Thursday, November 29, 2012

What COMPLETION feels like!!!

WINNINGGGGGGGG!!!!!

At exactly 1:54pm today... while the original version of "You're all I need to get by....." was playing... I uploaded what I wasn't aware would be the final word count in the National Novel Writing Month Competition... when I entered my book count the screen went crazy ... with a video and people cheering... me crying... doing a little dance... 













I am so grateful to everyone in my life for being so supportive...  I am no where near done... but I am done with the hard part. I am in this novel.... I have much more to write but I have a tremendous first 51,294 words down and counting!!!

Sending you all love, light and many blessings always,
Alicia

Friday, November 23, 2012

Giving thanks~

Giving thanks...

As I sit here the day after Thanksgiving I realized that I didn't post publicly all that I am privately and regularly thankful for. I don't need a special day to let you know that I love you and that I am grateful for you.

I am thankful for everyone in my life.
I am thankful for every experience that has shown up in my life.
I am thankful for every blessing that has arrived to my life.
I am grateful I have my health and my home.
I am grateful for you.
So to everyone in my life thank you for the gift that is you.

You are never alone and I love you.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

You have what it takes! @nycnowrimo @NaNoWriMo #NaNoWriMo


Today I am reminding myself that I have ALL I NEED…

All that I need is inside of me…
I am at the halfway point of writing the Daughters of the Revolution and what I am discovering about this process is that once I am in… I am ALL IN! This story is consuming me in the most delicious way.  During the first week these characters did not let me sleep… there was even a moment where I cried myself to sleep because it was as if these characters wanted me to tell this story in one night…
PACE MYSELF…
BE KIND TO MYSELF…
LOVE MYSELF…
SPOIL MYSELF…
PLAY WITH MYSELF… **meaning have fun with myself… it’s not that kind of party people!!!**
Today I will remember that I have what it takes…
Everything that I need is already in me. I release the idea that I am not good enough or that I don’t have what it takes… because I know that I do have what it takes… I am 30,442 words into my novel which tells me that I have MORE than what it takes.

For this knowing I am so grateful~
And so it is~
Aché

Friday, November 9, 2012

A movement in the making~ @nycnowrimo @NaNoWriMo #NaNoWriMo

It has been an amazing week... The Daughters of the Revolution is at 25,043 words... Worlds are being created... characters are taking form... this story is a movement in the making!




Thursday, November 8, 2012

Seeing our writing, our craft... as OUR discipline~

Good Evening Writers,

We are three days away from beginning the Writing With Intention Workshop.

I have been thinking heavily about each of you and the kinds of stories you--WE MUST tell!

Writing is not easy. Committing to sit down everyday at the same time to write can be challenging. Preventing distractions and not allowing procrastination from taking over and consuming us is an art. Writing is a solitary act and requires discipline... not the kind of harsh discipline where we punish ourselves for not writing a certain scene or exploring a particular character. Its not the kind of discipline where we self-deprecate because we didn't finish our book this year.

The discipline I am talking about here is seeing our writing, our craft as OUR discipline... one where we understand that we are disciples of our craft.




Writing is our discipline~

Writing is very serious business and an incredible honor. There are those who believe that writing is frivolous and insignificant. This is simply not true. We are artists. Our craft.. our discipline is just as important at the chemist, the philosophers and great thinkers. We are historians, archeologists and anthropologists of the written word. This is what OUR discipline means to me.

We are writers perfecting our craft... we are perfecting our discipline.

As writers we must write because this is how we learn... this is how our discipline grows.
As writers we must write because this is how our stories get passed down.
As writers we must write because this is like breathing... it is the blood in our veins... the heartbeat of our chest.

Those who are disciplined writers understand that, "Writers Write! Writers write everyday. Great writers read the great writers."

This is what the Writing With Intention Workshop aims to achieve--we are honing our discipline! We are approaching the page as writers of our discipline.

I am very excited about where we will be taking our stories. The next six weeks are not solely to develop a story... we will be digging deep and discovering all of the secrets our stories want to tell us and some secrets we had no idea existed. This is what Writing With Intention is... it is writing with purpose, it is writing with direction, it writing with openness and clarity, it is writing without the inner critic, it is writing surrendering to the process, it is writing with patience, it is writing with LOVE and it is writing with INTENTION!

Writing With Intention begins this Sunday, November 11th at 3:00pm.

A gentle reminder that tomorrow is the last day to register for the workshop. Please let me know if you will be joining us so that I can add you to the Box.com message board--access to the file folder is by invitation.

