Category: J.O.W.K. (journal of an over worked kid)

365 Snap Shots of Life: Day 209

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Ready for another pre-taste of Salsa! the Taste of Life? It’s my new book going live soon! 🙂 Well here, have a taste!! I wish you a grand week-end and may you stop for a minute and take in a sunset 🙂

 

Am I a Baby or Just a Bump?

Mama, Mama, what am I?

Am I a baby,

or just an ugly bump?

 

 

Some people say I am a baby;

others say I’m just some tired bump.

 

Since when does a human life

get reduced to a bump?

 

 

Every day, I grow inside here. Yet people forget,  because I am little and still being knitted and formed, that I have  feelings. I am reduced to no more  than a bump.

 

 

When God looks at me, does he see a person,

or am I just another lump of clay in His hands?

 

 

When Eve, the mother of all the living, conceived her first child,

was she so figure-conscious as to refer to the life inside her as

just a bump?

 

 

For centuries women regarded the miracle that life is

as something holy and inspiring.

What have we come to now,

that we depreciate and devalue,

and reduce it to nine months

of carrying an unsightly bump?

 

 

Roe vs. Wade-

Gave women the freedom to kill their own babies.

No wonder now young girls,

think nothing of discarding the bump,

into an old garbage dump.

 

 

The opinion of the day is for women,

of all races, ages, and sizes

to deal with the bump!

Get rid of it through c-section surgery;

as fast as you can.

Go back to the gym;

hurry up now, get back to that size two

as fast as you can!

Don’t nourish your baby; don’t give her your best,

because after all, it’s just an unsightly bump!

 

Let’s save the whales, they say!

Let’s save the buffalo!

Let’s throw away human life,

because after all, it’s just an insignificant bump!

 

 

We were all fashioned and created by someone way bigger.

We bear the image and face of almighty God.

Now what did you come from?

A human being made in His image,

or just an unsightly bump?

A heavenly place next to His throne?

Or an obscure garbage dump?

 

Would you throw God into a dumpster?

-Eva Santiago Copyright 2012

 

‘Twas 3 Days After Christmas

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‘Twas 3 days after Christmas

when all through the land,

not a kid was in sight.

No fussing, no arguing,

there was not a single fight.

Where could they all be?

I looked out my window

the streets are  deserted.

I looked here, there,

I looked everywhere

and I grew disconcerted.

There they are!

Didn’t have to look far.

They all have their eyes,

glued to their Kindles-

their hands on their iPads.

They no longer wonder.

They no longer ponder.

Little ones, of all ages and sizes

too early to be  wired,

6,8,10 12 year olds,

young minds now in a quagmire.

So I looked in the past,

when kids did kid things-

they played cow boys and Indians

and the sunsets seemed to last.

They played hide and go seek

some even thought they had wings.

Some jumped rope and hopscotched 

and they made up their own nursery rhymes.

They had imagination,

because it was encouraged.

They had less information

thus, they weren’t so discouraged.

This is a plea for the parents

of this current generation

now being nurtured,

on their iPhones, iPads,

Kindles, Androids, and iPods:

Our kids need US!

Our kids don’t need anymore APPS.

There isn’t an APP to replace

a hug, a kiss and a smile.

There isn’t an APP to replace,

time well spent with your child.

-EVA SANTIAGO Copyright 2011

It’s Fruit Season!

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Fruit bowl - containing pomegranate, pears, ap...
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” You shall know them by their fruit…”

Dear Diary,

I went camping yesterday with a few adults and a group of kids. I am new to this church I recently started attending. My Ma avoids going to church because she doesn’t like religious folks so we have stayed away from church circles for a while. I love God and I have a deep faith in Him because my Ma  models Him for me everyday. But just recently I felt drawn to finding a church to call my 2nd home. And, I thought I had done just that until I went on this trip. Boy was I blown away with the things I saw some of these “nice” church people doing.

The leader of the whole group was nice at first but in time I saw his true colors. I heard him talk down to a lot of kids and when one of the adults got hurt he was so lacking in compassion. I thought,’ I’m supposed to listen to him? Why?’

