Author Archives: Ri'ana Johnson

Green means go

Go forth, go forward, go out into the world

Green means grow

Accept opportunity

Rest and reset in newness

Receive peace in the pasture

Become fertile, bloom brightly

Reach, stretch toward the sun

Protect the goodness of the harvest until it’s ready to present

Health, prosperity, wealth

Newness of life, mold of preservation

Increase

Flutter, float, fly

Burst, sprout, open

Wide, vast, soft, smooth

Hard nature

Wander, wait, wilt

Green means go

Pain comes in all forms and intensities

Pain, whether physical or emotional, is painful indeed

No pain, no gain, it’s how we increase

Pain to the brain erases memories

Pain and I, we’ve never been friends

Before I really get to know him, we always seem to make amends

Pain, if deep enough, can generationally transcend

Through your family, your children, and into our nations

It’s not quite the absence of pleasure

More like a growing pressure

A wound to measure, a new bruise

The sight of blood pooling by the dresser

Pain starts and eventually, most times, it does stop

Some pain endures, it stays with you until the last drop

What are you going to do?

Suffer through it or pill pop?

The pain is peaking, it’s at its top

So you sing: pain, pain, go away

Come if you must, but please don’t stay

We need pain everyday, the feeling of life

Within our bodies as it slowly decays

I feel grateful to be alive and well

I feel creative as I plan and prepare meals

I feel home and happy when baking

I feel full after I’ve eaten too much

I feel grateful to have food and shelter

Inhale

Exhale

I hear running water

I hear the hum of the fridge

I hear the whirring of the ceiling fan above

I hear the closing, popping sound of a lid

Inhale

Exhale

I see sunlight shining bright brilliantly radiantly

I see a couple of dishes in the sink

I see my baby’s artwork on display

I see some squirrels out the window at play

I see the grocery list growing with prices each day

Inhale

Exhale

I taste goodness and richness of delectable cuisine

I taste bold flavors and pizzazz

I taste Granny’s home cooking

I taste yummy gooey cookies and cream

I taste everything before I serve it to my team

Inhale

Exhale

I smell last night’s fried fish

I smell fresh early morning coffee

I smell clean and dirty dishes

I smell somebody washing laundry

I smell a new moment and opportunity as I

Inhale

Exhale

I can feel the warmth of my coffee mug

I can feel my hand upon a full belly’s rub

I can feel washing dishes, rubber gloves

I can feel goodness like being wrapped in a hug

I can feel joy and peace and so much love

In the kitchen

Inhale

Exhale

In the kitchen

A Children’s Book by Ri’ana Johnson

Outside of this special space we share called Recycled Flowers, I am now a published author. We Are The People is a not only a children’s book. It is a message to my sons, their friends (the future), our sisters and brothers, our partners, our families and ourselves. It is a reminder of the power, love, and strength within each human God has created uniquely.

We Are the People is a poetic series of positive affirmations for girls and boys to encourage self-confidence and empathy. This beautifully illustrated picture book emphasizes the importance of children learning to believe in themselves.

Its simple yet effective messaging encourages young readers to be the best version of themselves while highlighting the value of internal attributes over physical ones.

Offering a lesson on exercising our own unique powers, We Are The People reminds us of our humanity and our obligation to build stronger communities together.

As an elementary educator, I have learned that not all children hear kind words, positive affirmations, or encouragement in their homes. This is apparent in the classroom when a student faces a challenge and down talks themself or says that they can’t. A child who isn’t habitually lifted up may begin to label themself as less than.

I’ve witnessed transformative outcomes from speaking life into desires, dreams, and situations. I believe in the power of the tongue; that words are powerful. I teach this to my children and all children I’m blessed to work with.

Children need nurturing words to help them grow into solid, functional, happy people with self love and hopes for their future.

We Are The People has layers of meaning. I look forward to sharing more.

We Are The People by Ri’ana Johnson available on Amazon.

Thank you for your support and continued encouragement to keep becoming the woman of my dreams and making it happen.

Fear is a natural emotion.

Fight or flight.

Don’t get stuck!

Keep moving forward.

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

– Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

What’s doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

– Friedrich Nietzsche

Let’s switch gears. Let’s not talk about life theories or ideology, but allow for a little comic relief, if you will.

You know how friends sometimes joke about each others’ driving? Driving up and over curbs, into and onto grassy yards, and tapping or barely touching a little pole aren’t the worst things that can happen.

So people laugh and take themselves seriously by asking, “But did you die?”