To register:

 http://findingyourforce.blogspot.com/2012/11/writing-with-intention-workshop.html

I look forward to writing together.

Sending you peace, light and love,
Alicia
Email: Findingyourforce@gmail.com 

© Copyrighted Alicia Anabel Santos 2012

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Write as if you only have six weeks... #writing #amwriting

Writing With Intention Workshop~

We are about to journey together into the depths of our souls. We are going to push past all kinds of discomfort in order to achieve our writing goals. We are going to WRITE WITH INTENTION! We will be spending six weeks really digging, writing as if we only have six weeks…

Our writing journey together begins this Sunday, November 11th at 3:00pm.

Our writing sessions will be from 3:00pm to 6:00pm every Sunday. (Block your calendars).

I welcome you to invite guests, women you know who will benefit from this writing experience and supportive community.

The last date to register is this Friday, November 9, 2012 at midnight.

There are two options:

(1) three payments of $120.00 (due 11/9, 11/14 and 11/21)

(1) full payment due before November 11th

Paypal link available at: http://findingyourforce.blogspot.com/2012/11/writing-with-intention-workshop.html

Date: First workshop: Sunday, November 4, 2012 3:00PM – 6:00PM

In your email please include the following:

Your name:
Email:
State/country:

Once you are registered you will receive more details.

Writing with Intention – Fee: $360.00

~ 6 classes beginning on Nov. 11, 18, 25 and Dec. 2, 9, 16

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Marathon Reading of Work by Audre Lorde & Adrienne Rich



The Lesbian Herstory Archives Announces Marathon Reading of Work by Audre Lorde & Adrienne Rich  Nov. 17, 2012 Brooklyn, NY – The Lesbian Herstory Archives is pleased to announce a marathon reading in celebration of the legacy of Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich, November 17, 2012, 12noon- 12midnight. 

THE NYCLWG WILL BE READING FROM 6:00PM to 7:00PM

 Full information is available online:
 

The date marks the year of Adrienne Richʼs death and the 20th anniversary of Audre Lordeʼs passing. This event honors the life and work of Lorde and Rich and the ongoing dialogue they shared. Their work and presence as poets, theorists, activists and teachers has inspired decades of anti-racist, feminist, and lesbian feminist thought and activism. Both Lorde and Rich were committed supporters of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, and the Archives hold many of their manuscripts, personal papers, oral histories, and photographs.
We invite participants to read from the work of Lorde and Rich, and to share their own responses, writing, and memories. Recordings of their speeches and the conversations they shared will be played, film footage will be shown, and images and objects from the Archives will be on display.

Co-sponsoring organizations and/or participants to date include:

Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice
Belladonna Series
Black Women's Blueprint
brooklyn boihood
Brooklyn College LGBTA
Callen Lorde Community Health Center
In the Flesh Magazine
Queer Memoir/Kelli Dunham
Rivers of Honey
SAGE: Senior Action in a Gay Environment
To honor Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich's commitment to the Lesbian Herstory Archives we are making our own commitment to the Archives and ask others to join us. To contribute the fundraising campaign in support of the Marathon Reading and the work of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, please click below:
http://www.crowdrise.com/lesbianherstoryarchivesreading/fundraiser/lesbianherstorymarathon

Audre Lorde (February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992)
In one of her most often quoted essays, Lorde stated: “Those of us who stand outside the
circle of this society's definition of acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in
the crucibles of difference—those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who
are older—know that survival is not an academic skill…For the master's tools will never
dismantle the master's house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game,
but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.”
When then-Governor Mario Cuomo named her New York Stateʼs Poet Laureate in 1991, he said of Lorde:

“Her imagination is charged by a sharp sense of racial injustice and cruelty, of sexual prejudice…She cries out against it as the voice of indignant humanity. Audre Lorde is the voice of the eloquent outsider who speaks in a language that can reach and touch people everywhere.”

