Cheri Washington

Step 1: pick ripe avocados. They should be firm but give a bit under just a bit of pressure. Another test for ripeness: pop that stem cap off the top of the fruit. If it comes off easily and the flesh is green – I prefer a color closer to yellow – you’re good to go. I have four medium-sized avocados here.

Step 2: and quite possibly the most important step: season your avocados with salt before you begin to chop your onions and such. This way, that NaCl has a chance to dissolve by the time your remaining ingredients are ready to be mixed in. You could add salt at the end, but then you have to wait for the salt to fully dissolve. And ain’t nobody got time for that. Double dip on those minutes spent chopping and have your salt already doing its thang.

Step 3: add freshly ground black pepper. You could use the pre-ground stuff, but if you do, this begs the question: why don’t you like your life? As for how much, use how ever much will please your people. We are all pretty hot around my way, so no need to be it and eat it, ya know? Everything in moderation. I just use a generous sprinkling.

Next, finely chop (white or red or yellow) onions and cilantro, about 1/3 of a cup each and set aside in separate bowls. Press three good sized garlic cloves through a garlic press and set those aside. Freshly squeeze about two tablespoons of lemon (not lime – trust me) juice.

Now that your salt has dissolved on your avocados (a-HA!), mash them, but stop mashing just before your desired mashedness level at serving. They’ll continue to break down as you continue to stir, and the goal is for the dip (or side dish, whatever suits your fancy) (my goodness that sounded old) to be the right consistency after you’re done adding your ingredients. We like ours between chunky and smooth. Some people like theirs like puréed baby food, but whatevs. Let them enjoy the wrong way to eat guacamole. 🤷🏽‍♀️

Step I lost count: mix in your ingredients with a large spoon. I start with about half the onions and cilantro, 3/4 of the pressed garlic, and maybe a tablespoon of the lemon juice. Be sure to break up that hunk of garlic in the middle. 😬

Add a lil’ more of this and a pinch more of that and additional salt and pepper to your desired taste. Then enjoy the finished product…

…with tortilla chips, or along side some slices of smoked brilliance (my phone auto-corrected “brisket” to “brilliance”, which surely applies here) that your daddy made, with a dollop of sour cream. Muy deliciosa.

When you make yours, report back and tell me what you think!

1. Do not send e-mails whilst angry.
2. Pray. If you utter unto the Lord thy God “and then they gon’ have the nerve to…”, you are not ready to type. While you are free to say that to Christ because 🎤 He can HANdle ET! 🎼 you are not free to write it. Pray until such phrases are withheld from your petition to Him, then you are in the right frame of mind to talk to others.
3. Type your concerns – and this part is paramount – leaving the “To” line blank – then go to bed.
4. Reread it the next day, after what was hopefully a good night’s rest (also referred to as the cooling-off period.) Remove all the “first of all”s and “What you NOT gon’ do”s and “So let me get this straight”s. Generally, remove any word typed in all caps because ideally you have calmed down at this juncture and have determined that yelling is not necessary.
5. Then, without giving them any history, have a trusted friend who is not afraid to dress you down or maybe even a law enforcement officer read your communiqué. If after reading your note without a briefing, they ask you, “Whoa, fam, what did they do, slap ya kid?!”, then begin again at step 2 – you’re not ready. If they believe it is simply a random text written to communicate your point, and they ask, “OK, why am I reading this?”, continue to step 6.
6. Use every word you need, and none of the words you do not need (I got that from my husband’s genius brain. If you have ever read anything he has written, you are keenly aware that Dude is nice on the keyboard.)
7. Include facts; exclude feelings. Emotions are best communicated in person where they are less likely to be misinterpreted.
8. Have Officer Sharon reread your un-angry e-mail again. If it meets her approval, pray over it, the receiver, and you, and if you have a peace about it the circumstances that deemed the letter necessary still exist, by all means, hit ‘Send’.
9. If this post brought to mind someone who needs this exact kind of advice (you know they need it!), share this with them with this emoji 😳 and then this one 👀 and do not type “lol” after it. Just let the conviction hang out there, and possibly prepare yourself for a strongly worded e-mail from them. 😏

“‘A Script For The Fall’ is the name of a blog post I’m writing and publishing today.”

“Cheri, write that and send me that today.”

Todaaaay?!

OK, y’all, so. You need some background. I was listening to Coffee With Chrystal this morning; it’s a live broadcast (I don’t know why but I feel antique using the word ‘broadcast’) she produces and in this one, she talked about achieving big goals through baby steps and I learned so much.

When she uttered those words – have a script for the fall – they struck me, so as the aforementioned comment I typed on the thread rolled up into her view, she called me out in front of God and all his mighty angels, and her facial expression here suggests she didn’t believe I was gonna get it done. 😏 Lips pursed and everythang. Hmph.

