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<!--Generated by Squarespace V5 Site Server v5.13.157 (http://www.squarespace.com) on Tue, 21 May 2013 11:41:59 GMT--><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"><title>Black Girl's Life</title><subtitle>LIFE</subtitle><id>http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/</id><link rel="alternate" type="application/xhtml+xml" href="http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/"/><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/atom.xml"/><updated>2013-03-26T14:18:35Z</updated><generator uri="http://five.squarespace.com/" version="Squarespace V5 Site Server v5.13.157 (http://www.squarespace.com)">Squarespace</generator><entry><title>-</title><category term="Black Girl"/><category term="Black Girl In The City"/><category term="Hustle &amp; Flow"/><category term="Motion"/><category term="Terrance Howard"/><category term="Whoop That Trick"/><id>http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/2013/3/5/new-post-coming-soon-but-in-the-meantime.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/2013/3/5/new-post-coming-soon-but-in-the-meantime.html"/><author><name>Black Girl</name></author><published>2013-03-06T03:49:18Z</published><updated>2013-03-06T03:49:18Z</updated><content type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;">New post coming soon. But in the meantime... ;-)</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/q-StMfE8NrA?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>]]></content></entry><entry><title>The Grinder's Reward.</title><category term="2013"/><category term="A Loose Quarter"/><category term="Black Girl  Blog"/><category term="Black Girl In The City"/><category term="Black Girl Writes"/><category term="DatPiff"/><category term="Dreams"/><category term="Inspiration"/><category term="Joe Budden"/><category term="Motivation"/><category term="My Life"/><category term="S. Jones"/><category term="Trev Rich"/><id>http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/2013/1/6/the-grinders-reward.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/2013/1/6/the-grinders-reward.html"/><author><name>Black Girl</name></author><published>2013-01-06T23:56:04Z</published><updated>2013-01-06T23:56:04Z</updated><content type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="full-image-block ssNonEditable"><span>&nbsp;</span><img style="width: 400px;" src="http://black-girlinthecity.com/storage/June.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1357519908194" alt="" /></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.thejuniverse.com" target="_blank">June</a></p>
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<p><strong>Dreams // Trev Rich&nbsp;<br /></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Well, well, well. Here we are, 2013.&nbsp; Even the thought of it being a new year all over again just blows my mind!&nbsp; I keep thinking back to my kiddie days when I would spend time dreaming about what the future would look like for me as an adult.&nbsp; How I&rsquo;d be living and the type of world we&rsquo;d be living in.&nbsp; What I&rsquo;d be doing with my life, who&rsquo;d I&rsquo;d be kicking it with&hellip;and now, here I am healthy and alive witnessing all that I pondered as a young girl way back then. This is the future and its kind of surreal for me because I feel like 2013 is the start of a whole new era. Not just for me and my fam, but for the world as a whole.&nbsp; Just being alive and privileged enough to witness the world as we know it right now is amazing in itself if you ask me. It almost feels like we are a part of some other level brand new shit. Where technology is king and humans are jumping from outer space for sport. I think we are in a new age of consciousness where life-changing experiences and fruitful abundance will become readily available to those who have actually been busting their asses for it. A time where imminent power has finally embarked upon the far-too-long delayed process of exchanging hands. A time where what we thought wouldn&rsquo;t be has become, and what we thought would be has become obsolete.&nbsp; I think that 2013 is the year of the grinder&rsquo;s reward and that 2012 was just the prelude. &nbsp;Don't think so? &nbsp;Ask Obama for starters.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I don&rsquo;t know about you but I put in hella work last year and overall I think 2012 was a good year for me. Challenging as hell, but good because I grew. Completed my first full year as a boss in the corporate world, wrote and published my first short independent body of work under the Black Girl In The City brand, found true love &lt;3, got my daughter off to college, embraced cool new opportunities, and I finally got to taste the deliciousness of real pay off from the years of hard work I&rsquo;d been putting in on the daily.&nbsp; So while I knew 2012 would likely be a year of some crazy life skills training of sorts, I never expected to be doing things I&rsquo;d never done before by being forced to stretch beyond what I presumed were my limits. Shame on me for assuming that I would only be charged with the feat of topping my own best, and tasked with only taking things that I was already good at to the next level.