Blogging Katrina, Part II

It's been a month since Hurricane Katrina made landfall. It feels like it's been much longer than that. Maybe because the pain that resurfaces as a result of the aftermath is old...very old. Where did time go? Did it accelerate? Did reliving emotions tapped from generations ago cause me to jump the linear time track? Damn...just how much have I aged in the last 30 days? The calendar says I'm a month older. The heaviness of my spirit feels like I'm old enough to be my grandmother's grandmother. And, I still haven't cried enough tears to clear the energy, the memories that have recollected...re-collected that still aren't conscious yet.

That energy...knowing what that energy does when it isn't moving and flowing freely scares me a little. That's why we must clear the energy, the sadness, the hurt, the anger. We have to do something constructive with it.

Emotional/energetic alchemy...flip the negative and turn it into a positive. A true positive... where anger is really released and love flows through us. No venom. No hate... Love.

I'm really concerned about our country. In this climate, it feels like you aren't an American citizen if you do agree with the Bush Administration. That type of thinking is bullshit. Democracy seems to mean that you can say what you want to say, but don't expect anything to change. When will the people matter in this so-called Democracy of America? The people have to participate in the political process. We have to speak up and out. Not just to each other, our peers, family and friends. We have to speak out to politicians, including the ones we didn't vote for. Things will change when the people show up and stand up.

Perception

Propaganda

Paucity

We believe that we are the minority and act as if that is the truth. Has the dark side taken over? Has God abandoned us? Or, are we reaping the sown seeds of inaction? Free will is free will. God doesn't tamper with it. I am a firm believer that faith without works is dead. We talk, talk, talk, but we don't always follow up our words with action. Tragedy usually facilitates a change in perspective. The Hurricane Katrina aftermath threw my whole orientation OFF. That has happened to me from time to time in the past, but never like this. I feel like my survival as a human being of color depends on my actions. Before Katrina, I was on cruise control. I went to work, came home, felt the occasional 'I'm bored. I need some excitement in my life.' blah, blah, blah. After Katrina, Reality TV took on a whole new meaning. I wasn't just a viewer. I was a participant... Yes, on my couch, in my head, my heart, my spirit. It was 'Survivor Live-New Orleans'... Everybody in America, everybody in the World could take part. All you needed was a television, a newspaper or a radio. Interactive TV! Watch and HURT!!!! Virtual reality at it's best! The only other thing you needed to partake was a heart.

Hurricane Katrina should be a wake up call for your a$$. With Katrina, a shift occurred inside of me...maybe it was a jolt or a continuation of something that was already in process.

I started writing/blogging Katrina so that the energy wouldn't stay stagnate inside of me. I needed to do something. I needed to keep moving the energy that was collecting inside of me. It's amazing when something happens and you your eyes don't see the same, your ears don't hear the same, and your spirit feels alien for a while.

This is how I feel...Imagine how the New Orleans, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama -Katrina Live Survivors are faring? I can turn the television off, or change the channel and be whisked into a whole other dimension of reality- cartoons, music videos...hell, I can roll over on the couch and go to sleep.... Dream beautiful dreams and wake up without having to wonder if Katrina was real, imagined, or a movie on the tube. They can't. They have to call or stand in line with FEMA or the Red Cross or some other aid agency. They have to figure out how to pay a mortgage on a house that is destroyed or otherwise inhabitable. They have to hit the pause button in their minds as images of their wading through waters replays.

We have work to do on so many levels. What some have been through, and others have witnessed, over the last month can't be forgotten. We can't act like it didn't happen. Oftentimes, we try to forget the painfull things that happen in our lives. We can't this time. We have to be alchemists. We have to transmute the painfull memories and energies that have collected in us. They need to become the fuel that we use to motivate ourselves to change our lives and our world.

We've see what war, hate and injustice do. We are seeing what the spirit that connects us to each other can do. We can transform the world. The world is changing already. How do I know? I changed my mind and stopped believing that we can't and that it isn't.

After G. W. Bush took the office of President of the United States a lot of us said F@*%$- IT!! Like we could afford to wait out 4 years and then 4 more years. WE CAN'T DO THAT ANY LONGER!!!! Our lives are in our hands. We are so used to NOT thinking for ourselves that we believe that occupying Iraq makes us "safer". Okay, maybe you didn't believe that...But did you call your congress persons and tell them that that was some bs. You have to call or write your elected officials even if you voted for the other guy. The tide is changing. We need to do it now more than ever.

Working, partying, buying material items that don't truly make us happy isn't enough to sustain or distract us. Life has to have more meaning. The Katrina aftermath has reminded me that I am my brother and sister's keeper. The me is nothing without a we. We have to use our power...NOW!!!