a feast day

wow wow wow

today is Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of the Christian year. It is also the feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows, in devotion to Mother Mary.

more personally, it is my wedding anniversary. this year would have marked our 29th year of marriage. yep, it would have.

i’ve been making final revisions to the book, The Queen’s Guide to Fidelity. it is the story of my soul journey and healing, of being guided through heartbreak by the Divine Mother to Truth and Love and Power.

all this to say, today is ripe with lessons and gifts related to the sorrows and of the true meaning of Kings and Queens.

the Queen’s Guide tells a different story of what it means to be crowned as Queens and Kings. it runs counter to the imperial form of royalty. it involves a wholly different kind of power.

not power-over, which is the imperial kingdom. but power-with.

this story does not reject hierarchy but instead illuminates a natural hierarchy rooted in love and relationship.

all of this can be hard to swallow for us Westerners. we’ve experienced such wounding related to power and hierarchy.

years ago, as a Women’s Studies grad student, i was taking a Black Nationalism class with Black feminist scholar and activist Dr. Patricia Hill Collins. i was pregnant with my oldest daughter, working to finish up classes and my thesis and prepare for this birth. i stopped by Dr. Collins’ office after class for help. power was the topic. i was reckoning with it. i remember saying something to her about not wanting power and wanting to disrupt hierarchy. she laughed and pointed to my pregnant belly. “you best get comfortable with it. when that baby comes, you will need to be comfortable holding power. her life will depend on it. mothering a child is natural hierarchy. hierarchy and power are not the problem.”

she was the GOAT teacher.

just as hierarchy and power are not the problem, neither are Kings and Queens. rather, how can we relate to power differently?

Jesus shows us the Way. Mother Mary shows the Way.

it is the Way of Love.

Love as Divine Power, sourced from the Divine. it includes taking our rightful place in the natural order of things, respecting both inner and outer authority and then choosing love.

this is the aspiration of democracy. this is the promise of the Kingdom of God.

i sit with Queens and Kings everyday. these royals are the least of these, discounted by society, invisible to many in positional power. i learn from them everyday, grateful for the wisdom shared from their soul journeys.

one of my clients, King William, often shares his favorite quote from the musical Mame: “Life is a banquet. Most sons of bitches go starving.” He references this as he reminds himself and me that life is always giving us the perfect material by which to grow into ourselves, our full and divine humanity. he knows. he shows me. it is beautiful as he meets his material reality with curiosity, openness, acceptance.

fear, which breeds control and power-over, is rampant. in our selves, in our communal lives. the Way of Love is to participate in the banquet of life. fearful, to open and surrender and die and be reborn.

Love breeds a true King, a true Queen.

on this feast day, i am on bended knee for the fruits i now taste as i feast at the banquet—for the experience of the Kingdom of God here on earth.

i ask for prayers as i finalize this book, in hopes of sharing these fruits with you. what a beautiful life this is! amazing! wow wow wow.

(a pic from a hike on the Great Miami river yesterday, eagle just overhead)

I love you.

~a