easter 2022 - which sins did jesus die for? (podcast)
Explore - from a different perspective - what ‘sinful’ actions led to the death of Jesus, and how those same sins may be pushing you toward a life-changing transformation as well.what ‘sinful’ actions led to the death of Jesus, and how those same sins may be pushing you toward a life-changing transformation as well.
I woke up early during Holy Week, thinking of the Easter story, and I had questions.
Namely, which of the sins in ‘Jesus died for our sins’ did Jesus die for?
Listen as I explore - from a different perspective - what ‘sinful’ actions led to the death of Jesus, and how those same sins may be pushing you toward a life-changing transformation as well.
CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO THE PODCAST (17 MINS)
20 insights about work and relationships
Some simple truths and profound mindset shifts on how you view work and interpersonal relationships.
Obvious observations about how we work and how we engage in relationships with friends, family and significant others.
Life is about relationships.
Work is one of them.
Relationships are where we learn about ourselves and how we interact with the environment and people around us.
Relationships are a form of energy exchange.
Most people (but specifically, black women) approach work and relationships from the role of supplicant.
The majority of our life from childhood to adulthood is focused on either: getting a job or a pursuing a romantic relationship.
Your identity is deeply connected to what you do for work or your relationship status.
Money is the least important factor to consider when looking for a job. Love is the least important factor to consider when looking for a life partner.
We tolerate things in our work or romantic relationships that we would never tolerate in our friendships.
Friendships are more likely to be self-defined vs. defined by culture, society or tradition.
Friendships are often our most authentic relationships.
We are also in relationship with ourselves.
The quality of our self-relationship determines the quality of our other relationships.
The quality of our self-relationship is determined by the quality of our relationships with our parents.
Our relationships with our parents serve as templates for our romantic relationships.
Our parents didn’t share much with us about their work experiences or romantic relationships.
Quitting a job or quitting a relationship can be more powerful than staying.
Healthy relationships are characterized by individual sovereignty and mutual interdependence.
Stories, symbols and images help us record and encode information about our environment and our relationships.
The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves define our reality.
I’ll be delving into each of these insights about work and relationships over the coming weeks. Get ready for some thought-provoking topics and some life-changing mindset shifts.
The last generation
What happens when the season’s last generation of monarch butterflies finds the climate unsuitable? They migrate.
I planted milkweed in my backyard last year because it attracts monarch butterflies.
This spring and summer I was treated to daily visitations from the lovely creatures, flitting from leaf to flower and floating off to other parts of the yard.
A few weeks ago, I visited a friend who also grows milkweed. They’d harvested some of the late-season leaves and had begun to incubate butterfly pupa from the larvae that were on the leaves.
A week later, I discovered my own milkweed covered in caterpillars!
My research on the soon-to-be butterflies brought an interesting revelation.
The last generation
In a single year, 3 generations of monarchs will experience life in my backyard. But the 3rd generation, the last generation, will leave shortly after it sprouts wings in early fall. The climate by then - which was suitable for the previous generations - will have grown too cold, and it will use its innate knowledge to hasten on from its birthplace to a place where it can live out its life in a more hospitable climate.
Mexico, maybe.
As the climate in the US continues to become more surreal, less… hospitable, I can’t help but wonder if this generation - my generation - will be the last generation to remain here for good. Or, will we even begin to seek out places to live outside of the States where we can spread our wings a bit more freeely.
Mexico, maybe.
singing away your worries
The spirit-healing science of singing to yourself. Aka, how I got over a series of sh*tty events.
In the past week, I...
Had a complete stranger invite himself into my yard and almost onto my porch because he, “liked what he saw.”
Got news that I will likely have to move out of my house to have some major repair work done that I’m still in an entanglement with the insurance company about
Buried the eldest living member of the Solomon clan
Had a deep talk with my mother in which we retraced the legacy of physical and emotional abuse through our family tree.
As a result, I’ve felt for much of the week like I’ve been walking around with a gaping hole in my chest. A wound that won’t close because it keeps getting abraded, keeps getting re-injured.
