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