Each year after a birthday, I take the time to write a thank you post for all the gifts, blessings and cards that my friends sent to me. I gratefully appreciate them for taking a little time to think of me and including my special day in their memory bank of moments.
Last year, as my gift to myself I made a commitment to be more consciously present. In doing so, I realized the unparalleled magnitude your mere presence can have on the lives of the people around you. Coupling that presence with a consciousness and purposeful enriching participation, you become the greatest gift that anyone can receive.
As a black man, I also noticed that my sisters are constantly called up and consistently being present for us men. They are pillars that support all we do. I do not have a single charitable organization that I work with that I can honestly say would thrive and survive without the unwavering presence of the women that gift themselves to it. I can honestly say that many of the calls for events, causes, and life moments that people need support for, are overwhelming answered by these women. They are often first to help build the tables, and last to eat at them. Yet, they do so with knowledge that being present is our purpose, and when we share that purpose with others, we are closest to our divine design. I decided that if they will be the pillars of support holding us up, then I could be their foundation, and hold them down. I will be reliable assurance that the drastic shifting and settling of the sands of life will not bury them, or find them alone and un-embraced by the very men they hold up.
They are often first to help build the tables, and last to eat at them.So this year – I would like to thank all of you -for not just your gifts, cards, and well wishes, but also for your presence in my life. For your support, for you attendance, for your participation. I thank you for blessing me with the feeling that I never walk alone; that help is just a phone call away.
We all yearn for that 1 special witness to our lives. That person that has seen the triumphs and the tribulations and stood by you through them all. I have been fortunate in my life to have several of those kinds of witnesses with you-my friends and family. A credit to you all, I believe that your support in all that I do, your support in me, is rooted in the deepest understanding that your presence- conscious presence- additive presence, may be the greatest of all gifts you can give to the world. I am humbly honored that at any instance, you choose to share that gift with me.
Neale Donald Walsch, in Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Vol. 2 wrote,
“Be a light unto the world, and hurt it not. Seek to build not destroy. Bring My people home.
How?
By your shining example. Seek only Godliness. Speak only in truthfulness. Act only in love.
Live the Law of Love now and forever more. Give everything require nothing.
Avoid the mundane.
Do not accept the unacceptable.
Teach all who seek to learn of Me.
Make every moment of your life an outpouring of love.
Use every moment to think the highest thought, say the highest word, do the highest deed. In this, glorify your Holy Self, and thus too, glorify Me.
Bring peace to the Earth by bringing peace to all those whose lives you touch. Be peace. Feel and express in every moment your Divine Connection with the All, and with every person, place, and thing.
Embrace every circumstance, own every fault, share every joy, contemplate every mystery, walk in every man’s shoes, forgive every offense (including your own), heal every heart, honor every person’s truth, adore every person’s God, protect every person’s rights, preserve every person’s dignity, promote every person’s interests, provide every person’s needs, presume every person’s holiness, present every person’s greatest gifts, produce every person’s blessing, pronounce every person’s future secure in the assured love of God.
Be a living, breathing example of the Highest Truth that resides within you. Speak humbly of yourself, lest someone mistake your Highest Truth for boast. Speak softly, lest someone think you are merely calling for attention. Speak gently, that all might know of Love. Speak openly, lest someone think you have something to hide. Speak candidly, so you cannot be mistaken. Speak often, so that your word may truly go forth. Speak respectfully, that no one be dishonored. Speak lovingly, that every syllable may heal. Speak of Me with every utterance. Make of your life a gift. Remember always, you are the gift!
Be a gift to everyone who enters your life, and to everyone whose life you enter. Be careful not to enter another’s life if you cannot be a gift. (You can always be a gift, because you always are the gift—yet sometimes you don’t let yourself know that.) When someone enters your life unexpectedly, look for the gift that person has come to receive from you…I HAVE SENT YOU NOTHING BUT ANGELS.”
THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING MY ANGELS… FOR BEING A GIFT… and as we move into the next year… let us continue to be present for each other.
My brothers…let us match our sisters in their quest to be the brightest lights unto the world…. Let us be builders—-build confidence in our sisters that our presence is unwavering, that our presence is constructive not destructive, and that our presence is not so rare as to have them yearning for the slightest sliver of its warming fiery light. Even if that fiery light comes from a presence that seeks to burn them down. Let us bring them home…as they have done and continue to do so many times for us.
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