Today we’d like to introduce you to BobbiesLee McGregor.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was born in St. Thomas, Jamaica, and came to America when I was three. I was raised in Brooklyn during my entire youth. I spent my early twenties and thirties back and forth between Orlando and Brooklyn but when Covid hit, I knew that I had to return back to Orlando. My mother wanted to retire and being her only daughter out of five children, I knew that she would need my assistance more.
I started writing poetry in college while in my late teens. I didn’t grow up heavily religious. My family is half Baptist and half Rastafarian. The only point regarding religion that I felt was heavily bestowed upon by my mother was to take care of the less fortunate.
I started my spiritual journey in 2019, right before Covid hit. I was wrongly terminated from a position that I loved within a nonprofit that I was affiliated with since my young teens. I’ve battled anxiety and depression for years and that event put me in a dark place that I knew I couldn’t stay in because I am also a single mother to an amazing son. I took up different forms of meditation that led me to attain my Second Master’s Degree in Theological and Biblical Studies from Belhaven University. I attained my Associated in Liberal Arts when I was still figuring out what I wanted to do in my life from Valencia College. Through their sister program with UCF, I attained my Bachelor’s in English Literature. After I had my son, we relocated back to Orlando for a second time in 2010, I attained my first Masters in Secondary Education in 2012.
While attaining my second Masters, I was independently reading and researching almost everything spiritual, from metaphysics to astrology, all the way to esotericism which was considerably hard while attending a Christian University, but my spirit wanted more. That led me to become an ordained officiant through Universal Life Church. Through my deep meditation moments, I’ve become attuned to a concept of Individual Collectivism where Perspectivism is the tool towards the true comprehension of LOVE. I created a website for my marriage company called, www.lilaelitemarriages.com. I have a saying and it’s LILA (Love Is Love Always) and I plan to trademark it. I finally gathered all of my poems from college to present and published my first poetry book, “From When We Were Ugly… LILA” by Bob Lee Mac (my pseudonym). It’s on Amazon and I started performing my poetry and selling books at an open mic night held at the Novelty Lounge in Downtown Orlando, the last Thursday of every month. It is hosted and promoted through “Free Yourself Open Mic.” You can find them through Instagram and Facebook. I’m currently teaching middle school English and I just established a soon to be nonprofit after school program, “LILA Elite Mindful Living,” where I meet once a week with young black middle school males and educate them about how meditation and mindful breathing exercises can alleviate stress and emotional factors and triggers.
That is my newest project and I’m still in the probationary period,
All of these projects and businesses that I’m establishing is to develop, execute and promote LILA. Without love, we die. That’s a whole fact. While working in Preventive Services, I learned that newborns have died due to failure to thrive. Without love, they could not thrive.
There was even a hospital that used to have volunteers come to just hold the babies and ensure that they were feeling the vibrations of LOVE emanating through them. I want to become the physical manifestation of LILA that emanates from me through everyone I meet and in all my experiences along this path called Life. There’s so much more to come.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
No, the path has certainly not been smooth. I am a single mother to an amazing son with very limited support. In order to get my book published, I had to start a go fund me account; which I thought would be relatively easy with all the friends and family that I have and know. I learned that when it comes to business, sometimes it’s the strangers that see your potential and are ready to invest in your dreams.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m very proud of where I am in life and where I will soon be because of where I came from and all that I have overcome.
What sets me apart from others is the quality that I put into everything that I do and my continuous openness in learning.
I love learning and I’m always interested in what next dream do I want to manifest into reality.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love the city of Orlando. My parents bought their home in the Carver Shores section over twenty years ago. Our neighbors have become family. I enjoy the family feel and the genuine kindness that I receive within the random greetings from strangers. I love the cool nights when we can enjoy the sounds of nature. This is where my first home will be.
What I dislike about Orlando is the disproportion between the cost of living and the average pay rate. Orlando I’d viewed all over as a family city but the costs are so surmountable, it begs to question which family is the city now appeasing to. And it’s not just Orlando. America itself has created this facade that the working middle class no longer exists, but they do! They are now categorized as the working poor. Inflation is a rich man’s excuse to demand more from those who have little. I know that Orlando the City Beautiful can do better for their residents and coming this election season, I will be there researching and learning about each candidate to ensure that myself and the other residents of Orlando, receives leadership that reflect us and our needs.
Pricing:
- Marriage packages all come personalized starting at $500
- The website shows the details in each package $400
- $300
- $200
- Then there are fees for additional things like they can even rent the microphone and speakers system.
Contact Info:
- Email: Bobbieslee@lilaelitemarriages.com
- Website: www.lilaelitemarriages.com
- Instagram: Lila_Elite_Marriages_LLC
- Facebook: LILA ELITE MARRIAGES
Image Credits
Anthony Jenkins
