I have had this page for almost a year I think, long before I ever got the idea to "brand myself" as they call it now, or quit my job on faith because I knew that that wasn't what I was intended to do...I had this page. I was just getting to this place in my last post in 2009 and now that the internet is so much a part of what I do the strategist in me knows that I should delete some of these posts on this page before I link my website to it...but I won't. I only changed pics for the most part and feeds that I follow to include new found friends. Because what has aligned me all this time for where I am going and all that I was meant to be is my experiences...my struggles with my demons inside and out...and with grief...for the most part I wrote it all down, in either poetry or prose. I'm not a businessman, I'm the business - man...

Further confirmation that I am where I am supposed to be, have been where I needed to get here - and that God is using me for something greater than myself...I don't mind telling you - I am hard headed and so I sometimes need the signs, and then some...

1. I created this page before I ever thought of marketing me...Catalina Byrd

2. It is called "In Cat's Mind For A Moment" - and I am marketing my mind

3. What makes my mind so unique is my experiences in life - I have on this page vented and been very vulnerable and honest (because back then no one was really watching - you can make these pages for free)...and yet it is my story that I am marketing

Either you feel me or you think that I am crazy...either way I submit to Him and can't sweat the judgment too much, my worst has been displayed on this page and so has my best. This year is about putting forth more of my best and trying through my story to reach someone else and help someone else and in time heal more. That is who I have always been...anyone that truly knows me - knows that.

This year is about using my talents as they were intended when bestowed upon me, this year is a tribute to both my husband and my dear friend Bernard Soloman. This year is for my son who will have to live in this world that I have brought him into and one day will have to leave him alone in. This year is about your children too. God has been moving things and putting them in place for years to bring me to this point, as TI said on Paper Trail "God will take you through hell to get you to Heaven". And who can say I haven't been thru hell in the last 18 months alone in the lose of my husband, my fiance', and my grandmother? And still remain...no matter what - bent but not broken.

I have a goal to be the Mayor of Baltimore as soon as I am old enough, that may become an opportunity in 2012, it would mean alot to me. I may be young, I may not have finished college (but I went long enough to find out I was a natural born philospher), I will have built a body of work that can reflect over 10 years of public service and participation in MD politics. a body of work that can prove that I have been writing poetry for over 25 years now, though you've never heard of me - and the first time I ever touched a mic, I shared a stage with Sandra St. Victor in Brooklyn, NY. A body of work that lead me to this point, to this understanding, to this comfort with just being who I am.

I am the diaspora...and this year I intend to bridge the gap - my President called for CHANGE, and he can't do it all himself.

(previously written on a now disabled blogspot page, additional posts to come...)