Are you where you want to be?

power

Poetry: Journey To Reality

 

As I slowly emerged from my “dark ages”,  poetry was a medium that I used to express much of what was happening in my life.  The free-flowing poem below represents a kind of summary of my downward spiral, followed by my first attempt to “come back to life”.  It reminds me of how I desperately gasped for air during my near drowning experience at age nine.

I

In search of life and love I boldly ventured forth,

Or so I thought; I wanted all and wanting took in greed,

Each sensation grasping with both hands

To then remain dissatisfied for wanting more.

This world to me must yield its very soul

Its every palpitating breath,

That I might live each passion to the core

And drink the cup of happiness that I deserved.

II

Come vaporous vine!

Take me into your sun-drenched arms,

Enfold me in your warm embrace.

What ethereal Utopia is your gift

Of deep oblivion.

No pain can touch me, nor bitterness

Taint my chalice of perfection,

With you beside me as my constant friend.

III

But what is this that you demand?

You crave attention more than I. 

Indeed, not mere attention – this is total slavery!

Where are your magic powers and promised reverie

For those who sip your nectar so divine?

I asked not for this mad confusion

Nor this tormented soul!

Dear God, I feel abandoned and alone.

This kaleidoscope of colors many hued

By children of innocence is perhaps enjoyed,

But my tired eyes and heavy head

Crave not such gaudiness.

IV

Where are my jewels, my crown and scepter gold?

Where is the kingdom that I rule

With all prostrate beneath my very feet?

Why does my head pound to the rhythm

Of a thousand dervish drums from hell?

To me was promised heaven -  paradise!

V

Merciful night comes down upon this nightmare,

But I find not solace in my sleep

As bitter yellow bile rebels within my guts.

Cool hand of death that you were near

To relieve my tortured and tormented soul.

No! No!  I do not want to die,

To pass unnoticed into the spirit world.

And yet this is not living –

This agonized confusion in my heart.

Can this be the grandiose person that I was,

Who craved so much for life and living?

Who now grovels at the feet of Bacchus,

Leering god of ultimate rejection.

VI

Dear God where are you in my hour of need?

Dare I call upon you whom I have long ignored?

Your once proud child in new humility

Beseeches your assistance, your support.

I am not strength personified as I believed,

But rather like a motherless new-born babe.

Be my Mother, be my Father too

For this death wish is just another fallacy,

Another road to take, to run, to hide, to flee

From life that I so truly long for.

Lift this veil of visions from my eyes,

And let love flood my soul,

For I would drink no more of Bacchus’ opiate,

But of the cup of life.

VII

And if to gain my freedom I must burn,

Then I am ready to accept the flame

Of your immense and deeply cleansing love.

Knowing that you hold the healing balm

Will give me strength to suffer what I must.

For now I see your hand stretched out toward me

That for so long has waited patiently,

You never did abandon my lost soul,

I chose to wander losing sight of thee.

My life till now has been an emptiness

Of barren spaces void of any truth,

Honest feelings always have escaped me;

Yet no, if truth is what I search, let truth prevail,

‘Twas I escaping everything.

VIII

Now I must learn to take my steps again,

To fall, then rise to fall once more

And ever rise again –

But not lose heart.

For you my Father, Mother, and my Friend

Will walk with me if I but meekly ask.

And in your love so infinite and wise

Will I find strength to seek reality.

 

© 20 September 1980

Shared Wisdom: Women’s Strength

 

Be A Queen

 

(Part of the commencement address made by Oprah Winfrey to the graduates of all-female Spelman College in 1993.)

 

Be a queen.  Dare to be different.  Be a pioneer.  Be a leader.  Be the kind of woman who in the face of adversity will continue to embrace life and walk fearlessly toward your challenge.  Take it on!  Be a truth seeker and rule your domain, whatever it is – your home, your office, your family – with a loving heart.

Be a queen.  Be tender.  Continue to give birth to new ideas and rejoice in your womanhood…………..  My prayer is that we will stop wasting time by being mundane and mediocre………. We are daughters of God – here to teach the world how to love.

It doesn’t matter what you’ve been through, where you come from, who your parents are – nor your social or economic status.  None of that matters.  What matters is how you choose to love, how you choose to express that love through your work, through your family, through what you have to give the world.

Be a queen.  Own your power and your glory!

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

I Will Be Still And Steady

 

If, like a Cherokee warrior, I can look at the new year as an opportunity to stand on new ground, then strength and courage are on my side.  I will remember that things do work out, bodies do heal, relationships mend – not because I said it, but because I believe it.

But it is time to make things right, to stay on the path.  As water runs fresh and free from the woodland spring, so new life and meaning will bubble up from my own inner source.  I will be still and steady, because there is nothing to be gained by showing fear in a chaotic world.

 

Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Shared Wisdom: Power To Become

The piece of wisdom that I wish to share today is written by Nelson Mandela.  These were the words that helped to liberate me from a self-made prison of fear.  They helped me to explore avenues on my journey of self discovery that I would never have thought of looking at.  The line that had the most impact on me is: “There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.” 

A million light bulbs went off in my head and my heart when I fully understood the meaning of those words.  I had spent so many years living to please others and denying my own true self that I was indeed scared to fully manifest the unique individual that I am.  Today I live LARGE – no apologies!

Power To Become

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?”  Actually, who are you not to be?  You are a child of God.  Your playing small does not serve the world.  There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.  We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.  It is not just in some of us.  It is in everyone.  And as we let our light shine, we give other people permission to do the same.  As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Nelson Mandela 

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