Tuesday, May 10, 2016

UnSure...



NiaJean wakes up the next morning with the man in the pictures on her mind, her father.  She is still groggy from staying up so late but she starts trying to sort out the thoughts in her head.  Thoughts she’s never contemplated before.  She creates a list of questions in her head that she might possibly ask her mother.  She’s still not sure if she should just leave the subject alone since the man never made any type of impact in her life but she is still curious.  She wonders why it didn’t work out with him and her mother.  She wonders why he left or if her mother left him.  She wonders how often he’s seen her in her lifetime and why he’s never made himself known to her or her brother.  She wonders what really happened.  It must be a very touchy subject for her mother because she’s never wanted to talk about and the few times the subject may have come up, it is immediately detoured to something else.  What did this man do to her that was so bad that she can’t talk about it over twenty five years later?

Her mind is now filled with doubt, with confusion with concern and curiosity.  She sits and contemplates how she’s going to bring up the subject to her mother or if she should even try.  Before she has time to really overindulge herself with even deeper thoughts about the situation, she gets a text on her phone from Sebastian.  She leans over and picks up her phone from the night stand and reads it.  “We’re on our way.”  She puts her phone back down and tries to detour her thoughts.  She begins wondering why she hasn’t heard from Brian but tries not to think about it too deeply where it would lead to depression.  She closes her eyes and tries to rest for a few more minutes until Sebastian and Sage arrive.  

When Sebastian and Sage arrive, he knocks on the door instead of sending another text letting her know he’s at the door.  She goes down stairs and opens the door.  Sebastian is standing there with an odd look on his face while Sage jumps in the doorway toward her mother to give her a hug.  Sebastian hands NiaJean Sage’s backpack and hesitates in the doorway instead of leaving like he usually does.  NiaJean gives him a strange look and he gives her an awkward smile. NiaJean looks at Sage as she intently watches the exchange that is taking place.  “Sage honey go on up to your room, daddy and I need to talk for a minute.”  Sage looks at her then at her father and they both look at her as though they are telling her to go on.  She takes her backpack and heads upstairs.  NiaJean steps back out of the doorway and invites Sebastian in without saying a word.

Sebastian walks in and heads for the living room.  They both sit down on the couch and find themselves in an awkward silence once again.  Sebastian finally breaks the silence.  “Look, I meant what I said last night.”  She takes a deep breath and says, “Sebastian, you were drunk.” “I wasn’t that drunk and you know that’s when my true feelings come out anyway, when I’ve had something to drink.”  “Ok so what are you going to do about Sabrina?”  “I’m going to tell her I don’t want us to be a couple and I’m going to break it off.  She can keep it and I’ll do my part but I don’t want to commit to her.”    NiaJean looks at him disappointed.  “Really Sebastian?”  He looks at her with the utmost seriousness.  “NiaJean, I’m still in love with you.”  She shakes her head no at him and says, “No, you are not, you’re just scared.”  He shakes his head no back at her and replies, “I know how I feel and scared is not it.  I want you back.”   “Sebastian, please don’t do this right now.”  “Do what?  Express how I feel?”  “No, add confusion to my life.  We’ve been doing fine co-parenting all these years so let’s just do that and nothing else.  We tried us many times and it didn’t work.”  “We were a lot younger; I think we’ve both grown over the past ten years.  Don’t you?”  “Yes, I do but in different directions.  Let’s just leave this alone for now ok?”  “There you go.  You are the queen of putting things off and not dealing with what’s in front of you.  Well it’s not going to go away just because you don’t want to talk about it now.”  “I don’t want what you want!  I don’t even think you want what you think you want!”  “I know what I want!”

Sebastian looks her in the eyes and leans forward to kiss her.  She pushes him away.  “Don’t even think about it!  It’s time for you to go!”  He backs off.  “Alright, I’ll go.”  “Please Sebastian, just deal with your current situation.  We’re fine the way we are.”  He shakes his head as he thinks about what she said then gets up to leave.  He sees himself off while NiaJean sits on the couch in disbelief.

Sage walks in the living room and looks at her mom sitting on the couch looking distraught.  “Mommy, are you and daddy getting back together?”  NiaJean looks at her with an awkward smile hoping she didn’t hear much of the conversation.  She is unsure how to answer at the moment.  “Ummm….”

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

By Chance...



NiaJean is lying in bed unable to sleep as she reviews the events of the day.  Though all these men fill her life with excitement she still feels like something is missing. 

She pulls out a photo album that she recently got from her mother for a family tree project she’s helping Sage with for class.  She opens it.  She instantly realizes she picked up the wrong photo album from her mother’s house as she shuffles through the unfamiliar old pictures. 

She sees a picture of this man standing next to her mother hugging her while her mother holds her in her arms.  This man standing next to her mother is not her stepfather William but another man.  She’s never met this man before but she remembers seeing his face a few times in her life.  She starts thinking back and realizes she’s seen this face pretty recently.

