Just to prove my point...

... the Ancestors said: Keep it real and immediate.

I will return later to the series of unexplainable events that made me stop asking and start believing, knowing, accepting, and doing.

But for today, just for today, I'll tell you about yesterday.

It is my practice during meditation to ask the Ancestors to "show me the way". And they have: resources and responses arrive the day after I have asked for guidance. This has revealed to me the power of our connection and the urgency of what needs to be done and how.

Halfway through my meditation last night, I heard something fall in my office. I noted it and continued sitting until it was time to end.

When I checked my office, I discovered that three books had fallen off a bottom shelf. Although I had been cleaning earlier in the day, these had not been situated in a way that would cause them to topple.

The books:

•           Jambalaya: The Natural Woman's Book. (Luisah Teish, 1985). The first African-centered healing book about the Orisas and Ancestors I ever bought, and one of the earliest published on the subject. Iya Teish was the first African-based practitioner I had ever met, and the first person to ask me to write the story of how I got my  head. That is, to write the story of how I chose my destiny. She was also someone who spoke openly about the need for women to have community to save their lives and the lives of their children.

•           Saints, Sinners, Saviors: Strong Black Women in African American Literature (Trudier Harris, 2001). A book I only discovered two years ago. I used it as the model for a course in which I researched women as cultural healers and community workers.

•           Mother's Underground - Issue: The Womb (1992). The title says it all. This was one of the first magazines that published my writing.

If one had fallen, it may have meant something. However, I might have easily just returned the book to the shelf. However, three falling at the same time, all connected to beginnings and births? 

What do I do when something like this happens? I accept that it is another response to my petition. Because I am working on answering the question "Where will you go next?", I know that these three texts are the answer. Because I have a history with them and the people associated with them, I can choose to delve into them in a myriad of ways to get a fuller meaning. For example: Are the writers models or mentors?

So, instead of putting them on the shelf, I have put them on my desk. They have no hidden codes except what I interpret from cover to cover, and within the contexts of the questions I am asking, the paths I am pursuing, and the project on which I am working. 

If they had been tarot cards or divination shells, the reading would go something like this: Return to the origins of your initiation into this work. You are about to give birth to your ideas. Community will be present. You must work hard to create and maintain all that you have. Remember: walk the path of your African Ancestors. The High Priestess, Mother, Healer are with you. Remember why you chose to be born here.

The Ancestors could not have spoken louder. If their voices were audible as ours are in the world, they would be saying: Daughter, your questions have all been answered. And my Ancestors would add: Do not ask again. 

Ase-O!