What Gift?!

 

"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God...concerning you." ~1 Thessalonians 5:18

 

Today I recognized a deep personal truth & became immediately grateful! It was more like a remembering, that even in some of the most trying experiences in our lives there is usually a wonderful gift inside. However, we usually don't see it until the initial point of hardship/injury has passed. I realized today that diabetes has given me the true gift of mindfulness about my body.

In the pass I would ignore the signals my body gave and just keep plowing through to complete whatever task I was working on at any given moment, most times, for something or someone other than myself. Now however, I notice every little sign because to ignore them now could cause me so much more than before. I'm becoming quite adept at interpreting the meanings of each one. This "dis-ease" diabetes has allowed me to see that "ease" is my preferred state of being and helped me to understand that the task of taking care of me is primary in order for me to take care of the people, places & things entrusted to me by Spirit to care for. 

 

I truly believe that compassion is the key to healing all the worlds ills... And I believe that compassion must be turned inward first. It is our guilt and quest to be "better than" that drives humanity to create "us/them" paradigms that keep us separate. If we can see ourselves through the eyes of compassion we'd understand that we are each fearfully and wonderful made to contribute our own gifts to the planet. We'd know that who we are is sufficient and the need to "one up" each other would eventually dissolve. Then, compassion for others could much more easily be achieved.
 

What I recognized today while I sat at work listening to my body tell me to "take a break, drink some water, take a deep breath and eat an apple," is that Self care is not selfish, it is possibly the most important gift we each can give to the planet and each other. Healthy, whole people cause less internal and external damage. I'm very grateful for this revelation... And so are my co-workers, though they probably have no idea just how much. Lol.

This is the gift I eventually got from my challenge with diabetes... It is truly my most cherished this holiday season.

Now you, Take a break. Take a breath. Listen...I bet you'll find a gift to cherish this season too.

Wishing you all the hope this first week of Advent offers!

Blessings!

Sitting Under Gideon's Tree

I look around at the world today and think as Gideon did, "if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of...” Surely we can do better than this?! Then I hear that voice that says "You do better and surely it will be better." In that moment I am reminded just as Gideon before me that change begins with me, That looking outside of ones self rarely produces answers and that hope is an eternal spring to be accessed by the diligent.

It is real easy to default to despair when the chaos of the world is broadcast on an endless stream of mainline media platters advising that their only goal is to keep us informed. The war, hunger, deceit & greed that permeate the airwaves is enough to make one throw hands up in surrender to the anarchy and just give up. But we must be mindful that the state the world is in didn't happen in one year, 10 years or 20. We must remember that generations spent centuries shape this world into the image we see today. This is no coincidence. What we witness is the direct effect of years of causes that leave us scratching our heads at where to go now. The beauty is that right in the midst of this apparently gloomy picture is the very answer that we seek. If what we are living now is the result of deeds, thoughts & intentions started generations back, then we are the generations that will shape the future. (While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest... shall not cease. ~Genesis 8:22)

Our diligent, faithful, heartfelt work are the begin of the wave of positive change that will crash righteously on the shore of the future washing away the vices of our present. As someone in my early forties I understand the wave truly began generations before mine, but in the perspective of millennial living my generation is still just at the trough of this wave. It now falls to us to keep the swell growing.

Every genuine act of kindness plants a seed for a world of loving kindness. Every present act of integrity lays the ground work for a future where truth not deceit is the norm. Our present generosity will spawn a world where few, if any, lack the basic necessities. And everyone of these creative acts of empowerment will empower a future that give thanks for our effort.
Now clearer is the sentiment: If in this life only we have hope... we are of all men most miserable. (1 Corinthians 15:19)

Surely we CAN do better! We are the ones we are waiting for! Are we up to the challenge? I say yes! Start today with one creative act of empowerment!... Your great, great, great, great grandchildren will thank you!

Rainy Day Rumination

To Live, To Breath, is to be the expression of the divine in this plane of existence. If you believe that in the beginning "God" breathe the breath of life into us all. If you believe that "in his image created he them." Then you must treat each and every person as if you are dealing directly with God himself, regardless their behavior. By seeing the divine in all humanity, you display your own divinity. I truly believe this is why Jesus said "By this shall all men know you are mine, if you have love..." Love is the motive and the answer. Love is the Divine. Blessings on this rainy ATL Saturday Fam! OneLove

Intentions for Love

I want to be someone's priority.

I want to be their waking dream.

I want to see starlight in their eyes

   as they look at me.

I want to know what love swept

   means. 

I want to be the blessed gift of

   GodDess

Not the consolation prize

And if they never said "I love you"

I'd want to see it in their eyes.

I want to be wanted so intensely 

That hearts quake in anticipation

   of my arrival.

