It is that Time and Place

Anyone that has birthed children or claimed any children as theirs knows what it means to want the best in life for them, and that is,for them to find their place in life and to be happy. We want to always protect our children from the encroaching "evils" of the world, and whatever that means in our lives and culture. The evil of violence. The evil of drugs. The evil of woundedness. So as I read my class assignments that recount the religious conflicts in India I am distressed. I am distressed because I know that the most vulnerable segments of the population are disproportionately affected even if that reality is not indicated in the popular media. But it is like that all around the world - women, children, elderly, infirmed and disabled are the victims of violence and hegemonic governments and yet we are not always aware of the insidiousness of such violence and repression. The mothers and fathers in Iraq cry out for their murdered children. The mothers and fathers in Darfur and Ethiopia and Mozambique cry out for their dying and hungry children. These children are our children. Until we care as much about these losses as we care about our own children's welfare there will continue to be wars and poverty and neglect. Let us not continue mindlessly down the path of ignorance and apathy. We cannot do everything but we do not have to be stymied because there is so much to do. We can make a difference in the world.

I wrote the following poem when my daughter called me one day in her second year of law school. She felt she was not going to be able to continue. She felt unsure of herself. She questioned her ability to compete and to marshall her inner resources. The words in this poem are the words I spoke to her as I called forth the power of God and the ancestors to claim the power that she needed to get through her crisis of doubt. Sometimes it is about that. We have to call on our support system, our friends and loved ones, our spiritual practices and whatever the Sacred means to us to get us through our crises so that we can continue the work that we have been called to do.

I pray that I live to see the day when parents do not have to fear for their children's lives. That they can put their energy into other things because war will no longer be a threat. May we work to draw that time closer. May we learn from the lessons of those that have come before us and study war no more.
Amen and Blessed Be!

It is that Time and Place

It is now time to call on the memories of the ancestors when they thought they could not walk another step toward freedom - and they did;

It is that time and place to call on the memories of the ancestors when the darkness of their live threatened to take away any inkling of hope and light, and they reached a little deeper and prayed still another prayer to get them through the long nights to witness still another sunrise.

It is that time and place to remember the oceans of tears shed to deliver us to this time, to remember the bent knees and bowed backs and the fervent voices asking, begging to keep loved ones safe and delivered from the hands of slavery and the violence of their everyday lives.

It is time to remember the smiles and warmth shown though they had far less, and little reason for optimism and yet they stayed on the path toward a better tomorrow.

It is time to hold fast to the unchanging hands and hearts and prayers of the ancestor that have brought us this far; Tthat taught us about a God who was able and bigger than lifes vicissitudes

It is time to make them proud and show ourselves what we are made of. To show them that their prayers and sacrifices and lives were not in vain, and did not go unnoticed and have not been forgotten.

Did you not know that this day would come? Did we not know that we would have to change places and be the ones praying for and working for better times? Did we not know that just as our ancestors were delivered that we would also be delivered?

Have we not seen the greatness and power of the Creative energy in the Universe called God? Have not seen God in one anothers faces? Does not God make a way out of no way? Do we not know who we are and whose we are?

It is that time and place now to know so that we must leave a legacy for our children and for all the children. It is that time and that place.

Baby, we are the ones we've been waiting for. And for this let us be eternally grateful.

Thank you Lord. Thank you Yawa. Thank you mother/father/God. Thank you Shango. Thank you Allah. Thank you Buddha. Thank you Ja. Thank you Jehova. Thank you Obatula. Thank you Krisna. Thank you I AM. Thank you Creative Energy in the Universe - the Morning Glory and the Setting Sun.