A personal blog/online magazine/website, built to share concepts of POSITIVITY and POSITIVE generational wisdom.  The site will highlight mentorship/reverse mentorship and leadership, sharing stories and experiences dedicated to people like my #1 mentor (my grandmother – God rest her soul) and others that have filled my life with positivity and wisdom. Most of us share in knowing or have known our top mentors and leaders and what they shared with us in those categories. It will be a site geared toward recycling the good from the old with the great of the new. That is why I chose the logo to represent her and recently received official approval from the US Patent and Trademark Office, after submitting it for registration.  MoVillage.com will also create and post stories and videos here and on YouTube on the MoVillage Channel (being built) which will also promote and focus on the concepts of “the WISDOM and ENERGY of our ELDERS combined with the ENERGY and WISDOM of our YOUTH.”   The concepts of Wisdom and Energy and Energy and Wisdom.  Most of us have experience with these things and in most cases the application of positive wisdom and positive energy, is usually a winning combination.  “Plain and simple, there are necessary pathways to growth and successes in life…..we always need MO(re) of them, because “LIFE BE LIFE-ING” and you have to be ready for it.”  And yes, it does “take a village” in a lot of instances and in today’s world, we do need “MO(re)” of it.

“The MoVillage logo has been submitted and officially registered by the US Patent and Trademark Office – Wash DC.  Congratulations to MoVillage! I am very proud of the fact that I could honor my grandmother who remains my #1 mentor, with another memorialization to her and dedicate this work to her because even though she is no longer physically here, her spirit, love and wisdom will always stay with me and I will always be grateful and try to carry on with what she tried to teach  and some of what I knew to be her passions in life (i.e. service, leadership, mentorship, positive wisdom and the like.)  I am impacted and reminded daily, even now as I approach my sixtieth birthday, which I also share with her, I am reminded as I continue to grow, that I will always be so thankful for all of the wisdom she gave.  So for her and those like her who have represented or now represent positive wisdom, leadership and mentorship, the MoVillage project is dedicated to those sources of light and positivity and positive legacies.

So, to fill in the background of this logo story, while I was still on active duty in the Army and stationed at Pacific Command Headquarters in Hawaii, my mother and grandmother came to visit.   She (my grandmother) kept saying she wanted to go to the beach and see the Pacific Ocean.  Of course that was on the to-do list for her and once she got there I could tell that she had already imagined the glorious beauty of the ocean.  But with the backdrop of some of the mountain ranges on the island, along with the ocean waters, and the gentle breeze, her face indicated that it was even better than she had imagined.  With her face towards the oceans ‘forever horizon’ in view and with her feeling the refreshing misty salt water cool breeze on her face and surrounding her, it was obvious that she was enjoying every moment. I could see it in her eyes that she was in a quiet, peaceful and reflective place.  She told me that “she could write all day out here” and that conversation she and I had always has played back in my mind and led me to be driven towards working on an idea for a logo with her ‘representation’ in it as result of time spent on that day and in life together.

I am driven not only for the fact of seeing her in that moment, but I was and am also motivated as a make-up for something she told me once (some great wisdom filled advice) and I did not adhere to it and I regretted it later.  She had told me before deploying overseas, to document my story and time before, during and after my deployment. See she already knew the value over time that doing that would bring. If nothing more for my own personal use later in life.  Did I follow her advice?  No. Do I regret not following that advice?  Yes.  For many reasons.

But, because I know she loved to write (she was a staff community writer for the hometown newspaper (The Daily Mountain Eagle), she also was a community worker, a volunteer, a matriarch of the family with endless wisdom, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, great grandmother and a mentor to so many within the places and communities she called home.  Like so many others I know, that can relate and that have or have had a mentor that will always be with them, I came up with this concept to honor her and them because I was the one who took the photo of her and remember how peaceful and relaxed she obviously was in that moment and it also allowed me to reflect on how much she had given in her life. Still remembering that part to this day. So in her in her twilight of life at the beach, I remembered that day to document (via the photo) the special event that occurred for the both of us.

Being able to reflect, relax and have your mind, body and spirit in an enjoyable space is always important.  “Find your peace and always protect it, she would say”.  “Do your part and allow God to handle the rest.”  Was another wisdom nugget,  amongst the many strong, powerful and true words of wisdom she would share.  Working on this project has allowed me reflect on those words, her service and the many lives she has touched, not to mention the impact on me and others (represented in the logo by the people images drawn in around her).  I am grateful, just like so many others can relate to when they have or have had that #1 mentor in your life.  This logo and site are dedicated to her and those like her.