Here's to Life.....Live it Out Loud

Keep chasing dreams and placing bets and remember that: All You Give is All You Get, so Give it All You've Got!

You're called to Live your own life

You don't need to continue living the script of a life that someone else has written for you.
You must stop turning right when your soul's wind is blowing you in the direction of left.
Stop humming when you really want to sing.  If you've learned to lead after following for so long...stop following and now lead.  Speak up...Speak Out....Shine Baby Shine....Let your Life Shine.  Live YOUR life....not the one that's been planned out neatly for you.  The script does not fit your soul's yearning....Follow the direction of your blood beat.....Be accountable to the Life that you were called to live.

“You have to go the way your blood beats. If you don't live the only life you have, you won't live some other life, you won't live any life at all." - James Baldwin 

Remembering Nelson Mandela on his 96th Birthday (7/18/18 -12/5/13)

What's Next...

The bad, or 'not so good' day isn't the day that defines your life.  There is always tomorrow and always a chance to go for the gold again!  There will be another book to write, another song to sing, another competitive sport to engage in.....another relationship to experience.

Oftentimes, people will become paralyzed in their latest disappointment, not realizing that it will pass and they will soon forget the experience, once it has been replaced by a new endeavor.  Don't stay stuck in a life experience that adds no value to living today.  Constantly reach for more chances and look forward to new sunrises.  Whatever happened that wasn't in your opinion 'a success' was an experience that you can glean from.

Pick yourself up, brush yourself off and continue living.  Gather the lessons from the experience and smile, knowing that you still have life within you and Give it another try.....Start your next new venture...Stay Positive......Your Best Days are Ahead...You Got This!

Be About It.....Learn By Doing

Get in Motion......Do the thing to learn the thing.  Don't depend on the theory of a skill.....Become a part of the process .....Get in Motion....Lean In....Be Active.  Learn By Doing....Be About It!

Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Historic signing of the Civil Rights Act: July 2, 1964

This Day In History: Johnson signs the Historic Civil Rights Act- July 2, 1964 (50 years ago today) -- On this day in 1964, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law the historic Civil Rights Act in a nationally televised ceremony at the White House.

In the landmark 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. The 10 years that followed saw great strides for the African-American civil rights movement, as non-violent demonstrations won thousands of supporters to the cause. Memorable landmarks in the struggle included the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955--sparked by the refusal of Alabama resident Rosa Parks to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger--and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I Have A Dream" speech at a rally of hundreds of thousands in Washington, D.C., in 1963.

As the strength of the civil rights movement grew, John F. Kennedy made passage of a new civil rights bill one of the platforms of his successful 1960 presidential campaign. As Kennedy's vice president, Johnson served as chairman of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunities. After Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, Johnson vowed to carry out his proposals for civil rights reform.

The Civil Rights Act fought tough opposition in the House and a lengthy, heated debate in the Senate before being approved in July 1964. For the signing of the historic legislation, Johnson invited hundreds of guests to a televised ceremony in the White House's East Room. After using more than 75 pens to sign the bill, he gave them away as mementos of the historic occasion, according to tradition. One of the first pens went to King, leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), who called it one of his most cherished possessions. Johnson gave two more to Senators Hubert Humphrey and Everett McKinley Dirksen, the Democratic and Republican managers of the bill in the Senate.

The most sweeping civil rights legislation passed by Congress since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, the Civil Rights Act prohibited racial discrimination in employment and education and outlawed racial segregation in public places such as schools, buses, parks and swimming pools. In addition, the bill laid important groundwork for a number of other pieces of legislation--including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which set strict rules for protecting the right of African Americans to vote--that have since been used to enforce equal rights for women as well as all minorities.