I had one of my students ask me if my Facebook name was related to the new Wale song Lotus Flower Bomb. I furrowed my brow (as those who know me know I do when someone has said or done something cray) and said no sweetie, I will leave that kind of thing to the younger people. With that being said, I do like that song and don't get me wrong, I am not putting any judgement toward having a song lyric or cool saying as your middle name on Facebook/Twitter/Google+ etc or having the chorus of a song on your voicemail. Lord knows I had my share of love song lyrics on my voicemail when I was younger...LOL. Thank God I didn't have access or a thorough knowledge of social media back then...but I digress.
My "lotus flower" reference is to the actual flower. I wrote a "note/post" on Facebook almost two years ago in January on this topic and my "middle name" on Facebook has been "Lotus Flower" since then. The funny thing is because I am not versed on all the new updates on Facebook, I don't know how to remove it (it makes me giggle every time I think about it...so savvy and so not all at the same time).
As I say in my Twitter and Blog profile description, my learning is first for me and then I share with others. My prayer is that I try daily to have a Lotus Flower Mentality (I am a firm believer that God not only gives us wisdom via the Bible but also in life itself - trees, flowers, seasons, etc).
Here is what I found on the beautiful Lotus Flower and the prayer I wrote (and say daily):
The Lotus Flower - The gleaming white head of the flower rises above filth as it grows in swamps and bogs, places we call "disgusting". It is one of the most beautiful and spiritually connected flowers on the earth. It is not affected and even flourishes in the filth that surrounds it, giving off a sweet perfume/fragrance.
It is the Buddhist symbol of purity, rising above suffering, growing through murkiness into the light
God make me and my faith into the Lotus, as I too want to flourish and grow through the murkiness and rise into Your light. Despite the filth (confusion, ambiguity, chaos, hurt, trials, negativity) that is going on around me, I want to move closer to You and be a vessel to spread Your sweet fragrance to those people and situations around me.
Amen
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Holla IF You Hear Me?
When I was driving to work yesterday, I decided to get back into my space of having a conversation with God while driving to drop off my daughter and to work. As I began, I got an anxious feeling...you know the feeling you used to get when you knew you were going to get it when you got home...lol. It had been a while since I truly had a conversation with God...a true conversation. I mean I have prayed...some prayers quick and some prayers longer but true conversation, I am sad to say it has been a while.
This got me thinking about how we don't really know how to have true, authentic conversations anymore. What do you mean, Jonika? Well, a conversation...a true, authentic conversation has two parts: Speaking and Listening. Giving information and Receiving information. We have the speaking part down, but we (including me) struggle with the listening. Being quiet and letting another person speak is a part of the process, but the part that people will probably not admit to doing is we rarely really listen to another persons words. When I say listen, I mean listening actively - engaged with their words, taking their words in without letting our minds wonder to what we will say in response or our daily "to do" list. Waiting on their response with anticipation as though what they are about to say or saying is very important to the conversation AND to us. Am I striking a nerve? I had to yell OUCH a few times as I processed this post in my mind...Holla IF you hear me :-).
When I first started on my spiritual journey, I struggled with prayer. I couldn't do all the elaborate prayers that I heard in church nor did I want to because it was not authentic to me. My pastor told me, true prayer is a conversation with God, where we talk with God AND listen. Talk AND Listen to God. I had not LISTENED to God in a while. How many of us pray but don't take the time to listen? How many of us have not had a true conversation with our God ever? We must be willing to listen in our prayer/conversation with God. When I say listen, I don't necessarily mean sitting and waiting for a response, literally. I mean opening our hearts, minds and spirits to the response, however that comes (Psalms 27:14 AMP). We must also learn to turn our minds and worlds off and tune into God's voice. So when God speaks to you, however it does, you can know you are being directly spoken to. How do you learn that you are being spoken to? One way, is by having true, authentic conversations with God (I Kings 19:11-13; John 10:3-5).
I hear you, God...I am listening.
This got me thinking about how we don't really know how to have true, authentic conversations anymore. What do you mean, Jonika? Well, a conversation...a true, authentic conversation has two parts: Speaking and Listening. Giving information and Receiving information. We have the speaking part down, but we (including me) struggle with the listening. Being quiet and letting another person speak is a part of the process, but the part that people will probably not admit to doing is we rarely really listen to another persons words. When I say listen, I mean listening actively - engaged with their words, taking their words in without letting our minds wonder to what we will say in response or our daily "to do" list. Waiting on their response with anticipation as though what they are about to say or saying is very important to the conversation AND to us. Am I striking a nerve? I had to yell OUCH a few times as I processed this post in my mind...Holla IF you hear me :-).
