Waiting.....

Some days when I am scared,

I just wait for it to pass.

I am waiting.....

in prayer.

Osun is my mother

Osun is our mother.

She is the mother of all children.

We are all her children.

Some days are pretty days.

No FI - YA = No Fear

When I was in Africa, the driver of our host and Oluwo was a man that would say to me, "NO - FI-YA!" as he was driving what seemed to be 100 miles an hour in the rain at night with no windshield wipers! I came to trust this man.

Some days I feel that I am on that same road, telling myself to not fear what is ahead.

Mentors and Mothers

I do not think that I am alone when I say that I did not have my best relationship with my mother as a young woman. My 16th-18th years were the most difficult...but looking back they really were not that hard! NOW I know that I was trying to be the woman that she had raised while being raised...it didn't seem to work. I wanted so desperately to prove to her and to myself that I was capable of implementing her lessons in my life and walking on my own two feet....how ever fragile they were.

Am I alone? No - I know that my mother had the same exact experience with her mother. It wasn't until she allowed me to try out my own legs, stumble and fall, leaving the nest to pursue whatever was the order of the day at the time - for me it was college. This was her greatest lesson...that I know that I am soon to one day face with my own daughters...and am facing right now with some of my younger female cohorts that I love so much. Today, I will reach back to my mother's lessons and remember her strength at this very moment.
Ase Ase Ase.

Now - what happened then?....I messed up, found and survived abuse, struggled for and attained success and eventually myself enough to see my mentors and examples around me. I found sisterhood as another "parent" and this loving guidance resulted in my own continued efforts of refinement as a mother, a wife, a business woman, a spiritual woman. I thank GOD for this because I came to find out that it wasn't that I needed to leave my mother, I only needed to see her from the view as a mother/teacher/mentor/wife/business woman/spiritual woman myself to truly understand her value and light.

It was my mentors that welcomed my trembling steps into what I have come to know as my EGBE. When I thought that it was finally time that I could go this alone, it was then that I realized that I was not alone at all...and this loving guidance and example is what returns me back to respecting and understanding my mother. Now I find that the term that I use to use."well you know how Mom is" has become an endearment rather than a warning. Her beauty astounds me and my respect of her grows daily making an example of her to me and my children and those who care to learn as well.

So I woke up this morning, with the wish to tell my daughters - extended and biological - that we are doing the very best we can as mothers.

But you will not be able to realize our and then your own greatness until we let you go.

You may not know this until you find your sisters/mentors outside of our immediate view, who will assist you with finding yourself and your destiny, and because of this, you are not alone.

As mothers we send you out to make it on your own only to return as sisters into an even wiser women's society always remembering your origin and because of this always knowing your destiny.

You CAN fly

and we KNOW it

because we are flying WITH you!

Omo

I need to paint more. I've not painted in nearly a year. I know that my creativity in this media will improve my creativity in all...including business, relationships, raising my children - in all.

We are working on my daughter's, project. I am painting the countries of the middle east...

My children are here to take care of me. Thier needs of me require my growth and achievement....so I am always growing.

Success is my order of the day

Alafia! To the world!

I am back to blogging. Trying to learn the benefits of technology since my career is taking off in so many directions. I now officially have at least 4 full-time jobs and up to 10 big dreams that I am still plugging away at. I can prioritize them in order to be more efficient. I am also aware that many of them are related to each other, creating a type of spiral affect as one's success is clearly the means to another's end....so its all quite achievable.

I believe that we once lived in the greatest of our potential, and we are only traveling back to this center, to find our perfect selves, capable of all. As we think it it is so

Are we really prepared to go back there?

Are we really still there?

Awaken

This flower is as big as my head. It grows faithfully in my yard. I am trying to learn how to take care of it. It opens at night and is there in the morning...so I think that is it a morning glory (?). Its a great view to awaken to.

Ori Time

Today I am teaching my daughter about the power of ORI.

This is your head.

This is the most powerful deity next to God.