Anyway. Back to the baby steps. One of the strategies Chrystal listed was having a script for the fall. My brain was half awake (she hosts these convos at O-dark:30 in the morntink) so I panicked and thought, “Fall is over; what about a script for Winter?! That’s the hardest time of year for me. Winter is when I really need to – oh, she means like when I fall down.”

When the saints of old thanked God, I now understand what they meant when they said, “Thank you for being clothed in my right mind.” Once the fog lifted, I honed in on what she was communicating.

I don’t know about y’all, but when I want to start something new, I get excited about. I can see myself in the future and Kurt Carr says and I look better. 🎙 I have done the work in the lab and have written the script that I need to be successful with this new endeavor. It takes twenty or five or ten steps and I have them all outlined with multiple bullet-pointed levels in grand detail.

And that’s good. That’s what I’m supposed to do.

But I don’t have a script for when I fall. When I get distracted. When I get bored with the process (hello, somebody!) and shift my attention from the current goal to a loftier or more exciting one. I am ill-prepared when the unexpected happens. The unexpected happens and will keep happening; I don’t know why I keep being surprised by it, like when my daughter has her umpteenth episode of Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome (Google it; she had one last weekend and as usual, my household came to a halt).

The problem isn’t the fall or the distraction or the boredom or the illness. The problem is that I don’t have a plan to get back on track when they do occur. And that’s what it means to have a script for the fall.

So going forward, at the beginning of my quests, I need to already have an internal or written dialogue, sticky notes, BFF reminder, pigeon with a note tied to it’s claw, something in place to get me back on track when I fall. Because it’s gonna happen, you know? And I don’t know about yours, but my Bible told me that in this world I would have trouble.

2020 has been trouble in this literal world, has it not?

So since we know there will be diversions on our journey, let’s set ourselves up for success by having a plan to stay successful.

And to everybody ob her Live who needs further convincing that Chrystal taught spin class once upon a time, in my Memories on Facebook today, this popped up. I was headed to her class at something crazy like, 4 o’clock in the morning. I was so skinny. Bless it.

It’s as though Life gets bored with low-action circumstances so to spice things up, it bets against us. It assumes it knows which cards we’re holding – or more importantly, which cards we’re not holding – but all its smack-talking comes to an abrupt halt when either you or your patna (partner) throw down that Two of Spades which cuts its King of Clubs.

You count the books and see that your team collectively has seven books and one of you is the fool that slaps the remaining highest Spade onto her oily forehead 👏🏾 face 👏🏾 up, rubbing your imminent victory and your opponents’ imminent defeat in its face.

Take that, Life. 😆

My sweet girl gets angsty about stuff. She gets that from her momma. It can be the ittiest Math equation or which dress to wear or deciding between two-strand twists and a curly afro, but in these moments, in her mind, the Earth is about to fall off its axis.

My daughter came to me with an anxiety-initiating problem and she expected me to solve it. And though I wanted to, to be empathetic and sugary and to gas her up like I usually do, I simply couldn’t. I didn’t have it in me. It was three hours ‘til bedtime and I was dealt very bad cards. My hand was full of low Diamonds and middle-of-the-pack Hearts. Quite frankly, I didn’t even feel like playing anymore. “You gotta stop being so angsty about stuff!” I encouraged admonished semi-yelled. And she stood there with the tears pouring down her precious baby-girl face that I genuinely believed would dehydrate her if I didn’t something quickly.

And Life looked at me with that smirk. 😏

What am I supposed to do, Jesus? I’m empty.

So I did the only thing I knew to do.

I pulled back my bedding so she could join me under the covers, and I whipped out the Big Joka – I Face-timed Nanna.

Reese didn’t want to at first. That’s part of the angst; you know you need help but are some combination of ashamed and embarrassed and terrified to ask for it. I let the phone keep ringing even though my girly-girl had buried her head under the covers and was scooting ever closer to the foot of my bed.

Momma picked up.

“Cheri!”

“Hey, Momma!”

“How are you doing, my precious daughter?”

I skipped the pleasantries because I knew I could:

“Momma, would you tell Reese that it’s going to be OK?”

“Reese. My darling grandgirl. It’s gonna be OK, Baby.”

She picked up where I left off. She had an excellent hand. My mother told my daughter how precious she is. She told her how she has always been impressed with the mature decisions she makes. Nanna told my first-born to Earth that she makes her laugh, that she’s such a great care-giver to her little cousin, and how much fun they have together when they play in her wigs.

*slaps last highest Spade onto oily forehead*

It worked. It always does. My mom is just outstanding. I like the way I feel after I talk to her. She makes me feel good, and in these COVID days and nights, I hadn’t felt that way in a very long time, but just a lil’ talk with Jesus and my Momma made it right.

That’s all, y’all. Just shouting out my mom.

In what ways has your mom made you feel good? Let me know in the comments!

