Selah
The Crown of Success is fine attunement with God, yourself, and your ancestors. It is the power of being present.
I would’ve never thought that always wanting more could stop me from actualizing the abundance I want and the success I seek. I want a deeper connection to the knowing that is now, that is me.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the power of the present lately. I’ve been forced to, really. I would’ve never thought that being a forward thinker could make me feel so far behind. Ambition never seemed to have a downside until it was reflected to me that nothing ever seems to be enough for me these days. I began to think: how exhausting. I later had a conversation with my comrade about this, and he told me that because we live in a product-oriented society, we don’t know how to appreciate the process. He began to tell me about his process called life. For him, processes were natural occurrences that included seasonal jobs he hated and impromptu decisions to take a different route, which ironically led him exactly where he needed to be.
It made me understand on a deeper level that every process and season in life is significant, no matter how our brains fix it to feel or perceive it to be. I imagined: what would life be like if I decided to enjoy the process? Focus less on the farthest outcome and more on the present? What if I were less concerned with the “products” I produced in my life and more with how much I’ve grown? Who I am, and what I can do today? What is it like to truly smell my flowers?
In Bantu-Kongo traditions, there is a cosmology that understands we are constantly at a crossroads, meaning we are always at the precipice of the now while being connected to the past and the future—the spiritual and the earthly, God and our ancestors. This made me realize something many may or may not know: Hoodoo is influenced by many African spiritual practices, including those from the Congo region. Part of that influence is the Kongo Cosmogram, which illustrates the significance of spiritual cycles in life and the connection between self and the spirit realm. There is a clear understanding that there is a time for everything, and recognizing those cycles can profoundly shift your relationship with your world.
For more information: Kongo Cosmogram Spiritual Meaning
So I ask, in light of this, if we aren’t cognizant of where we are within our personal crossroads in life—our process, growth, and gifts as they are today (in connection with God and our people)—how could we ever be clear about the destinations we want to reach, or if they are truly in alignment with where we’re meant to be? My God-siblings and I have recently learned this lesson the hard way as it relates to the Crown of Success and how to actualize our fullest potential. We’ve been pushed to realize that success isn’t something external necessarily; it’s an internal process, an internal peace, and knowing that you have everything you need, no matter what you want. And it is from that internal knowing, that internal feeling of success, that we manifest our heart’s truest desires, that we access our truest potential.
That gratitude, that abundance, that success—I’m starting to feel it now. I’m starting to realize I am reaping the harvest of seeds I’ve sown years ago. And although there are things I want to have, spiritual growth I want to see, and places I want to be… the power is in the process, the progression, the present, the growth of now.
Have you looked around lately? Have you noticed the beauty of the growth around you? Do you even realize you may be in the middle of a harvest from your last season, or are you so fixed on wanting more?
What is it like to smell your flowers? Take a spiritual audit of your growth today. Selah.
Ecclesiastes 3
3 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.
14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.
16 And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.
17 I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.
18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
22 Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?
With love,
7souljah