Adrienne Rich (May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012)
In a 1997 letter written to Jane Alexander, then-chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, after Rich refused to accept the National Medal for the Arts, Rich wrote: "There is no simple formula for the relationship of art to justice. But I do know that art—in my own case the art of poetry—means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of power which holds it hostage." Earlier, in her 1987 poem, Dreamwood, Rich wrote: "...she would recognize that poetry/isnʼt revolution but a way of knowing/why it must come."
The scholar Deborah Pope wrote of Rich: "There is no writer of comparable influence and achievement in so many areas of the contemporary women's movement as the poet and theorist Adrienne Rich. Over the years, hers has become one of the most eloquent, provocative voices on the politics of sexuality, race, language, power, and women's culture."
PRESS INFORMATION
For interviews or additional information, please contact event organizers: Alexis Clements
(alexisclements@gmail.com); Shawn(ta) Smith (shawntasmith@gmail.com); or Flavia Rando
(frando@earthlink.net)
EVENT INFORMATION  

The reading is open to the public, all are welcome. Reservations or registration are not required. Suggested donations will be collected at the door ($5-10), but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Date & Time: Saturday, November 17, 2012, from 12noon - 12midnight

THE NYCLWG WILL BE READING FROM 6:00PM to 7:00PM

Location: The Lesbian Herstory Archives, 484 14th Street, Brooklyn, New York 11215


Monday, November 5, 2012

#NaNoWriMo @NYCNoWriMo ~ Day 5


Writing With Intention Workshop

The Writing With Intention Workshop is a six week writing intensive. In this workshop we get down to the business of writing. Here you will receive writing prompts and exercises to push you further in your writing practice.

It is about Writing With Intention!

When we sit down at our computers or in front of our journals do we set an intention for what it is we would like to explore in our stories? Do we ask our characters where they would like to take us? Do we allow for the story to unfold in the way it is meant to? Have you learned the art of surrender?

In this workshop we will begin at the beginning exploring our writing styles and process, discovering and listening to our voice, surrendering and trusting the process, story structure, re-writes and all that it takes to arrive to completion.

It is about being clear about what we are here to do and getting right down to it! It’s about writing.

As we near the end of 2012, I understand that there are projects and ideas we would like to see manifested. I would be honored in supporting you in beginning or moving toward that thing you are dying to write. It’s about setting an INTENTION to move forward no matter what obstacles arise.

Nothing before this moment matters.

The intention for this workshop is to provide a sacred space for women to gather, create, share and write the stories we were born to tell.

To register please email me at: Findingyourforce@gmail.com

Payment can be made on paypal:



Two payment options: (3 payments of $120.00) and (Full payment of $360.00)

First payment due by Friday, November 9th at midnight.

Writing with Intention






In your email please include the following:

Your name:
Email:
State/country:

Once you are registered you will receive more details.

Writing with Intention – Fee: $360.00

~ 6 classes beginning on Nov. 11, 18, 25 and Dec. 2, 9, 16

Class will meet from 3:00pm to 6:00pm

Sunday, November 4, 2012

NOW IS THE TIME!


“On a yellow Post-it, he writes, “Dreamers can never be tamed,” and sticks it on the mirror next to the previous day’s “thought.” ~Aleph
In meditation this morning I heard the message: Sometimes we must go back in order to move forward.
While riding the train this morning I finished it!
I was finally done with it!
After spending two months reading it slowing and revisiting my past, my story, I finally finished it and as the doors opened on the 34th Street stop I cried a little. That was it. I was done. No more excuses. No more distractions. No more emergencies. No more procrastination. No more meditations. No more blogs.
I finally finished it!
Part of my morning practice and spiritual readings has been to re-read my memoir, Finding Your Force A Journey to Love. I wanted to go back and read the story that I have told myself. I wanted to look at the story I’ve been telling myself about who I am, what I deserve and all that I am capable of. I went back to the past to read the story I wrote so that I could be reminded of who I am today and all that I can do when I put my mind and soul to the task. I wrote a beautiful story. I completed my first book.
Now is the time I write a new story… THE STORY!
Then I arrived to Expansion Church and right on time, Rodney McKenzie says, “What have you been hiding from?"
He spoke a lot about how we hide from the things we are really meant to have and experience… living the lives we are destined to live.
I just listened because the truth sometimes can hurt and also the truth can feel so good. And besides, I HAVE BEEN HIDING!
He went on to speak about what the theme of the month would be… and I felt my entire body light up from the inside out!
This month he will be speaking on REVOLUTION!
At that point I was just sure he was calling me out… Rodney was challenging me to a duel. If it’s a REVOLUTION he wants… I AM READY!
As I sit here writing I am thinking about all the ways I have been hiding. Hiding behind my pen. Hiding behind these pages. Hiding behind a 40 Day Fast. Hiding behind my meditations.  And I didn’t need Rodney to say it in church… because I was well aware when I woke up this morning and finished my memoir on the train that I could no longer hide. When I woke up this morning I knew that today would be the last blog I would be posting for a while because I AM DONE HIDING!
THE TIME IS NOW!