When I first started on my spiritual journey, I struggled with prayer. I couldn't do all the elaborate prayers that I heard in church nor did I want to because it was not authentic to me. My pastor told me, true prayer is a conversation with God, where we talk with God AND listen. Talk AND Listen to God. I had not LISTENED to God in a while. How many of us pray but don't take the time to listen? How many of us have not had a true conversation with our God ever? We must be willing to listen in our prayer/conversation with God. When I say listen, I don't necessarily mean sitting and waiting for a response, literally. I mean opening our hearts, minds and spirits to the response, however that comes (Psalms 27:14 AMP). We must also learn to turn our minds and worlds off and tune into God's voice. So when God speaks to you, however it does, you can know you are being directly spoken to. How do you learn that you are being spoken to? One way, is by having true, authentic conversations with God (I Kings 19:11-13; John 10:3-5).
I hear you, God...I am listening.
Friday, December 2, 2011
The Nothings
As you will learn I can make an analogy out of anything and will try to do so. I am very visual so I like to give people a visual by using connections to anything absorbed by the five senses.
I have come to learn that I love sci fi/fantasy movies...yes Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings along with Chronicles of Narnia. Let us not forget Superman or X-Men (there are others but you get the point). I am not a die hard, buy all the paraphernalia type (no knock against those of you who are) but I love movies I can analyze (it all comes back to my love of analysis). I also think I love these movies because of their play (much of which I think is intentionally done) on spiritual elements of Good vs Evil, a greater purpose and/or a Higher Power.
One of my FAVORITES as a child was The NeverEnding Story. I LOVED (OK LOVE) that movie. It came out in 1984 and I know I have seen that movie over 100 times (probably more). The movie is about a young boy who is being bullied and "escapes" by reading a book about a mythical land called Fantasia. The land is being destroyed by "the nothing" and the young boy must discover his inner hero (strength) to save Fantasia.
Recently I was working with a friend regarding his career and his fears around his future. He had started his undergraduate degree years ago but stopped after he received his associates degree, due to starting a family. He was working an hourly job and had been doing so for fourteen years and admittedly became complacent in his situation. Well as the Uni-verse would have it, that was not going to be his purposed position. He was fired from his job and forced to face the process of thinking about his future. During our meeting, he began talking about his fears, how he didn't have time, didn't have confidence, needed to focus on getting a job - however felt this still small voice saying he should go back to school. You would think he came to me to find a way to make "going to school" happen, however he came to me so that I may talk him OUT of listening to that voice (blank stare *blink* *blink*). I told him about the NeverEnding Story movie and called all that "noise" he was hearing (I can't because...; I am not good/smart/rich enough; my past says no; I am scared; I don't want to fail) his nothings and his nothings were destroying his future.
Let me make the connection. In the movie, the lack of people's belief in Fantasia was causing the nothing to destroy the land. The nothing was symbolized by darkness, leaving "nothing" after the darkness swept over a place. They needed someone to believe in order for Fantasia to live on. The analogy is so relevant to our real lives and was specifically relevant to my friend's negative thoughts about his going back to school. Our nothings/our dark places destroy us - our present and our future.
We, most often, are our own worst enemy. Some of us want to blame others for how we feel about ourselves, but we must remember, what matters most is what WE BELIEVE ABOUT OURSELVES. What others say or do may hurt us once, but whether or not it continues to hurt us...make us fearful...make us stagnant...is totally up to us! The hurt we feel regarding past situation or what someone said that was hurtful after the initial situation, most often is us replaying the situation and the beliefs about ourselves over and over again in our mind and spirit...allowing the nothings to grow and become stronger in our lives.
All you need to counter your nothings is to BELIEVE! Believe in yourself, believe in your talents, believe in your worth, believe in your purpose. God/the Uni-verse already believes in you, however you must also believe for your "fantasia" to exist or come to fruition.
Think about your dreams, values, what you want to do, what you should be doing, what type of person you want to be. Then think about your nothings and how they are holding you back, how you are letting them grow stronger and how you may have let/are letting your nothings "destroy" areas of your life.
One of my friend mentioned me in a retweet of a quote that rang so true:
"Our work is to name the darkness for what it is and find what it asks of us" - Jan Richardson.
