February - Definitely an "awareness" month!

We celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness, Valentine's Day, President's weekend, Black History, Susan B. Anthony's birthday, Groundhog Day, Thomas Edison's birthday, Mardi Gras, and Leap Year - all in the same month!  Lots of "awareness-es".... I'm also "aware" that I need (more than any other time in my life) a celebration of "living life to its fullest" this month.  Life - like it should be lived.  I sang and performed in Arlington, Virginia yesterday and I was quite "aware" of the paradox of the living conditions of our nation's capital.  One street, so beautifully landscaped, fresh and new - while not but just one block away, a dismal ghetto-like surrounding with abandoned apartment buildings, garbage in the street, and strip mall shopping centers closed and boarded up.  Just as February is so paradoxical (you don't know if it will snow or be 65 degrees on any given day), our lives too show signs of mixed messages.  One thing is for sure, in the deepest desire of every woman is the heart-throb for truth.  Amidst the outward display of our lives, we desperately search for that inner yearning to be true.  True to ourselves; true to our friends and family.  The scriptures in Corinthians state this: "Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed each day...".  That is the paradox; that is my prayer.  Happy February.  Eat chocolate and be grateful!  (And go to Key Largo, stand in the Key Largo bay - with your feet fully immersed in the water!  Stand there for several minutes, 'til someone says you have to leave!)