A WOMAN'S WORLD
Embracing Your Power
By Rev. Angela Denise Davis, Special to Preach2me.com
"Oh, God, if you really love me please don't let that ball come near me! Please, please, please..."
Recently, I awoke with these words in my head and knew exactly out of which experience they had come: a youth soccer game. I think I prayed those words often in my short, athletic career, but I vividly recall praying those words during this particular game.
I still can feel the polyester jersey pasted to my body by a film of sweat, the elastic band of the shin guards, and the slow reversion of my pressed hair going nappy at the roots. I was the goalie, the player whose job it was to keep the balls from entering the net. If we won this game we were going to play in the regional championship. With so much riding on the outcome, I could not help but to feel scared.
I waited and prayed in the goalie box every time the opposing team charged towards me. They came and I caught every ball. It seemed like a miracle. There had to have been someone in that box with me.
Why did I awake with this memory running through my mind almost thirty years later? It finally came to me. The opposition is charging towards me and I need not pray like my eleven year old self. The young Angela, a good soccer player, disregarded her power in the face of overwhelming opposition. She did not trust what was on the inside because what was outside of her looked unbeatable. The older Angela knows that we are always fighting forces that strive to keep us from the winner's circle. My childhood prayer belied my power. Although scared, I was a good goalie. My mind and my body were in conflict. We may not be conscious about the effect of our thinking, but this line of praying beneath our power and possibilities puts us in a state of stress, or at worst, on the losing side.
As a grown woman, it is now time to integrate my thoughts and actions. It is time for my life's prayer and life's performance to be rooted in the power I know I have within me. It is a power that comes through me from a Divine source.
Tonight, I will say "thank you" to God for the memory of my soccer game by meditating upon a new vision of embraced power: I see myself standing in the goalie box. I am strong. I am powerful. On my lips there is only one prayer, "Oh, God, thank you for giving me the power to be who I am!” A veil lifts and I see a host of people standing with me in beauty and strength. There is Bayard Rustin, Harriet Tubman, Audre Lorde, Paul Robeson, Lorraine Hansberry, James Baldwin, and a host of other ancestors who stand in power with me. For when we truly embrace our power we connect with the Divine and ancestral forces within us all.
In this month of seasonal change and spiritual resurrection, may we embrace our power and be our best selves every day!
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December's Article
This Stew Called You
Dr. Kathi Martin
Oftentimes my life is so crowded that I feel like I am either juggling, or treading water, to avoid sinking into an abyss of busyness. This abyss is a troubling space where it seems like I’m always doing something. But much of what I intend to do never really gets finished to my satisfaction.
How should I prioritize when there are so many things going on? Work needs to be a priority because I have a mortgage to pay and I’ve grown accustom to eating. My partner is a priority because love requires time, attention, and commitment. Zami, Hailey, and Lillie (my two do dogs and a cat) remind me that they are a priority every morning at 5 a.m. when they want to eat. I have communal concerns like justice issues and the healing of social ills. I’m sure you have your own extensive list of concerns. Where on this list of priorities is “me time?”
Somewhere I read a quote about making rabbit stew. The first step in the recipe is to “catch the rabbit!!” I think the same thing is true about a fulfilling life. There may be a number of things included in the mix of a good existence. But the first priority is to catch the main ingredient of the stew -- YOU. We all have responsibilities. We all have challenges. We also live in a society that is full of troubles. I am not suggesting we ignore our practical needs like food, shelter, significant others and community responsibility. My concern is maintaining the quality of the main ingredient.
If we are tired, scattered, unhealthy, and mentally or emotionally depleted we will only have a partial, or fragmented self to offer to our loved ones and our world. Self care is not narcissistic, it is necessary. Historically, all of the great spiritual leaders spent time alone to recharge before attempting to help anyone else. From a Christian perspective, Jesus often went off by himself before and/or after a major event in his ministry. His own well-being was a priority. Even in service to others, self has to be our main priority.
Henri Nouwen, a Christian mystic, uses the illustration of a castle and a drawbridge. We are the castle. We have the controls to the drawbridge. We decide who has access to our life and at what time. Pull up the drawbridge and take some time to be alone with yourself and your spiritual source.
The beginning of a new year is the perfect time for a personal retreat. In our solitude we can grasp a vision of all that life could be. We can envision ourselves in good health and prioritize our time to include exercise, good nutrition, and rest. We can imagine or remember how it feels to be spiritually centered and plan a regular spiritual practice like prayer, meditation, inspirational reading, a walk in the park or whatever feeds your spirit.
Take good care of the main ingredient and your 2008 will be delicious.
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