&nbsp; Shame on me for thinking it would be that easy for a self-professed over achiever like me ;-}. Instead I was tested a lot, bitched a lot, even cried a few times. &nbsp;But even in my imperfect ways of dealing with what I considered to be intense challenges and even some emotionally charged situations, I ultimately decided that I would achieve my goals, I would implement new habits as I needed to, adapt, and continue to elevate in preparation for the approaching year and beyond.&nbsp; I would grind by any means necessary because I knew that if I had dreams to achieve then I needed to keep dreaming, keep it trill, and keep moving forward - punching through the rough periods wearing my highest heels, reddest lipstick, and biggest smile. &nbsp;To earn my reward I needed to stay motivated regardless of what has already been achieved, as those feats were only mere stepping-stones toward the big kahuna I have yet to touch but soon will. That said, I think this same principle will apply for me in 2013 as well: <strong>&nbsp;I</strong><strong>f you want to win you have to find creative ways to adapt and maintain progress. &nbsp;In order to realize and manifest all that is due to you, grind first, learn from your mistakes next, ask for permission last, and always be willing to put in double-time if doing so means keeping up your momentum in the midst of the unforeseen.</strong>&nbsp;I think that is how the grinder continues to reap her rich rewards...year. after. year.&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Happy 2013! :-)</p>
<p>-Black Girl.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>]]></content></entry><entry><title>Rihanna: "Diamonds"</title><category term="777 Tour"/><category term="Black Girl In The City"/><category term="Diamonds"/><category term="Live"/><category term="London"/><category term="Motion"/><category term="Music"/><category term="Rihanna"/><category term="Roc Nation"/><id>http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/2012/12/27/rihanna-diamonds.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/2012/12/27/rihanna-diamonds.html"/><author><name>Black Girl</name></author><published>2012-12-27T17:53:13Z</published><updated>2012-12-27T17:53:13Z</updated><content type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/k7tDDo1amVc?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>]]></content></entry><entry><title>Big Sean: "Reality"</title><category term="Big Sean"/><category term="Black Girl Blog"/><category term="Black Girl In The City"/><category term="Law of Attraction"/><category term="Motion"/><category term="Reality"/><id>http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/2012/12/23/big-sean-reality.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/2012/12/23/big-sean-reality.html"/><author><name>Black Girl</name></author><published>2012-12-23T18:40:47Z</published><updated>2012-12-23T18:40:47Z</updated><content type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2OYVqUzFrgs?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">"You gotta trust. Trust in the end result and trust that it will always be the best for you at that time." -Big Sean</p>]]></content></entry><entry><title>-</title><category term="Barclays Center"/><category term="Black Girl In The City"/><category term="Brooklyn"/><category term="Dustin Nakao Haider"/><category term="Jay-Z documentary"/><category term="Life+Times"/><category term="Motion"/><category term="New York"/><category term="Sean Carter"/><category term="Where I'm From"/><id>http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/2012/12/6/dope.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/2012/12/6/dope.html"/><author><name>Black Girl</name></author><published>2012-12-06T13:00:00Z</published><updated>2012-12-06T13:00:00Z</updated><content type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/GBvyEGQeHnk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 120%;">dope.</span></p>]]></content></entry><entry><title>NOW AVAILABLE!!</title><category term="Black Girl Books"/><category term="Black Girl In The City"/><category term="Personal Improvement"/><category term="Self Development"/><category term="The Basic Shyt Every Black Girl Should Know"/><category term="The Basic Shyt II"/><category term="The Good Life"/><id>http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/2012/8/7/now-available.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/2012/8/7/now-available.html"/><author><name>Black Girl</name></author><published>2012-08-08T00:00:00Z</published><updated>2012-08-08T00:00:00Z</updated><content type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[<!-- .link, .link a, #SignUp .signupframe { 	color: #000000; 	font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; 	font-size: 13px; 	} 	.link, 	.link a { 		text-decoration: none; 		} 	#SignUp .signupframe { 		border: 1px solid #696969; 		background: #ffffff; 		} #SignUp .signupframe .required { 	font-size: 10px; 	} -->