So my target word count is 50,000 words by the end of November, an average of 1,667 words per day… I average that’s about four single spaced pages of writing… TOTALLY DOABLE…
I can do this!!!
I will do this!!!
I WAS BORN TO DO THIS!!!!
This month I am completing the Daughters of the Revolution!
So to all of you who have been reading my words and following my process I THANK YOU! Thank you for the love, support and encouragement. Feel free to email me love at findingyourforce@gmail.com or just keep me in prayer.
This time I am going into hiding… but not from what I was born to do… but for the sole purpose of doing what I have been called to do—completing this EPIC NOVEL… The Daughters of the Revolution!
“I don’t know how to light the sacred fire, nor do I know the special prayer, and I can’t even find the place in the forest. All I can do is tell the story and hope that God will hear me.” Aleph
All I will do is TELL this beautiful story and I know it will be heard.
I AFFIRM
Today, I am being called to finish it.
Today, I am being called to know that I can do this.
Today, I will know that I was born to write this story.
Today, I will know that Spirit is always with me ~ for this knowing I am so grateful~
And so it is~
Aché

© Copyrighted Alicia Anabel Santos 2012

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Meet Cuban Activist: Norma Guillard



Join me this Saturday, November 10th @ 12:00pm for a film screening of Women and the Cuban Revolution!



NORMA GUILLARD joined the 1961 Cuban Literacy Campaign (the Campaign) when she was 15 years old. A social psychologist from Santiago de Cuba, she is one of the first Cuban women of her generation to call herself a feminist. She primarily works on the issues of gender, race, sexual orientation and issues of diversity and identity in a Cuban and Caribbean context. As a Cuban of African descent, Guillard has contributed much to the lively debates on race and racism in Cuba.

She is an adjunct professor at the University of Havana teaching psychology and gender, and a leader of the Cuban Association of Psychologists. She is also an Advisor to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and to the United Nations Development Program on the issue of gender in the prevention of HIV/AIDS. She is a principal collaborator at the National Center for the Prevention of AIDS and the National Center for Sex Education (known as CENESEX in Cuba), which spearheads work to educate against homophobia and to lobby for civil unions in Cuba. Additionally, she is one of the founders of “Oremi,” the first organization of lesbian and bisexual women in Cuba.

Guillard participated in the effort in Cuba to reprise playback theatre, an original form of improvisational theater in which audience or group members tell stories from their lives and watch them enacted on the spot. This type of theater is used to facilitate discussions about the impact of HIV/AIDS from the personal perspective of HIV positive people and their families.

Professor Guillard brings these issues to the social media field as well as the academic world, and has helped to produce several educational documentaries, including the celebrated film Living to the Limit by leading Cuban director Belkys Vega. Gulliard is widely published.

Read her article on Maestra! here: https://nacla.org/article/freedom-through-pencil-1961-literacy-campaign-cuba

Please join me in welcoming this incredibly powerful woman. We will be screening her documentary and having an intimate conversation with Norma Guillard about all of her work.

Event details:

Location: PRIVATE HOME (email for address)

Saturday, November 10th

Time: 12:00pm - 3:00pm

Suggested donation: $ 5.00 (all proceeds will go directly to Norma Guillard, visiting educator)

Lunch will be provided.

To rsvp and for home address please email: Findingyourforce@gmail.com

Many blessings,
Alicia

Meditation 60: Birth, Death and Rebirth ~


Day of the dead…

Last night, November 2nd marked the year celebration of Dia de los Muertos…

In honor of those who have died…
In honor of those who have left us…
In honor of our ancestors and loved ones who have transitioned…

Day of the Dead honors all those who have moved into their next life.

I am not feeling very well today. My body feels incredibly weak. I am not feeling particularly happy in this moment.

Perhaps it’s all the energy I am picking up on… people around me, people in my life… the pain of the world.

Where am I headed?

What does life really have in store for me in THE END?

THE END!

This is what is coming up for me today in meditation… THE END!

There is such finality in—THE END!

She asked me to share with her what I was feeling. I told her that I had words on the tip of my tongue… two words.

She wanted to know what the two words were… actually she was badgering me to blurt it them out because she always wanted to know what was in my head because she never respected or understood that my process was/is to process.

So I gave her what she so desperately wanted to hear… my two words… THE END!

I wanted IT over. I wanted US over. We weren’t getting along. We no longer fit. The reasons for us meeting were foggy in that moment of fury.

