I have been here before. The heartache is all too familiar. I know this tune; I sing it well. I have memorized the lyrics, my body sways to the melody, and my tears drop with the beat of the percussion.
Life often requires that we remain steadfast at the center of all that is bleak. ~Hard Faith in Times of Hard Truth
I have been here before. The heartache is all too familiar. I know this tune; I sing it well. I have memorized the lyrics, my body sways to the melody, and my tears drop with the beat of the percussion.
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A true leader is someone who becomes the authority of their own life.
People who know me know that I do not like to be referred to as a “leader.” Too often leaders in our society are supposed to look a certain way, have certain accomplishments underneath their belts, and are expected to live up to certain standards and expectations. They also often experience great pressure to perform – to reach goals that have been set by systems, experts, and other proclaimed leaders, who take their cues from other proclaimed leaders. No thanks. While I get that being a leader affords you privileges, respect, recognition and honor, so too does living an honorable life, respecting yourself and others, showing kindness, and being true to your soul. “I am deliberate, and afraid of nothing.” ~Audre Lorde
I spent most of my weekend empowering, and being empowered by, black women. While my clientele is diverse, the coaching sessions and back to back vision board events I facilitated kept me in spaces filled with women of color. This does not happen very often, and when it does, I am immediately recharged. Being in a room full of women of color is a magical experience. I am so proud to be black. "Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they do not want their illusions destroyed." ~Friedrich Nietzsche
As headline events in the United States shift and become more absurd, I cannot help but to notice that the truth of what is, is becoming more apparent. There are media sources, for example, devoted entirely to fact checking. News correspondents like Jake Tapper (a Pisces) continue to call out the lies of the Trump administration. Families that are politically divided must now address the elephant at the dinner table, and we as individuals have begun to more deeply consider where we might be lying to ourselves about the state of our own lives. It is amazing how chaos often brings clarity. As we move through this final week in-between eclipses, the chaos will continue and culminate with clarifying effects during Sunday’s Solar Eclipse. “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart, and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms, and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke
To what extent am I willing to have my sense of security challenged, for the sake of change and self-betterment?
The planet Pluto has been moving through the sign of Capricorn since 2008, and upon ingress, many of our beliefs, values, and institutional systems shifted quite drastically. Financial crises rocked global markets; snow and ice were discovered on planet Mars; the U.S. elected its first African-American president, and I walked away from full-time employment without having any job prospects in place. These major events left many people filled with anxiety, and vulnerable. Change reared its head as most of us grappled to maintain the status quo. In hindsight, we – our world, in many ways – transformed for the better due to faltering foundations. But not before we released our need for control, and surrendered to the unfolding. Sometimes a seed that is planted in the mind needs to be rooted in the heart before it can blossom.
Saturn in the 1st house of my astrological birth chart makes me very intentional with the goals and ambitions I pursue. But I also have an Aries Moon that makes me equally impatient, and in need of instant gratification. The older I get, however, the more I understand that when I am patient with time, time is patient with me. It is a delicate balance that I must always be mindful of, between racing to the finish line, and thoughtfully planning a course of action. I find equilibrium when I can remember to take baby steps. The little victories that follow are more meaningful and help keep up my momentum. “Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without, and know we cannot live within.” J. Baldwin
For the Scorpio New Moon, I spent the day in ritual. I smudged with Sage. Lit white candles throughout my apartment. Bathed in Epsom salt. Meditated. Created a new vision board, and set New Moon intentions. I was desperate for this time, looking forward to having a reason to indulge. My emotional energy has been low, and I have found it difficult to get grounded. New Moon magic has always been a natural reset. "Courage means to follow the heart. It is not only this singular act that reshapes the collective, but the continuation of those acts." Clarissa Pinkola Estes
You are a fraud. Not you, YOU. "It is funny how people who know the least about you have the most to say." ~Unknown
I was in line waiting for my sister and niece to join me as we ordered food at the mall the other day. When they walked up next to me, the woman behind us confronted my sister, and accused her of cutting in line. My sister calmly explained that I had been standing there for the three of us, and reassured the woman that she was not cutting the line. The woman went on with stories and grievances of people cutting in front of her intentionally, to which my sister responded: “Ok…But WE don’t do things like that.” |
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