** Yes - it is almost time to flip the page on the calendar and land on the bright, shiny new landscape of February. HOWEVER, there is still time in January to have a check-up. Or take it over into February. Bottom line: “Just do it!”. Let’s love ourselves in 2010 and beyond to take care of ourselves mentally, physically, financially, spiritually, etc. You can’t be at your best or give your best to others if you do not first give that to yourself. You are worth it. **

January is National Cervical Cancer Awareness Month: Women’s Health Advocates Urge Women to ‘Take the Pearl Pledge’ to Protect Themselves and Other Women From Cervical Cancer

UPPER MARLBORO, Md., Jan. 6 /PRNewswire/ — The Pearl of Wisdom Campaign to Prevent Cervical Cancer wants women to protect themselves - and their mothers, daughters, sisters and friends - from this preventable disease. Thus, in honor of National Cervical Cancer Awareness Month in January, this coalition of leading women’s health advocates today launched its “Take the Pearl Pledge” initiative, which asks women to: schedule their annual gynecologic examination, wear a Pearl of Wisdom in support of cervical cancer prevention, and encourage 5 friends to do the same. The campaign aims to secure 4,070 pledges - the same number of U.S. women who were projected to die of cervical cancer in 2009 - by Mother’s Day (May 9, 2010). Women can participate in the “Take the Pearl Pledge” effort at www.PearlofWisdom.us/Pledge.

“Cervical cancer is the second leading cancer in women worldwide. This year in the United States, more than 11,000 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer and more than 4,000 women will die of this disease,” said Tamika Felder, cervical cancer survivor and founder of the nonprofit organization, Tamika and Friends (), the lead U.S. partner in the Pearl of Wisdom campaign. “Cervical cancer, however, is almost always preventable - with the Pap test, the HPV test and the HPV vaccine. We want women to know this, to ask for the prevention tools that are appropriate for them, and to help us get the word out to other women by wearing their pearl and starting the conversation.”

Following, according to the Pearl of Wisdom campaign, is what every woman should know:

* Girls and young women: Ask your healthcare provider about the HPV vaccine, which protects against the two types of HPV (human papillomavirus) that cause the majority of cervical cancers. The vaccines are recommended for girls 11 to 12 years old, and are approved for girls and young women up to age 26. Even women who have been vaccinated will still need to be screened.

* Women age 21 or older: Get the Pap test, which detects abnormal cells that can lead to cervical cancer.

* Women age 30 or older: Get the Pap test and the HPV test together as part of routine cervical cancer screening. The HPV test detects the virus that causes cervical cancer, identifying those women at increased risk who will need to be monitored more closely.

“Unlike other cancers, cervical cancer is almost always preventable because we know what causes it - HPV infection - and we have the tools available to prevent this cancer,” said Susan Wysocki, WHNP-BC, FAANP, president and CEO of the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health (), a partner in the Pearl of Wisdom campaign. “With proper screening and vaccination, no woman should lose her fertility to or die of this disease.”

For the “Take the Pearl Pledge” initiative, women can purchase a Pearl of Wisdom, the global symbol for cervical cancer prevention, at . All proceeds go to the U.S. Pearl of Wisdom Campaign Fund, which supports U.S.-based cervical cancer prevention activities. Women can also wear their own pearl to participate.

Pearl of Wisdom campaign partners are also sharing information about cervical cancer prevention and the “Take the Pearl Pledge” with their members. National campaign partners include American Association of University Women, American Medical Women’s Association, the American Social Health Association, the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, the Balm In Gilead, Black Women’s Health Imperative, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the Global Summit of Women, Gynecologic Cancer Foundation, HealthyWomen, the Hicks Foundation, the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health, the National Council of Women’s Organizations, the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Society for Women’s Health Research, Tamika and Friends, Women In Government, the Yellow Umbrella Organization, and others.

About Cervical Cancer

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women worldwide. In the U.S., the American Cancer Society estimated that in 2009, 11,270 women would be diagnosed with cervical cancer and 4,070 women would die of the disease. Cervical cancer is caused by persistent infections with high-risk types of the human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is a very common sexually transmitted infection that 3 of 4 adults will have at some time in their lives. Most of these infections go away on their own without treatment. Infections that do not go away on their own can lead to cervical cancer.

A Pap test is the traditional method used for cervical cancer screening. An HPV test identifies women who are infected with high-risk types of HPV that could potentially lead to cervical cancer. Clinical studies suggest that screening with both a Pap test and an HPV test offers women aged 30 and older the best protection against cervical cancer. HPV vaccines, recommended for 11- to 12-year-old girls and approved for young women up to age 26, have been shown to be highly effective at preventing infection with the two most common types of HPV that cause approximately 70% of all cervical cancers. HPV vaccination does not protect against all the HPV types that can cause cervical cancer; thus, women who have been vaccinated still need to be screened.

