My Path pt.II

Repost: Mar 6, 2006

 

She tugged her denim trenchcoat as she stood on the corner of Euclid and Colquitt in Little 5 Points. She was awaiting the arrival of her new but dear friend. She was watching the Bazaar close down as she admired the crochet designs of one of the shop owners. It was February 14th. Valentine's Day - a paganistic holiday yet a well thought out one by capitalist organizations worldwide who cash in on such far fetched holidays as this one. She never celebrated Valentine's Day, nor had she allowed any man to honor her specifically on this day. For any man who proposed to love her had to understand that she was deserving of his love all throughout the year and not on the one designated day when everyone received their affection. She was not the typical female and her king would know that and act accordingly. Finally her friend arrived and she greeted her with a big smile.

"How are you?" her friend asked.
"Doing well." she responded. "Let's have some dinner."
The two young ladies turned to enter the sushi restaurant where they had plans to dine. As they were seated at a table near the window, her friend began to ask "Have you heard from him lately?"
HE was her ex-boyfriend that she broke up with about a month and a half ago.
"Yes, he actually e-mailed me today. He wanted to wish me a Happy Valentine's Day. Can you believe that?!" she blurted out. "I mean did he ever even know me at all?! Valentine's Day?!"
"Does it upset you that he still tries to contact you every now and then? Are you afraid that he can persuade you into..." her friend began to inqure.
"NO!" she interrupted. "HE and I are over and I am positive that he is not the one for me. I have seen my king and he is not him...His spirit does not fit. He is just not he one for me. I know that he may not understand where I am headed and why I had to cut my ties with him but I am on a different path now. One day I pray Jah will help him to understand."
"Maybe he misses the you that was and in some way is hopeful that she will come back. He could also be on a journey himself and seeks your counsel." her friend reasoned.The woman thought for a moment, for she never thought of it that way. Every since she had started on this journey it seemed like everyone was up against her and she had only viewed him as part of the opposition. These days everything about him screamed babylon. It seemed like everyone around her wanted to convert her back into confusion and darkness. But in fact she felt as if she had just woke up and the long sleep was good.

I was going through those changes but I wasn't, as everyone believed, going crazy. I thought I was opening up to more wisdom and felt I should share it. I had a strong religious impulse to begin with - as a child in church, I used to get the spirit, jumping and shouting, speaking in tongues and going into trances. Long before I met Bob, I'd been reading my Bible. Now I turned to preaching the faith of Rastafari - wherever I went I 'd talk about black pride and raising ourselves up (Rita Marley, No Woman, No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley).

Just then the woman noticed someone come into the restarant that she recognized.

"What's that?" her friend asked.

"This young lady that just walked in. I had lunch with her not too long ago. She said something that still hangs on my mind today."

"What was that?"

"She said that Rastafari was a movement that was very powerful back in the day." she let that one hang in the air. "Just like that she said it. Rastafari is not a movement! It is not even a religion! It is a way of life! For her to dismiss it like it was a cool thing to be a part of back in the day...as if it was a phase people went through in history but now it is gone...done and over it. It was not cool! It was and is and will forever be the truth! It is not a movement from the past, it is a way of life!" she calmed down and noticed that her friend was grinning at her slightly. "What's that? What's with the look?"

"Because I hear you sista! You are quick to say to me that you are on a path and that you are learning what it means to be Rasta. That you have a way to go before you can call yourself a Rasta. But I hear you talking tonight! You are convinced and this is your road. You say that you are not ready...but I do believe that I am speaking with and having dinner with a Rasta tonight."

I realized now that whatever you put yourself through to be where you are today is all a part of you. I wasn't crazy, I was simply trying to find out who I was, and where, and why (Rita Marley, No Woman, No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley).