Thanks, Jeff!

Writing Challenge.

Today is my 4th day of the 31 day challenge that I accepted from Jeff Goins just a few days ago. The challenge was to write at least 500 words each day. However, I expanded my challenge to 500 words or 30 minutes each day. That keeps in line with my 30-day commitment to 30 minutes of exercise 30 minutes of reading and now I have 30 minutes of writing. I mentioned this in a previous post. But it’s different this time. This post is in complete tribute, gratitude and grateful acknowledgment of Jeff for what he has done for me and my future writing career.

I Am a Writer! 

I have been a writer for a long time. I also have done all those things that Jeff said that Writers do. You know, think about it, talk about it, think about it and then talk about it. If I had not accepted the challenge, I would probably still be doing that. But, I did read it and now I'm doing much better.

I've kept to my writing schedule every day. I even wrote Saturday afternoon while I was waiting for a funeral to end [Funerals fascinate me.]. Another thing that I have gotten really excited about is Google Docs Voice Typing. I mentioned it in the previous post as well, but today I understand that not only is it an exciting discovery; but it is entirely phenomenal. I laughed out loud when I realized how much I owe to technology [but that's a little bit off the point].

Deep Gratitude

The main point of this entire post is just that I am so grateful to Jeff for giving me this challenge. I also am grateful for the suggestions that he gave for creating more traffic. I have a Blog and a Blog Talk Radio which I really enjoy. I speak for 1/2 hour twice a week. 

Getting Busy!

So, as I read Jeff’s post, I made a list of people that I want to contact. That list includes Bishop Vashti McKenzie [the first woman to be elected Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal denomination]; Dr. Jacqueline Grant [former professor of Womanist and Process Theology @ The ITC]; Dr. Eric Berg [Chiropractor], Dr. David Perlmutter [Neurologist],  Bishop TD Jakes, and Bishop Eddie Long [TV Evangelists]. These people are all in the field of religion and [alternative] medicine. I am a seminary educated ordained minister with a background in biblical principles of Health and Wellness. For the purpose of this writing, also often known as Alternative Medicine.

The list also includes Steve Harvey [who needs no introduction] and Tom Joiner [syndicated radio talk show host].

On an earlier post from Jeff, there's a list of over 2,000 blogs that I could follow. I am going to connect to at least fifty of them so that I can make myself into a guest blogger. It turns out I have an [informed] opinion on dang-near everything under the sun.

So I will continue with my daily writing. Another big thing is to return to finalize my second eBook and then tomorrow’s big thing is to create a nice cover for it and prepare it for my blog.

Thereafter, I will have [learn to] to imbed widgets to my blog to sell my books [and other stuff]. This brings us to the end of my today’s post; I hope you enjoy the pictures that I took while walking.

The goal was to walk and dictate while walking; however, that didn't happen because of the wind. It just didn't work out too well but don't worry, I'll be headed that pretty soon.  

When my 18 months have passed, I’ll be coming in close behind my NBF, Jeff! All this, right here in rural NE GA!

SandraTeresa Davenport | The Health Reverend

LiveWellToday/DrinkTeaAlways!

Listen In Sunday @ 3 EDT

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New Beginnings...Again

My First eBook, Languishing on Amazon!

My first-ever to type today gave me 801 words. So I am 301 ahead. I'm so inspired I think I'll take off again!

On the matter of it Social Media: how much of it can I [or anyone] actually use?

The question is whether or not I can keep up with Twitter. Facebook, Google+ LinkedIn and my blog, on a daily basis. It also is how much can I absorb from other people.

Somebody is always writing something that comes to my inbox that I glanced at it and I think it's a good idea. I think I could really benefit from it. I don't know exactly how my brain is going to absorb all this input and make use of it.

I think I should perhaps just try to use everything that has to do with writing. Or,  should I continue to research for my books [which really doesn’t take much time]; or should I limit it to 3 people, 5 people, seven people. And then after I limit them how will I decide how I'm going to interact with them. I killed my Twitter account because I simply couldn't see the value of it. Okay I was almost up to 200 followers by the time I did. Obviously the goal is to build a large tribe. So while I was building my tribe, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the hell I was doing. Okay so I could think of a 140-character post at any time to put on there but then people start responding. I honestly am not going to sit and respond to every doggone like and so forth. So that brings me to the end of Twitter.

Then I decided it would be good if I just take some time and learn some of these things and make some informed decisions. For example, how many social media platforms do I really need? What I want to first is: write. I want to write books, not just my blog. I really do enjoy my blog. I enjoy my photographs and the work I am doing. Then, in the process of posting to my blog, I learn that every time I post something on my Blogspot, it is also posted on my Google+ page. This is a good thing, so why not just develop a tribe on Google+? I know there are people on Facebook who read other than what their friends ate for dinner. Then there's the matter of groups. I don't quite get it on how to interact with them, so that's going to bring me any benefit. I have a lot to learn!

SandraTeresa Davenport

The Health Reverend

LiveWellToday/DrinkTeaAlways!

Listen In Sunday @ 3 EDT

Tonight's Tea: African Red Rooibos! Naturally caffeine-free, slightly sedative, slightly sweet, totally delightful! 

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National Women's History Month!

Do you Know All You Want To Know???

Greatness is not measured by what a man or woman accomplishes, 

but by the opposition he or she has overcome to reach his goals. -

Dorothy Height

Why Do We Need It?

March is National Women's History. Have you ever wondered why there is a need for Black History Month? Hispanic History Month? Confederate History Month? And, finally, Women's History Month? Have you ever wondered why all those are necessary? I say that they are necessary because of the separatism that is the very lifeblood of American culture. If American culture didn't depend so heavily on separatism and all these other issues that we talked about--and will continue to talk about--then there would never be a need for Women's History Month, because women would have never been written out of history. There would be no need for African American History Month because African Americans would never been written out of history. So, this is what you have to look at if you should ever wonder why we need all these months or weeks or occasions. Read more. I dare you!

Today we are starting our conversation and so will ask you a question or two about this month's topic: Do you know all that you want to know about the history of Women? Do you know all that you want to know about the accomplishments of Women? Do you know all that you want to know about the health of Women or, do you even want to know any more about how it is that more Women and Children live in poverty than Men? If you want to know any of this, then you are at the right place.

For a moment, let us pause at a scripture: 2nd Timothy 2:15 is the instruction to ‘study’. It says further that it by this means you will ‘show thyself approved’. Remember, study is the operative word. If you've ever heard me talking on the study is very crucial to me; so, therefore, study! Study! And Study. It is its own reward, kinda like unrequited love. J

It is your duty to learn your history, your culture, your religion, and teach them to your young, because your children need to know.

There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women." (Keynote speech at Celebrating Inspiration luncheon with the WNBA's All-Decade Team, 2006)”   ―  

Madeleine Albright

I am glad that Women's History Month follows African American History Month because there's always a need to teach these things to your young. Young means anybody you know who doesn't already know.

Facts; Just The Facts.

The National Women's History Project was founded in 1981 in Santa Rosa California. The chief aim of this group was to highlight and celebrate Women in history and their achievements in various areas of enterprise. The NWHP has an annual theme, which indicates the aim for the year: This year’s theme: We believe that Our History Is Our Strength

Stay Tuned; More to come...

SandraTeresa Davenport

The Health Reverend

LiveWellToday/DrinkTeaAlways!

Listen In Sunday @ 3 EDT

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Campus Carry

Night Time in My Home Town

I am TheHealthReverend. It is my duty, my calling, my obligation, to speak out when the health is threatened, compromised, at-risk in any way. It is my further obligation to always trouble the comforted amongst us, to let us know that NO ONE is safe/healthy until we all are! To that end, I am speaking on a coupla topics that cause me great heartache, but indeed, I speak!

Wow. Just today on my blogtalkradio show, I discussed the killing of small girls in a church in Birmingham, Alabama. What I best recall about that day is how I wondered, in complete bewilderment, i) why someone would BOMB A CHURCH, ii) why grown white men would hurt little girls like me and iii) why, in the name of Jesus, didn’t anyone care? No one was embarrassed. No authorities stepped up. No one was punished. 

Then I wondered why white people hated us so much. I never was one for asking, so I just wondered. I wondered why white christians, preachers, teachers, even parents, didn’t seem to care about us. It’s just too much to think, that all these same people are staying home, locking doors and loading weapons. 

I wonder why it is that every American and every Christian must be better than someone and has the absolute right to hate someone. And never feel bad about it. I heard a white woman, sitting behind me on a plane, say ‘I hate southerners’. She said it more than once and with great emphasis. I approached her as we were de-planing. She was kind, she said, ‘I don’t hate you.’ Should I have felt good? Relieved? Special? Her husband is a minister and she is a Christian but she felt no shame at her statement. Imagine that.

I’d be willing to bet that she owns at least one weapon.

I am a certified law enforcement officer, trained and qualified in the use of handguns and shotguns. The instruction is ‘never shoot until you are sure of your target and what’s behind it’ and ‘look through the sights; not at the target.’ I must wonder if all those Texans have had adequate training? I wonder how they carry their weapons so that they can make a quick and accurate draw. 

Even more importantly, I still wonder if any of them are embarrassed afterwards? Or just dog-gone made, cause they missed! Wow. It’s a scary situation, a very bad, very scary situation. 

I refuse to wonder what it will be like in another 20 years after every able-bodied racist is able to kill whomever they like. They will soon outstrip the big-city police officers.

The late, great Dr. Howard Thurman stated that patriotism is a good excuse for national hatred. The time of true national hatred must be at hand, and it’s full, active, often, expression.

Heaven, Help Us All!

 SandraTeresa Davenport

TheHealth Reverend

LiveWellToday/DrinkTeaAlways!

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Martin & Malcolm & America | A Dream or a Nightmare

This is the title of a book by James H. Cone. I enjoyed reading it the first time and I enjoyed reading it the second time [last month].

This book was a gift to me from a friend I met at seminary. I attended the same seminary that Dr. King did, and Dr Cone taught at that seminary. He left before I got there. Which seminary was that? The ITC [Interdenominational Theological Center]. We are The ITC because every other seminary trains preachers in its own denomination. [At least, they once did.] We are the home of every African-American denomination plus Catholic and At-Large contingents as well.

When I enrolled, I encountered some difficulties with matriculation. Meaning: I found that I had no patience for the process of being taught by preachers to think like them. I had no intention of doing that [thinking like them] and tried to relieve myself of the Baptist label. It didn't happen: At-large was much more expensive and of course, Catholic was out.

But, I digress.

When I started this blog, I indicated that I would have a standing feature of a book review. I am returning to that function by way of the above-titled book. I was going to say what I loved about it: Well, other than the obvious, it thrills me to hear Malcolm's opinions and insight into White American Christianity presented so skillfully. He didn't know anything that Dr. King didn't; he simply didn't present with such soft eloquence. In any case, I'll return with a review here shortly.

In the meantime, remember that Tea--AllThingsTea--is the foundation of the teachings of LivingWellMinistries. So, please expect an entry on the topic at every opportunity. More importantly, please expect the AllThingsTea tab on this blog to come alive shortly.

I have just begun to enjoy Fahari Ya Kenya Tea. It is a strong, vital Black Tea with Ginger added. Potent and full bodied, it is composed of Fannings. As I am sure you recall from January posts, Fannings are the tiny little pieces of Tea left on the table of the drying/fanning room. 

That's my post for tonite. Verryyy sleepy.

LiveWellToday/DrinkTeaAlways!

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African-American History: Love, Kindness and Heart Health

I am an African-American, Southern born-and-bred, Seminary-educated, ordained minister, raised and indoctrinated in the Southern Baptist Tradition. I believed for many years that sickness is somehow related to sin and punishment. I have independent study, experience and research into the various interpretations of sickness. I have extensive study and practice in the field of alternative health and wellness, including nutrition as disease prevention. Finally, I have studied extensively the relationship between belief and behavior. This post is my Valentine’s Day gift to you. I trust you will find this information enlightening, if not liberating. Liberation, as you know, is the ultimate goal of all learning.

NOTE: According to John Mbiti, in the African tradition of time, as long as the name of a departed is called, the departed remains with us. I, therefore, dedicate today’s post to the life and memory of my Fourth Sister, Tanya Renita Davenport. She departed this plane so very long ago, entirely too soon. Today is her birthday, Valentine’s Day!

Tea Party for My Sister!

Jane Roberts, in The Way Toward Health, discusses “The Broken-Hearted, the Heartless and Medical Technology,” making the following quote regarding heart disease:

“With many people having such difficulties, the addition of love in the environment may work far better than any heart operation. In other words, ‘a love transplant’ in the environment may work far better overall than a heart-transplant operation, or a bypass, or whatever; in such ways the heart is allowed to heal itself.” (p. 154).

Discussing the effect of beliefs upon behavior, Roberts states that people who are exercising strenuously and vigorously do so not because they seek good health; but because they fear illness and because they dislike their own bodies. (emphasis added). She speaks of the various levels of beliefs with which a person lives. For example, a person’s reasons for exercising are more important than the exercises that are performed (p. 157). Roberts also states that one’s ideas about one’s health are more important than steps that one might take to improve it.

Roberts states that there are some very basic religious beliefs which teach that illness and disease are God’s punishment (p. 163); however, she does suggest that many times illness and disease can be catalysts to life-style changes which a person otherwise might not have made, without the illness. She says that feelings of being ...

“ ... coldhearted, or heartless, ... will have a significant effect upon that physical organ; ... “She states that many people who have heart trouble have no ‘heart’ for life (p. 164).

Roberts talks not only of physical health, but it also provides sheds some light on the wholeness of the entire entity, “(W)e are not speaking of physical health alone, but of mental, spiritual, and emotional health as well. You are not healthy, for example, no matter how robust your physical condition, if your relationships are unhealthy, unsatisfying, frustrating, or hard to achieve (p. 233).”

