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Remember SYMS?  Back in the day, SYMS was a huge store a few blocks from the World Trade Center, where NYU law students and thousands of others would search the racks for discounted suits and coats.  Eventually, it was replaced by the Burlington Coat Factory -- until September 11, 2001, when a piece of a Flight 11 or  175 went through its roof.  After years of being on the market, Sharif El-Gamal -- a young realtor from Brooklyn whose late mother was Polish Catholic  and whose father is an Egyptian Muslim -- finally came up with a perfect idea for it: a house of prayer.

Neddy, a childhood friend, caught up with me through Facebook.  Even though I could not remember her presence, I felt her loving spirit.  We laughed like old friends for hours about the memories that we shared about our life in the Jefferies Housing Project in Detroit -- forty years ago.  Friendship is good that way, and lasting.  It made me remember the hope that carried us through the appearance of lack.  Back then, we didn't need as much in the external to know inside that God was always lifting us up the rough side of the mountain.  Spirit was always calling us to demonstrate Absolute Good.  All we had to do was stand on the shoulders of God and peer out over the freeway at the vibrant colors of golden rays turning indigo skies magical colors in the Detroit sky -- just glowing with the rising sun of a new day.

At church last Sunday, we were blessed with a powerful testimony of faith.   

After leaving the God is a Brown Girl Too® Retreat, a number of participants stopped by a gas station on their way through Manhattan.  Between the excitement of saying good-byes, giving directions and jumping back into cars, someone lost their wallet.  She didn't realize it until she got back into her car and was approaching Brooklyn.  

The God is Brown Girl Too® Retreat this past weekend was not a "retreat" at all.  Rather than a retreat, it was as our spirit sister Oza described -- a "movement forward."  The "Awaken to Love" movement was one of those unforgettable moments in time when all of the forces of the universe are in perfect alignment with an idea whose time has come.  Thus, it was in divine order that "Awaken to Love" opened our minds to reach beyond the appearance of physical limitation to the divine rhythm of endless possibility.  Our hearts were freshly anointed to beat beyond the ordinary into the extraordinary.  Our consciousness was newly uplifted to realize the sacred in the simplistic.  Our souls were synchronized in joyous surrender to Spirit by the story of God is a Brown Girl Too, accompanied by the beauty of Malesha Jessie singing Awaken to Love.  We could not have planned a more perfect "movement forward"; the universe did it for us. 

I am grateful for the number of people who have supported the upcoming God is a Brown Girl Too Retreat.  Regardless of race, religion or ethnicity -- people of all cultures, ages and sexes have given their support for an organization that dispenses with the notion that God is an old man in the sky and embraces the truth that we all have the Kingdom of God within us.   With the retreat less than ten days away, the commitment from family and friends to honor the fact that we are all made in God's image and likeness is not something that I take lightly.  In this season of holidays and barbeques, it is sometimes easier to just put our feet up and do nothing rather than make a concerted effort to center in the Spirit within.

Paulette Pipe was spirit-led to retreat into the silence for forty days and forty nights.  There, she found a healing place in the heart of God that looked like a cabin in a forest, with a small bed, a kitchenette, a bathroom, and a writing desk.  The cabin had a screened-in porch that was surrounded by tall trees, which she felt held her "in the womb of silence."  This Shantivanam or "Forest of Peace" gave her the space to release, restore and reunite with Spirit.  She dreamed prophetic dreams, moved beyond the appearances of things, and bore witness to the truth.  (See Paulette Pipe, "The Voice in the Silence," Unity Magazine, July/August 2010, at pp. 20-22) 

I am the time before, the was then, the beginning now.  I am the breath-filled space, the light-filled hand, the love-filled heart, the joy-filled dance.  Prayers call to me, and I anoint believers with the evidence of things hoped for and the miracles of things unseen.  When everyone is looking for God, as something more extraordinary than themselves, they will miss me -- even though I am here.

3.  We are temples of the living God.

4.  It is written in our laws that we are Gods.

5.  We are the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega.

6.  If we, whose mother is older as Lucy's bones, have become disembodied from spiritual Oneness, then so has all of her creation.

