finding nemo

colorstruck.

2006-04-12T10:05:00.000-07:00

we are living in a world where your color matters more than your character.-Sister Souljah

does it matter to you atht you have the God-given right, by virtue of your color, to glorify, magnify and fortify the legacy that you ahve inherited as a descendant of the first doctors, chemists, agriculturists, astronomers, astrologers, artisans, teachers and spiritual masters?
-Iyanla Vanzant

the revolution will not be televised

2006-03-10T21:48:00.000-08:00

You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
or report from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.

Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be right back after a message
bbout a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.

The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.

living true

2006-01-26T09:31:00.000-08:00

"Most people live only for their image: that is why whereas some have a self, a starting point, most people have a void, because they are so busy projecting themselves as this or that. Wasting, dissipating all their energy in projection and conjuring up a facade, rather than centering their energy on expanding and broadening their potential or expressing and relaying this unified energy for efficient communication, and so forth. When another human being sees a self-actualizing person walk past, he cannot help but say. "Hey, now there is someone real!".

- Bruce Lee

school night

2006-01-24T02:57:00.002-08:00

she went over to his apartment
clutching her decision
and he said, did you come here to tell me goodbye?
so she built a skyscraper of procrastination
and then she leaned out the twenty-fifth floor window
of her reply
and she felt like an actress
just reading her lines
when she finally said
yes. it's really goodbye this time
and far below was the blacktop
and the tiny toy cars
and it all fell so fast
and it all fell so far

and she said:
you are a miracle but that is not all
you are also a stiff drink and i am on call
you are a party and i am a school night
and i'm lookin' for my door key
but you are my porch light

and you'll never know, dear
just how much i loved you
you'll probably think this was
just my big excuse
but i stand committed
to a love that came before you
and the fact that i adore you
is but one of my truths

what of the mother
whose house is in flames
and both of her children
are in their beds crying
and she loves them both
with the whole of her heart
but she knows she can only
carry one at a time?
she's choking on the smoke
of unthinkable choices
she is haunted by the voices
of so many desires
she's bent over from the business
of begging forgiveness
while frantically running around
putting out fires

but then what kind of scale
compares the weight of two beauties
the gravity of duties
or the ground speed of joy?
tell me what kind of gauge
can quantify elation?
what kind of equation
could i possibly employ?
and you'll never know, dear
just how much i loved you
you probably think this was
just my big excuse
but i stand committed
to a love that came before you
and the fact that i adore you
is just one of my truths

so i
i'm goin' home
to please the one i so love pleasing
and i don't expect
he'll have much sympathy for my grieving
but i guess that this is the price
that we pay for the privilege
of living for even a day
in a world with so many things
worth believing
in

-ani difranco

sweetlove

2006-01-23T17:25:00.000-08:00

we make love
for the women who can't
who won't, the woment who don't

for the women who couldn't
who wouldn't
the women who thought
that they shouldn't

we make love for the women who'd like to
who haven't gotten to
the women who think
they're too sick to
too old to

inside, outside
in bed, on the deck
on the earth, on the rock

becuase we want to
because we like to
we make love because
we love to.

we make love.

-lilith lynn rogers

Thank the Lordy Bee!

2005-12-02T19:40:00.000-08:00

Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.
- Brendan Gill

blessed be

2005-11-22T12:03:00.000-08:00

People Are Often Unreasonable

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have and it may just never be enough;
Give the world the best you have anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it's all between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

~ Mother Teresa

Wisdom + Commentary.

2005-11-22T08:43:00.000-08:00

Eight Verses for Training the Mind

With the heartfelt desire and determination to attain enlightenment
For the welfare of all living beings, who are more precious than a
Wish-fulfilling jewel for accomplishing the supreme goal,
May I always cherish them and hold them dear.

Whenever I am with others
May I think of myself as the lowest of all
And from the very depths of my heart
May I respectfully hold others as supreme.

In all actions, may I closely examine my state of mind,
And the mment a disturbing emotion or negative attiude arises,
Since this may cause harm to myself and others,
May I firmly face and avert it.

Whenever I meet people of unpleasant character,
Or those overwhelmed by negativity, pain or suffering,
May I cherish and care for them as if I had found
A rare and precious treasure difficult to find.

Whenever others, because of their jealousy, treat me badly
With abuse, insult, slander, or in other unjust ways,
May I accept this defeat myself
And offer the victory to others.

When someone whom I have benefited
Or in whom I have placed great trust and hope,
Harms me or treats me in hurtful ways without reason,
May I see that person as my precious teacher.

In brief, may I offer both directly and indirectly all help,
Happiness and benefit to all beings, my mothers,
And may I secretly take upon myself
All of their harmful actions, pain and suffering.

May I keep all of these practices undefiled by stains of the eight worldly
Concerns (gain-loss, pleasure-pain, praise-blame, fame-dishonor),
And by recognizing the emptiness and illusory nature of all existing things,
May I be liberated frm the bondage of attachment and mistaken views of reality.