I’ve been singing quite a bit lately. Not songs, but the words of shock and pain and frustration that I have when these wounding experiences happen. I improvise a ditty on the spot to express what I feel. What I see. What is happening inside. It alchemizes the pain of the moment. It makes magic out of levity. It banishes the dark spirits looming near, hoping to slip into me through my open wound, my unhealed places. I sing into my wounds, blocking their entry, coaxing the hurt out of hidden places with ‘la, la, la’ and silly lyrics that often leave me laughing at the end of the nonsense song.
And I am a terrible singer.
But here she is. Not only alive. But thriving. Last year when the single bloom she arrived with fell off, I was worried. Would it ever come back? How I could i tell if she was healthy? There were just these big leaves at the base, and some weird looking roots. I mostly just gave her the recommended amount of weekly water, a lovely spot in front of a sunny window, a few words of inspiration and encouragement here and there and... well... look at her. She’s stunning!
This week I also sang a song to the last of the 6 flowers that finally bloomed on the orchid a friend gave me as a housewarming gift last year.
“This plant is doomed,” I thought when she arrived. I have little talent for keeping houseplants alive... and an orchid? The notoriously fickle flower? Tuh.
What Science Says About the Healing Power of Singing
“There is no delete button in the
nervous system,”
By telling yourself not to think about something, says Steven Hayes, a psychology professor at the University of Nevada, “you’re increasing the number of associates that remind you of it.”
Instead, it’s better to treat them just like you would a silly, meaningless song. They exist, but they have little bearing on your life.
The Atlantic, 2016
One study “found that various defusion techniques,
including singing the unwanted thought and saying it in a cartoon voice, reduced the frequency of the thought while making it less believable. The strategy worked better than both the control and another strategy called “restructuring,” in which the person tries to come up with an alternative thought.”
The Atlantic, 2016
I don’t know how any of the aforementioned travails are going to turn out for me. But I will keep singing my nonsense songs, and sitting myself in front of sunny windows and speaking words of encouragement and inspiration to myself. I am notoriously fickle. But I have a feeling that after this dark, confusing time has become a ‘was’, I will catch a glimpse of my bloomed self in a mirror or a windowpane and think... ‘stunning’!
Easter in quarantine
It’s an odd Easter this year. But the religious season reminds me that this time is holy because it highlights a universal truth: death and life are 2 sides of the same coin.
Of the Christian holidays, Easter is my favorite.
Not only is it the most Christian - I mean the entire point of jesus being a big deal is the whole crucifixion and resurrection bit, right? - it is also the most pagan. Or at least the most syncretized.
At Easter, the themes of betrayal, sacrifice, death and rebirth play out in the foreground, while in the background, the Passover theme of being spared from plague and death by dutiful sacrifice underscores the mood and meaning of this time. Encompassing all of this is nature’s cycle of life-death-life that Spring reminds us of.... what has been silent and dark and dormant for months, is now returning to light and life.
From the Easter-Passover legends and rituals we extract the archetypal understanding that the sacrifice of a seemingly small, but not completely insignificant thing is often required for broader salvation, for the entire community to continue its existence. The Paschal lamb is a recurring symbol that embodies this notion of a demonstrable price that must be paid so that death knows it can claim nothing from those who have paid it.
It’s an odd Easter this year. Any other time, i would have already had my menu planned, my part-pagan, part-christian themed decor set up, the backyard trimmed and pretty, and a smattering of close friends with open invites to stop by as the spirit moves them. None of that will be going down this Sunday. Well, maybe not none of it. I still plan to make a nice spring-like meal for myself, but, given the current ‘plague’, the celebration will be a solitary one. I’ve got big plans to play in the dirt today, to participate in the life-bringing that the season calls for by planting new things around my backyard. There will certainly be music and plenty of light as Spring is already showing off here in Atlanta. And there will undoubtedly be sacrifice. The sacrifice of remaining in place, of giving up a little bit of my normal to help ensure that the entire community can continue its existence. It’s a small, but not insignificant price.
