 My grandmother, whose name is Mildred Evans, we grew up on a 620-day Cherokee course with what we call the Projects. And on the weekends, she would always cook and give away free food to those who didn't have it. It was just a family thing we did every weekend. But I jumped on a Greyhound bus when I graduated from high school. I went to Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina. Before I left, I sat out with my grandmother and she gave me two things to be successful in college. She gave me a crock pot and an electric skillet. And she told me, you'll never be hungry. Well, I took that crock pot and that electric skillet and I started cooking for the students on Saturday nights, Friday nights when the cafeteria closed. I would sell bowls of chili, spaghetti and a hamburger meat, sloppy joe. Whatever I can just to keep some money in my pocket. Well, when I finished college, I came back to Blauville, Arkansas and I was lost. I didn't know which direction to go in. I was teaching preschool. So I was out riding one day and like I said, there was an older lady and she was carrying galley buckets of water from my house to a garden, a water garden. I said, well, she reminded me of my grandmother. I said it was my grandmother I would want someone to get out and help her. So I got out of my truck and I thought I was going to help her, but she helped me. I ended up being out there for like three to four hours. But when I left there, I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to garden. I was having a hard time in life and I was stressed out. I was depressed. I didn't know what I was coming or what I was going on. And to run into gardening and being able to grow something and my stress level go from here to here was something great for me. Sometimes you got to get out there and put your feet to the pavement and then you got to work and earn your money. Sometimes you have to go all the way around the world and come back to get to where you need to be at. Well, this one particular time I had over four or five hundred cucumbers left over all type of cucumbers. I mean, jalapenos and things. So I decided that I was going to give something to my mom. My mom made a jar of pebbles. I said I can do better than that. So I went home and I sat down in my kitchen with Miss Tamika Mattis at the time. And we sit down and I come up with a recipe and I made some pebbles. And they were pretty good. Everything that you have in those pebbles is from me. African-Americans name their food after something that you can't see, which is soul food. So these are my soul. This is my soul food. When I first started, I wouldn't write down my recipes. I wouldn't write down anything. I made pebbles for how it felt. It was from my soul. I started out working with the kids at Mississippi County Archives of ELC. And with those kids, they didn't know where their food was coming from. So I enjoyed taking those young ladies and those young men out into the garden. When I looked at those young men, I could see myself, eyes wide open, lost. Once I showed those kids how they can make money off just that small little area in the yard just by growing something simple. And their hands went up, their eyes went up and they started to ask questions. With the kids, I realized when I was teaching preschool, the kids don't care what you know until they know that you care. And that's the same thing about your community. Your community doesn't care what you got or what you know until you know that you care about the community you live in. And my community knows I love them and that I do care about them because I give them a hall to blob them in the surrounding communities every time I get opportunity to. And I don't expect nothing back in return. It's like seeing the smiles on their faces and just seeing people progress in life and do better with themselves. During COVID-19, people were home. The grocery store shelves were empty. No one had any, couldn't eat a good hot meal sometimes. And I said, well, my grandmother was able to pull it off with the little dish she had. I can pull it off and do the same. So when I did my grand opening, I had a lot of hot dogs left over. And I said, well, I can serve hot dogs. Each of the police officers, I can do hot dogs. So I would go to Sam's Club and get my hot dogs. And I would sit up out in front of my store. And every Saturday morning, I would serve hot dogs. And they would go on some time. It was three to four hundred hot dogs. And like I said, I don't have a lot. I don't have much. But I knew I could feed someone and they could feel better. So what the customers and tail started doing when I gave them something, I didn't ask for any money. They started to pay it forward. They would leave a little tip or they would show up the next weekend with something like here. Take this and feed the next person, which meant a lot. So like I said, we love. Love conquers all. When I say they're made with love, my people are made with love. Well, I give with love. Sometimes people give and expect things back in return. I don't expect anything back. And I wrote this poem because I think about where I come from, to where I'm in now, and where I'm trying to go. And that poem simply is my hopes and dreams, our vibrations in the wind that keep coming back again and again and again. I put myself in position to transition and go through all that was around me and I found me. I've always wanted to be a cool cat, but I found myself being a victim of the blues cat. All that got is my mind. I can't lose that.