It no longer mattered why we were together it was time for it to END… THE END!

Endings

Where do our loved ones go? Are they in a place called heaven? Are they in peace? Are they in paradise? Are they happy?

Endings

In that final moment before they left this place were they ready? Was Spirit waiting for them to crossover into the Kingdom? Or are we being called to find our way out of Hell and live in Heaven here on Earth… in the here and now?

Excerpt from Finding Your Force A Journey to Love~

Dear Alicia, someone I love died last night. I am incredibly sad and scared. What will I do now without my true friend? My box has been with me since the day I was born~ it has kept me from harms way so many times~ now I must to learn to live without it~ You’ve been here for me through thick and thin~ It’s extremely sad to leave you~ You were the one constant in my life~ You were the one I could rely on~ You were the one who never failed me~ You were the one who never disappointed me~ You were the one who had my back… ride or die~

I never thought you would leave me~ But you have left me~ you're gone~ When those girls jumped me and had my hair wrapped around that pole you and my brother were there~ When men broke my heart you were there~ When women broke my heart you were there~ When I was hurting you made me smile and you were always there~ When I was hit you healed my wounds and you were there~ When I cried you wiped away my tears and you were there~ For every happy moment you were there~ For every sad moment you were there~ For everything you were there~ In my most scary moments you were there~ During the worst of my "learned errors" you were there~ When life seemed difficult you were there~ When I didn't believe in me you were there~ When my 4th grade teacher made fun of me you were there~ When I was lonely you were there~ When I was scared you were there~ When I was in pain you were there~ A part of me wants to hold onto you but I know I can't~ I must let you go~ You will always be apart of me I will never forget you~ I thank you for all you have brought me – goodbye dear friend – may you rest in peace~ May “the force be with you!”

Cielo finally shared with me the story about the moment she lost her voice.

I didn’t speak because I was afraid that no one would love me… that no one would listen. I was afraid to be in this place alone. I wanted to feel valued, valuable and worthy. I wanted to feel worthy of love. What would it feel like if I were in this place alone? There was something I was resisting. I was afraid of speaking up and speaking out. I am ready to fight for what I believe in now. I am prepared to fight for all the injustices. Why did I lock my voice in that box? I didn’t like the sound of my voice. What would happen if I let my voice in? It would be deafening? My voice would be beautifilled. My voice is full of love, truth and honor. What does my voice sound like? What does it feel like? It’s moving. It inspires. It is a great force. It is hope, strength and power. My voice speaks for those who are silent, full of pain and invisible. Allowing my voice in has made me unstoppable. My life is transformed. Voice is my FORCE and we are invincible.


Life
Death
Rebirth

Birth
Death
Rebirth


My memoir, Finding Your Force, is divided into three parts: Birth, Death and Rebirth. I intentionally chose them as headings because I have gone through the cycles many times in this lifetime and I am sure millions of times in past lives.

BIRTH is just that… about the many births of ALICIA and the beautiful daughter I have brought into this world in addition to the many projects I have given birth to.

Then there is DEATH… after moving through the breakdowns, the depression, the sadness, the grief, and the loss… once I understood what ENDINGS really mean for me I can anticipate with excitement that every perceived loss or ending is in a fact a new beginning and I look forward to its coming.

And finally, REBIRTH… this is where I get to begin again… I get to do it again… I get to do it differently… in rebirth the cycle begins again. New beginnings… new start… fresh perspective.

As I begin this day I call forth all things that do not serve me to DIE in me and I ask Spirit to BIRTH new forms of being and I am so excited at its coming.


I AFFIRM
Today, I am being called to acknowledge the death of things that no longer serve me.
Today, I will know that I am birthing new projects, ideas and a life filled with love, peace, happiness, abundance and joy.
Today, I allow the old to die.
Today, I am ordering my life and readying it for all the wonderful blessings that are coming to me.
~ For this knowing I am so grateful~
Today, I honor my ancestors, my guardian angels and Spirit Guides and thank the all for always protecting me.
And so it is~
Aché

