Flying With Your Feet
Firmly Planted
I’ve been
doing a bit of time travel lately. I know, sounds crazy even to me, but that’s exactly
how my past few days have felt. I spent a few days at the same beach I hung
out at 30 years ago. Back then I “ran” with a bunch of folks from the theatre
department. We'd go to the beach to swim and would end up singing and reciting lines from old movies.
On Sunday evening, my sister Chris and I spent about 5 hours at a
gospel concert with folks like the Gospel QC’s, Dottie Peoples and Shirley Caesar.
Then yesterday, my daughter asked if we could go to the local bamboo farm to
take pictures. As I ran barefoot through
fields of green I thought back to my childhood when I longed for days like that
one and I realized that my dreams had come true.
I grew up in
a Pentecostal church listening to the kind of music I heard a few nights ago. Back
then, it was all I listened to. When I went to college, I was exposed to music
that had already been popular and I learned to embrace a bigger world
through the eyes of friends in theatre and music.
I majored in
sociology, still I was welcomed into the small circle of elite performers as
something of an oddity; a girl with talent who preferred research to a chance
at the big time. When I graduated from Jacksonville University, I had two job
offers; one performing with a theatre group and one doing research for the
Victim Assistance Agency of Jacksonville. I could get paid to act and sing, or I could
go to work developing research tools to understand the needs of crime victims;
I chose the research job and then later went off to graduate school.
I used to wonder how my life might have differed
but then I stop wondering and just kept on living.
I earned a
doctoral degree by the time I was 26, hosted a nationally syndicated talk show,
have been able to sing and record with amazing performers and I get to write.
As I walked along the beach, listened
to gospel music and ran through a field, I looked back to see that I am right
where I dreamed of being; in the center of a life full of choices. I can choose
my music, my work, and the people I hang out with all because I dared to dream,
dared to learn and decided to truly live.
Today, take a quick
look back and see where your dreams have brought you.
Be you, be well, be aware
that you occupy both time and space
Bertice Berry, PhD.
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| Dottie Peoples bringing the joy |
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| Me running with it |
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