Then there were the various groups of cliques that had formed; I felt just like I do when I go to school everyday. The popular kids hang with each other and the regular kids like me we sought out the ones who were ignored by the popular kids. I thought.’ No wonder my Ma stays away from all this craziness.’

I saw another thing that really made me sad and it was how this one youth leader whom us guys are suppose to look up to was rough housing and playing with some of the girls that came. This guy was trippin’…on his own ego that is. Wasn’t he supposed to be looking out for all of our safety? Isn’t that what leaders do? I saw two girls I had been talking with all week end long get injured under this guy’s “watchful eye” when the raft they were all on was capsized and it landed on both girl’s heads. Hmmmm you be the judge God and you show me if I’m being judgemental or not. If I am forgive me; but if I’m not, help us all act more like you.

Lastly, I read somewhere that we will be known by our fruit. One of the fruit of The Spirit is LOVE. This week end I saw love in some people that came on this trip; there were some parents that came a long to help out the youth leaders; I saw love in them. Then I saw love in a couple of the other youth leaders. May be just maybe, the rest of the youth leaders came along to learn to love by having to serve the whole group. You decide.

I’m glad I went on this trip though because I did get to meet some really cool kids.

Talk more later…

Carlos G.

P.S. To ALL youth group leaders everywhere: Please remember we are still kids and if you are trying to lead us, we watch what you DO, way more than what you SAY.

 

J.O.W.K. (journal of an over worked kid)

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Dear Diary,

I can’t believe it! I go to a dance studio 7 , yes SEVEN days a week. I am taking ballet, jazz, hip hop, tap, ball room,lyrical, voice lessons and piano lessons. I go to school for 8 hours a day and then I’m in the studio 4 hours after school. Not only that, I am part of the competition team and we train everyday. I almost regret the day I showed my mom I could dance; there was a song on the radio, I was 2 and I had just taken my first few steps earlier that week. My mom came in my room and she freaked out when she saw me shaking my booty and singing along to “Hit Me Baby” by Britney Spears .

So the next day she signed me up for dance lessons at a dance studio not too far from our home. I have to admit, at first all the attention was fun. The costumes I had to wear for my first recitals were pretty cute too and I felt like a princess in a fairy tale.

It’s been 14 years since that day when my mom discovered I had some talent and I am past fed up. My mom doesn’t really have a life of her own; I almost feel that she’s living her dreams of being a performer through me and I resent her for it everyday. She has gotten really demanding lately because she thinks I’m being lazy; when in fact I have lost some of the flexibility I had when I was younger, due to my body changing and maturing. So now she’s suggested I take diet pills to control my appetite. I hate where I am in my life and go to sleep dreaming of the day when I can walk away from all of this chaos and just be a normal kid.

So I’m posting this video, my friends and I made it. It’s a spoof that describes how I feel inside but I’m afraid to tell my mom. 

Talk to you later…thanks for listening, I’m glad someone does,

Jolette ❤

J.O.W.K. (journal of an over worked kid)

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August  5, 2005

Dear Diary,

 I’m starting this journal as a way to speak out for some of my peers who can’t speak for themselves. As a kid I see a lot of  my friends and class mates stuck doing things that they don’t want to do. Take for example my bf James; he has to play baseball because his dad was a ball champ all through his high school years and into college. The only reason he didn’t make it to the majors ( and he will tell EVERYBODY he meets about how close he came) was because he screwed up his shoulder pitching those 98 mph fast balls.

James’s dad Ron is a trip! He makes James get up at 4am and jog with him every morning and that’s during baseball season when it’s not baseball, James has to pick up another sport to keep him in the game ( that’s what Ron says anyways). James also has go to the gym everyday regardless of whether he’s playing sports or not.

James and I have stayed up late at night and texting back and forth about how much he hates all the sports he has to do. My dream is to be a fashion illustrator and as we text, I’m always sketching my ideas. James has even said that he envies me for the fact that I’m not being pushed to be the next great anything in my family. He says I’m lucky to have parents who let me be a kid and dream my own dream. I don’t know about any of that; what I do know is that I don’t envy Jame’s overly busy life style. More to come because I have to speak for a lot of kids I know at school who have to deal with this everyday of their lives.

Thanks for listening as usual… –Carla