The religious season reminds me that this time is holy because it highlights a universal truth that extends beyond religion or denomination: death and life are 2 sides of the same coin. In celebrating one, we celebrate the other. And through our sacrifice, we ensure that life will continue for all of us... even as it transforms us and beckons us to continue our individual and collective evolution.
Happy Easter, chirren. 🙂
The Gift of the Magi - Attention Must Be Paid in 2020
The 3 wise men are a reminder that when we see a sign, we should not only sit up and take notice, but also take action.
So it’s officially the end of the Christmas season. Time to pull down the decorations, turn off the twinkling lights and live with the newfound knowledge that the spirit of God made flesh is among us and within us.
I particularly enjoy the mythology and meaning of the feast of the Epiphany, the story of the three wise kings – those men of ancient science and religion, in a time when there was little difference between the two – who saw an astrological sign that not only made them sit up and take notice, but also take action. To travel from their faraway homes to a place where they knew something significant had happened, and to make sure that they didn’t show up empty handed. To me, this story says a lot. It says that even though a thing may already be present, until it is acknowledged and honored… it doesn’t really mean anything to anyone other than those who brought it to life.
Something about that theme seems to be in line with the energy of this new year. I feel it within myself and I see it among those I’m closest to. There has been much labor, much uncertainty, much work going on over the past 12 months – most of it very personal. There have also been some serious assignments given out – tough things. Things we were not ready to accept, but had to, because the assignment itself was the readying. We were called upon to mature, to become, to fulfill the promise of the generations that came before us, to be the vessel for something new. There was little time to lament, to cry out to the universe, ‘whyyyy meeee!!?’ When God says go up to that mountain and sacrifice your son, when he says you’re pregnant and single, but I need you to have this kid, you don’t say, ‘why me’, you say, ‘ready!’
But that part is well behind us now, and the new thing is in its infancy. Through our struggle, we have brought it into being. And now… it’s time for that thing to be acknowledged and honored. Your job, of course, is not to seek out honor and acknowledgement, but to nurture this new thing, this new you. To make your star shine so fuckin’ bright that them what’s got good sense can’t help but sit up and take notice of it. It may be some time yet before the rest of the world catches on to your magic, but that matters little.
So shine, my darlings. And let those who have eyes to see bask in your glory. Just don’t get too caught up in the temptations of fame.
Because we have much yet to do.
witches heal
I saw a bumper sticker the other day that read simply, ‘Witches Heal’. I blurted out, ‘I LIKE that!” The Other looked at me strangely without looking at me at all. I think I scared him.
Today, I came home frustrated and sad. I didn’t even make it to the front door before the tears came hot, rolling down my face. Luckily it was raining outside, so the neighbor didn’t think twice about my wet face as I waved hello from the yard. I rushed to my room to have a good cry and as the fat, salty tears came sliding out, a poem flowered in my mind. I rushed to my notebook and scrawled out the words as fast as I could. When I was done, I no longer felt or wanted or needed the crying.
I wish I could make the Other understand that this is what witchcraft really is.
clay jug
You find a clay jug that mysteriously refills itself. you do not ponder the source, the reason for this mystery. instead, you return with your empty cup a thousand times to drink your fill.
when, one day you arrive again with your wanting vessel, you are surprised to find the jug almost empty. you do not question what made the magic stop. you take the last drop, angrily cursing the jug for ceasing to quench your neverending thirst.
Another arrives. he sees the magic in the always-full jug. he falls to his knees and thanks the gods for this gift. each day he comes to fill his cup, he says a prayer of thanks and leaves behind an offering to the gods. he teaches his children to do the same. for him, the vessel never empties. his lands flourish for generations to come.
**
When you are connected to the source, there’s an abundance that flows from you. It attracts many. Some will come with hungry hands and bottomless bellies to fill themselves from you. When your reserves are low, they will disappear. A welcome few will be worthy receivers, accepting your abundance with grace and gratitude. With these, your abundance will extend and expand to become almost endless.
At times, you may be tempted to curse yourself for being such an always-full, always-open vessel. Don’t. This is how the one who created you created you to be. Instead, practice discernment. Learn to recognize those who come wanting and be patient as you wait for the grateful and worthy.