About the Pearl of Wisdom Campaign to Prevent Cervical Cancer

The Pearl of Wisdom Campaign to Prevent Cervical Cancer is a united, global effort to raise awareness of the opportunities now available to prevent cervical cancer. The campaign increases awareness of the new means of preventing cervical cancer, encourages women to take full advantage of these methods, and advocates for the implementation of these tools for girls and women everywhere. The campaign promotes the Pearl of Wisdom as the global symbol for cervical cancer prevention. All profits from purchases of the Pearl of Wisdom go to the U.S. Pearl of Wisdom Campaign Fund to support cervical cancer prevention activities. The Pearl of Wisdom campaign was launched in the U.S. in 2009, where it is led by the national nonprofit organization, Tamika and Friends, Inc., and includes more than 20 national partner organizations. The campaign is supported by an unrestricted educational grant from QIAGEN, Inc.

SOURCE Tamika and Friends, Inc.

RELATED LINKS

** This post is something I shared with my “Daily Motivators” Group back in August 2008. As I was cleaning out my emails, I happened upon it and thought it share worthy. Hopefully you will feel the same. Feel free to leave your footprints in the comments section or in my guest book. Keep Rising! **

What You Know Must Come

Go ahead and be the person you are here now to be. Go ahead and experience the richness of all that is in this moment.

Your most authentic intentions have brought you to this point. Just as reliably, those intentions are moving you forward even now. Whatever you are certain that you will create, is already taking shape. Whatever you know to be possible, has already begun to happen.

There is no need for striving to make things happen. Those things for which you must strive won’t bring real value anyway. Instead, focus on the real and valuable and meaningful things you can lovingly and gratefully allow to be. With your thoughts, your actions and your energy, bring to life what you already know to be good and worthwhile and true.

The very life that you most earnestly desire is ready for you to let it become real. What you know must come, is already on the way.

– Ralph Marston

No matter how many times God shows up and/or shows out in my life, I am as much in awe and in love with Him as I was the very first time I realized that He loved me. He is not new to me but I pray each and every day to be “NEW” in Him. I offer this mini-testimony because every once in a while, I let me self get sidetracked. I allow myself to momentarily lose focus on where I’m going and why. I take full responsibility for that. Why? Because God has already spoken the destination into my life, confirmed and reconfirmed it and blessed me with His GPS (God’s Protection/Provision System). I started sending these posts to some friends at work. Sometimes I didn’t even read them – I would just cut, paste, send. But when I slowed down long enough to read them, to absorb them? They did indeed hit home. Alright, on to the meat of the subject….

“Go ahead and be the person you are here now to be.” Dive into who you are meant to be with both feet until you are simply saturated in YOU up to the very tip top of your head. Baby, stop trying to be like whoever cause there is a job description out there specifically designed for YOU. You cannot fail at this job. DO YOU. BE YOU. All day, every day – 24/7, 365, twice when it’s Leap Year.

Find out what you are here to do and set about doing it. Today. Take small steps if you need to. As someone once said to me, “YOU DON’T HAVE TO GET IT RIGHT – JUST GET IT GOING.” True words.

Stop “getting ready”, stop “thinking about it”, stop “researching”. Call it what it is - “analysis paralysis”, procrastination, fear. Name it, claim it, sit it down and then evict it. Be on fire for YOU, for who YOU are. Let that fire light the way.

Once you make up your mind and take the first step, you will be amazed at the resources and people who seem to just rise up out of nowhere to help you move further into your calling.

Dream BIG.

Dream Bold Inspired Goals.

I dream a dream so big it gives me butterflies and I know that it is nothing but God painting the picture. The world may tell you “NO” in both subtle and not-so subtle ways.

Put the world on notice that the One who called you into “WHAT YOU KNOW MUST COME” specializes in the intangible, the invisible, the improbable, the impossible and He has never failed.

Dream YOU.
Dream big.
Dream constantly.
Dream wide awake.
Dream in motion.
DREAM OUT LOUD.

Live DELICIOUSLY!
*~* MsJayye *~*

Skating makes for good exercise. So I’ve heard. Don’t get me wrong – I believe it is. It’s just that…I don’t skate so I can’t speak from personal experience.

