Sending you Good Vibes and Energy of Love and Liberation.
May you be happy,
May you be held in love,
May you be liberated and free from suffering,
May you be peaceful and at ease.
Yesterday, the country honored, observed and celebrated Juneteenth. Growing up, I knew about Juneteenth, but I didn’t have an understanding of what it was or what it meant other than black people getting together, BBQ’ing and Vibing. Over the years, I’ve learned more about the day and what it has meant to black people in America.
According to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, on January 1, 1863, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes all across the country awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. At the stroke of midnight, all enslaved people in Confederate States were declared legally free. Union soldiers, marched onto plantations and across cities in the South reading small copies of the Emancipation Proclamation and spreading the news of freedom in the Confederate States. But not everyone in Confederate territory would immediately be free. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free. Freedom finally came On June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas with the news that the more than 250,000 enslaved Black people in the state were liberated or free.
Although it has been long honored and celebrated in the African American community as a monumental event known as Juneteenth, the day became widely celebrated in 2021, 156 years later when it became a federal holiday. June 19th, has become known as Freedom Day, a day that marks the US's second independence day commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States.
While enslavement in our country no longer exists there are ways we may all be bound, in the midst of our ever-changing world we experience suffering or are challenged in one way or another.
Whether it’s life life’ing, the ups, and downs, in-betweens, personal challenges, work challenges, Family challenges or even other stresses we experience that bring about anxiety, depression or more we often repeat behaviors and cycles of fear and lack that get us sucked into spaces, places, moods, situations and energies that don’t serve us.
Jay-Z once said in an interview:
“…the goal is if you have a specific God-given ability to live your life out through that, one and two we have a responsibility to push the conversation forward until we’re all equal on this places because until everyone’s free, no one’s free.”
When I think about Juneteenth, I think about Liberation and I believe that Liberation is Freedom from things, people, and states that keep you stuck, off-center and not at your best. But I also believe that Liberation can’t exist without Love. LOVE is the most powerful force and energy that exists.
LOVE transcends fear, hate, anger, hostility, frustration, guilt, shame and other unwanted emotions and states. And, yes we can all be free BUT Love needs to be present for our respective and collective liberation, daily.
With Love:
Our hearts open
Our energy is more positive
And we’re not bound — We experience that liberation, that equality, that oneness and that wholeness.
So being inspired by the words of Shawn Carter(Jay-Z), I used my God-given gifts and abilities to create my latest offering, LOVE AND LIBERATION, in commemoration of Juneteenth.
I created this offering with utility to support efforts to free us from things that have us bound and include a myriad of ways to cultivate, activate and normalize LOVE, daily while celebrating freedom and peace. The offering is a collection of digital and physical goods to own for transformation. But also to engage, tap into and hold the goods for however long you wish and pass on/spread that LOVE once you’ve cultivated LOVE daily.
So I invite you wherever you are to stop, take a moment, bring awareness to your breath and cultivate LOVE or Metta(lovingkindness) for our collective liberation by:
Saying these phrases to yourself:
May I be happy,
May I be held in love,
May I be liberated and free from suffering,
May I be peaceful and at ease.
Extend these same wishes to all of your past ancestors:
May you be happy,
May you be held in love,
May you be liberated and free from suffering,
May you be peaceful and at ease.
Share this same wish with all beings, both in and out of the diaspora, in the present:
May you be happy,
May you be held in love,
May you be liberated and free from suffering,
May you be peaceful and at ease.
Take a moment and send this same wish to all across the diaspora in the future:
May you be happy,
May you be held in love,
May you be liberated and free from suffering,
May you be peaceful and at ease.
We can all be free and we can all love.
Love is inclusive and not exclusive.
Have an Amazing day and week.
Be well, stay mindful.