"Our Humanity : The Unending Quest for Connection With Our Soul"

In the quiet of the early morning hours, he did not want to put on his sirens.

But by the way he rushed onto the highway from his hideaway, you knew he was going to "hit his target."


A few miles down the road...I saw he had succeeded.


I smiled.

There was the car that had raced by, changing lanes just not to slow down his speed.

He'd gotten caught.

My smile was more than at the highway patrolman who had gotten the speeding driver.
It was a smile at our humanity and our need to speed...and our need to win...to catch our target. Even the fact that I found some satisfaction in the speeder getting caught is indicative of our humanity.

That's most of what this journey we're living is now all about: playing by the rules...breaking the rules by speeding...racing through life...catching the speeder...and slowing down.

Isn't it?

There are some of us who play by the rules but somehow still manage to get "caught somewhere" and are forced to slow down.




Think about your life.

Are you playing by the rules: If so, do you feel immunized from life's vicissitudes?

I doubt it.

Once we're in this human body, we're subject to any of the changes life doles out to us at expected or unexpected moments. Yes. No matter how much we play "by the rules."


I'm no lawbreaker; as best I can, I try to respect and uphold the law and do the right thing. Still, there are some rules that I can't help but break, so impossible the standards, or "unreasonable" the situation.

Then, there are those who make no attempt at lawful living.

Those are the people, mostly, that some other people have made full time occupations, by becoming police officers, lawyers, prosecutors, judges and other areas of law enforcement.




These occupations sprung up over the centuries from our desire for lawful,or lawless, living.


All are based on our humanity.

Every occupation...every single thing any of us do... whether we are aware of it or not, springs from our humanity and a need to stay within the laws of "civilized behavior."

Hairdressers...dressmakers...store keeper et al. These all cater to our human "whims" and needs.
We don't think about these things, because they are all a part of our lives.




Yes. Our lives.

Did you miss the part where I said "part of?"By that I mean that these

"things"

so occupy our being that they become our very life!



I know some Saturdays, if I call to any city where I have friends or family, a large number of family/friends are in the beauty salon and/or in the stores, shopping.

It was so remarkable a few Saturdays ago, I called two of my closest female friends, and they were both... at their respective hairdressers.




I smiled.

That's one aspect of my humanity I have conquered.

I do whatever needs to be done to my hair ...by myself.


I'd lived in Chicago for many years, where the best of African-American hairdressers set up business. Years ago, when I was in the pulse of "life's hands," I sat for hours at least one, mostly two, Saturdays a month getting my hair "done."

Freedom.

Now, I've chosen freedom: "Free at LAST!" I giggle happily as I think I've conquered this beast: spending one of two free days sitting in a beautician's chair, waiting my turn.

Free...at last.

I've freed myself in other ways too.

Aside from not going to the hairdressers,
I don't do a lot of things we attribute to the business of "living."

Yes, I participate because I want to be "civilized."





I go shopping...but only when that is a "moment" that I see as a pleasurable activity for the "moment," rather than a "must-do" activity.

I haven't conquered it all...but I'm much farther along in living this life of my humanity than I was...let's say 20 years ago.

I choose the life I want to live. I can do everything at once, or I can do nothing at all...at all...and still feel peace.

I've chosen not let "life" live me. At least I try not to let it.

Our humanity is our essence.

It is the core of our being.

But we've got to be able to see that our humanity is only the vehicle for the unending journey into our soul.

When we do, we are able to distance ourselves from all the busyness of "living."

Yes...we can STOP being busy doing things that really don't matter to the essence of our soul.




I understand why monks can stay in monasteries for days only dwelling in the Silence of their souls.

I understand why nuns are content in their "habitats."

I understand why prisoners locked up can find peace...finally...behind the locked doors of their cells.





Sometimes, we've got to get "locked up" in order to wake up to the reality of our being.

Sometimes, we've got to have a cop or a judge throw the keys at us...and the clang of a cell door closing behind us to wake up to our soul.
We need to wake to the impotence of our humanity.

We need to see that all the speeding...the drugging...the driving too fast...moving too fast...the primping...the vanity...the hostility and hatred to and for each other...are causing a deeper chasm between our humanity and our soul.

Do you want to enjoy this journey...in freedom?

Then slow down...look around...and see the illusion of the world in which we
live.

A fast car...a beautiful, perfect body...a perfect haircut...a trophy wife/husband...




Great stuff for our humanity...but
do they matter...in the end?

In the end... at the very end...

All that would matter is the connection into and with your soul.

Keep it real, folks!

Namaste',
Che'

"The Greatest Love Of All"... Not Living in Your Own Shadow

"I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone's shadows
If I fail, if I succeed
At least I'll live as I believe
No matter what they take from me
They can't take away my dignity
Because the greatest love of all
Is happening to me
I found the greatest love of all
Inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all."--Whitney Houston, "The Greatest Love Of All."

I, too, kept hoping that she would go back to her "greatest love of all..." right inside of herself.