-Geshe Langri Tangpa (1054-1123)
________________________________________________________________________

Yes. some of these (particularly two, five and seven) were really hard to swallow. my ego violently screamed "wahhhh!!!! i don't want to have to humble myself down for no one! i don't want to accept no body else's defeat in order to give them victory!! what about me?!!"

yes. yes. i am working myself out of my attachment to seperation from other folks. on different layers i know that we're all one, that we're all reflected manifestations of the same divinity and at the same time i want my damn individuality!! yes. this is my ego clawing at its own sense of importance and existance. i will transcend. but when i see myself as different and seperate from others, my little/big ego plumps up on ideas of its own granduer.

and so i learn that the trickery of my ego is just that. i am no more important than anyone else. thinking of myself as the lowest of them all is still a difficult rock to swallow. i am not gung ho about it but i know that i'm just digging in my heels in attempt to maintain my own sense of identity. the self that i created as seperate from the self that i really am.

oh me. oh my!

it's coming. it is. i am learning to surrender.

always love,

me

Swing

2005-11-17T16:35:00.000-08:00

She came to and her
Whole life was how she remembered it
She had a mouth full of fur
And she was laughing
She parked her hearse across
Three spaces posted for motorcycles only
And jumped out shouting
What the cus could make a nice girl like us
Feel so lonely?

Are you weary as water
In a faucet left dripping
With an incessant sadness
Like a sad record skipping
And an ugly and ornery
And shadowy dread
Lurking like a troll under the bridge
Between your heart and your head

Please dumb blind kind sir
Lend little miss listless a bit of Christmas
She's been a real good girl
But now she's stuck here
The world is so little and still
Mysterious and ominious as ever before
Like an unmarked bottle full of pills
On the shelf right next to the ting
You were reaching for

Swing the groove 'round here
Where I can reach it
When I get my ass back on track
I'm gonna need it
Swing shift til I get the money
To buy me and my baby a moon full of honey
Then I'm gonna turn the nagging voices
Inside my head
That follow me to bed and say
You suck.. blah blah blah

--Ani DiFranco

ani says...

2005-10-28T10:25:00.000-07:00

virtue
virtue is relative at best
there's nothing worse than a sunset
when you're driving due west
and i'm afraid that my love
is gonna come up short
there is no there there
i guess i'm scared
cuz i want to have good news to report
every time i come up for air

now i'm cruising through a chromakey blue sky
and i know that in an hour or three
the sun is gonna be in my eyes
and i know that sometimes all i can see
is how i feel
like the whole world is on the other side of a dirty windshield
and i'm tryin to see through the glare
yes i'm struggling just to see what's there

the one person who really knows me best
says i'm like a cat
yeah the kind of cat that you just can't pick up
and throw into your lap
no, the kind that doesn't mind being held
only when its her idea
yeah, the kind that feels what she decides to feel
when she is good and ready to feel it

and now i am prowling through the backyard
and i am hiding under the car
i have gotten out of everything
i've gotten into so far
i eat when I am hungry
and i travel alone
and just outside the glow of the house
is where i feel most at home

but in the window you sometimes appear
and your music is faint in my ears

straight up. word.

2005-10-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

check out tha seeya's post for today. lovin' it. (and not like mcdonalds). have a great day!

love,

me

he's problematic, yes. but this is wisdom.

2005-10-26T09:34:00.000-07:00

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
- Thomas Jefferson

fly like a butterfly

2005-10-18T08:26:00.000-07:00

Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.
--Muhammad Ali

"How does one become a butterfly?" she asked pensively. "You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar."
--Trina Paulus

yes. yes.

2005-10-16T14:54:00.000-07:00

be exceptional. make tremendous efforts to be extraordinary. what a privilege to be here on the planet to contribute your unique donation to humankind. just make sure you do so...

-shelby lynne

on and on...

2005-09-21T14:30:00.000-07:00

the wise healer endures the pain. cry. tears bring joy. --erykah badu

mother-love is not inevitable. the good mother is a great artist ever creating beauty out of chaos. --alice randall

SURVIVORS. Not refugees.

2005-09-06T16:56:00.000-07:00

promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true. think only of the best, and expect only the best. forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize thers. live in the faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you!
-Christian D. Larson

RISK more than others think is safe. CARE more than others think is wise. DREAM more than others think is practical. EXPECT more than others think is possible.
-Cadet Maxim

What stirs your soul to grow?

2005-09-01T17:11:00.000-07:00

"Don't ask what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
--Harold Thurman Whitman

"To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go creating oneself endlessly."
--Henri Bergson

The Summer Day

2005-08-31T09:28:00.000-07:00

i don't know exactly what a prayer is.
i do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what i have been doing all day.
tell me, what else should i have done?
doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

-Mary Oliver

They Don't Call Me Phoenix for Nothin'

2005-08-30T16:41:00.000-07:00

"Some day after we have mastered the winds, the waves and gravity, we will harness for God the energies of love; and then for a second time in the history of the world, humans will have discovered fire.”
-Teilhard de Chardin

2005-08-28T13:20:00.000-07:00

i have lived on the lip of insanity
wanting to know reasons
knocking on a door.
it opens.
i've been knocking from inside!

-rumi

SACRED ADVERTISEMENT Life is a vast and intricate conspiracy designed to keep us well supplied with blessings. What kind of blessings? Palatial homes, attractive lovers, lottery winnings, career success? Maybe. But just as likely: interesting surprises, unexpected challenges, gifts we hardly know what to do with, conundrums that force us to get smarter. Novelist William Vollman referred to the latter types of blessings when he said that "the most important and enjoyable thing in life is doing something that's a complicated, tricky problem for you that you don't know how to solve."

to be continued...

2005-08-27T08:02:00.000-07:00

elminate something superfluous from your life. break a habit. do something that makes you feel insecure.
-piero ferrucci

living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. the moment you know how, you begin to die a little. the artist never entirely knows. we guess. we may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.
-agnes de mille

love and light,

l'