My Ideal Life

If I had my “ideal life” today

I would live in my own apartment

I drink tea & read in the morning

I water my plants & cuddle my kitty

I do all my morning chores like laundry, make my bed, straighten the house, make breakfast & shower.

Then I start my my writing.

I write articles about my interests & submit journal entries as well.

I write about gardening, my spiritual practice, and any musings that come to mind.

After writing, I’ll make lunch then head out to run errands.

I visit art museums & galleries, go to coffee shops for inspiration & planning, and do grocery shopping.

At some point I do some form of exercise or socialize with friends.

Before dinner, I meditate and pray

I’ll cook dinner & eat.

After dinner comes planning, then reading, then evening routine, cleaning spaces, setting up for tomorrow, yoga, and sleep.

I travel at least once a month & Airbnb my place in the meantime.

I make $ by consulting & donations.

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Black Love

Listen,

we are now (and have been) vibrating at different frequencies. 

My people, 

We are like Gold being sifted from the ground.

Sleeping and buried deep.

This shaking you’re feeling?

That’s our vibrations trembling the dirt around us, falling away.

It’s hard to shake it off at first. Painful even.

Now, it’s freedom.

It’s the literal weight of the world being lifted, shaken, crumbling, at OUR FEET. 

Because we are worth more than the dirt and sand that covered our natural bodies.

The ones that glow.

We are Gold coming to the surface to shine in the Light of the Sun!

There are no limits to what we can accomplish.

We have built and rebuilt NATIONS.

We are Light, We are Love.

And the World is about to know something it hasn’t known in a long time. 

BLACK LOVE. BLACK POWER

ABC’s of Spirituality

Recently I’ve become aware of themes, or patterns, that show up in my daily life revolving around sharing my experience and ideas. A journey is something to be cherished. People often only see success and never get a glimpse of obstacles overcome and lessons learned along the way. My intention with this blog is always to document for myself, my journey, and to let you in on that experience so that you can add to your own!

And with that I’ve typed out some meditations on the ABC’s of spirituality. I’ll explore what that means to me, and I’d love to hear what it means to you.

A is for Awareness

What is awareness? The simplest explanation is to perceive, or be conscious of, something.

As humans, what distinguishes us from other species, is our awareness of self. We are able to be conscious of our perceptions of ourselves, as well as the world around us.

To me, this is the basis of spirituality. We are the observer and the observed. The universe, experiencing the infinite expression of itself.

To be aware of yourself is to be human, but to be aware of your individual journey as a human, is spirituality.

We all start at different places along the life path. Awareness of that path is the beginning of your spiritual journey.

Things you can bring your awareness to:

Your breath.

You may have heard of mindfulness meditation. The idea is to focus on your breathing and only that. Letting go of everything that is on your mind and focusing on the simplicity of inhaling and exhaling.

Doing this will allow your mind and body to relax. Breathing feels good, it makes space in your body, and it’s necessary to live. You usually don’t have to think about breathing. It is an automatic function and often gets taken for granted.

When you realize that the most important thing for life is breath, and you can have that unconditionally, your mind and body relax into the present moment. You’re able to express gratitude for a thoughtless bodily function. You’re able to practice awareness.

You stop worrying about your worries because the only thing you have to worry about is something you don’t actually have to worry about.

Your attitude.

How to do feel right now? How are you expressing the way you feel with your actions? Are you feeling defeated and kicking up dirt around you? Or are you feeling empowered to learn from your mistakes?

Bringing awareness to your attitude allows you to question why you’re feeling the way you do. Maybe things haven’t been going your way for awhile. Think about how you’ve been acting lately… has your attitude matched your expectations? Being aware of your attitude gives you the opportunity to evaluate it. If you’re attitude hasn’t been helping you get to your goals, make an adjustment.

Your mindset

Attitude is a reflection of your mindset, which determines how much responsibility you take for your life.

If your mindset is fixed, you feel like you aren’t in control of your life. Everything feels predetermined and your abilities are limited.

Having a growth mindset means taking responsibility for the direction of your life. Understanding that you have control over yourself and YOU are your only limitation.

Your Choice.

Photo by Daria Shevtsova on Pexels.com

Think of all the times you’ve said that you didn’t have a choice.

Now think about how untrue that was.

Remember when you were young and you tried to blame doing that bad thing on your friend?

“Mom, I had no choice! They made me do it!” Remember your mom saying, “If your friend told you to jump off a bridge would you do it? No? Then you had a choice.”

Same concept. Everything is a choice. And once you’re aware of that, you can start taking responsibility for it. Own up to your decisions. They got you here. And here is right where you needed to be.