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="full-image-block ssNonEditable"><img src="http://black-girlinthecity.com/storage/BSIICOVERSITEVERSION.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1344386666439" alt="" width="413" height="527" /></span></p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 90%;">&nbsp;In  a more structured continuation of one of my most popular blog posts to  date, I &nbsp;continue to discuss&nbsp;the philosophies and habits that I consider  to be basic things that black women should know in order to live  authentically good and fulfilling lives. While the ideas I touch on  aren't necessarily basic in thought, they are still bottom line  fundamentals that we should not only know, but implement and share with  others. &nbsp;</span></h2>
<p><span style="font-size: 90%;"> </span></p>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://black-girlinthecity.com/my-books/"><span style="color: #181818;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">CLICK HERE</span></span></a> TO GET YOUR COPY TODAY.</h2>]]></content></entry><entry><title>-</title><category term="Black Girl"/><category term="Black Girl In the City Blog"/><category term="Mary J. Blige"/><category term="Motion"/><category term="Music"/><category term="My Life"/><category term="My Life"/><id>http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/2012/7/10/1341930511749.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/2012/7/10/1341930511749.html"/><author><name>Black Girl</name></author><published>2012-07-10T12:00:00Z</published><updated>2012-07-10T12:00:00Z</updated><content type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ajrpVoYYg5E?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>]]></content></entry><entry><title>ENERGY.</title><category term="A Peace of Light"/><category term="Black Girl Blog"/><category term="Black Girl In The City"/><category term="Dating"/><category term="Energy"/><category term="How I Got Over"/><category term="Love"/><category term="My Life"/><category term="Relationships"/><category term="Self-help"/><category term="The Candidates...Or Maybe Not"/><category term="The Roots"/><id>http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/2012/6/14/energy.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/2012/6/14/energy.html"/><author><name>Black Girl</name></author><published>2012-06-15T01:32:58Z</published><updated>2012-06-15T01:32:58Z</updated><content type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="full-image-block ssNonEditable"><span><img src="http://black-girlinthecity.com/storage/yea.jpeg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1339731546452" alt="" /></span></span></p>
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<p><strong>A Peace of Light // The Roots feat. Amber Coffman, Angel Deradoorian, Haley Dekle<br /></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">&ldquo;Just trust me on this.&nbsp; Commit to not dating or having sex for one year and watch what happens.&rdquo;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">When our pastor made that statement in church one morning a little over a year ago, I laughed quietly to myself thinking, <em>yea right man.</em> Even after he said that you may not even make it through the year before things begin to change in your life, I still shrugged it off.&nbsp; Not that I was getting it daily with a bunch of different men, I just didn't want to take away the option if the mood was right. <em>That would just be doing way too much, </em>I smirked, refusing to take on such an outrageous challenge.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Not actively dating and abstaining from sex wasn&rsquo;t possible for someone like me because I was on a mission and there were some things I wanted out of life. Plus I'd already been there, done that, had the kids to prove it so what's the point?&nbsp; I had to play by the existing rules if I wanted to be part of the game and set out to spend the remainder of that summer dating, hanging out, and doing my thing. Besides, you get ahead by taking the bull by the horns and steering him in the direction you want him to go, right?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Nope. Absolutely wrong.&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Either I was getting really good at attracting the most unavailable men on earth or had this bad habit of giving undercover creeps and vagina wranglers the benefit of the doubt, but things just were not working out favorably in that area of my life. Career, check. Craft, check. Family, check. Faith&hellip;kinda check?&nbsp; Not sure if I could just sit around and not be out there in the mix with high hopes that my man would just fall into my lap. That only happened in the movies, and I did not trust the theory because I had no faith in an approach that didn&rsquo;t make any logical sense.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">When I first set out on my mission I just knew that I would be boo&rsquo;d up by the winter and was sadly mistaken. I guess I could have blamed it on the fact that it was summer time, a few months out of the year where all of the men rip open their shirts, beat their chests with barbaric fervor, and transcend into wolf mode as they roam the streets of ATL alone or in packs hunting for fresh prey.