© Copyrighted Alicia Anabel Santos 2012


Friday, November 2, 2012

Meditation 59: We will never be whole people unless we integrate~


It’s not going to work if you don’t believe…
This is one of my favorite lines in Finding Neverland, when Johnny Depp says to the young Peter, It’s not going to work if you don’t believe…
“Life fills all space and Spirit animates every form. It is this Spirit in you, as you, which is the true actor in everything you do, but since you are an individual, even the Spirit can not make the gift of Life unless you accept it. Life may have given everything to you but only that which you accept is yours to use. There are many who will doubt this. Only to those who have believed has the proof come.” This Thing Called You
Integration
This is the word I am meditating on today…
How can I integrate all that I have learned into my daily living?
How can I integrate these teachings in my interactions with the others and in the world?
I am thinking a lot about my spiritual practice and the things that I have learned and have yet to learn.
There is so much that comes up during meditation… a complete LIFE LIST of things to do. Worry comes up… Doubt comes up… Shame comes up… Regret comes up… Fear comes up… Shopping lists come up… Bills come up… Bank statements come up…
And then I remember that I am being called to not allow those thoughts in…
I remind myself that all that I need is here.
I remind myself that I have ALL that I need.
I have to constantly remind myself of this truth; that even though I may not always see it… I am always being provided for, protected and guided and that the universe IS always working in my favor.
Excerpt from Finding Your Force A Journey to Love:

I remembered an argument you and I had several years ago about integration. We had quite the debate in our home. You were on the verge of tears. I was making you so angry. It got to a point where I actually said, “You know what I'm against integration!"

"Mom, tell me you're not really against integration?"

Our argument was about a blog post I read about the TV network BET. The writer believed that BET should not have a separate channel. That it was sending messages of being all for ONE race and not inclusive of other races. That having there own network was perpetuating segregation. So I brought up Univision. I asked you what you thought of Latino's having our own channels. You told me you were ok with it. My response was, “so if you’re not ok with BET then you must be against the Spanish speaking networks?”

"It's different!” you said.

“How is it different?”

You talked about catering to a community who didn't understand the language… my rebuttal: “aaaaah but what's good for one is good for all.” I had to explain to you why I was absolutely ALL FOR Univision and BET having their OWN networks. We continued this long conversation about integration. “Lets look at the major networks (and not the token Latina, Black or Asian correspondent). Let’s look at how we people of color… are represented in the media (and please let’s leave out Ugly Betty for a moment that just happened yesterday). When you put people in a box separate from the majority… the people who are in the box are going to protect their own. We've always been in a box. On the outside, yeah a few of us have gotten out of the box and grabbed some crumbs on the way up the ladder, "passing for" whatever it is a person needs to pass for…to get ahead. I understand why it is we have had to create our own larger boxes on Univision & BET when we see that ABC, NBC and CBS aren't true representations of the people who live here in this country. Those of us in our little boxes have to create our own outlets, our own labels, start our own companies. Lets be serious… turn on the TV not much has changed. I completely support us and by us yes I AM talking about people of color… we must DO US… because waiting around for someone to give us crumbs will keep us hungry. IF YOU CAN’T FIND IT – BUILD IT!

You then asked me, "Mom lets pretend you're Jewish, you live in Israel, you read the torah. And in your bible you are told that the holy land is YOUR land. You are the chosen. What would you do?" Of course you were asking me how I would resolve the conflict between the Israeli and Palestinian people. You continued, "And the Palestinian's feel that it's their land because they were living there first. What's the peaceful solution to this problem?"

I must say you left me with my mouth open. I didn’t know how to respond to that. You stumped me. All my thoughts were going to come from the place of survivor mode. I wanted to stand in my fighter's stance. My initial thoughts were to protect my own. My response was going to come from the mind of a broken/wounded girl, who's a lion protecting her cub, from a community who has been stripped from those who would like to keep us stripped of our culture, our music, our history and on and on… but I needed to get back to your example and question.

“Ok! I’m a Jewish woman raised with the belief that the holy land is MY LAND. And I will do EVERYTHING including murder to take it… and I'm getting this from a bible. OK I have to say baby girl you pose a REALLY GREAT question. How do I resolve this conflict?”

After thinking about a response that would satisfy you I finally said, “I wouldn't have gone in and taken the land. I wouldn’t murder the people who were already there. I would have wanted to live there amongst them. I would have respected their space, their land, their customs, their community, their traditions and their religion. I would have welcomed what they bring. I would have understood that I am COMING TO THEIR HOUSE… I would have come in PEACE! I would have shared the land.”

And of course we got into it – the religious issue and the years of war. Finally after feeling defeated you said, "We will never be a whole people - - unless we integrate!"

I tried to bring you back to the topic at hand, which was BET and the only thing I could say to you was, “I know you don't like it. I know you wish things were different. Think about it… if Blacks and Latino's aren't being represented and are being kept from have their messages heard, their movies out, their books published then we MUST do it for ourselves.” You wanted to explode…and finally you just said, "we must get off our ASSES and do something to change it… it's not right!!!"