Growing up, I wanted to learn to rollerskate. AND…to iceskate. But there were just a few obstacles. First, I don’t think we could have afforded skates. Secondly, where would I have skated? We lived outside the city limits – no sidewalks, no park. And the street we lived on was ALWAYS busy – always so you know Ma Dukes was NOT gonna have that. (And the iceskating? Now you know if there was no where to rollerskate, iceskating was definitely out of the question. Plus, there was this little issue I had with being cold. *shrug*)

Years later when inline skating was all the rage, I was reminded how much I wanted to skate. Again. Still…never learned.

How did I come to have skating on my mind these days? I was sitting home over the holiday weekend, thinking about things I wanted to get done this year. Things related to my health. My house. Finances. My writing, etc.

I was half-watching something on TV. A young Black girl was skating around without a care in the world, afropuffs sitting high and tight, bright yellow dress, smile to rival the sun.

And my spirit nudged me: “That’s you.”

Now if you’ve been here before, you may have heard me say when it comes to listening for and hearing the voice of God, I don’t do “signs and wonders” because I will end up wondering if everything is a sign. LOL

So, I heard that spiritual nudge and pondered…was it a sign? Was 2010 the year I would finally learn to skate?

Spirit raised one eyebrow ever so slightly, as if to say, “Seriously?”

And then it dawned on me: That little girl was ME. I had never learned to skate physically but…I’d become a master at skating through life.

*S-I-G-H*

Gut punched myself. Again.

It’s true. I have become a MASTER at skating through life. Don’t get me wrong – I’ve had my share of bumps and bruises but in spite of whatever has come my way, I have a good life.

…the issue is, I’m destined to have a GREAT life.

And that great life is possible. If I would simply stop skating around what I want to do, what I was purposed to do, what I was created to do.

If I simply stopped skating around the edges of the dreams that were stitched into my spirit, laced into my heart.

If I would “simply” get out of my own way.

Some say it would behoove me to analyze the “why” behind my skating. Perhaps. Or maybe stopping to analyze at this point would equate to me putting a ramp of some kind in the path of my “skating”. I would still be “skating” so what would be the point?

One thing I’ve learned (and have had life remind me of) is that, sometimes the “why” behind our behaviors or choices isn’t as important as the “how” of identifying the behavior and correcting it.

Sometimes traveling towards “how” reveals the “why”.

And on that note, my skating days are over. Hanging up my metaphorical skates.

Skating always LOOKS easy. But As I nursed this gut punch, I realized that like with most everything else, there’s a cost. For skaters, there’s the time and effort they put into their rcraft, forfeiting other things along the way. There’s the training, etc.

And there’s a cost to metaphorical skating as well. Time wasted looking for a life that’s waiting for me to notice it, to dive it and live it out loud. Shelving of gifts that I’ve been blessed with that could help not only me but others. There’s the cost to my heart, spirit and mind as I fight without myself so unncessarily. Is it worth the cost of my heart, spirit and mind being unsetttled, unfulfilled? No.

Yeah, skating might be great exercise but skating through life?

It’s an exercise in futility.

Live SoulFULLY,
*~* MsJayye *~*

Hello Beloveds,
It has been a minute, hasn’t it? Thought I’d peek in before the festivities begin and share some thoughts. Just a stream of tweets that came to me the other day and I thought, “Wow, that might actually make a decent blog post”. (Considering the fact that I haven’t blogged in ages, ANYTHING at this point might make a decent post right? Yeah, set myself up for that one.)

Nevertheless, I share with you my thoughts about things we should choose. It certainly set the tone for how I want to move into the New Year. Maybe these things will resonate with you too.

May your New Year be as bright, bold, beautiful as you are — if you dare to let yourself live out loud.

Live SoulFULLY,

*~* MsJayye ~*~

Choose joy.
Choose LOVE.
Choose gratitude. Every day. Every moment - even when it gets hard.
Choose your highest good today. You owe it to yourself.
Choose to be BETTER not BITTER.
Choose to live TRUTH, speak TRUTH, BE TRUTH.
Choose to be of service to others.
Choose what moves you forward.
Choose what makes your heart sing.
Choose what makes your spirit soar.
Choose what honors you.
Choose to see yourself clearly, honestly.Grow yourself from there.
Choose to follow the music in your soul.
Choose what helps you grow.
Choose to sidestep the small stuff.
Choose authenticity.Every single moment of every single day.Choose to be true to self.
Choose to help others, to reach back, to lift up.
Choose what challenges your comfort zone.

