The time is right
I’m gonna pack my bags
And take that journey down the road
Cause over the mountain I see the bright sun shining
And I want to live inside the glow….
The Summer of Sojourner officially began yesterday with a trip to Stone Mountain. It’s funny. As I stood just about 3/4 of the way up, I stopped and took pictures of the Atlanta skyline. I knew that the steepest part of the mountain was ahead of me and I needed to take a second to breathe…and pray. I closed my eyes and inhaled. As I inhaled, I asked God to help me this summer as I would begin to replinish my spirit.
I asked Him to forgive me for allowing myself to become so spiritually dehydrated…and to help surround me with people that would refill my spirit and lead me in the right direction. I prayed for wisdom and discernment. The strength to purge when need be and absorb when necessary.
I wanna go to a place where I am nothing and everything
That exists between here and nowhere
I wanna go to a place where time has no consequences oh yeah
The sky opens to my prayers
And then I exhaled….opened my eyes…smiled…and turned to take a picture of myself. All of a sudden, I felt this burst of energy. I felt absolutely golden. As I prepared myself to run up the steepest part of the mountain – I literally ran smack dab into my friend, Mr. Benjamin Button*.
Ben is the type of person that you fall in love with immediately. His personality is so warm and engaging…but more importantly, he’ll hit you with a scripture or a profound message in a heartbeat. I hadn’t seen Ben in over a year – at my best friend Salim’s baby shower – but we met up briefly the previous week during my Memorial Weeked outing with Salim and my other BFF, Slumdawg.
I wanna go to beautiful, beautiful, beautiful,
I wanna go to beautiful, beautiful, beautiful,
I wanna go to beautiful, beautiful, beautiful,
I wanna go to beautiful, beautiful, beautiful,
As we quickly caught up, I told him about how I was trying to eliminate and concentrate. And that some people in my life were going to find themselves on the outside because I don’t have anything left to give them. But how I wanted to pull those who were truly meant to be in my life closer. We exchanged numbers again and talked about keeping in touch.
Please understand
That its not that I don’t care
But right now these walls are closing in on me
I love you more than I love life itself
But I need to find a place were I can breathe
I can breathe
I can’t lie. When we hugged and went our separate ways, I thought that it would be like it always was. While every time I see him, I feel like his spirit is akin to one of my ‘F3′ folks, I didn’t think that I’d see him for another year or two. I love all of my friends, but because I’m ‘eliminating and concentrating’, I didn’t see myself putting forth the effort to maintain another friendship. And then without even thinking, twice in a 7 day period here we are.
Turns out, he’s a regular at Stone Mountain (as I am about to be). And he’s going to help me get myself together physically, since he’s a trainer. And I hope that during our runs *gulp*, I’ll be able to absorb some of that spiritual energy that he exudes so effortlessly. Sometimes, I love just listening to people talk because I’m able to go back when I’m alone and pull certain things that they say and incorporate them into my life.
I wanna go to a place where I can hold the intangible
And let go of the pain with all my might
I wanna go to a place where I’m suspended on ecstasy
Somewhere between dark and light
Where wrong becomes right
I love how God confirms the presence of people and things that I’m supposed to draw from at various points in my life. Call me silly, but I see the hand of God in EVERYTHING. And when I’m at my weakest points, where I may not trust my own judgment I always ask Him to send me a sign. And He always does – whether its a person, a song, a phrase, or sometimes even His own voice – sounding as soothing as my own.
I wanna go to beautiful, beautiful, beautiful,
I wanna go to beautiful, beautiful, beautiful,
I wanna go to beautiful, beautiful, beautiful,
I wanna go to beautiful, beautiful, beautiful
I’m in a beautiful place in my life right now. One where I am completely open to wherever God takes me and one in which I have come to appreciate the true value of friendship and the purpose of people in my life. I am wise enough to find the lesson in those there for a reason, respect the ones only meant for a season and cherish those that are meant to remain for a lifetime. Finding kindred spirits is always a beautiful thing.
Mmmmmmm… beautiful…
~Beautiful by India.Arie~
*name changed to protect the guilty AND because his fine self does not look like he’s creeping up on 40 this year 
