● Kwanzaa and the End of a Decade

In light of the extraordinary times you, I, and the world are experiencing, I am offering, with gratitude today, this post which I wrote at the end of the year.

At the end of each year, I sum up my triumphs and my losses. In other words, it’s an exercise in looking back.

Mostly, I’m checking to make sure I learned something, anything that contributes to my goal of growing wisdom.

Warmed by one sun, guided by one moon

Some of my goals in life are to self-actualize, grow in wisdom and experience, and learn the lessons that the universe is trying to teach me.

I really can’t say if I succeeded, not while I’m walking here on earth. The universe already knows the answer! I am the common denominator in my life, but I don’t know by how much or how little.

The celebration of Kwanzaa begins after Christmas and lasts for seven days. Each day is embodied by a principle that offers, to those who want it, a path to spiritual, mental, economic, physical, and cultural well-being.

It has its roots in the black freedom movement in the modern Americas and the ancient harvest and communal legacies from Africa.

This is a time to reflect and appreciate what it means to be African and a human being on this planet. Although the celebration is considered a Pan-African holiday, it is celebrated everywhere on this earth where African people live.

And that is everywhere. No exception.

The principles:

• Umoja (unity)
• Kujichagulia (self-determination)
• Ujima (collective work and responsibility)
• Ujamaa (cooperative economics)
• Nia (purpose)
• Kuumba (creativity)
• Imani (faith)

all point to freedom from the seeds of self-doubt and self hate.

The last principle, Imani, sends us out into the world for another year believing in ourselves and each other.

💛 Remember their names.

Moon glow

Every month I tracked the moons that have been important in shaping cultures since woman walked on this earth.

The native people of North America followed the seasons by giving names to the moons. It helped regulate culture, life and the understanding of nature.

Winter evenings were illuminated by wolf and snow moons. The worm, pink and flower moons returned in the spring. In summer, strawberry, buck, and sturgeon moons showed up. Harvest, hunter’s, and beaver moon appeared in the fall.

The cold moon, aptly named, climbed the cloudy December skies.

We still don’t have control over anything, really. The pull of the moon in all its closeness to the earth influences us humans, vessels of mostly water.

Its presence spawns fear and inspires awe. Its influence is everywhere, in literature, science, and love, all over this earth.

It may hold the key to the survival of this planet.

See how it accumulates? Similar beliefs all over the world? The Americas, Africa or anywhere else. Is there any significance that this is the end of a decade, too. Coincidence? Happenstance? I don’t think so.

Sense it! The earth is shaking on its axis. Old thinking is out. We’re trying on new thoughts, new actions, too. The universe is giving us an opportunity to rewrite the script of time. And I believe that we can. Don’t you?

Paris in the Summer

This year I travelled to Paris, France looking for healing. I found it in a group of extraordinary women who helped me break free of some stale notions I had about myself.

They made me, through their honest self-revelations, see and love myself for who I truly am and who I want to be.

Afterwards, I stayed in the central city and lived for a few days, not as a tourist, but as a local. I rode the metro and walked through some of the neighborhoods.

I went to the flea market in the 18th arrondissement, Marche aux Puces de St-Ouen and hunted for tools. Instead, I found an old french chore coat to wear in my wood shop.

I went shopping for fabric, notions, and beads in Paris. I ended up at Montmartre (shout out to La Commune), at the steps before Sacre-Coeur. I found gelato, macaroons, and chocolate. Tiny samples. No guilt and c’est si bon!

Going forward

I made a list of the things I want to do for the coming year. Some things go back on the list and I’m always adding to it. It’s a never-ending list, but shouldn’t it be?

I started a blog. Hi!

I made a new friend. I’m trying as best I can to work on this. It is difficult in this busy world to make a friend and be one too.

Right now, I just want to see if I did what I said I would. One thing I did stick to – my mantra, which is to learn something new everyday!

I’m getting better mentally and physically. The body and mind can’t be separated. Self-care and reduction of the internal and external stresses are the armor that we need now. Did I say right now?

No delay should be tolerated. Each day is a gift to use for reminding ourselves of our own needs.

I am moving toward the light of my soul. I am using all the guidance offered to me to be a source of goodness, truth, and wisdom for all I meet. I want to absorb their goodness, too.

We all have it. Sometimes we don’t know we do until we reach a tipping point. We open our eyes and…there it is.

Left behind but still loved

This decade I lost two of the dearest people in my life. It hurts my heart every day. I’m living up to the dreams they had for me. Importantly, I’m living up to my own.

I am working, steadily, to always be the grateful woman they loved. I’ll never squander the life, love, wisdom, and genetic gifts they left me. Farewell but not forever. 💔

I look forward to every new year as an opportunity to start fresh.

Realistically, there are things that I have to bring with me from the previous year to finish and finally reckon with.

Overlap of the old with the new is not a mournful thing. It’s how we grow. I feel lucky to get another opportunity to study how the choices I’ve made play out. Isn’t that exciting?

My mantra “finish what I start” applies no matter how long anything takes. I’m not rushing to do this thing at 20 years old or that thing at 30. What about the rest of my life?

Looking ahead with hope not fear

I had an elderly neighbor, a retired teacher, on the block when I was a little girl living in that old house.

Occasionally, she would ask my mother to send me to her house down the street to comb her hair, clean up a bit and do laundry. Every once in a while, I would help her bathe, dress, and comb her long, gray hair.

In her room, on the wall were 8″ x 10″ framed portraits of herself for each decade from 10 to 70 years old. As a child, I was fascinated by this.

I was impressed by the innocence of the girl, the flirtiness and determined freedom of the woman, and the maturity of the matron all at once. Of course, I was too young to articulate what I felt, but as a grown woman now, I can.

I’m just now appreciating the fleeting and hopeful nature of life on this earth. I think of her often.

Depending on what I am dealing with myself in life, her decennium portraits grow more meaningful for me.

Each day of life, when I wake up, I am happy to see the changes on my face at 30, 40, 50, 60 years old and beyond. I don’t want to rush it, but I do want to see!

I am looking ahead and making today the best day of my life. Tomorrow gets here in its own time, usually a little too fast.

By no means am I completely in control, but I do know this: whenever the reins appear, I’m taking them.

When my self-assessment is done, I’ll find that I did not accomplish all I wanted. I cannot remember everything I did, either. That is why it is good to keep a diary or journal.

I start one each year, but never finish. Then, I’ll start again! That’s a ritual, too.

I am truly grateful that I have another year to grow myself into the wisdom and peace I seek.

-Shirley J

💛