loxion head_spoken_word_johannesburg

Softly / Softly – The tenderness of too much pain

The legendary South African bard Don Mattera a.k.a. Bra Zinga a.k.a. Bra Don a.k.a. Uncle Don, wrote the following poem:

Azanian Love Song

Pg 91

Softly

Cry softly my love

As we burn in the storm

Love is sweet,

Bitter

We are the debris,

The litter

The storm abates

Fire cleanses the soul

Wanderers in the wind

Tomorrow belongs to us

I wrote:

Softly - The tenderness of too much pain

Be easy baby

Jo'burg is an unfeeling place

We have each other,

Broken

We are it's character

Our hustle & struggle unspoken

Egoli, The city of gold will heal all

Ponte lights the way

Lost souls in purgatory

We are the masters of our destiny

Do It Differently!

"Instead of wallowing in my misery, I just made some changes." - Stephanie Mills

You can do something the same way for so long that you begin to do it without thinking. When you are not thinking about what you are doing, you may not recognize its effects - positive or negative. Very often, the habit of doing a certain thing in a certain way robs you of new experiences. In order to learn to grow and be happy, you must always seek the new.

Take a new route to work today.

Eat lunch in a new environment.

Speak to someone before they speak to you, or let them speak first if you are normally the initiator.

Listen to the radio instead of watching television.

Instead of listening to your regular radio station change it to something completely different.

Take a bath in the morning instead of at night.

Take a shower instead of a bath.

Walk up the stairs instead of taking the escalator of elevator.

Listen to your surrounding instead of trying to tune it out with music, the radio or television.

Enjoy your environment!

Walk barefoot in your house. Walk on the grass barefoot.

Be conscious of what you do and how you do it!

Be open to happy new experiences!

Be Ready to be surprised!

Today's Insight:

Today I Am willing to do it differently.

Be Ready!

"One never knows what each day is going to bring. The important thing is to be ready for it." - Henry Moore.

Are you ready for the blessings awaiting you today?

Have you prepared for the abundance the universe has prepared for you this day?

All you need to do to accept these free gifts is open yourself up to them. Open yourself up to being more conscious of your actions, and surroundings, that way you will be able to recognize your daily blessing and fully accept and redistribute the abundance you receive.

Be ready to have a blessed and abundant day!

Today's Insight:

Today I am ready and open to accept the blessings and abundance the universe has to offer.

Making Sense…

I say a little prayer for you...

 

We live in a time where many of us have lost faith or perhaps just misplaced it. What happened to the practice of saying a prayer every morning when we woke up and every evening when we went to bed? What happened to saying a prayer for our loved ones, our spouses, our parents, children, friends, neighbours, the sick and the needy, world peace? Don't get it twisted, I'm not saying we should all go out and become über devout members of whatever belief system we follow, all I am asking for is that we go back to a time when faith in a higher being came standard, was unquestioned and was almost second nature. A time when we were not tainted by the fast paced self absorbed lives we live.

 

We take an interest in the well being of our business partners, colleges and Bosses, because at the end of the day, it directly affects our pockets, right. Well the well being of our life partners is far more important; they are after all the person we go home to after a long, hard day at the office. They are the ones who pick up the slack when we are not around. Who take care of us when we are ill and who we are going to share our old age with.

 

So in the interest of everything that is great about having a wife, I would like to share this little prayer that I say regularly for my wife and our marriage, with you.

 

Dear [insert the name of your Deity]...

 
 

Bless my marriage today.

Bless me and my wife/husband with a clear vision of Your purpose for our union.

Bless us by ordering our steps.

Bless our prayers for each other.

Bless us with safety from all harm.

Bless us with a peaceful and loving home.

Bless us with hearts that are open and filled with gentle compassion for each other.

Bless us so that we will remember to compliment and encourage each other.

Bless us with strength from the inside that spills forth to the outside so that no weapon can be forged against or within us.

Bless my wife/husband in everything that s/he does this day.

Bless her/his thoughts, words and deeds in every situation and under all circumstances.

Bless and fill my wife's/husband's heart with overwhelming peace and joy.

Hear her/his every concern and bring every appropriate solution to her/his mind clearly and gently.

Bless me with patience so that I may be a more tolerant partner.

Bless me to know and to see only things that really matter and to surrender all habits of thought or speech that breed discord.

Bless our finances today. Remind us to see our resources wisely and to give of our first fruits to You.

Bless us so that we will cooperate with each other.

Bless us so that we will see the goodness of Your presence in each other.

Bless us with kind thoughts of each other that spill forth from our mouths as kind words.

Bless us to know when to speak up and when to listen.

Bless us to hear with our hearts, not our hurts.

Bless our marriage to be a breeding place for Your presence and Your love.

Dear [insert the name of your Deity], I invite You into the centre of my marriage so that it may grow to be all that You created it to be.