She continues shuffling through the photo album and sees more and more pictures of this man. 
After all these years she hasn’t had a real conversation with her mother about her “real” father.  There was never a question as to who was her father since William was always there for her since she was three and adopted her and her brother as his own.

She analyzes the picture closer and realizes this is the same man that sat next to her on the bus a couple of months ago.  The only reason why she remembers that is because she paid close attention to his demeanor and the fact that he sat next to her out of all the open seats that were available on the bus that day.  Now she starts questioning whether that was a coincidence or not.  She starts wondering if he’s been following her for a while and she just never noticed. 

This is concerning because this is a man she’s never known and he could be watching her entire life and she wouldn’t even know.  Anger starts to set in as she thinks about this creep who made a conscious decision not to be a part of her life and he may decide to just show up one day.  People do it all the time for whatever reason.  Most times it’s for selfish reason so that they can get over the guilt they’ve been carrying for years and really she doesn’t want to have anything to do with him if that ever happens. 

She hasn’t seen this man anywhere else lately but this encounter now makes her curious.  This is worth another trip to her parents’ house for a major discussion with her mother, she thinks as she continues turning pages.  She finds herself getting really irritated and tense as she thinks about what could happen if she encountered this stranger who calls himself her father.

NiaJean starts overanalyzing the situation then realizes she’s thinking about something that may or may not ever happen so she snaps out of it as she yawns and closes the photo album. 

She thinks to herself, “Is this really worth a conversation with mom?  Am I sure I really want to know about him?   I don’t know…”

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

I'm Back!



NiaJean sits on her bed, opens her laptop and begins typing.

I’ve been away for a while dealing with some personal issues, I’ll tell you about that later but now, I’m back and ready to continue my story.  For those of you who have been reading about me, thank you for hanging with me.  For those of you who have just started reading about me, welcome to my world. 

So now where did I leave off?  The last big event that happened was Jason coming by unexpectedly and telling me he missed me and wanted to try again.  Jason is the man I dated after my divorce from Sebastian and he was my rock at the time but then he decided to cheat so things went in a totally different direction.  He knew how much I went through with Sebastian and he pulls something like that on me.  I can’t lie and say I don’t still have a soft spot in my heart for him but there is no way I’m going down that road of hurt again.

After Jason leaves, Eric appears at my door.  You all know Eric is the bestie and in all honesty I’d like to keep it that way but we never know what life has in store.   Eric confessed his love to me that same day and we ended up in a passionate kiss.  Now that really confused things because feelings that I’d never felt before came to the surface.  In the midst of this passionate kiss there is another knock at my door.  I just knew that knock meant Brian would be standing there but to my surprise it wasn’t him.  So let me go back to that night and catch you up…

Eric embraces NiaJean and passionately kisses her.  She tries to resist but the kiss is amazing and very unexpected.  There is a knock at NiaJean’s door so she immediately stops the kiss and pushes Eric away.  “Oh shit, Brian is supposed to be coming over!  Shit, you have to leave!”  She says as she jumps up and begins pacing out of panic.  Eric looks at her with disappointment and questions her actions, “What, after that kiss you’re asking me to leave?  Did you not feel anything?”  She stops pacing and looks at him, “Yes but I told you I don’t want to go down that road with you Eric.”  A second knock at the door puts her into a greater stage of panic.  “Eric, please can we talk about this later?” She pleads.  Eric looks at her and nods then gets up to leave.  He walks to the door and prepares himself to greet Brian on his way out.  NiaJean quickly rushes to the door and opens it to let Eric out and to greet the person knocking.

NiaJean opens the door and is surprised to see Sebastian standing there looking distraught.  Eric is also surprised as he passes him in the doorway and greets him before he leaves.  “What’s up?”  Sebastian looks at him with surprise as well but remains cordial as he responds back, “Hey, how you doing brotha?”  NiaJean is all of a sudden compelled to explain herself, “Sebastian, Eric just stopped by for a little visit.”  Sebastian looks at her matter-of-factly and says, “Your business, not mine.”  NiaJean is taken back by his response and stands frozen for a moment, not sure how to respond.  Eric looks at NiaJean then at Sebastian and walks away without saying another word.

NiaJean stands at the door looking at Sebastian with confusion.  Sebastian smiles slightly.  “Can I come in?”  NiaJean steps back and lets him in.  She walks to the living room and he follows.  They both sit on the couch in uncomfortable positions so NiaJean quickly speaks,  “This is a surprise, what’s going on Sebastian?”  Sebastian leans back and tries to get comfortable,  “I just have a few things I need to get off my chest and I really needed to talk to you about it.”  “Ok.”  NiaJean’s confusion has now turned to concern as she looks at him curiously.