Our nothings should not be debilitating or stagnating, but a call to action! When the nothing says no, that means you NEED to get er done! When it says you can't, time to strategize ways that it WILL go down! When that dark places brings up fears, put on that Ephesian 6:10-17 armour and GET IT ON! Identify your nothings and focus on what it has prevented or will prevent you from doing/saying/being and then REFOCUS!
You can assume I didn't talk him out of going to school and he is now finishing up his first semester of the year and half he has left towards his bachelors degree. He is even considering pursuing a masters degree in sports administration.
If you have time you must watch the movie especially with your kids, god kids, grand kids, even a friend's kids...not because it is in this post but because it is so darn good and worth it.
I have come to learn that I love sci fi/fantasy movies...yes Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings along with Chronicles of Narnia. Let us not forget Superman or X-Men (there are others but you get the point). I am not a die hard, buy all the paraphernalia type (no knock against those of you who are) but I love movies I can analyze (it all comes back to my love of analysis). I also think I love these movies because of their play (much of which I think is intentionally done) on spiritual elements of Good vs Evil, a greater purpose and/or a Higher Power.
One of my FAVORITES as a child was The NeverEnding Story. I LOVED (OK LOVE) that movie. It came out in 1984 and I know I have seen that movie over 100 times (probably more). The movie is about a young boy who is being bullied and "escapes" by reading a book about a mythical land called Fantasia. The land is being destroyed by "the nothing" and the young boy must discover his inner hero (strength) to save Fantasia.
Recently I was working with a friend regarding his career and his fears around his future. He had started his undergraduate degree years ago but stopped after he received his associates degree, due to starting a family. He was working an hourly job and had been doing so for fourteen years and admittedly became complacent in his situation. Well as the Uni-verse would have it, that was not going to be his purposed position. He was fired from his job and forced to face the process of thinking about his future. During our meeting, he began talking about his fears, how he didn't have time, didn't have confidence, needed to focus on getting a job - however felt this still small voice saying he should go back to school. You would think he came to me to find a way to make "going to school" happen, however he came to me so that I may talk him OUT of listening to that voice (blank stare *blink* *blink*). I told him about the NeverEnding Story movie and called all that "noise" he was hearing (I can't because...; I am not good/smart/rich enough; my past says no; I am scared; I don't want to fail) his nothings and his nothings were destroying his future.
Let me make the connection. In the movie, the lack of people's belief in Fantasia was causing the nothing to destroy the land. The nothing was symbolized by darkness, leaving "nothing" after the darkness swept over a place. They needed someone to believe in order for Fantasia to live on. The analogy is so relevant to our real lives and was specifically relevant to my friend's negative thoughts about his going back to school. Our nothings/our dark places destroy us - our present and our future.
We, most often, are our own worst enemy. Some of us want to blame others for how we feel about ourselves, but we must remember, what matters most is what WE BELIEVE ABOUT OURSELVES. What others say or do may hurt us once, but whether or not it continues to hurt us...make us fearful...make us stagnant...is totally up to us! The hurt we feel regarding past situation or what someone said that was hurtful after the initial situation, most often is us replaying the situation and the beliefs about ourselves over and over again in our mind and spirit...allowing the nothings to grow and become stronger in our lives.
All you need to counter your nothings is to BELIEVE! Believe in yourself, believe in your talents, believe in your worth, believe in your purpose. God/the Uni-verse already believes in you, however you must also believe for your "fantasia" to exist or come to fruition.
Think about your dreams, values, what you want to do, what you should be doing, what type of person you want to be. Then think about your nothings and how they are holding you back, how you are letting them grow stronger and how you may have let/are letting your nothings "destroy" areas of your life.
One of my friend mentioned me in a retweet of a quote that rang so true:
"Our work is to name the darkness for what it is and find what it asks of us" - Jan Richardson.
Our nothings should not be debilitating or stagnating, but a call to action! When the nothing says no, that means you NEED to get er done! When it says you can't, time to strategize ways that it WILL go down! When that dark places brings up fears, put on that Ephesian 6:10-17 armour and GET IT ON! Identify your nothings and focus on what it has prevented or will prevent you from doing/saying/being and then REFOCUS!
You can assume I didn't talk him out of going to school and he is now finishing up his first semester of the year and half he has left towards his bachelors degree. He is even considering pursuing a masters degree in sports administration.
If you have time you must watch the movie especially with your kids, god kids, grand kids, even a friend's kids...not because it is in this post but because it is so darn good and worth it.
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