Sweet Darkness

Sweet Darkness

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your womb tonight.

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

You must learn one thing:
the world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness

and the sweet confinement

of your aloneness to learn

anything or anyone

that does not bring you alive

Is too small for you. - David Whyte

Taken from Soulseeds.com
http://tinyurl.com/7xnvxvk

Reach Back

www.thesavvysista.com/

There was a period of time, not too long ago, when I had not been writing because I decided to take some time off to do some thinking. Recently, I have felt myself doing a lot more thinking than writing; thinking about everything I do and the choices I make and why things are they way they are and how I can ...... my vision to throughout the yoUniverse.

 

You see, I took a break because I began to feel lost in a voided space that was indefinable. I had ceased wanting to push myself; I was not seeing the fruits of my labor. I began to doubt what I had to say and whether I should write or share it. For a second, I kept telling myself that 'maybe I am not good enough, yet; maybe I was too eager to begin and not prepared enough.

http://nemoss.deviantart.com/art/Space-Abyss-161805658

For a period in my life I kept hearing negative affirmations that I was not _________ enough. I kept focusing on feelings of inadequacy. I felt I was losing me; losing me to a quiet storm of negative thoughts. Losing me to an abyss that I had allowed to open up and suck me in to float around aimlessly.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/MyEmpowermentMyWay

Then I met an empowerment coach, Ayesha NuRa. I don't recall how I became aware of the invitation to the workshop she titled "My Empowerment, My Way" in August, 2012 but something stirred in me that this was something I needed to experience. After securing enrollment in the workshop, I attended with a small group of other ladies and for the first time in my adult life I felt truly grounded. In that moment, I was being transformed; I was a participant and an observer of that change.

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/rise%20again

You see, changing is living. Lauren Hill stated that anything that isn't changing is dead. In the moments that followed, I began to strip away and to see and feel the stripping away of the pieces of me that contained negative thoughts and ideas. I began to literally experience a transformation. Everyday I began to use the tools Ayesha shared with us, some more than others, but I began to 'do the work.' Everyday is a struggle; there are some days I feel depleted. However, everyday I rise and resolve to try again.

So in this moment, I have realized that sometimes we need to take a break and do some thinking. Thinking is changing done mentally and consciously. Besides, all this thinking has made me realize that I have a vault of writing material tucked away in old journals and notebooks; random, sometimes verbose utterances of active thoughts I have had. So, instead of pressuring myself to be perfect now, why not take the pieces of perfection from my past and repurpose them.

A friend, Deirdré Hector writes a blog titled "Reach Back and Fetch It" (http://reachandfetch.com/), reminiscent of the principle of Sankofa. We should all take moments to look back and 'fetch' instances from our past that teaches us and empowers us. Learn from our past to appreciate the now and to guide our future. So, why not reach back and fetch something. Dance, Write, Sing. 😊

Photo: http://reachandfetch.com/

Allow me to reintroduce myself.

Allow me to reintroduce myself.

Taken from: http://deeply-inspired.blogspot.com/2010/11/still-i-rise-by-maya-angelou.html

My name is Neema Imani Selah. A WOMBman on a path of celebrating her divine feminine. Some of you may know me as Cheslyn, and in some respects I still am. That's the name that my parents gave to me and the name I still hold dear in my heart. However, I had become very unhappy with the me I had become; unhappy because I didn't feel like my true self because I had been so busy trying to be the"me" that everyone else wanted me to be. I had been trying tirelessly to fit myself into the box that everyone else wanted me to fit into. I allowed other people to define the person I was. They suggested who I should be as a mother, as a wife, as a woman, as a being; and I readily conformed to their standards. Truth be told, I didn't feel like I had a choice. I desperately needed their affection, their approval, and their love.

Taken from:
http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/this-is-me-and-this-is-my-life-2/

But then, I woke up one day and realized that I do have a choice. This is my life. I have a right to be who "I Am", the right to be who "I" want to be. And I didn't have to conform to their narrow-minded, selfish vision if me. Lauryn Hill said that "whenever we submit our will to someone else's opinion, a part if us dies." And I had died a thousand deaths.

So one day it came to me very concretely that I had to allow my old self to have one more death. A sort if self-sacrificial death so that a new me could be resurrected. As apart of the transformation and redefinition of me (part of the journey) I needed to adopt a symbolic name that would represent me on this journey.

After much reflection, prayer, meditation and consultation from the elders, I chose the name Neema. I received it from my aunt, Adelyn Binta Mgonela (fluent in Kiswahili) She said that when she thought of me, she thought of Neema.

Neema, she explained, means grace. Grace can be defined as:

~unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification

~a virtue coming from God

~approval, favor

~ease and suppleness of movement or bearing

Imani means faith and is a reminder to myself to "keep the faith", "have faith" and "be faithful" on my path. Faith is a belief. It's an understanding that even though I don't know who, what, when, where, why or how, what I do know is that if I believe wholeheartedly and put in the necessary work faithfully, my dreams and visions have the possibility to manifest.

Selah is a concept I commit to practice. It translates loosely to "pause and reflect or praise" and "it is so". After all interactions and connections I pause and reflect and encourage others to do the same. That is how we allow ourselves to regenerate, for when we take the time reflect on ourselves, our interactions, and the types of connections we have with others and the universe, we are able to renew our spirits.

So now, let me reintroduce myself "I am Neema Imani Selah. I am Grace - Faith - Reflection. I am 'Me'". I am blessed by the divine. I am anointed in the spirit. I am that I am with the infinite Goddess within.

Selah.

Taken from: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/i-am-what-i-am/images/28309113/title/nice-photo