I was never more proud of you than in that moment. You stood up to me. You stood your ground. You held firm to your position. I was quite impressed. I had to give it to you… you didn't back down for a moment. You held on. Nothing could sway you. The fact that you choose, "Unity & Integration" to be your personal mission makes me proud. In that moment I knew I was raising a leader. I saw something in your eyes… a fire, strength and healthy rage. You have found your purpose, or one of your purposes… keep that fire burning little girl… you have found your mission. Give it your all and know that I got your back!

Where do I stand on integration? I feel that it's idealistic – NOT impossible – idealistic. I think it's very necessary. We have been living a way that doesn't work for too long.

Finally, you just looked at me exhausted after over an hour of conversation and you surrendered saying, "Mommy you're not really against integration? That's just one more person I need TO convince." My reply,
"No sweetie – I'm not against integration its just that right now I'm embracing who I AM, where I COME
FROM and the beautiful history that's interweaved in my veins. I am discovering and honoring my Latino/Black roots. That’s just where I am at - - but I'll get there. I believe that we will get there–with patience, understanding, peace, acceptance and love. In the meantime, get off your ass!” ~ Finding Your Force is available on Amazon.

Today I am being called to look at INTEGRATION…
Integrating what I am learning everyday. Integrating teachings into my everyday life, being able to detach from this world and really live. I am being called to truly BELIEVE in all that I am calling forth… I am being called to believe in my Spirit Space. I am being called to believe in me.
While I was meditating I saw this woman… she was from Egypt. An Egyptian Queen who wrote poetry. All the men loved her and the women… well…
Her beauty was beyond comparison…
Writing fiction…
Creating this world…
This is what I am thinking about today. Writing my fiction novel, the Daughters of the Revolution and taking everything that I’ve learning and integrating it into this story.
My mind is strong, but my body is weak…
I don’t want to do anything and I want to do everything all at the same time.
Creating characters…
Creating believable characters…
People we know… people we will love… people we will hate…
Creating a believable story and this incredible world using fiction.
This is what I am calling forth… holding my spiritual teachings while at the same time having fun in my made up world.

“You mean that you, a man who believes in parallel worlds and in the eternity of the present moment, feel absolutely nothing?” I feel tempted to tell him that what brought me to Russia in the first place was a conversation with J. about precisely that, my ability to connect with my spiritual side. Except that this is no longer true. Since I left London, I’ve been a different person, feeling calm and happy on my journey back to my kingdom and my soul.” ~ Aleph




I AFFIRM
Today, I am being called to play.
Today, I am being called to trust the writer’s process.
Today, I am being called to trust in my abilities.
Today, I am being called to just write the story.
Today, I am being called to release all fear…
Today, I will know that I am gifted and talented and this story is waiting for me to tell it.
~ For this knowing I am so grateful~
And so it is~
Aché

© Copyrighted Alicia Anabel Santos 2012


Thursday, November 1, 2012

Meditation 58: The Search is Over~


Last night I felt something that I have never felt before. It was a complete knowing. I heard myself say things that have never felt more true. I am completely happy! I have everything that I need. There is nothing missing in my life. My search is over…
I have never been happier and more at peace than I am in this moment. I have everything that I need.
“Let us think about happiness. Everyone desires to be happy. Everyone strives toward happiness. Too few obtain it. Happiness is not a mental debauch. If one must become intellectually or emotionally intoxicated to be happy… *she is bound sooner or later to sober up and must again plunge *herself into an unnatural state to revive her happiness. Happiness must come from a deeper wellspring of being. Permanent happiness comes from a quiet contentment and an inner sense of certainty which cannot be shaken…” This Thing Called You~
As I came out of my silent meditation I asked my heart, what would you have me know?
The response was, Quiet the mind and rest!
But of course I wanted to resist the messages sent because I am filled with excitement today and filled with possibility. Its November 1st the day I decided that I would begin writing the Daughters of the Revolution fulltime… no distractions… no gatherings… no social events… completely committed to writing…
Then underneath the words, QUIET THE MIND and REST I wrote… PLANNING and PREPARATION… I am having an inner battle because the warrior in me wants to move fast… I am speed train ready… but I am being called to be quiet and rest. I have everything that I need…

