Don't Shoot The Messenger

What a time to be alive. The present is certainly a gift to behold knowing that our personal freedoms are influenced by the culmination and manifestations of the words spoken and delivered by luminary, visionary, and missionary, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. since the inception of his monumental speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. The further we venture into the future, the more Dr.King’s metaphorical phrases ring true through to the core of the Nation and it's ever diversifying state of nationality. By exercising the Power of the Spoken Word and holding the founding fathers, and their successors, accountable to stand and deliver on the promises of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the National Anthem, all of which were drafted by the Power of the Written Word, Dr. King challenged the American nation to, for the lack of a better phrase, “say what you mean and mean what you say’. His speech is one of the most noble orations of all time because of its ability to transcend time, space and circumstance yet regard the rights, freedoms and inclusivity of all mankind. Without going through Dr. King’s speech with a fine-tooth comb or dissecting it into its many moving parts, we will instead expand on the qualities of his character, explore the evolution of his followers and celebrate the liberties associated with exercising the freedom of speech. We are at a critical point in the evolutionary process where we must relinquish the self-limiting beliefs that give rise to prejudices, stereotypes and discriminations before we can access our own true potential. It is high time we transcend this human conditional by exploring and occupying the options lain before us to ascend past our individual and collective traumas, tragedies and transgressions by honoring our natural nature of compassion, grace, patience and kindness hence our collective title as ‘mankind’.

Freedom is a natural state of being that can be examined, at any point in time throughout history, as requiring excessive force to deny or grant any number of people a given birth rite. The considerable route to our current freedom took multiple attempts, attacks and atrocities to enslave select groups of people as it did to emancipate them; thusly making it no easy feat nor defeat to be had. The pursuit of freedom is a journey riddled with souls searching for countless interpretations only to be met with just as many impending interventions to satisfy the same void. While our stories vary, our objective and desire to obtain said freedoms remains the same. This is the perception and these are some of the practices that have kept myself and a community of others from repeating the cycle of dissociation and have instead given us access to a new earth, new beginning and new age.

Mentally, we have suffered the brunt of knowing all there is to know of our country’s trespasses against itself and its citizens along with the knowledge of a timeline of historical events that were major contributions to the loss and gain of freedom. Having much the same functions as a computer, the mind is vulnerable to sensitive information and the lasting effects following exposure to certain stimuli can be detrimental to the overall mental health of an individual. An example of the mind’s susceptibility to products of environmental hazards, whether visual or physical, are movie ratings and their forewarning of graphic, violent and explicit content, whereas, the physical exposure to war is the direct cause of PTSD and ones inability to withstand nor differentiate their current experience from that of firsthand experiences while in combat on the battlefield. That is why the first order of business is to decolonize the mind and, thusly, the longevity of mental health will prevail as the primary order of operation. Prioritizing my mental health at critical times throughout my growth and development process but especially during the self-discovery process until self-mastery was attained, while managing and maintaining mental health status has proven paramount to my current mental state. Sure, studying psychology while in college served as a foundation to foster healthy thoughts, actions and behaviors but it was the University’s resource and accessibility to free services with a counselor that served most beneficial. So much emphasis is being placed on the mind because it is fragile, fertile and fleeting hence our ability to ‘lose our mind’ and succumb to the mental prisons that often take the shape of people, places and things but not without our permission to surrender our power to these entities of subjection. Thusly, we are the warden of our own mental imprisonment or the writer of our mental emancipation. The fine line between fiction and non-fiction is not only indicative of how permeable the mind is but also a testament to how penetrating information can be so it is vital that we live in our truth but also assess our circumstances with an honest lens enough to develop a mind over matter mantra, override victim mentality with that of the victor and conquer the demons that pose as destructive thoughts, dangerous habits and toxic patterns.

In the physical sense, everything seems to be perfectly fine except everything isn’t what it seems to be. Nowadays, our exterior seems to be a direct reflection of the inward assessing, addressing and accountability we have or have not taken for our actions, thoughts and/or behaviors as aforementioned. Likened to the natural law of ‘as within, so without’, our physical state is associated with and dependent upon our mental state, after all, where the mind goes, the body does indeed follow, therefore, the internal clutter or cleanliness of our headspace will reflect externally in our workspace, living space and manifest physically in any given space. Dr. King had a keen understanding of the power, harmony and synergy that could exist between the mental and the physical and the heightened state of awareness required to manifest thoughts into things. Acknowledging that ‘something comes from somewhere’ and that if one could think, dream or envision something then surely it must exist somewhere, otherwise, how did the thought, dream or vision come about ?! Now, we can get metaphysical and go down the rabbit hole of esoteric and eclectic thought while using the corresponding verbiage or we can respect Martin’s ability to convey a message in a manner that was conducive to his audience for generations to come when he advised that, “We must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.” This metaphysical realm where thoughts become things is the same space where dreams come true and is the art of manifesting. There was no doubt in his mind that the alchemy of the mental, physical, emotional, spiritual intention would produce a manifestation of substantial proportion, the dilemma came when he realized that his dream is a conflict of interest with the members of his generation, opposing forces and the general populous. He, therein, also knew that the future he had envisioned for himself may very well be beyond his time and be a reservation for later generations that could appreciate the spectrum of complexion, customs and cultural differences and acknowledge it as a symbol of freedom.

For people of color specifically, our desire to reconnect with the feeling of freedom is as deep as the sea, as wide as the ocean and as essential as the air we breathe knowing some of us are still subject to the oppressive, offensive, and obsessive nature of those that seek to domination over our state of being. The only exception that has been made is that the need for dominance has been modified to include dominion over all members of society with some regard to the rich as the apex predators. After a series of socioeconomic setbacks over the last decade alone, the general population is expected to be emotionally tethered to monetary gain, material success and superficial maintenance but the heart wants what it wants, and this is still love. The essence of our being is emotion and feeling said ‘energy in motion’ with such potency, intensity and longevity that our dreams manifest into reality. There are some who have not found or do not have the emotional support to satiate the growing void of desire to know true, unconditional and divine love that transcends the need for earthly validation through possession, acquisition and consumption. To transcend the human condition, one has to love or be emotionally invested in the free expression, creation and communication of love languages, both known and unknown while welcoming the range of display. This, along with loving oneself enough to recognize the heart as a vital organ and becoming emotionally available to those who can reciprocate heartwarming gestures, heartfelt emotion, and operate out of the kindness of our heart know this is key to experiencing a heart awakening. A heart awakening is necessary to living a life unencumbered without any guilt, shame or judgement weighing on the heart. The idea is to free yourself of any emotional festering, baggage and debris that would create imbalance when weighed in conjunction to a feather. Are you lighthearted ?! What is weighing heavy on your heart ?! What are your heart’s desires ?! These are questions that require answers for clarity and actions for fulfillment and the sooner we realize these questions are not rhetorical, the sooner we can fulfill our heart's desires.

In the wake of spiritual ascension, breakthrough and transformation: we are coming to know ourselves as spiritual beings having an earthly experience which requires a reinvention of ourselves entirely and completely. In order to stake claims in the future, we are to continue to bestow or adopt the necessary characteristics, qualities and virtues of Dr.King now. Listening to Dr. King's speech, his dream has manifested but what about our dreams in leu of his ?! Have we forgotten our dreams upon awakening ?! Or are we in active pursuit ?! Our true, core, authentic self is waiting to live out our dream in real time but freedom is prerequisite so continue to emancipate yourself, for our dreams are preconceived notions waiting for the perfect opportunity to express themselves on the other side of time. Your dream is waiting on you.