VIDEO NOTES: Turn the volume of video above all the way up, it’s low. Full video audio can be found on YouTube (trigger warning: in the beginning of the full audio he speaks of a threat made on his life). I am inspired by Dr. King’s endeavor to make theoretical doctrine a living practice of connection.
Day 3 physical practice to follow separately.
Greetings beloveds,
I hope this finds you really well. For those who are facing frigid temperatures, especially in places not accustomed to snow and ice, I hope you’re staying warm and safe. For those who are facing the ongoing fires in LA, I hope you’re finding ways to ground amidst uncertainty and that you are safe. LA Fire Fund
The video above is in relation to my contemplation on Dr. King’s prayer life and how active faith carried him through times of great uncertainty.
I am grateful today for his teachings, and maybe like Dr. King shared, many of us toss and turn at night. Regardless of whatever position you’re in, it’s okay not to be strong all the time and to share and show your vulnerabilities. When we are vulnerable together, we are stronger together. Showing our vulnerabilities gives other people permission to also be vulnerable. So I thank Dr. Martin Luther King for sharing this vulnerable time, this moment when he had to make real for himself a living faith beyond doctrine to carry him through. Not just the belief in doctrine or faith of a religion, but a living faith, a faith that worked and that had him do work in order to uphold it.
My soul is inspired by Dr. King and as you may already know, Dr. King had a direct connection with yoga and mindfulness. In my own experience I have found strength through the spiritual practices underpinning yoga and mindfulness. I have released fortification within myself through works of active faith: heightening awareness, minding my thoughts, rejecting that which is not real, and embodying knowledge and truth that I have come to know for myself. This is also at the core of all of my work in its many forms. Faith is the antidote to doubt and there is a point where we can go beyond hope and come to certainty. For me, that alchemical transformation came when I was channeling a dance piece and the ancestor Sara Baartman was with me. I embodied and came to know very clearly that we are not here in this moment, in this time, at this juncture along the continuum of history, by accident. What I know from embodied experience is that we are each here directly to give something, to fulfill a piece of a puzzle of this moment and what this time is calling for. I pray that you have a sense of certainty along the way that you are irreplaceable. You are valuable and you are here for a purpose and a reason. We are all here just for a season and how we experience being here, for me, has been so enriched by working my faith and by remembering who I really am and what my soul is called to do. So I pray this enrichment for you this day and that you find a sense of certainty through practice, through ancestral connection, and through self-collective healing.
For those of us who are in relatively comfortable positions today, I hope that you’re finding a way to be of service, in your own way, according to what you see is needed around you.
“Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
INSPIRED SOUL PRACTICE:
Tell us in the comments the way you serve today, and every day. Yes, taking care of loved ones counts. Do you give of your time, your gifts, your nature of love, your energy and vibration, your money, your belongings, and other forms of overflow? Sharing here is not an act of competition or judgment, but of inspiration. Please do share the nature of expression of your heart’s grace so we may be inspired to expand our own expression. Gratitude for your being and presence.🙏🏾
