Life lessons | Tyra Garlington

The power of words

Posted on November 10, 2016 by Tyra Garlington • 0 Comments

The following wisdom was put forth in a video I watched when Dave Chappelle sat with Maya Angelou. It was poetry. “Words are things. You must be careful, careful about calling people out of their names, using racial pejoratives and sexual pejoratives and all that ignorance. Don’t do that. Someday we’ll be able to measure the power of words. I think they are things. They get on the walls. They get in your wallpaper. They get in your rugs, in your upholstery, and your clothes, and finally into you.”[1] “Maya Angelou spoke this truth, and it resonated with me. Resonated……
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Let our life speak for itself

Posted on October 25, 2016 by Tyra Garlington • 0 Comments

This week I am sharing another pearl of wisdom I picked up while I was away. It comes through the pen of author Parker, J. Palmer in his book, Let your life Speak. It is a moving meditation on the question, “Is the life I am living the same as the life that wants to live in me?” “We arrive in this world with birthright gifts – then we spend the first half of our lives admonishing them or letting others disabuse us of them. As young people, we are surrounded by expectations that may have little we to do……
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Did you miss me?

Posted on October 11, 2016 by Tyra Garlington • 0 Comments

I had to go away for a while. I was losing focus. I was listening to the voice of numbers. The number of “likes,” “comments,” and “shares” became the main objective of my blog. I wanted lots; I wanted more. I had forgotten why I do what I do. Shame on me! It took me a while to recognize and say, “Yes” to God’s purpose for me. And when I finally did, my tears dried, my burdens were unloaded, and my joy was restored. I walked out of my lonely wilderness and into my worthiness. However, the critical success factor……
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Tell me about yourself.

Posted on August 3, 2016 by Tyra Garlington • 0 Comments

At cocktail parties, an interview, or when meeting a new colleague for the first time, that question, or one like it, is the most common opening line to a conversation. Suppose you have you have 30 seconds to motivate someone new to want to know you better. How do most people answer it? How would you answer it? When someone asks you to tell them about yourself, think about how to paint a picture of you that inspires feelings in people, that is unique, exciting, and memorable. Consider the context and choose what you want to highlight accordingly. Tell your story……
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Everything you need is somewhere.

Posted on July 27, 2016 by Tyra Garlington • 0 Comments

This morning I as sat down to write I thought, “I’ve got nothing!” Lately, I seem to spend most of my creative energy fighting negative images and messages that crowd the 24/7 communications cycle. I was too exhausted to put on my positive attitude. Halfheartedly I visited one of my favorite inspirational sites. The following testimony reminded me of the power and provision of grace in my life and that sometimes similarity provides comfort. It read. “In the last four years I have been let go, promoted and even quit jobs. I found myself to be in a constant search for “my……
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Are you Officer Friendly?

Posted on July 12, 2016 by Tyra Garlington • 0 Comments

It took me years to outlive the residue of my near fatal beating and accompanying incarceration for a speeding ticket in the late sixties. It was post-Jim Crow South. As a Christian, I have tried to hate the behavior but forgive and understand the officers. Thirty years later, I could smell my son’s anxiety when a police car followed him home from the basketball court with a warrant for his arrest. The warrant described a man five foot six inches tall. My son was six foot three inches tall. The man weighed 120 pounds. My son weighed 160 pounds. The……
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How certain instants in our lives make us who we are

Posted on July 6, 2016 by Tyra Garlington • 0 Comments

I spent all last week with pre-teens at Vacation Bible School. Loving and listening to them reminded me that who they may see in the mirror may, for varying reasons, be created by the words of others. Shane Koyczan’s spoken-word poetry pays tribute to the consequences of our language. If you have children in your life, it is a magnificent read. I have provided an edited excerpt here. To This Day for the Bold and the Beautiful When I was a kid, I hid my heart under my bed, because my mother said, “If you are not careful, someday someone’s……
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Who I am does not mean how you treat me.

Posted on June 28, 2016 by Tyra Garlington • 0 Comments

She is twenty-one now. She has graduated college with honors. Her family is proud of her. She has a good job lined up. However at unseen levels, she is missing in action. Never telling her parents has been a way of protecting them. Never telling anyone else has been a way of protecting herself. But those choices are not working. She is in a long-term relationship with shame. Sometimes her pain is incomprehensible. There seems to be no possible resolution. Her rape has left ever present residue. The memory of that night lives in a personal backward facing time machine over which she……
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For every mountain; for every trial …

Posted on June 7, 2016 by Tyra Garlington • 0 Comments

So, I am sitting outside on a bench reading, marveling at what a tease spring is and I ran across this article. You want a pick me up? Check this out then see what you are leaving on the table when it comes to making a difference in your life. It’s a little longer than usual and worth it. “In 1955, Ella Fitzgerald had a professional music career that spanned nearly two decades. She was a critically acclaimed Jazz musician, and yet she was hardly known by the general public because she was an African-American doing amazing things at a……
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What does it cost to be a living memorial?

Posted on May 30, 2016 by Tyra Garlington • 0 Comments

Before starting to celebrate Memorial Day, let’s take a moment to review the history behind the observance. It’s more than just a long weekend full of barbecue — it’s a patriotic holiday intended to honor the Americans who have protected the country. Memorial Day was started as a way to remember the more than 620,000 people who died in Civil War, which has been called the bloodiest conflict on U.S. soil. The first official Memorial Day observance took place in 1866 in Carbondale, Illinois, but the official “birthplace of Memorial Day” is Waterloo, New York, according to CNN. At the time, it was referred to……
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