A few thangs:
As you go about the Father’s business today, be sure to include urgent and believing prayer for your under-shepherd. That man has toiled for at least a week about how to guide a room full of people who love him, hate him, or are indifferent toward him. #LetHimEnjoyHisJob #ItsLiterallyInTheBible #Hebrews13

If your pastor has not shied away from teaching you everything that saith the Lord, remember EVERY sermon he has preached over the years when you’re critiquing this one. We know if every week we heard “in the Greek…” 50-lem times, or if every sermon included every nuance of every word in every Bible verse, you’d be complaining “church is too looong”. #NoLie #ISatThruASermonWhereThePastorPreachedOnTheWordHIM #ItWasAwesome #PastorALPattersonJr (Sidebar: if you’re not committed to any church, are you qualified to critique at all?)

If, after Sunday’s sermon, ain’t NOBODY mad at your pastor — pro/anti-abortionists, pro/anti-immigrants, pro/anti-homosexuality types, Tupac vs. Biggie types — if ain’t NOBODY mad and ready to make him a victim of cancel culture, he didn’t do it right. In the words of the great Dr. Fran Blomberg, “When truth hits the fan, a little of it gets on everybody.”

You will not change Jesus.

You will not change Him.

Jesus will change you.

Your entire being should be wrecked after an encounter with Him. He and His word should disrupt your way of life, to say the very least.

Stop reading the Bible and then saying “But…”

I wish I were kidding but I am not. The little guy told the big guy,

“…and the bulb goes right into the socket right there.”

“Oh, I see. Like this?”

“Yes.”

Historical and cultural context on how simple this should be: my husband has replaced the bulbs in that thing before. This is to be expected as bulbs burn out. That’s what they do.

Don’t let anybody tell you different, Beloved.

But I have a coupla problems here.

The first is that it took two fully-grown men to get it done who chose this trade and training and presumably carry this job out on a semi-regular basis.

The second is that when my husband replaced these same bulbs before (I didn’t even know he had done it – he just saw they were out, bought new ones, replaced them lickety-split, and I was back in business without ever even knowing I was out of business. This is our routine, by the way), but he had not chosen this trade and training to be a Sears technician, but is in fact, a preacher and pastor called by the Most High God.

There actually is a third problem here and though it is written as third, it is the primary one.

The unit is less than three years old and three bulbs of the three-lightbulb housing (if you’re counting, that = all of them), radiation-spilling (more on that later) fast food heater blew out in that amount of time. Sheesh. And my 46-year-old eyes need all the light they can get whilst I’m cooking, including the light that so shines before men. So to have nothing illuming my work on the stove was difficult.

Add to that, the door handle was broken – hence the potential radiation leak – and not through any fault of our own. The little technician clearly and plainly told me, “It’s the heat from your stove. It disintegrates the bop-dee-bops (that’s the industry term, you see) and it just wears down. You’re gonna have to replace this door again. 😐

Bro.

We have what Sears refers to as a “Protection Agreement”, so the repairs were covered. Yay. But upon receiving my phone call in the middle of a work day updating him on all these foolishnesses, you can imagine my husband’s annoyance level was pret-ty high.

“Wait; what?”

“Yep.”

“There are two men there, and one of them does not know how to screw in a bulb?!”

“Yup.”

“Is he a Sears employee?!”

“Actually, Sears has contracted this repair to XYZ Appliance Repair.”

“I’m sorry. I asked the wrong question. Do both men work in this trade, and presumably have been trained to do so?!”

“Mm-hm. That’s what I’m gonna write in my blog post, anyway.”

He sighed. “…You got your Roscoe?”

“On my person.”

“OK. Call me if anything pops off.”

👏🏾 And 👏🏾then.

The door they sent to replace the broken one was used.

Bless it.

Sears sent me a used door, y’all, and expected me to be happy about it.

I did not meet their expectations.

The little tech called this issue in to his boss who ran the numbers and so generously decided that since a new door would cost more than just replacing the whole component, they would do that instead.

After replacing three out of three lightbulb housings, three bulbs, and a door, we netted a new microwave. Thank ya, God. 🙌🏾

I don’t know how to wrap this one up in a neat little bow. Just telling you what happened. 🤷🏾‍♀️

I’m smarter now that I learned these truths while gardening today:

1. If you consistently feed a houseplant with nutrients and give it water to drink, it will eventually outgrow its pot and need a bigger one.

2. If you only give a plant water – no nutrients – it may still grow, but it won’t grow to be all it was created to be.

3. Do not presume that what was needed for a plant to thrive in the previous season is all it will need to thrive in the current season.

4. It is possible for two different berries growing on the same bush to appear equally mature on the outside. The difference is the sweetness on the inside.

5. All plants need daily exposure to the sun.

6. While the affects of the sun’s light can be duplicated, they can never be replicated. The bulb in a grow light can burn out, but the sun’s rays are still effective — even on a cloudy day.

7. In the ground is the most ideal location for a plant to grow to maturity. Sunlight is evenly dispersed, nutrients are adequately taken up, and roots can grow down to find a water source in times of drought. Once you put a plant in a pot, all this work is yours.