7.  The Kingdom of God is neither here nor there, it is within us.

8.  God is in the Messiah and the Messiah is in us and we are in the Messiah.

Many of us know that there has been an ongoing  assault on the beauty, strength, success, and wisdom of black women.  The assault was escalated with the release of a movie about "tired black men" -- with a sideshow of commentary from one or more misguided rap stars and anybody else who cared to join the attack.   It's unfortunate that someone thinks so little of humanity's unlimited potential as children of God that he would dare complain that black women have "standards that are too high."  The even more questionable aspect of a movie that depicts black women as unworthy, lazy, irrational, angry, evil, insecure, insensitive, bitter, and greedy -- is that there were black women who portrayed these caricatures of themselves.

It may be easier to adhere to clean eating and exercise our body than it is to pray consistently and exercise our faith.  The former allows us to rely on measurable tools of food content and muscle movement -- in a manner that is mathematically precise.  If you do it precisely (that is without cheating), you are guaranteed see the tangible results in a prescribed amount of time.  But faith often yields its rewards in unseen channels and manifests its good in dimensions that we are not capable of seeing with human eyes.  One discipline allows us to honor our body temples more directly; the other  catapults us beyond the restrictions of our physical boxes, so that we can tap into a universe without boundaries.  Physical fitness allows us to clean out the toxins; spiritual fitness allows us to expand our consciousness.  Physical fitness allows us to create an awesome temple for worship; spiritual fitness allows us to create a sacred center for the soul.  But both provide the cornerstone of our salvation.  One without the other cannot succeed -- for long.

Recently, everyone has been telling me that I'm "glowing."  One of my friends demanded that I tell him which moisturizer I use, and when I responded that I attribute it all to God, he insisted that he was not going to give up until he found out what product I'm using.  But my response was true, one of the main ways to "get your glow on" is with God. 

Recently, I asked someone, who had made astonishing progress in their physical fitness, for their secret.   Was it strict dieting?  Water intake?  Extra cardio?  How was she losing excess body fat at such an incredible speed?  To some, her response may be surprising.  Yes, she followed a clean diet.  (A "clean" diet means that she did not eat any processed food and limited her carbohydrates to low-glycemic foods like oatmeal and sweet potatoes; limited her protein to lean sources like chicken breast, turkey and fish; and limited her vegetables to those high in antioxidants, like spinach, broccoli and asparagus.)   Yes, she weight-lifted regularly to develop muscle mass and did cardio consistently each day.  Yes, she drank plenty of water, with her goal being a gallon a day.  But she didn't attribute her success to any of those things, she attributed her success to putting God first. 

When I was a little girl, my mother used to tell me repeatedly "don't act ugly, it's not becoming."  That mandate might seem trite to some or even inhibiting, but ultimately it became part of my own moral compass -- an internal warning that measured whenever I was steering off-course.  Like  that time when I slipped and fell onstage -- at the age of four and decided that the best response would be to stick out my tongue at those who giggled.  There my mother was -- in the audience, reminding me that grace and poise is the most effective response to even the most embarrassing predicament.  Life's most vexing situations are lessons in how to be dignified enough to get up, dust off, and move forward.  No one empathizes with a sore loser or an indignant tripper -- especially one who acts ugly.

When Monique won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in the movie Precious, I was not only elated because of her accomplishment but because the ministry that she continuously displays through her craft as an actress was shining for the world to see in a phenomenal way.  Whenever you see Monique, you feel the soul-stirring sincerity of her commitment to people and her vision to use art to not just entertain but to promote change in our consciousness.  Not only do we laugh with her, but we cry with her; we grow strong with her; and most importantly, we become wiser because of her.

When I saw The Book of Eli, starring Denzel Washington, I was reminded of how we are all called by Spirit to do a special task.  We may not believe that we are worthy or that we have the requisite skills, but God will give us what we need to accomplish what we are appointed to do.  I was reminded of how difficult it is to "stay on the path; stay on the path" as Denzel's character Eli had to tell himself repeatedly.   There is always something to distract us when we try to stay the course, but like Eli -- we only need to stay centered in God. 