First of all, I’m sorry for what I’ve put you through all these years.  You didn’t and don’t deserve any of that.  You’re a good mother and I’ve been an asshole.”  NiaJean can’t believe what’s she’s hearing, “Wow, thank you Sebastian but I know you did not come all the way over here this time of night to tell me what a good mother I am.   What’s really going on and where’s Sage?”  She becomes uneasy.  He looks at her reassuredly, “She’s fine, she’s at home with Sabrina.”   “So why are you here Sebastian and why is my daughter with some other woman?”  “It’s only for a little while.”  NiaJean gets ready to go on a rant but before she can speak, Sebastian stops her.  “Sabrina is pregnant.”  NiaJean stops in mid thought,  “She’s pregnant?  Are you ready for that?”  Sebastian looks at NiaJean in the eyes with major concern,  “I don’t know if I want that with her.  I mean, I do care about her but I never thought about anything long term.”  NiaJean takes a deep breath and shakes her head, “Well I guess you better start thinking about it.”  Sebastian leans in closer to NiaJean.  “Look, it just got me thinking about us and where things went wrong.”  NiaJean scoots away from him. “Sebastian, we were young. Those days are in the past.”  “Yeah but there was never a time I doubted having a child with you.  I think the reason why I’m such an asshole with you is because I get so angry with the fact that we didn’t work.”  “Sebastian, you’re just stressing right now.”  “Maybe but this really made me think about you and how I treated you and how I could have tried harder to make us work but I didn’t.  I let you go.”  “Things happened the way they were supposed to so please don’t look back now.”

“I can’t help but realize what I lost.”  He leans in to try and kiss her.  She leans back after she smells alcohol on his breath.  “You have got to go, you’re drunk and you will regret this in the morning.  I’m calling Uber and you can get your car tomorrow when you bring Sage back.”  She jumps up from the couch and grabs her phone.  “I mean what I’m saying to you.”  “ I know you do, tonight but let’s see how you feel when you wake up in the morning next to Sabrina.  You’ll be ok, I promise.”  “I’m not that drunk.”  Sebastian leans back on her couch and dozes off.  Minutes later there is a notification on her phone that Uber has arrived.  NiaJean wakes him up and helps him to the door then walks him to the car.  She tells the driver where to take him as he slides in the car.  She heads back to her house and looks at her phone as she walks to the door.  She notices how late it is and realizes she hasn’t heard from Brian at all.  

She turns off the lights and heads upstairs to go to bed…

Thursday, January 7, 2016

"10 Things to Take into 2016" from NiaJeanRose




Forgiveness
Not only are you forgiving others, you’re forgiving yourself.  Forgive yourself for not Loving YOU, for not Caring for YOU, for not taking Care of YOU.  Forgive yourself; look in the mirror, love the person staring back at you and move on.  Forgive…

No Regret
Leave the regret in 2015.  There are always lessons to be learned from our mistakes so don’t regret your choices just learn from them and grow from them.  No Regrets…

Love
Open your heart up to Love more than you ever have before.  Let go of the hurt that has been holding you back from love.  You deserve to give Love and receive Love so let it happen and don’t be afraid.  Love…

Positivity
Words are very powerful.  What you speak is what becomes. Speak words of positivity as often as you can.  Though there will be times when life gets you down, try to see what can BE and work through what IS.  Remember tomorrow is a new day.  Positive thoughts…

Prosperity
The time has come to flourish financially.  Start a new business or invest.  Focus on your business goals and create a checklist to achieve those goals.  Take time to plan for your success.  Strive for Prosperity this year and years to come!  Prosper…

Joy
What is Joy? “Joy is a great pleasure and true happiness.”  “Joy is a feeling deep inside the heart.” “Joy is an expression of God’s kingdom.”  Take time to enjoy the simple things in life and open your eyes to the many creations on earth.  You will find joy inside yourself if you just take time to smell the roses every now and then.  Take time for yourself and realize you do matter.  Experience your joy…

Peace
Take time to pray, meditate and get in touch with self.  Listen to that voice inside you and know that it’s telling you to be still and peace will come.  Peace dwells within… 

Understanding
Take time to listen and understand instead of assuming.  We’ve got to peel back the layers of our life experiences and see ourselves again in order to gain true understanding of others and ourselves.  Understand…

Question to ponder: Do we have true understanding without belief?

Creativity
Create the things you want to come into fruition.  Don’t sit around and wait for your future to come to you, make your future happen.  Create…

Inspiration
Be inspired to dream.  Life without dreams is death. It is ok to dream and to fulfill those dreams.  You may have to take some chances and step out on Faith but it can be done!   Inspire…

This is the year for CHANGE...Live, Love and Dream…

Take time to read this article about letting go:

Scriptural Joy:
http://www.gotquestions.org/fruit-Holy-Spirit-joy.html