Once you bring your awareness to these aspects of your life, you’ll start to see a shift in patterns. You’ll notice that you are noticing more. You’ll feel more in control of your life, because you ARE in control of your life. You will start to find synchronicities in everyday life that remind you of your spiritual journey.

Without awareness we are animals. It’s not a bad thing to be an animal but we have, and continue, to evolve past that. We have a responsibility to ourselves and our collective conscious to become more aware.

The beauty of awareness is that it’s a gift. For ourselves and for others. As things come into our awareness, we are able to interpret and share that information with others. We get to make someone else aware. And in turn, we all get to learn and grow!

I’ve been aware of my spiritual journey for several years now. I’ve accepted that sharing parts of my spiritual journey is a part of my spiritual journey.

Bringing awareness to my breath reminded me that I have everything I need. Being aware of my attitude taught me that my emotions are powerful tools in expressing myself and understanding those expressions. Bringing awareness to my mindset allowed me to evaluate my approach to life and adopt a mindset of growth and abundance.

I’d like to know what you’ve been aware of lately. Leave me a comment or feel free to share with me your experience with awareness.

This is a 3 part series so stay tuned for the rest of the ABC’s of spirituality.

Watch Me Dance

I sip on my drink as the place fills with bodies and my body fills with spirits.

It gets hotter in here. I dressed for the occasion,

stepping out in heels as well as on a limb.

My body sways from side to side. As I feel my drink, I feel my hips.

I’m warm but comfortable.

A smile forms on my lips and a twinkle appears in my eyes.

Somehow my balance is easier.

I step forward from the wall where I was perched on to the middle of the dance floor.

My arms raise as I scoop my hips and pop my back.

I don’t know the song, but the song knows me.

My eyes make contact with those of the guitarist.

What is it with guitarists?

I don’t care. He sees me too, smiling with his eyes.

He knows this is why we came.

He sways with me, encouraging.

I slowly turn around, closing my eyes, feeling the rhythm.

It’s for me. I feel all the eyes on me.

It’s not what I came for, I just wanted to dance.

I love it.

Who is this mala mujer? Is she me?

My drinks get stronger and so do my thighs as I bend, and swing, and sway.

With every song that plays my vision gets blurrier but my confidence gets clearer.

Who is this bad woman anyway?

My company smiles with approval, I’m having a good time.

The drummer bangs and the lyricist rhymes.

The spotlights merge making colors no naked eye could see.

Somehow, here I am observing,

me.

I’m aware of my inebriation without a care.

I swing my hips, running my fingers through my hair.

Coqueta, they call me, and I understand why.

Although my glances are meant for no one else’s eyes.

A man approaches from behind me.

I’m the sexiest girl here, he came to remind me.

Slowly, he rests his hands on my hips as he whispers

“you’re very good”

through his soft, full lips.

I say nothing and smile.

I bend a little lower and gyrate with style.

Reggae is the music, with Caribbean flare,

he leads a little two step adding Latino in there.

My thighs are burning and my brow sweats.

The men all buy me drinks, placing their bets.

I accept none and continue to whine,

I’m by myself and that’s how I plan on going home tonight.

The women stare too, watching me sway,

wishing they too, could feel this way.

I’m not here to insight envy or steal a glance

I’m here now, so watch me dance.

Glow into the New Year

What do you do when you write an entire blog post for it not to save?

You re-write it.

Because the entire post was about you being consistent, setting an intention for each post, and exploring what it means to be a blogger.

Well sweetheart, this is part of it.

I challenge myslelf today, to glow into the New Year. I refuse to let anything get in the way of my success. I will continue to let my light shine no matter what I face. Because I’m not just doing this for me.

I’m doing this for everyone who has a voice that isn’t heard. I know what that feels like. I’ve given myself the tools to raise my voice and I will.

So I’m committing to developing a schedule for posting. I will execute with intention and I will continue to explore speaking my truth.

I hope you had a fabulous New Year. I am patiently eager to get this year started!

What Now?

Seventeen days ago, I ended my internship at the St. Louis Regional Chamber.

I planned on slowly releasing articles around my experience there. To be honest, I had too many experiences to group together and write about. I learned so many things in such a short time. It would be a disservice to myself and my readers to generically throw them together like a last minute high school paper.

Instead, I’m going to keep the memories as memories, and let them inspire my writing. My goal here is to add value to your life while figuring out mine.

The truth is, no one has it figured out. Seriously, no one.

But we are social creatures. We crave relate-ability and validation. We like listening to others’ stories if only to catch glimpses of our own.