A Good Thing

You ever meet someone who you knew was out your league?

I did.

I want to pause for a second and highlight the woman who has been my oxygen since 2005.

KaToya Sumner. My gorgeous wife.

As this blog returns soon to its consistent-self, full of banter that portrays my life’s adventures, I have to introduce many of you to the sidekick, of the guy who writes things occasionally that shouldn’t even be thought of.

In a nutshell, we started dating on the day of our high school graduation, dated through college, got married in school, had a baby, moved across the country then moved across the world.

I still can’t really believe how I got her.

My “game” at that time was on Urkel. I had some leftover baby-weight that refused to go away, a Mazda 626 with no a/c and a bent up trunk that no longer opened from the outside and daily I quoted phrases from Dragon Ball Z. (you know that show was bananas. Don’t lie.)

Nonetheless, I’m eternally grateful.

I love my wife for millions of reasons but probably the number one reason why my heart burns endlessly for her, is simple.

She’s better than me.

Daily she showcases the compassion, love, hard-work ethic, charisma, consistency, I’d never dream of. Shucks, I’d much rather stay at home, eat a box of Star Crunch in an afternoon, and enjoy our son. Yet, she challenges my lackadaisical posture to continue to strive for excellence.

Many of you know us and would maybe think that we are great together. Thanks, I’ll take that. But please know that she’s carrying most of the weight. It hasn’t always been a walk in the park.

I used to really suck.

Once, I took a walk with a mutual friend, who was a girl, at 3AM, in college because we weren’t tired. (KaToya is my only girlfriend. I didn’t have much “boyfriend” experience to go off of, except for reruns of Fresh Prince.) I told you I used to suck. Past tense.

In life, we always utilize our human bodies to do work, play sports, enjoys our favorite activities, yet, never for a moment think of the millions of cells, organs and bones, that allow us to do the things we love; backstage, behind the scenes, without recognition.

KaToya is my backbone.

Now, as I type this post, in a hotel thousands of miles away, she’s remained behind for a few weeks to work, take care of our son, empty our storage pretty much single-handedly, drive across the country and still has managed to encourage me.

Flabbergasted.

Seven years later, so much has changed between us. My weight, our finances and our family structure are just to name a few, but one thing hasn’t.

I still don’t deserve her.

M.I.A.

Whew!

What a year, huh? Last time we chatted it was January and I was telling you that this world was broken. And it is, but we’ll get to that later. The real questions are:

Where have I been?

What have I been up to?

Did I write that book?

Let’s start with the first two.

I’m still residing in Atlanta with my family, except when I wrote my last post; my son had just turned one and was hardly entertaining. Now, my son is about to turn two and can eat a medium pizza by himself. I’m a proud dad.

Nevertheless, as the dudes in the hood say, “I’ve been grindin.” I’m teaching at an elementary school, taking teacher classes in the evenings, I’m doing stand-up comedy, still a dad, husband, son, brother and still serving with Blueprint Church.

I’ve been busy. Yet, in the midst of all of that, I lost something. I lost this very thing–sitting here in front of my computer, with an empty wrapper of a Little Debbie snack next to me, typing away endless rambles hoping to bring joy and inspiration to someone.

Has that ever happened to you?

You ever get so entangled with life and the “hustle and bustle” that when you come to shore, you realize some things are missing?

Maybe for you it’s your family. Maybe for others it’s their careers. Maybe for a few it’s their relationship with God. Whatever it is, it’s still there. Whatever that passion/hobby is, know that you can scoop it up and get back in the groove.

Losing things isn’t always bad. It can help bring humility to our lives that we may need, occasionally.

But it has to be something worth fighting for, worth searching for, worth losing sleep over.

So, here I am.

I found what I was looking for. My blog.

What’s gone missing in your life? 

How do you plan on finding it?

(And no, I didn’t write that book yet.)