Choose to release what holds you back, keeps you bound, stunts your growth.
Choose to use your voice in ways that impact your community & the world positively.
Choose to take ownership for your life,your successes & your stumbles, your choices & your changes.
Choose to imagine your ideal future, not to live in your not-so ideal past.
Choose to remain open to what life brings your way.
Choose to BE the very thing(s) you seek.Gift that to yourself.
Choose not only to LEAVE the drama behind but to not BE the drama.
Choose to be bigger & better than either your pain or your past.
Choose to building bridges, not walls.
Choose to be strong enough to not only ASK for help when you need it but to let them help when they offer.
Choose clarity.
Choose to live bigger than stereotypes or statistics.Step into your greatness.
Choose words that help, words that heal - not words that hinder or hurt.
Choose your health - mental, spiritual, physical, financial, etc. Make healthy choices for yourself.
Choose to love yourself just as you are, every moment of your life. You are more precious than you know.
Choose to see how beautiful you are.Look beneath the makeup, the clothes, the STUFF…the masks.
Choose to walk purposefully into your destiny.It’s ok if you stumble or even fall.Just don’t STAY down. Choose to share your gift(s) with the world.
Choose to start over if you need to. Choose again.And again.And again until you get it right.
Choose your own path.Set your own pace.Stay focused & keep on moving.
Choose success on your own terms.Define success for yourself.You can’t get there off someone else’s map.
Choose LOVE and LIGHT and LEARNING and LAUGHTER.
Choose to focus on what’s right about your day, in your life, in your relationships,in your work, about yourself.
Choose to move yourself into a space that allows you to let love in.Allow yourself to BE loved.
Choose to believe you deserve better.You deserve the best life has to offer. KNOW THIS!!

Choose LOVE. (It’s worth repeating, don’t you think?)

Choose to live your life. Out loud. On purpose.

This post, my lovelies - just like the life you lead, is brought to you by everything you CHOOSE - every action you take or don’t take, every reaction you choose to what happens to you, every word you choose to speak, every thought you CHOOSE to think.

It’s all on you. CHOOSE wisely; choices have consequences.

If for some reason what you once choose no longer fits you, no longer serves you, no longer represents you, no longer supports you please know that you have the right to CHOOSE AGAIN.

Hey Blogworld!
Did ya miss me?? (*Ahem* In cause you’re wondering, the proper response is “YES!! Of course! Stop asking silly questions!! LOL)

Just passing through with a quick poetic ditty that birthed itself between sips of my morning cappucino. Hopefully my “blog drive-bys” will find themselves more like the days of old when I posted on a regular basis. Hoping to make some changes and get back to my blogalicious self SOON.

In the meantime….enjoy!

Love your life! You might be surprised at the vibration that comes back to you!

*~* MsJayye *~*

I remember when writing on this blog felt like I was giving myself breathing room, space to decompress and just let myself BE. In a lot of ways, it still does.When I find my way back to this spot, when I give myself permission to speak without trying to dress my thoughts for public consumption.

So…why am I restricting my own “breathing” so to speak, holding my blog posts hostage? *sigh*
I wish I knew.

I tell myself I need to do better. And I do. I tell myself that I CAN do better. And I can. I tell myself that I deserve better. And I do. I tell myself that I will do better. And…

Better is ALWAYS a possibility in whatever we do. Knowing this, why do I NOT choose that for myself? What kind of sadistic hypocrisy is that? It is straight up SHIGGIDTY!

“Better” is no longer an option – it’s a MUST. Maybe even a sanity saver.

I’ve been doing a lot of processing lately. Trying to get to the root of whatever triggered this bout of mental/spiritual/emotional “CFS” (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). Things happen. And they have. Such is life. Yet, nothing “MAJOR” has happened. Maybe this current malady is residual in nature? But from what? I’m blocking myself. Why?

I wonder. And I push myself to press forward in spite of whatever is blocking me…even when it’s me. I push because of the voice in my heart, my spirit – not the voices in my head or the voices of well-meaning friends/family. I push because I know that I’m meant for more – to do more, to give more, to share more. I push because I’m afraid of being stuck in this spot. And while I’m pushing, I tell myself it doesn’t matter WHY I push – it just matters that I push FORWARD, TOWARD progress. That I keep pushing, resting when I need to but never stopping.

I come to the end of this post with way more questions than answers and in my heart, I know that’s ok. I’ve learned that the true value is in the question, uncovering and asking the ‘right’ question, not the answer. Being courageous enough to ask yourself the hard question and then standing up under the answer no matter how ‘unpretty’ it may be.

And just like *that*, what I’m sure looks like a big ball of confusion to most people becomes more breathing room for me.

And that’s what I came to this blog hoping for: Breathing room. And naked truth.

Got both. In abundance.

Live SoulFULLY!
*~* MsJayye *~*