After silent meditation and my morning readings, I wrote my morning pages… it was about reaching out to my Padrino to let him know that I need him right now. There is a spiritual practice that he provides me with in order to quiet my mind and rest. It requires three days of rest, no computers, no reading, no tv, no phones… I am dressed in white all three days and I rest. I am being called to rest my mind and my thoughts. I am about to embark on another journey during the month of November that will take a lot out of me.
Quiet my mind and rest!
Excerpt from Finding Your Force A Journey to Love~
Prayer: Creator, today I write you a very special letter of love in gratitude for all you have given me… and for the life I know that awaits me. I am so grateful for the gifts of LOVE that you have shown me. I am grateful for the love you have allowed me to experience. Thank you for the ability to give my love and my self fully. Thank you for my ability to be vulnerable and allow my pains to be revealed in love. I am grateful for all the healing that has come from all the LOVE I feel… a healing that truly has been from the inside out.

Today I ask you to continue teaching me about love. I ask you to continue guiding me towards the mastery of love… to fill me with the kind of love that just pours out of me. I ask you to replace every lonely thought with all the LOVE promised to me… keep readying me… continue to prepare me for the greatest LOVE I have ever known. Bring me the love reserved for me… the mirror image of me. Una persona que me ame locamente… que todos los dias le da gracias a dios que yo naci.

Bring me a love like ALICIA LOVE… complete… from every part of me… when she’s tired… when she’s sick… when she’s mad... when she doesn’t always know the answers… when it’s hard… when it hurts… when she’s angry… let it be LOVE. I want to feel the fullness of that love experience… not a passing moment. I want to feel it flowing through me like the blood in my veins. Thank you for every blessing in my life. In this moment I am renewed and filled with love, peace and tranquility. I am patient. I don’t need to worry. I can continue to walk this journey knowing that love will find me. I don’t need to search for it… its right where I stand… and so it is~ Finding Your Force is available on Amazon.com.

“I am in the Aleph, the point at which everything is in the same place at the same time. I’m at a window, looking out at the world and its secret places, poetry lost in time and words left hanging in space. Those eyes are telling me about things that we do not even know exist but which are there, ready to be discovered and known only by souls, not by bodies. Sentences that are perfectly understood, even when left unspoken. Feelings that simultaneously exalt and suffocate. I am standing before doors that open for a fraction of a second and then close again but that give me a glimpse of what is hidden behind them—the treasures and traps, the roads never taken and the journeys never imagined. Our eyes have become the mirrors of our souls, mirrors not only of our souls, perhaps, but of all the souls of all people on this planet who are at this moment walking, loving, being born and dying, suffering or dreaming.” ~ Paulo Coelho’s, Aleph
Eyes are the entrance of our Souls…  the mirrors of our Souls~
She introduced me to him, a musician. He is a drummer that she hired for a religious celebration, a Fiesta de Palo.
When we met it was brief, but I could see his soul. He was angry at the world. His hope was replaced with limitation and defeat. Love was replaced with mistrust and doubt. Truth replaced with dishonesty and guilt. Hard work replaced with survival and entitlement to scraps. Joy replaced with anger at people and the world. Just from our brief encounter and speaking only five minutes I knew his entire life story.
The world, his community, people, governments, society had done him wrong…
Or at least this is what I felt from him.
I noticed his light flickering. His eyes were blood red, the whites gone. It felt like he was allowing his Soul to deteriorate. He was releasing his Soul. He was surrendering the Soul, not in order to be open to more of life… he was surrendering his Soul and giving up on life.
Then he met her… full of light. Perhaps she was sent to save him, to reveal something to him, to heal him. He wanted nothing more than to be around her. He went to every event where he knew she would be. He just wanted to be close to her. He wanted her to give him some of what she still had because somewhere along his journey he lost it. He was looking, desparetely searching for his Soul—yet it has never left him and he cannot have hers.
 “I sit down to rest. In the shade of the trees, I rest and find my peace in Thee. How shall I stand before Thee but in silence? How shall I honor Thee but in the meditation of mine heart? I will keep silent before Thee. My Soul and my Spirit and my silence shall be Thy dwelling place.” The Infinite Way, Joel S. Goldsmith
I AFFIRM
Today, I will know that my Soul is the most sacred place I can turn to.
Today, I will know for you that I am mirroring your Soul to you and it is filled with love, beauty, abundance and complete happiness.
Today, I know that I am always protected and guided. 

Today, I am being called to reflect back to you, what I know for me~ for this knowing I am so grateful~
And so it is~
Aché

© Copyrighted Alicia Anabel Santos 2012