Last Sunday, Spiritmuv had a special guest.  She was three years old and about two and a half feet tall.  She arrived on time, took off her coat, hugged those who came, and asked if she could pray at the beginning of the service.  To our surprise, at the end of the service, she also took the initiative to step into the middle of the Spiritmuv prayer circle.  We thought that we going to bless her, but the truth is that she blessed us.  There was something about her purity of spirit that pulled us away from our "adult" cares and concerns to the sweetness and simplicity of Truth.  God is good, and that's all that matters. 

Take a lesson from nature.  
Now is the time for contemplation and release. 
We should not only be enjoying the colorful dance of the leaves, but also using the power of autumn to shake and release our own stuff.

"I AM THE TIME BEFORE,  THE WAS THEN,  THE BEGINNING NOW.

I AM THE BREATH-FILLED SPACE, THE LIGHT-FILLED HAND, THE LOVE-FILLED HEART, THE JOY-FILLED DANCE.

PRAYERS CALL TO ME, AND I ANOINT BELIEVERS WITH THE EVIDENCE OF THINGS HOPED FOR AND THE MIRACLES OF THINGS UNSEEN.

WHEN EVERYONE IS LOOKING FOR GOD, AS SOMETHING MORE EXTRAORDINARY THAN THEMSELVES, THEY WILL MISS ME --
EVEN THOUGH I AM HERE."

(from God is a Brown Girl Too® , copyrighted 2009 by Cecilia Loving)

As the first God is a Brown Girl Too "Opening to Consciousness" Retreat approaches, I grow excited by what promises to be a powerful celebration of who we are in mind, body and spirit.  

Sherri Roberts Lumpkin will be teaching us to honor the divine within through her amazing ragbaby-building workshop. 

Michelle Bernard will be guiding us through the breath of love and the transformation of the body. 

Myreah Moore will be blessing us through her visualization meditations, which help us see past appearances to the God in which we live and move and have our being. 

Caryl Lucas will give us the tools that we need to clean up the clutter and release the past. 

I, along with Wendy Sealey and Raquiba LaBrie, will take participants on a soul-stirring journey to recreate, reclaim and resurrect the resources that God has given us. 

Some have asked where Jesus Christ stands in relation to what appears to be a bold, unorthodox and perhaps even brazen affirmation that God is a Brown Girl, Too. 

How could God be a dark chocolate, caramel, latte, cinnamon, peanut butter, crème, red clay earth co-creator throughout the world, the continents and the ages, with locked hair, twisted braids, tight curls and bone straight, moving through every conceivable size, shade, shape and language -- above all things, as a girl? 

When was the last time you cleansed your mind?
Just like our physical bodies require a daily cleansing regimen, so do our minds.

It’s amazing how our minds collect so much internal clutter and mental grime -- accumulated over time from the daily mental stresses, disappointments and negative thoughts floating through our consciousness.

Proverbs 23:7 says, as “a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”, or as I like to affirm, “as a woman thinketh in her heart, so is she.” This means that whatever you allow to occupy in your thought pattern is what you will eventually become, so you must cleanse your mind in order to reflect your best self.

I was watching one of the cat fights on The Housewives of Atlanta, and as much as I love all of my beautiful sisters, it reminded me of the need that we all have for forgiveness and release.  If we let go of the past, we free up so much energy to be productive in the present.  When we aren't bickering and hating, we have a lot more energy to manifest the change that we need in the world.  The irony was that the "reality" television show was juxtaposed by continuous advertisements about brown girls starving in Africa. 

We have a lot of work to do, but everything that we give to others begins with ourselves.  We have to start by loving ourselves.  Only then can we share the powerful love that we need to give to each other. 

The following is an excerpt from my book, Prayers for Those Standing on the Edge of Greatness.  It's about our need to let go and release the past, which is part of the journey that we will be taking at the God is a Brown Girl Too "Opening to Consciousness" Retreat.

Western culture has placed so much more emphasis on the physical rather than the spiritual aspect of yoga, neglecting a powerful tool for transforming the body, mind and soul.   Through the practice of yoga, the power of love is honored in each breath, and amazing peace, calmness and harmony is achieved.  These benefits do not merely bless us in the moment of our practice, but will change our lives forever.

How does a brown girl write a love letter when she feels no love inside? 

Where would love come from if you'd never really felt love before?

How does God express love in and as a brown girl?