An American Health Dilemma Volume One - A Medical History of African- Americans and the Problem of Race: Beginnings to 1900 (2000), by W. Michael Byrd and Linda A. Clayton discusses the historical medical/health experience of the African-American from pre-historic to present times. This source lays out the interactions not only between Africans and Europeans but also Africans and Arabs. The writers use data of various sorts to simply outline the ‘dilemma’ of African-American health and disease. One chart outlines the social causes of disease among the colonial slaves, citing among the reasons, the grief of enslavement. In a discussion of black health in the period 1731 through 1812, Byrd and Clayton report that, “In the south, blacks were sometimes permitted to practice folk and herbal medicine on fellow slaves ... (p. 241).” This source moves forward through the nuances of history, education and culture, with the notion of ‘scientific racism’ being the common thread. While discussing the education of Martin Delaney and Dr. John Sweat Rock, the first African-American dentist, they point out that at every hand, one after another obstacle to advancement was constructed (p. 308-310). The sum of these discussions is to point out that today’s health crisis among African Americans has its genesis in the three-way slave trade, hit its stride in the pre-Civil War through Emancipation Periods and today, continues unabated, even to the extent that present-day white physicians expect from and in some cases, unconsciously assign, poor health to African Americans (emphasis added) (p. 216).

My calling to ministry was to ‘teach and preach’. I have learned entirely too much to keep it to myself. If you find this information ‘off-putting’ in any way, I have done my job. The least that a teacher can do is cause the student to think differently. Please consider these things—think on these things—as you move forward through the year. You may be called upon to aid someone who has an ailing heart. The ailing heart may be healed just through love and kindness.
While we speak of heart health, I have added in the video below, just to give some extra edge, in case you need something to think about while you're resting. 

God is with us! Ashe!

SandraTeresa Davenport

The Health Reverend

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Local Radio Show - Listen Live – Saturday 7:00 pm | Sunday 8:30 am – EDT

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What Does African-American History Mean to You?

Study! and show thyself approved!

Generally, when someone asks a question in this fashion, it means they want to tell you something instead of listen to you tell them.

For example, during the President’s first campaign, a white woman said to me, ‘You’re not going to vote for Obama, are you?’ Well, as it happens, my brain can only answer or ask a question; not both at the same time. I didn’t remember to ask her who else she thought I’d vote for. I did, however, ask what she thought she had in common with Mitt Romney. I don’t recall her answer.

But, I digress.

But really, Yawl, I’d love to know what African-American history means to White Americans. I once asked this question of every one of my White American email contacts. That came to about 30 people. I got a total of two responses. They both prattled along about not being responsible for things that happened long ago and one said something about taking her cares to the cross and letting Jesus work it all out. Oh my. What does that mean?

I once mentioned feminism and women’s rights with the president of my high school senior class. He joked that it was the same as Black History to White Americans. He thought it was funny and took offense when I didn’t.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t take any offense at all when White Americans don’t care about African-American history. I am accustomed to people who are incarcerated inside their own ignorance. My conclusion is this: a person may [is free to] believe [embrace unsubstantiated information as true] anything until they know. Knowledge and belief are two entirely different brain/intellectual functions.

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”Buddha quotes (Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.)

To the extent that belief guides behavior, people are safe in their behaviors a long as they have a belief that will defend it. [I.e., husband who believe they have the right to control their wives, even if it includes physical brutality.] So, as long as one group of people believes that they  are superior to another, they are safe in their behaviors. Remember this:

New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth.

So, as long as no one studies African-American history but African-Americans, White Americans are safe in their belief of racial superior. The big trouble is, no one makes any progress.

I’ll be writing this topic all month. March is Women’s History Month, so I shouldn’t have to tell you my topic.

Here’s an assignment for you: If you really don’t, haven’t and couldn’t give a dam less about African-American history, consider this: African-American history is the missing pages of American history. Take a chance: study it. That way, you won’t have to be obnoxious when you don’t have an intelligent answer and most all, you will know the truth and be set free from your ignorance, your arrogance and may even avoid some really bad, un-Christian behaviors.

Ok, so that’s it for now. Don’t forget to drink your Tea, because it is your friend. For the sake of African-American History Month, I suggest African Red Bush [aka Rooibos]. You will surely be glad you did.

This is also National Heart Health Month. I will be talking with you about how the various emotions [fear, dread, loss, depression] and environmental factors [racism, poverty, un/underemployment] affect the life chances and life results of all Americans. It’s part of my job, you know, I am The Health Reverend!

Upcoming Later this Month:

Book Reviews:

Martin and Malcolm and America  James Cone

An African Prayer Book – Desmond Tutu

Seeds of Change: Five plants that transformed mankind  - Henry Hobhouse

Jesus and The Disinherited – Howard Thurman

Further Posts:
‘I Hate Southerners – Recap of a Conversation overheard on a Plane coming home from Phoenix’

LivewellToday/DrinkTea!

SandraTeresa Davenport

The Health Reverend

TheHealthReverendSpeaks! on BlogTalkRadio

Listen Live Local Saturday @ 7:00 p.m.

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