My Story
The Red Pick Up Truck
We had taken many trips and been many places in the “Red Pick up Truck”; Church, shopping, fishing, school, mostly in town. I absolutely loved riding in the passenger seat with my dad anywhere, especially in the red pick up truck.
Summer of 1975, this time, it was another truck, it was a U-haul truck. I was 10 years old, and I was sitting in the passenger seat, and we were on the freeway riding for a minute, when I looked up at my dad, and said, “daddy, wer’e not coming back are we”. He looked at me and said, we’ll be back to visit, but not to live, we’re moving to Oakland. That was the first day of the rest of my life.
That was 49 years ago and it’s been quite a journey of faith, family, friends, finesse, fun, failure, fear, foolishness, folly, fascination, forgiveness , fortitude, fight, frailty, floundering, fortitude, firmness, feebleness, fullness, feats, fulfillments.
Given the opportunity, I would do a lot of things different, but I live with no regrets. Decisions have been made and consequences have been experienced and I’m the better person for it.
I was eight months pregnant, with my 5th pregnancy ( 2 miscarriages; one was really a fetal demise, but it was just easier to say and explain miscarriage, had an 8 year old boy, and 2 year old girl, 3rd child on the way, and my husband and I separated, eventually divorced. It was one of the worst days of my life, so I thought. How would I pick up the pieces and move on; raising 3 children as a single mother; (what if I had had 5)???? I didn’t realize the grit, resolve, tenacity, resiliency, that was in me, until it was released through a plethora of life’s painful experiences, with the right amount of time-released doses to heal me and not hurt me, develop me and not destroy me, raise me and not ruin me.
By the Grace of God, support of my family, and broad support system, I completed by doctorate after 50, I started my own group home business, helped to start a school which was a long time vision of my dad/pastor, became a licensed insurance agent, and became the CEO of Expansion, my very own Coaching/Consulting business.
I am living my dream. I did make it. The child I was 8 months pregnant with when I was going through a divorce, is now 24, my 2 year old, is now 26, and my 8 year old, is now 31. They are all doing well. I have 5 grandchildren. My parents are alive and well. My brother is good.
[It’s my time!!!
It's my time to rise
It's my time to shine
It's my time to live
It's my time to fly
It's my time
I can see it
Time has come now to refill it
I've been waiting for a long time
I gotta do it
I won't let nothing hold me down
Gotta do it
'Cause I might not get another chance
I believe it
That I want it, I can have it
I believe it
Got me falling,
I can do it
I think I'll tell myself again
That I can do it
And I am not gonna stop till I win.
I decided that I was born to be
Deep in love and happy
And my best days are still in front of me]
(Excerpts from It’s my time by Kelly Price)
It’s my time to do what I was put on this earth to do, be a Master Coach/Consultant.
I was diagnosed with Spasmodic Dysphonia in 1980, where I lost my voice down to a whisper. It was raspy and I had to strain to get it out. It sounded like I stuttered. There was no known cause nor cure. I cried and was confused as to why God would allow me to be stricken in the areas of my gifts; speaking, teaching and counseling. I did all three with ease, passion and was effective. I bargained with Him to remove it, but He didn’t. I started shying away from speaking because it was too hard to get my voice out. I would break out in a cold sweat. I would just tell people I was hoarsed. I tried a Botox shot, it brought temporary relief, but nothing lasting. The doctor suggested permanently paralyzing one of my vocal chords so the other could function properly, but could not guarantee positive results. He said I could lose my voice altogether. I declined the surgery and just chose to live with it. This was a decision of faith. I knew I was not designed to sit behind a desk and shuffle papers or some other obscure career. I was put here to use my voice!!!
I absolutely know and am confident I was put on this earth to help, support, motivate, and inspire others to EXPAND; live out their divine purpose. Help others not to accept status quo or mediocrity as their destiny, to fall forward and to dream big. I’ve failed big time to get to where I am today, but those failures have grown me up, and taught me lessons, and refined me, making me ready and excited and eager for God’s promotion as a master coach and consultant to His people. He has left me alive to tell my story. He’s given me a voice, vision and victory, failures and feats, purpose and passion, direction and a destiny, triumph and tribulation.
My mother tells the story that as a young girl, I was ALWAYS so excited to ride with my dad in the Red Truck to anywhere, esp to church. One Sunday, my dad was about to leave and I rushed to finish putting my clothes on so I could ride with him. After we got to church and during service, I fell asleep, and my mom laid me across her lap and noticed my brother and male cousins were dying laughing. They were pointing at me and laughing and said I didn’t have any underwear on. She scurried to find something to throw over me. I was in such a hurry to ride with my dad in the passenger seat of the Red Truck, that I rushed to get dressed and forgot my underwear.
All of those rides in the Red Pick up Truck and the ultimate ride in the UHaul truck and all the other “shot gun” rides with my dad over the past 59 years ( from a girl to a woman) have helped to shape and mold me for today. Everytime I see a Red Pick up truck today, I see myself sitting in that passenger seat; I smile, I reminisce, I even cry, I didn’t know then, but I know now, it all was for such a time as this, such a time as now.
Almost 3 years ago, I moved home for what I thought would be 3-6 months while my house was being remodeled that my parents purchased for me. During this time, however, my dad became very ill, and he and my mom lived alone (both in their 80’s). Had I not been home, it would have been way too much for my mom to handle alone, then soon after, we were in the throws of COVID-19. She’s in good health but does have nagging health issues that have slowed her a bit... As my time at home extended past, way past 6 months and counting , what I soon realized, is that whereas my house was being remodeled, there was another remodeling project in progress; it was me. I thought I had been through enough, learned a lot, but God had another plan. He needed to add a few more lines to my story before releasing me, like a mother eagle releasing her eaglet from the nest to “EXPAND” her wings and fly.
Just as my dad had taken care of me for all my life, it wasn’t strange or odd at all, for me to be taking care of him at the end of his. Nothing was too big or small for me to do for my dad.
I rode shot gun from the little red pick up truck, to the uhaul truck, to big black, to the truck he just bought ( maybe my mom will see fit to sell it to me, soo I can keep me and my dad’s truck tradition going. I rode shot gun with him; towards the end, he rode shot gun with me. If I could, I would drive that hurst to Rolling Hills, to drive him over final time; so he could ride shot gun with me one final time.
I said in the beginning that My father purchased me a home and my father called me home to live with them; and I would stay with them until my home was ready; as it turns out, I was staying there til his home was ready. February 28th, at 10:20 pm, his home was ready, and his Heavenly Father called him home to live with Him.
So join me on this journey. Let’s expand, thrive , soar together into the purpose, destiny that God has in store for all our lives.
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