And although those moments may make our hearts jump a little. Although those moments may make us question whether we’ve entrusted our lives to the wrong individual and maybe even make us fearful that our end has come too soon, the great question of hilarity is still, “But did you die?”

Life’s things: events, incidents, accidents, coincidences, trials, tribulations, victories, losses and everything in between can be scary. They can be terrifying. They can be extremely exhilarating and anxiety provoking. These moments can bring upon several big emotions, sometimes all at once.

Petrifying you.

Shocking you senseless.

Vaporizing the vividness of the intensity that exists in this moment.

Oh my gosh! I’m scared. What to do?

So many feelings. We’ve all felt it a time or two.

All. The. Feels.

Goosebumps on your neck, shoulders and arms

A chill inside that terrifies and alarms

Saturated in emotion

Saturated in feeling

Petrified with fear

Is the end nearing?

Please note: this feeling, these feelings are not going to stop us.

Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will.

– Suzy Kassem

I heard before that there are more billionaires buried beneath tombstones in graveyards with dreams that they never birthed than there are living billionaires.

It’s been said that fear kills more dreams than failure ever will. People are sometimes just too afraid to try to pursue their dreams, to fail.

I mean the fear of failure is sometimes more daunting then failure itself.

The fear of failure can stop us from trying and then never being able to fail.

Failure is not always a bad thing. It’s a part of growth. It’s a part of victory, part of success, part of learning.

Never be afraid to speak your mind. You have one for a reason.

Don’t ever be afraid to show who you really are because as long as you are happy with yourself, no one else’s opinion matters.

Push through petrifying fear. Keep going no matter what. And never let anything pause your purpose.

Persistent uneasiness

Everywhere is unsafe

Terror rises and falls into shadows

Reliving the scariest thoughts and memories

Intensely shaking, teeth chattering… mind

Fretting over minute miscellany for more than minutes

You can’t move a muscle, you can’t even blink

Imagine being stuck, immobile, completely idle

Nothing to lose, nothing to gain

Going nowhere is scary, scarring

Fidgeting in terror

Evolving into strength

Accepting emotions

Relief from being a coward

Welcome back. I hope that you are well, feeling refreshed, ready and energized enough to fully grasp whatever this day holds for you.

Thank you for clicking here and checking out my blog. I truly am grateful for each viewer, reader, subscriber, commenter, and sharer of Recycled Flowers Blog. Through concentrated efforts, connected ideas and concerted manifestations, we are growing, as a community.

I am diligently working to develop this space into something magical. Like somewhere over the rainbow, way up high, wheresoever the storage clouds are and bluebirds fly.

It’s cyberspace, so community building looks different. We all have our Internet aunties, cousins, best friends, other buds and budding bonds that bound beyond and break the barriers of basic blather about business and beauty.

Let’s grow and flourish. Let’s release our ideas, the seeds that will produce our dreams. Let’s make our own dreams come true. Our dreams will flourish and bloom. They will create a legacy that continues to flower and unfold into beautiful knowledge and power in the lives of humans here and humans to come.

I share Recycled Flowers Blog with you because I find joy and peace in opening up, being transparent and vulnerable with my truest thoughts, feelings, reflections, insight, wisdom, laughter, hope, happiness and heart with those who care to read.

Recycled Flowers is a blog written to share timeless excerpts, teachable moments and more. The beauty of it all is that as we recycle wisdom and give flowers and homage to our heroines and heroes, we edify one another and our generations to come.

Let us bestow flowers upon one another through our stories and experiences to spread laughter, tug at heart strings, make us reflect, wonder, imagine, inspire and more.

I’d love to know more about each and every one of you, your lives, your hopes, dreams, fears and accomplishments. Where are you from? How did you stumble upon this particular page? What challenges are you facing? What’s holding you back? What’s pushing you forward? Where do you want to be in your life in five years? What is your biggest fear, why? How do you recharge?

Answer one or some of the questions above. Tell us how you are a solution seeker and you solved a problem. I have reminded myself that Recycled Flowers Blog isn’t a journal by any means. Everything doesn’t belong here.

Writing is how I recharge, how I release and recharge. Recycled Flowers has been me sharing or recycling the beauty, that is, favor, power, love, knowledge and wisdom, that has been passed to me on to you. But I want Recycled Flowers to be more than just me sharing.

I want Recycled Flowers Community to be you and I pouring out and watering each other. Here we can support, uplift and empower one another.

Let’s dig a little. You dig, a little?

Anyway, thank you for being here and exploring the ever-expanding garden of recycled flowers. Please reflect and spread positivity wherever you are. Thanks for being a part of the Recycled Flowers Blog community.