It is your head that houses all belief -

Our memory of the ancestors

Our respect for the Orisa

Everything.

Your Will.

If you didn't believe then it wouldn't be.

So

We worship ORI

So that ORI can work for us.

So there is nothing

That we cannot have.

So that there is nothing

That I cannot be.

I weeded my garden today.....

ORI JA FUNMI!

Ori, Fight for Me Today! Ori, Fight for Me Today! Ori, Fight for Me Today.
Ase Ase Ase

There is a space

where we can access heaven inside

of us.

I want to stay there

always.

Private Sanctuary

I want to host exhibitions and concerts at my home. I vow to put aside fear and limitations. I instead invoke Oya's wind of possibility, the machete of Ogun clearing my road, and the colors of Osun's Creativity. It shall be.

You all are invited.....

Sango - Alaafin

Alaafin, ekun bu, a sa
Alaafin, (the king of Oyo) snarls like a leopard and the people run away
Eleyinju ogunna
One whose eyeballs glow like charcoal
Olukoso lalu
Olukoso, the famous one of the city
A ri igba ota, segun
One who uses hundreds of cartridges to win victory in war
Eyi ti o fi alapa segun ota re
One who used pieces of broken walls to defeat his enemies
Kabiyesi o - We honor you
Ase So be it

So I have an entire week to myself at home. The kids will be out of school in a few days to join me. I have no appointments but will not refuse them if they arise. I am looking forward to this. I am committing myself to a schedule of the following:

• Rest
• Artwork
• Reading
• Real Estate - minimal research at insuring next month's mortgage
• Research
• Exercise
• Cleaning - just enough to get by

I spent most of my midnight hours (11-3am) with my 10 year old daughter taking photographs. I let her sleep in another 15 minutes today to make up for it. Its just that we were addicted to images.

We have a shrine in our home. Sango is the Orisa that turns sand into gold. I created the shrine to celebrate Sango's presence and assistance in our destiny.

We had our family and friends over and we all danced together. The shrine will stay up until Thursday - his day. Until then, we are enjoying saluting daily and praying for the things that will make life most enjoyable.

Work, Play, Balance

And so we come to the end of the adventure when the girl known as Dorothy had completed her journey. She had matured over the course of traveling in the Land of Oz and realized what she had been seeking. Her quest to find home was a quest to find herself and she would have endured battle how ever many thousands of flying monkeys and evil witches to find the place that would give her balance.

"What have you learned," asked Glinda, the Good Witch.

"Well, if I ever go looking for my heart's desire, I won't look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn't there, then I never really lost it to begin with. Is that right?" stated Dorothy with confidence.

"That's right," confirmed Glinda and with the click of her heels Dorothy and Toto were back at home.

Creativity comes from within. It is about seeing first the world that lives inside of us and giving outward expression to that world. That world is full of wonderful and powerful spirits who have traveled over the eons of time to be with us. Like the tree sentinels of the woods, these ancestral spirits watch over us and guide us. But they cannot guide alone. We must reach out to them and ask them for the path that is paved with yellow bricks and cowry shells. We must realize the journey through work and play. We must balance.

Drink in the world that exists in your own backyard--the world within. Dance with the ancestors, and drink in the spirit of life!

Sango is the Orisa that turns Sand into Gold!

It is my prayer that I fulfill my destiny, walking this road receiving what is for me.

I can see the future. If I just continue....

I walked through the woods

Almost 2 years ago my family and I purchased an old restored plantation house on 4 acres of land.

I had a friend stay over after a party because I live so far away from civilization.

She is also an artist - but she is an artist that I also admire as a mentor.

After many midnight hours of encouragement, she promised me that if I tossed away fears and thought, that I could create my much missed - much feared body of artwork.

So we got up this morning, ate our lumpy cream-a-wheat on the front porch, walked my burned-out weed infested yard with hope in our hearts of soon rejuvenating its beauty, and then took our walk with cameras through the woods.

I felt like I found myself back there.....