&nbsp; Or I could say it's just the Atlanta way. The city is full of many women with few options and that&rsquo;s just how it is so if you want the trophy you gotta play hard ball or get the hell off the court. It would have been easy for me to blame my shortcomings on a myriad of external things, but the only one thing I could control was myself and the matter in which I approached the problem.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Shortly after Labor Day was when I really started feeling maxed out and tired of dealing with the unwanted drama encountered in my dealings with these ninjas. I am the kind of girl that likes calm. I like serene. I like good love. Good energy. I like relaxed, safe, and comfortable, but it seemed like I was getting the exact opposite of all of these things. Finally fed up with a lack of progress and real results, I decided to sit it down and chill.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Looking in hindsight, taking a step back was one of the best things I could have done for myself although change wasn&rsquo;t coming without a good fight. When I decided to chill I promptly deleted all unwanted numbers and deliberately set out to see how long I could keep on this train of focus, and the first couple of months were pure torture. It seemed like everywhere I went there was a new handsome face with a new set of lips that would have loved to be close to mine, but by the time I hit the fourth month I&rsquo;d gotten great at saying no straight up like. It was then that I began to notice large pockets of available time that I could devote to bettering myself in order to (1) become the person I want to attract and (2) gain a sense of true fulfillment and wholeness on my own. I read more, wrote more, observed more, loved more, laughed more, and also had more time to dig deep within and reconnect with the higher self that had been longing for my one-on-one attention for quite some time. By the sixth month I began to feel this sense of self-assurance and empowerment. I felt stronger, energized, happy.&nbsp; Now, in the ninth month I feel like I&rsquo;ve ripened and grown in so many ways, and I have definitely noticed a difference in myself.&nbsp; And don&rsquo;t get me wrong, I am really feeling the burn to get it in, but I also understand the value in the decision I had ultimately made.&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">One thing that has been enlightening to me throughout this experience is the noticeable difference in energy. I think it goes without saying that if you deal with someone who doesn&rsquo;t have your best interest at heart and is mainly concerned about themselves, chances are they are stealing your energy and have no real desire to do anything to put it back.&nbsp; When you are dealing with people that have a genuine interest in you and care about your overall well-being, there is an <em>exchange and sharing</em> of energy because both of you are focused on doing the same for the other. I think what was said in church that day was right not only because life gets so crazy that it is necessary to stop down in order to spend real time with the main source of all energy, but also because when you stop giving away your energy and increase your power by harnessing and feeding it with the right things, you emit something powerful and good into the universe which then attracts the very thing that you are putting out there. Being whole on your own and shining the right kind of light attracts the right kind of people into our lives. But it can only be achieved by completely removing yourself from the energy detractors and assigning personal time to build up your own reserve before stepping back onto the scene.</p>
<p>-Black Girl.</p>]]></content></entry><entry><title>-</title><category term="2 Chainz"/><category term="Big Sean"/><category term="Island Def Jam Music Group"/><category term="Kanye West"/><category term="Mercy"/><category term="Motion"/><category term="Music"/><category term="Music Video"/><category term="Pusha T"/><id>http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/2012/6/11/1339430324135.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/2012/6/11/1339430324135.html"/><author><name>Black Girl</name></author><published>2012-06-11T15:49:12Z</published><updated>2012-06-11T15:49:12Z</updated><content type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7Dqgr0wNyPo?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>]]></content></entry><entry><title>Love &amp; Hip Hop ATLANTA</title><category term="Atlanta"/><category term="Black Girl In The City"/><category term="Black Girl In the City Blog"/><category term="Lil Scrappy"/><category term="Love and Hip Hop Atlanta"/><category term="Motion"/><category term="Rasheeda"/><category term="VH1"/><id>http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/2012/6/8/love-hip-hop-atlanta.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://black-girlinthecity.com/life/2012/6/8/love-hip-hop-atlanta.html"/><author><name>Black Girl</name></author><published>2012-06-08T23:09:42Z</published><updated>2012-06-08T23:09:42Z</updated><content type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:vh1.com:787887/cp~vid%3D787887%26uri%3Dmgid%3Auma%3Avideo%3Avh1.com%3A787887" width="512" height="288" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" base="."></embed></p>]]></content></entry></feed>