After all, my journey of many thousand miles began with her words resonating in my mind as I drove cross country. By the time I'd reached California, weeks after starting out from Connecticut, I felt the words had become a part of my soul.


Little did I know that Whitney Houston's lyrics were preparing me for a journey into my own soul that began with that cross country drive.

"...they can't take away my dignity..."
"...I found the greatest love of all inside of me...."

Over the years as Whitney struggled to find her footing, I wished...hoped...and believed that eventually, she'd go back inside herself...and
indeed find that "greatest love of all."

It was not to be.

Yesterday, Saturday, February 11 @ 3:55 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, the greatest voice of all...was stilled...forever. Whitney Houston was a mere 48 years old.



I crawled into my own self, as I listened to CNN for hours, as the network kept repeating the same news and reports of her death. The good part is that they had updates in the tributes coming from her colleagues and friends.

Jennifer Holliday perhaps provided the most thoughtful perspective on what happened to Whitney over the years.

She kept wanting to go back, Holliday told CNN. *"She kept wanting to go back to that time and place when she felt nothing but love..."

Holliday said that in the last years, Whitney felt especially comforted by Clyde Davis' presence in her life, because he represented a time when she felt nothing but love.


From Holliday's perspective, Whitney knew that her voice had changed and she wanted to have the same level of perfection in her voice that she'd had before. When she couldn't, she became disappointed in herself as a result of the perfection she saw reflected in her previous self.

Wow. Truth.

How many of us do that?

How many of us change...and instead of moving forward into the change...and evolving from that point, we try to go back and crawl back into the shadows of our former selves, because it brings us comfort?

I don't seem to have a lot of trouble with that...because I don't like to spend any time in the past...dwelling on the past. It's just a habit I've cultivated
over the years.

I move on...I move on fast...never, ever really looking back.

Life is ever evolving.

Life is not a revolving door.

It wasn't meant to be.

Life was meant to be an evolution of our soul.

We need to take the past...marry it with the future...and move forward into new pastures.

Even if, you end up with a lot of manure in the new pastures, you have to learn to dig your way out of the filth...you can't keep crawling back to the same spot where you were before...

Picture this:


You find yourself deep in a river of manure...quicksand...whatever...

Your head is barely above water...

You're making slow progress, as you navigate your way forward....

But...you are moving forward!

Then, when you get right to the middle of the river, for whatever reason, you decide that the manure is too thick...you can't see to the end...

So, what do you do?

You decide to turn back!

That, my friend, is when you will get swallowed up...

And yes...you will drown.

As you advanced slowly through the manure and filth, if you were paying attention, you should have felt something else, other than your fear.

Slowly...gradually...inch by excruciating inch...you should have begun to feel a warmth developing inside you.

Despite the appearances on the outside, on the inside, you should have begun to feel some comfort in navigating the filth...and gradually your fear should have begun to dissipate.

that is...IF...you were paying attention.

Instead, what happens to most of us, when we hit the river and the manure begins to rise, we focus on the manure.

We don't keep our sights on the horizons...beyond where the eyes can see.

We keep looking down at the thickness of the manure...
the deepness of the river...we're wading through.

Doing so, we sink.

I say this...when the manure begins to rise...right there...right then...
that's the time to begin to SWIM.

Yes...**PUSH through the thickness of the substance that has begun to form around you. PUSH ...until you feel it beginning to give way...

Then, keep PUSHING...until your hands begin to come free, and you can feel yourself being propelled forward by the force of your own strength that is coming from within.

You know you've got it in YOU!

You know that the substance that surrounds you can be melted and dissolved...if only "you believe."

PUSH.
Swim.
Move your body forward.

PUSH...Swim...Go Within...

Dig deep.

Go deeply within.

Don't look back.

Never, ever look back ...especially in regret.

Everything that happened to bring you to that river of filth was meant to happen...so that you could make your way through...and learn how to swim.

Know without a doubt that you are where you are supposed to be.

PUSH...Swim...Go Within...

If you encounter sharks as the substance in the river begins to clear, continue on in confidence; don't lose faith.

Stare those sharks down.

Swim away...they will leave you alone.

As you begin to see the shore and the water begins to become clear liquid, learn how to live with a new vision.

Begin to look at the world with the new insight you gained...when you were in the middle of the river...and didn't know whether to go forward or backward.

Learn how to live from the Inside, before you go OUT every day.

See the world with new eyes.

See the world beyond sight.

Begin to feel the world.
Begin to listen with your heart...

"Eyes see only light, ears hear only sound, but a listening heart perceives meaning."
David Steindl-Rast, A Listening Heart

When you do...you would indeed have found...
"the greatest love of all."


Who are you looking to valid YOU, this Valentine's Day, just two days away?

Who is going make you feel whole?

Where are you looking for love?

R.I.P. Whitney Houston.

Thanks for the "words," Whitney.

As for the lessons we learned from those words...just wished you had allowed them to penetrate your soul! In that way, you probably would not have allowed yourself to follow even your own shadow!

Namaste',

Che'
* Paraphrase
**PUSH= Pray Until Something Happens!