For the Blessings of Your peaceful, loving presence in the centre of my marriage, I am so grateful.

 
 

Let it be so!

And So It Is!

...prayer by Iyanla Vanzant, from her book - Every day I Pray

 

Today's Insight:

            Today I will take 5 minutes out of my day to say a little prayer for the love(s) of and in my life...

who am i?

22:15 2006/09/23

who am i?
here are some of the labels i have used to identify myself: i am a human, i am an african, i am a south african, i am a muslim, i am a coloured, i am an indian, i am black, i am a man, i am a hip-hop head, i am creative, i am different, i am a rebel, i am a revolutionary, i am deep, i am concious, i am unique, i am a poet, i am whatever you say i am, i am all of these things and none of them at the same time.

we all have our own truths and they change with the circumstances we find ourselve in at any given moment.

i am




since about a month before my 24th birthday (4yrs ago, July 2002) i started having issue with my age. more specifically, issues about personal achievments related to my age. i have come to realise that those age linked goals have never been my own. they were dictated to me, subliminally, by a society that is preoccupied with material wealth and secular success. two ideals i haven't really sought to achieve, believing instead in the mastering of my core values; taught to me by my parents and extended family; and ensuring i go about my life and work living by those values.

another big issue for me has been the question of identity. around the time that i was in standard 8 (i.e. gade 10), i really got into hip-hop and with that came a whole new world of information and awareness that i just had to attack with the full force of my youthfully naive vigor. i became concious of the fact that i am black, that i am an africa, that i am among the 5% of the population who know the truth and are using it for the greater good. i became a rebel, a revolutionary! i was going to break shit down to the masses so they too could be mentally free from the bullshit we have been fed for years.
my boys warned against this, spitting the famous " you can't toss pearls to swine" quote. saying that only those hwo have proved themselves true could get access to the knowledge we possessed. and even then, they would only get it in small doses, meaning that once they were approved to get the info they had to prove their understanding of it before receiving the next level of knowledge.
as i said i was a rebel, a revolutionary, i wanted to spread the truth far and wide and as soon as possible. i wanted to free the minds of my people. i wanted to cut through all the bullshit of having to prove yourself worthy of the truth because i felt that everybody was worthy already. what made them worthy? the fact that they were ignorant.(i'm not sure that it made sence to them[my boys], or that it makes sence to you but to me the people most worthy don't know that they are worthy. all they know is the effects of their ignorants and not that they are ignorant and being suppressed because of it.)
i learned the hard way that the rewards for tossing pearls to swine came with a hefty price tag. people do not approve of being told that they are walking around deaf, dumb and blind. they do not want to hear that they are being used. they do not want to know, because ignorance is bliss (one of my earliest lessons come back to bite me in the arse). you see the minute you recognise the truth you have to act on it. it is a law of the universe that your soul must obey, but that your mind fights against, hence the rejection of the truth. we are taught to think logically and rationally, and that emotions and other things we cannot see are not real. they do not affect us.
so there i was, on a rather warm saturday morning, it was around 11:30 am. sitting in a classroom with other students and we were not up for the pepared lesson from our english tutor. Instead i suggested that we have a debate. the class was very eager and neadless to say i was fuelled and ready to go. the debate was heated, i was blowing my top and spitting truths with the ferociousness of a venomous snake on the attack. it was me against the rest of the class. actually to be more accurate it was me against the two factions the class had broken into. at the end of that class (around 12h30) during break i sat with two classmates and came to the realisation that in the space of an hour i had become mr. black conciousness, the devil, an atheist, the outcast and the wannabe. they did not understand me, they could not accept the truths i was spitting, so they labbled me. those people were not my peers, we were not on the same level.

22h39 2006/09/23

Acknowledgements

too often in our lives we forget to acknowledge and thank the people and forces that shape us, make us, build us and even those that beak us. we always end up wanting to say thank you when it is too late. we fail to realise that there is no other time, there is only now.

so here is my constantly growing list:


to the is, for being

to those who taught me that giving is better than receiving, thus shaping a keystone of my belief system, my parents

to my sisters, for being so protective over me, it taught me that i am valuable

to my brothers, for guiding me through my experiences, it taught me to be my own man

to my aunts and uncle, for being pillars of wisdom

to joe, for being a positive role model with great character and real life mistakes and lessons

to lorraine, for all the love,support and encouragement, you inspired me to do something with my life

to rashid, for being a spiritual beacon and soundboard

to my cousins, for keeping it real at all times

to my nieces and nephews, may you learn life's lessons with humility and accept the wisdom that comes with them

to my god children, you keep me honest in everything i do

to denise,for helping me grow and share who i am, for believing in the possiblility of who i can be

to the word, for finding me and reminding me of my purpose

another poem by Ayob Vania (C) 22h09 2006/09/22


Please come back to the list for regular updates. (who knows you might be onit next time)

PEACE