Eccentric Tea Woman

  I am a lover of Renaissance Festivals. I love the idea of traveling back in time and enjoying a day filled with joust matches, turkey legs, and being serenaded by a man dressed as Don Quixote (that really happened). One year, I went to the Georgia Renaissance Festival with someone who had never been to one. I was more than happy to show them a part of my weird world. I dressed in somewhat period clothing, yet as I was putting on my cloak in the hotel lobby, this person told me to not put it on "because people were looking at me". Although I didn't let it ruin my day, those words did bother me for years. I used to always wonder if people were looking at me and thinking - She's SO weird! She's such a freak! Black girls don't act like THAT! Why is she trying to act white??? I heard those statements for so long that I refused to show any kind of joy at anything that was strange and unusual. How my enjoying a Harry Potter movie caused a guy I was dating at the t

  For the longest time, it was a given that you should always put others before yourself. You should take care of others. Family comes first, no matter what. For the longest time, I believed those words - I would always come second, third, or even way way in the back. I tried to help others and I noticed something - the more I helped others, the sicker I felt. The more I put everyone else before me, the more my anxiety would beat me down. I took in everyone else's problems and made them my own. Years later, after removing toxic elements from my life, I discovered myself. I sat in a chair in a room in a house in a place that I had ignored. I looked down and noticed that I had a teacup filled with tea in my hands. I took a sip of the tea, smiled, and then felt the warmth coursing through my body. I drank more of the tea and remained quiet. After so many years of taking care of others, I wanted to take of myself now. I set my teacup in my hands and noticed ripples in the tea. I got up

  (photo by Kimberly B. Richardson)   There are no walls here. Freedom is abundant, for a Price, to the highest bidder. The poor must stand outside And only imagine the clean Air, thinking it to be like Heaven, their collective sighs Garnish praise from the Wealthy and their wide Open spaces. This is unbalanced But balance has gone extinct Around here, something that ran Rampant but crushed under The heel of Evolution, if You believe that sort of Thing.

  Waiting and waiting and waiting. I absolutely hate to wait on anything. When I push myself to go faster, quicker, speedier, my anxiety boils up and suddenly, I'm in the middle of a panic attack. Have you ever gone through a panic attack? They feel like having a heart attack. One moment, you're tensing up because the person driving behind you is right on your bumper, even though you're in the slow lane, then the next moment you're suddenly breathing as though you've just run a marathon and your vision is blurry and you have a headache. Welcome to not waiting. I'm tired of feeling that way. I'm tired of people rushing all around me - hurry up, hurry up ! I now slow down, actually stop, and look around. I look around at the miserable faces, the people who need everything NOW! The people who yell at retail workers because they had to wait five minutes to get their item in a bag. The people who will fly by you and then give you the finger because how DARE you f