( – promoted by buhdydharma )
I am still stunned by what has happened. While I have many concerns I am not thinking about them now. If only for this one essay, I want to set everything aside to simply celebrate our historic achievement as a people.
I remain overwhelmed. It still hasn’t entirely sunk in. It is really huge, probably the biggest single event in my lifetime – certainly in the political realm. What a remarkable, amazing, stunning victory for us all. What a wonderful moment for America. We have achieved a great milestone.
How starving were we for this great day to be an American?
I attempt to express some of my thought and emotion in the following video…I fall short of course. It’s a little rough but I hope you like it.
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and the dream.
Nice juxtaposition and there to here progression all in one!
I ran across this the other day too, and think you might like it as much as I did…
Seat of Power
It is important to savor the victory, if for nothing else than to appreciate the optimism of the moment. I hadn’t felt it for a long time and it’s good to be reminded what it feels like.
And even though the glacial pace of change can be maddening, we have some proof now that the glacier IS still moving.
a dark veil was lifted when he was elected. I hadn’t realized how heavily this past decade had weighed on me.
It was as if I had spent 8 years waiting to exhale. Then, suddenly, the whole world heaved an enormous sigh of relief; and we moved a good deal closer…
It is amazing how many times and how many ways that my hope and optimism have been encouraged since Nov. 4th. This is another one. I am moved to tears yet again and thank you for reminding me of King’s words.
In my shamanic tradition, and doubtless others, there’s the archetype of the hummingbird, the animal of the winds of the north.
Hummingbirds have impossibly small wings in comparison to the size of their bodies. But every year they take the mythic journey, all the way from South America to the northeastern United States and Canada, and later the round trip. They have enormous courage. They fly alone. They follow only their inner guidance. They eat heavily before the time comes. And when the time comes to fly, they respond without hesitation and begin their long journey.
During the flight, they lose up to 40% of their body weight. Some cautious ones seem to fly around the Gulf of Mexico so they will fly over land. But many, many fly directly, non stop across the open waters of the Gulf. They fly close to the waves, so that the headwinds will not impede them, but there are predators in the water and the air. They always fly alone. They always follow their guidance. Their heroic flight takes several days.
There are reports from oil rigs in the Gulf of seeing hummingbirds fly past them flying close to the water.
Eventually, the hummingbird arrives at its destination, where it set out for. It may be weak, exhausted, a shadow of its former self, but it nevertheless arrives at a destination it may not have seen before, a destination it could only dream existed, a destination that called to it, a destination known to all of its ancestors, and it responded.
The journey links it directly to all of its ancestors, and it connects each of us directly to ours. Where, after all, does the hummingbird receive the knowledge come from about where to go and how? And where did we get the ideas we have about justice, quality, compassion, honesty, courage, and perseverance?
Since the election, I’ve been seeing Barack Obama’s as a fulfillment of the mythic hummingbird journey.
I am astounded and humbled. My gratitude for being alive to witness overwhelms me.
Thanks for a great video, OPOL.
i’m still in gratitude, and plan to either stay here or lug as much of it around as i can.
thanks, OPOL.
This week has been so emotionally draining…I am still coping with everything…I will never forget all the great things that have happened this week! America has awakened and will never be quite the same…I love it!
I enjoyed your “melange” of King and Obama.
I know how you feel — I think many of us just want a day or two to savor this moment in history.
I enjoyed the video! I enjoyed the moment of Martin Luther King — hearing his words. And I enjoyed the “infusion” of Obama in the midst!
Irony — that at our lowest ebb in history, one, from a history of oppression, would attempt to “rescue” us.