Happy Miraculous Monday, October 15!

 The title of my article is a quote from Helen Keller, who was blind and deaf, yet she learned to talk and became a great teacher. When I was a kid, I saw actress Patty Duke portray Keller in a movie called "The Miracle Worker." Duke won the Oscar for her portrayal of the doomed child, who became a miracle in her own right.

 Although I have followed my dreams and aspirations since I was a young kid growing up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, when Pam first asked me to write this article, I was lost for words.

Even though I followed my dream of living in New York City by moving here alone on a Monday after I graduated from Howard University the previous Saturday, and have survived in this jungle for 30 years, and even though I always dreamed of writing my own column , and not only became the first and only African-American woman to work on the most prestigious column  in the world, Page Six of the New York Post, and then became the first and only African-American woman to have a column in the National Examiner, and now have columns in multiple outlets, I didn't feel that I've achieved my dreams.

So, I started to pray and think. I came to New York City to be on television. I accomplished that. I always wanted to publish my own magazine and I have accomplished that, I dreamed of being on radio and I now host a daily syndicated radio feature, I even wrote the novel I had always dreamed of writing.

However, as Langston Hughes said: "Life to me ain't been no crystal stair." I have withstood cancer, financial problems, a devastating legal entanglement, countless heartbreaks and the deaths of both my parents. With all that said, once in a negative while, I wonder if I've ever really achieved my dreams. Then I read a passage from author Valorie Burton's book "Why Not You?"

      She wrote: "If you can stop yourself next time you wave away a fleeting thought, a wish, or a dream and, think about how "impossible" you might have judged your life as it is right now, maybe - just maybe- you can wave away the word "impossible" and begin to contemplate how that thought, wish or dream of yours might just become a reality."

       Valorie's words meant a lot to me. Hey, Black Noir may not yet be reaping the financial rewards of Essence or Ebony, but it's on newsstands all over the world right next to them. My radio show paycheck may not reflect Steve Harvey or Tom Joyner digits, but I'm on stations with them throughout the nation everyday. No matter what challenges have been put before me, God has always given me David's will to slay Goliath and win.

Stick to your dreams. Don't let anyone deter you. Everything in life you aspire for is yours if you want it. Keep sowing seeds and you will reap the harvest.

      "You must always remember to catch and chase your dreams because if you don't, your imagination will live in empty spaces."