DAILY As some of you know, I am creating a performance piece for Black Womanhood at the Davis Museum. Part of this exploration has been to re-weave my life back into that of my ancestors, known and unknown, black, white, and brown. My thoughts have traveled and woven around ancestors, both of blood and of choice, those teachers and mentors whose spirits run deep in my veins.
Of course when one is wrapped in the energy of something, those things connected to it tend to fall out of books, off shelves, are uttered from the mouths of strangers….the great mysterious synchronicities of the Universe. It keeps us all believing in angels, no?
When this page of nine ‘essential truths,’ that I named ‘Caffalisms,’ after Allan’s teacher/mentor, fell out of an old book, I took it as a sign that I might share it with you. I also took it as a sign that I needed to review, and re-vitalize these profoundly essential ideas within myself once again. I’m going to take myself to the mat to read and breathe, and hold each juicy thought in my heart before I take on the rest of my day. YOU?
CAFFALISMS…..or Nine Essential Truths
1 ENERGY IS INDESTRUCTABLE, IT ONLY CHANGES FORM.
2 ENERGY FOLLOWS THOUGHT IMMEDIATLY AND SIMULTANOUSLY.
3 GROWTH CAN ONLY TAKE PLACE THROUGH CHANGE.
4 CHANGE IS THE RESULT OF MOVEMENT BETWEEN THE ACTIVE AND RECEPTIVE FORCES.
5 THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS, ONLY THE CIRCUMSTANCES DIFFER.
6 SUFFERING IS A RESULT OF ATTACHMENT TO THE DESIRE THAT THINGS BE DIFFERENT THAN THEY ARE, OR DIFFERENT THAN THEY WERE.
7 WISDOM IS THE PRODUCT OF THE KNOWLEDGE AND ACCEPTANCE OF PAST ECPERIENCES–BEHIND WHICH THERE IS NO ATTACHMENT TO THE WISH THAT THE EXPERIENCES SHOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT. IT LETS GO OF IDEAS, “WHAT IF, SHOULD BE, AND OUGHT TO.”
8 UNCONDITIONAL LOVE IS THE ACCEPTANCE OF OTHERS AS THEY ARE. IT MAKES NO JUDGEMENTS, NO COMPARISONS, AND DELETES THE NEED TO INTELLECTUALLY UNDERSTAND. IT RELEASES ALL ATTACHMENT TO PERSONS, PLACES, THINGS, SITUATIONS, OR CONDITIONS. IT ACCEPTS AS PERFECT ALL THAT EXISTS IN THE UNIVERSE.
9 WE MUST BECOME AWARE OF OUR CONNECTION WITH SOURCE. WE ARE ONE SPIRIT, WE ARE ONE CONSCIOUSNESS, WE ARE ONE.
Asana: Perhaps each of these ‘truths’ has an asana to go with it? Is there one or two that speak strongly to you at this time? Do you feel their movement creating a pose in your muscles? If we move through each one, perhaps they are a dance, a connected, living force that can hold us strong and true in times of necessity.
Health Notes: When we move from our essential self, when we are moved to stand up and dance our ‘song,’ then the Universe finds profound ways of living and breathing our lives.
I love these ‘essential truths’. I often come back to this daily breath to re-read them. On this New Years Day, I have been reflecting on this past year and brainstorming my new goals for the upcoming year… essential to the success of every goal is to remember that “growth can only take place through change”… this truth makes me want to pose in dancer for a long time … in dancer, I am balanced but open, celebratory but composed. This is how I want to be in life.