Forgive them father… for they KNOW not what they do~

Tuesday, June 9, 2009 12:43pm

Before I left the house this morning so many thoughts were racing through my head. I started to write them all down…

- Got money on the brain
- Sense of community
- Ideas about making money and who is entitled to it
- What having a community means to me
- Building a community
- BUILDING
- Sharing a community
- A series of blogs that I’m working on called “Black or WHITE… Matters”

As all those thoughts were going on in my MIND… the palm of my left hand started to itch and I was like “WORD! Money is COMIN~” ☺

At the same time my phone went off alerting me that I was receiving an email. I opened it, froze and stopped dead in my happy little peace-filled place of creative thoughts… I stopped bouncing around… realizing that someone was about to be PAID on a very similar CONCEPT that I had already published in my blogs several years ago.

I thought to myself, “Hmmm that idea sounds awfully familiar… yeah I wrote that shxx”

So I immediately got pisst the F off…

“Wolves and sheep come WHO pretend to be lovers…”

I started to think about the many ways I felt betrayed and used by someone I once trusted. Used by someone I admired and looked up to… someone I once saw as an inspiration and role model to Latin Women.

This someone who embraced me…
This someone who wanted to show me the ropes and teach me…
I was her student.
She was my teacher.
I trusted her…
A teacher nurtures…
A teacher builds…
Teachers should not destroy—but they should encourage…
There’s a point though… a moment when the teacher sees that the student is about to surpass even them…
The teacher can either push the student to go even further or STIFLE their student.
I was surpassing my teacher… she knew it... AND I KNEW IT... I felt it~ it was POWERFUL…

A GOOD TEACHER will allow for the student to leave them… to spread their wings and continue growing… BUT NOT THIS TEACHER… this teacher wanted to control me… to CONTROL MY GROWTH… to CONTROL my process… to CONTROL my writing.

And I did in fact feel STIFLED… and disillusioned… in my eyes she was THE ALCHEMIST and I Santiago…

The wings of a bird were being held down… a bird who only wanted to fly…

So this little birdie BOUNCED…

“Be careful of those who pretend to be brothers… You never think it’s the ones who are closest to you… who shoot you down in the name of ambition”

“FORGIVE THEM FATHER FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO”

We will get burned
People will lie
People will steal
People will pass ideas on as THEIR OWN
People will stomp on you to get to the top
People will cheat
Jesus and Judas
Back stabbers
Betrayers
Thieves
Users

“Forgive them father for they know not what they do…”

During that moment in my life—when I felt stifled…I knew that I needed to keep moving and continue to learn and continue to apply ALL I had learned to my work and then THE POINT IS to share that learning with the world. Sometimes the student needs to say goodbye to the teacher~

I am ANGRY TODAY…

Fast forward… ITS Thursday, June 11,2009…

Its taken me a few days to come down from that blow… of seeing something that seemed very similar to something I had created being presented as someone else’s ideas.
Passing others work as “THEIR OWN CREATION” aka FRAUD… aka plagiarism… aka lies… people should always credit their inspiration!

“Imitation is a form of flattery,” V said. I AM NOT flattered…

So on the day of the text… I was on the 6-train plotting my revenge… real ugly things… unspiritual like things… I am so glad I was on a train because that ride from 125th to Union Square was just what I needed to realize that I was bugging…

HELL NO I am not going to react… I’m gonna do what I DO take it out on the page… so here it is…

I needed all my spiritual practice for this moment…

I believed that something had been stolen from me… AN IDEA… first of all lets get one thing straight… NOBODY owns ANY IDEA… every idea is inspired by ideas that have already existed…

Don’t worry about what other people are doing… don’t go searching for those things that you believe belong to you.

I also realized that it doesn’t matter what OTHERS are creating…I don’t need to worry about what others are doing…I don’t need to go to their websites or read their blogs to find out if they’re talking about me. It only matters what I DO. And I choose to write my own little love letter to aspiring artists and dreamers…

Dear ASPIRING artists--DREAMERS,

People have asked me, “Alicia how do you protect your work?” “How do you copyright your writing?” “Do you worry about people stealing your ideas?”

First of all, if you’re really worried about someone stealing that idea COPYRIGHT IT… if it will help you sleep at night… go for it… but for me in court of law… you better be able to show me you created that original work before my date… because I have over 53 journals FILLED with original work… and I am not worried… I can prove everything I create... and I will always credit the inspiration for any piece that aided me.

How do I protect my work? Lets be REAL… I don’t write with the idea that someone is going to steal my ideas… because they’re not mine to begin with! MY WORK, MY WRITING, MY WORDS… do not belong to me…

Ideas are free~

HOWEVER… I will want you to pay for the work I create… ☺

We have ALL been inspired by something… inspiration found in a song, the moon, the lines from a movie, conversations overheard in the subway on the street, from a painting… No idea is OUR own… nor should we claim we OWN them.

Nothing we create is OURS…
Nothing we put out there in the world should be for SELFISH reasons
Truly look at why you are doing what your doing…
When you have REAL TALENT and true gifts people will come into your life to aide you or exploit you…
People will come into your life saying that they want to help you
They will want to teach you
They will want you to join their team
Telling you that they want to help you get to the next level. THEY WANNA MAKE U A STAR~
THEY will come with their hidden AGENDAS

And then there will be those with pure INTENTIONS… those who will mean what they say… and if your lucky you will have partnerships that last a lifetime.

I can’t be worried about THEM and what they are doing~ KNOW that predators exist… yes there are bad people in the world… but don’t live your life looking over your shoulder for that someone who may jab that knife in your back. Surround yourself by like-minded folks… Continue to create… be original… be TRUE.

Peace~