Category: Community

In the coming year may you find happiness,

use your abilities to solve problems and challenges;

always have hope and never lose it;

goals to keep you focused on your dreams;

and abundant success by solving your problems, focusing on your goals, and always having hope.

May good fortune will find you in 2013.

Happy New Year from Jane Carter Solution!

The New Year symbolizes the birth of hope, and the renewal of life. It is time for change, renewal, and celebration. The great thing about today is that yesterday is gone. You can’t go back and undo things you have done, but you can embrace today and look toward the future with hope.

“The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.”

~G. K. Chesterton 

Many choose the New Year as the time to turn over a new leaf. Smokers vow to kick the foul habit. Some decide to change to a new and improved lifestyle. Habitual spendthrifts decide to mend their ways. And most of us, who enjoy eating unhealthy food, latch on to the latest dieting fad.

No matter what the change….don’t forget the little things. Live life more, appreciate every moment and fear less!

Andrea Pippins, a Baltimore-based graphic designer, released a four-poster series of prints titled “Crowns of Color” last week as answer for her need of diverse affordable art a light-hearted celebration of black women’s hair.

In a recent magazine interview, Pippins describes how she hopes to steer the black hair conversation in a different direction, “With all due respect, I am personally tired of the natural hair conversation in regards to one having to defend the choice to go natural, encouraging someone to go natural, or speaking to it from a place of political debate.”

Crowns of Color is meant to be celebratory, quirky, and a documentation of our culture. Like the barbershop signs from Africa. Although they are simply style guides for the clients who patron the shop they are also reflections of history—a record of what hairstyles were hot at different periods of time in different parts of the continent. I wanted to pay homage to that.

Andrea Pippins ROCKS!

Being an on-air personality comes with its share of criticism and scrutiny from viewers.  A black female meteorologist, Rhonda Lee, was fired from the ABC affiliate in Shreveport, LA because she responded to a racial remark posted by a viewer on the station’s Facebook page.

Lee’s decision stand up for herself ultimately cost her job. It began when a viewer questioned whether she should wear her short Afro, suggesting she put on a wig or grow more hair under a Facebook post on the station’s page. Lee responded:

“Hello Emmitt—–, I am the ‘black lady’ to which you are referring. I’m sorry you don’t like my ethnic hair. And no I don’t have cancer. I’m a non-smoking, 5’3, 121 lbs, 25 mile a week running, 37.5 year old woman, and I’m in perfectly healthy physical condition…”

She was fired for violation company policy by not following the appropriate procedure when responding to a viewer complaint. A firestorm of controversy has ensued.

In a way, her image was placed on trial as a defendant in the case against black women who choose to wear natural hair in spaces where this is not fully accepted.

Is natural hair still considered “taboo”? Why?

Join the discussion on Facebook or Twitter today!

The Compassion Fatigue Awareness Project (CFAP) is a wonderful organization that focuses on the healthcare worker, caregiver, or volunteer providing regular, compassionate care for someone in need.  Caregiving tasks are physically exhausting, emotionally draining, and isolating. 

CFAP works to educate the caregiver in how to ‘care’ for themselves.  Whether you are a professional caregiver or healthcare worker or helping care for a elderly parent or chronically ill child or spouse – take a look at the material available on this site and on their Facebook Page. 

We ALL know how hard this work is – reach out and show your gratitude to those who care for the ones you love.

“Many small people, in many small places, do many small things that can alter the face of the world.”

While we get ready to have a wonderful holiday, it’s important to remember that there are many children and families who are unable to have the things we often take for granted at this time of year. This holiday make the season a little brighter for others. Giving back is a great thing to do all year round, but the holidays tend to bring out the charitable side in most people.

There are several organizations which provide toys and gifts to people in need. In this time of economic difficulty, it is especially important to help others if you can.

• Donate to a charitable organization
• Invite an elderly neighbor or someone who lives alone to join your celebration
• Deliver a meal to a family in need
• Write a thoughtful note to someone special
• Donate clothes you’ve outgrown
• Donate food to a local charity or food bank
• Volunteer at a soup kitchen
• Send a care package to a soldier
• Visit hospital patients
• Foster a dog or cat
• Join a church or school group that does community service projects

It’s time to spread some holiday cheer!