The Question of Equality: "To Be, or, Not To Be."

I will be celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. [MLK] Day tomorrow, along with millions of others. The celebration for me will not be in doing the parades, the "freedom" train rides nor participating in the many other events that now mark the day.

I will be still.
I will think back.
I will remember.

I will know that I woke up on this day, January 16, free to choose to work, or not to work on that day.

I will celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. and the legacy of his life on earth, which now benefits each and every African-American today and those for generations to come.

Some African-Americans, who have the choice to stay home, still will go to work as normal on January 16. That's not because they don't honor Dr. King and his legacy, but because they do not see the relevancy to their lives today.

Let me pause, albeit presumptuously, to share that relevance.

As African Americans we would not have a choice to stay home nor to go to work, were it not for the courage and boldness and demands made by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and all the men and women who fought valiantly with him in the 1960s.

Indeed, some 50 years later, we still would be handcuffed mentally to our desks, or lost in factories somewhere, were it not for the lives that were lost in many struggles to celebrate the freedom we all now enjoy just "to be."

"To Be, Or Not To Be that is the question," asks William Shakepeare in Act 3, Scene 1, of Hamlet.

"Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks
That flesh is heir to?"

Shakespeare was writing of love.

I'm writing of LIFE.

"Light, Life and Love" these are the three keys to our "beingness:"

To be a light into life by demonstrating and being "LOVE."

That is what MLK, Jr. gave and did for us all as African Americans.

I am convinced that there is a "Jesus" being born and dying for us all each day, though we do not know it.

If there is a "second coming," it is the "coming to" of our realization of what lies within us to do and be like "Jesus" in our walk in the world.

MLK, Jr. certainly manifested "Jesus-like" traits by choosing to live for the vast world of African-Americans and the down-trodded vs. only for his family and himself.

I am convinced that, as we grow in consciousness, the task for us is not to see ourselves in the world but to see the world in ourselves.


We are being called upon to look at each child as our own...each person who is a mother/father as our own relative...as our sisters and brothers all. We are called upon to treat each other as "family."

This is the task of "beingness" in the world and our ultimate challenge: to be more like the example "Jesus" demonstrated, even as we honor our unique selves!

"God will not judge Akiba for not being Moses, God will judge Akiba for not being Akiba."-From The Talmud

We are each a "Jesus" in some way to others when we choose "to be" a source of inspiration [read "light"] to others through the demonstration of our lives given in love to others.

Every day I wake, I'm not thinking of being "Jesus" in an active way.

I simply am thinking of being the best I can be in that moment...in that day... that would benefit my life and those of others.

Trust me...some days, it is all about "me." That's okay.

I know that on some days, that's all I'm required " to be."

Just to be "me" ...to show up and "be" the Presence I'm called to "be,"in whatever world I happen to be interacting in that day.

Just "to be" that Presence.

For some, this is a daunting task.

So many try "to be," what they are not called "to be," in any given moment and time.

They try so hard to emulate and imitate others. They try so hard to "hide out," in their public selves the images they have chosen to give themselves. This is when folks end up getting angry, being jealous, petty and mean to each other. We wind up fearing that " our good" is being taken from us and this is the real reason we separate ourselves from others.

"To Be," or "Not To Be" that is the question.

The question really means to be of yourself in any given moment.

To Be.

To be what you're called to be in the moment: strong, weak, loving, challenging, bold, humble, sincere, friendly, courageous, feisty?

"To be or not to be, that is the question."

I have a beautiful piece on my bedroom wall, right opposite my bed, that I've owned for many years. I gaze upon it each day.

When I purchased it many years ago, I did not have the consciousness to see it as anything but an attractive piece.
Today, it is "The Spoked Wheel."

"Imagine that each of us is a spoke in an Infinite Wheel, and, though each spoke is essential in keeping the Wheel whole, no two spokes are the same. The rim of the Wheel is our living sense of community, family, and relationship, but the common hub where all the spokes join is the one center where all souls meet. So, as I move out into the world, I live out my uniqueness, but when I dare to look into my core, I come upon the one common center where all lives begin. In that center, we are one and the same. In that way, we live out the paradox of being both unique and the same."
-Mark Nepo, Book of Awakening, January 6.

Each of us, no matter how "small" we feel in the general scheme of things...
No matter how "tiny" others try to make us feel in that "smallness"...need to realize that in their view of their vastness...others, too... ...only are..."tiny spokes"...in a giant wheel.

It is all in how, and who, we choose
to "to be or not to be" in the moment.

"Tiny, small, big, bold?"

Why has Martin Luther King, Jr.'s legacy lived on through the years?

"Heaven and earth are eternal. They are eternal because they do not exist for themselves. In the same way, a truly holy person does not live for himself, and therefore he can become eternal and can achieve anything."
- Lao-Tzu

Did he fight for equality, or the right for each and every one of us, simply,
"to be?"

Are we equal, or allowed "to be or not to be?"

Think on these things on January 16.

Namaste',
Che'