efrat Cybulkiewicz
It was with much sadness that I heard the news of bomb threats made against Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) here in the United States. As if that wasn’t bad enough, a lot of books by African American authors are being banned during black history month. As I stated in another post, banning books only fuels curiosity, especially on the part of children and young people, to make them want to read these books even more.
Portrait of Zora Neale Hurston Library of Congress
Books are among the vehicles by which news, information and entertainment are brought to us. Those books that tell about our history should be sought after, not banned. They teach us so much of how our culture and practices came into being and about the men and women who helped shape those practices. I admit that some of the material may be “uncomfortable” for some of us to digest, but that’s the very essence of good literature. If the books we read don’t trouble our conscience and make us “uncomfortable,” they are failing in their duty.
Have you ever read the Bible? The most banned and burned book of all times? Some parts of the Bible will make you so uncomfortable you may have to put it down and come back to it at another time. Yet, the Bible is always on the bestsellers list. As I searched for something on black history to write about, I noticed this book on my bookshelf by Kevin M McCarthy. It’s called Black Florida, and it’s a city-by-city guide on churches, schools, homes and other important sites in Florida. With news of the bomb threats against (HBCUs) still playing in the background of my mind, and because I live in Florida, I decided to find two schools that are connected with famous African Americans.
The first one is The Florida School For the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine. This state-funded institution has been serving the needs of many Floridians since 1885. Its most famous alumnus is Ray Charles, who spent his early life in Greenville, Florida. When he began to go blind at the age of seven, his parents sent him to the St. Augustine School For the Deaf and the Blind where he learned to play the piano and prepare to begin a successful musical career.
Another black college that boasts a connection with a famous black history personality is Florida Memorial College. Well-known author Zora Neale Hurston, famously known for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, lived upstairs in a two-story house at 791 West King Street, just east of the campus while she taught classes at the school, then called Florida Normal and Industrial Institute. This school, which was built in 1918 on the site of the Old Hanson Plantation, has since relocated further south to Miami Dade County.
As someone who has made Florida my home, I feel proud to know that these two famous African Americans, who have so enriched our lives, once lived in Florida. That’s the beauty of good literature. In my next post, I will highlight more about the history of Florida as it pertains to black history.
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