I want to be a choice

Not obligation for survival.

I want to be loved for who I am

Not twisted and folded to fit a mold.

I want to be loved from the heart

And cherished by the soul.

I deserve to be someone's Queen, 

   wife, beloved 

If that's what I want to be,

And I deserve someone

Who wants that of me.

I'm worthy to be loved

Completely, sublimely, divinely,

I'm holding on to the hope that

"That Love" will someday find me.

"HAPPY" New Year

2012 was not the best year of my life. However the mere fact that I am still here to proclaim that puts me ahead of some. So, I am grateful for the strength of character and fortitude that has allowed me to make it through. I am grateful to the Most Beloved for allowing me to still be here. I am also grateful that though the rest of my life seemed in upheaval as 2012 drew to close, my creative expression, my musical career to is moving ahead steadily. So as I bid the old year adieu and greeting the new year, I want to make a few declarations:


Things I left in 2012: Self Doubt, Defining myself by others standards, Compromising my values for the comfort of others, Discontent.
Things I am embracing in 2013: Self Love, Remaining steadfast to my values as I accept the inevitable change of life, Realizing my full potential, Choosing/Being Happy. 
New Years Day Affirmation: I FULLY intend to be happy in 2013...by ANY means necessary!


Wishing us ALL a very safe, satisfying and productive new year!
Happy New Year All!

Take Me to the Water...

 

Take me down to the river to be baptized.

Let me dip down in the river Jordan and rise anew

Let the rush of the Congo's rapid currents purge my heart of doubt

Surely there are cleansing waters that can heal my weary soul.

Let me lap in the waves of the Euphrates

And wade knee deep in the mighty Mississippi

Can I float to the Nile's fertile delta?

There, basking in the amniotic fluid of all humanity 

I can be born anew.

Surely there a cleansing waters that can heal my weary soul.

Take me to the water

One (The Heart of Worship)

“And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:” John 17:22

My recent gallbladder surgery allowed me a moment of stillness that I haven’t had in a very long time. For the first time in months I was afforded time that wasn’t crowded with things from my endless “To Do” list. Due to the trauma my body had experienced I couldn’t do much physically. However I did get a chance to do something that I hadn’t had time for in a long time. I was able to spend hours meditating and praying, communing with the divine.

Don’t get me wrong. I pray daily. When I rise in the morning, when I lay my head to rest at night, I always take a few moments to acknowledge my gratitude for the experience of life. But it has been a long time since I was able to spend hours in uninterrupted bliss with the Most Beloved. I so enjoyed it and am convinced it helped to facilitate my recovery.

As I returned to work this week I found I was in wonderful spirit and in a place of introspective contemplation. It is from that place that I mentally and experientially explore the concept of worship. Most spiritual traditions the world over have some form of veneration that is performed. Most believe these acts to be to appease some deity or garner some favorable allowance form that deity. On the surface that may be the case. But when one looks underneath the veil with Spirit’s eyes we see a deeper meaning.

As a seeker on the path I have explored many expressions of spirituality. As with all organizations in this physical realm there are some who participate for the sheer glory of recognition and the feeling of belonging. I’ve found however that the majority of those who participate in any spiritual practice are there on a true quest. Some seek knowledge, others faith, but I believe at the heart of all who seek is one deep seated motive. That which is divine in us all seeks to reunite with the divine source of all.

This is the force that drives both the Christian and the Muslim to their knees. Every chant the Buddhist and Hindi utter is to this end. With every shake of the shamans rattle and every song the Sufi sings is this desire. As I contemplated worship from both an external and internal place I came to this conclusion: Worship is when the divine within perceives and awe-fully acknowledges the divine source of all that is without. It is the intimacy of oneness. Every act of worship regardless the religion is an attempt to reach this place.

This brings to mind one of my favorite Christian scriptures and shines a new light of understanding on it. In John chapter 17 we are given a prayer that Jesus prays for his disciples and all of humanity really. He repeatedly asks for God to make them (us) one as they (he & God) are one. In verse 22 he says that the glory he had on earth all came from this “oneness” and he bequeaths it to us as he prepares to leave the planet. It seems to me now from this new place of understanding that Jesus was saying: I was able to be all I was and do all I did because I was able to reunite my personal divinity with the Divine source of all, and you can do it too. What a wonderful idea. Is it any wonder that so much of humanity spends so much time in houses of worship all over this planet?

Something in us understands that we have divine origins and we are all striving to embody that in this physical realm. The Most Beloved knows this and has given us such wonderful & diverse ways to access it. But it all begins with the desire. I believe this desire is at the heart of every human on the planet and therefore at the base of every religious expression no matter how diverse. I guess in this way we are all one.