(ThyBlackMan.com) While sitting in a meeting one day, a beautiful black brother native of Ghana recalled to us his life growing up in the first Black independent nation in sub-Saharan Africa. He told us what life was like having always seen a black president, growing up only knowing black doctors and always seeing black lawyers. He had always seen black people in positions of power and he remarked that he could not imagine having grown up in a country ruled over by another race of people especially under the conditions we as black people had suffered in America. He understood the great suffering we had experienced in 400 years from the beginning of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, lynching, Jim-crow, segregation, and our current fight for justice. He said that he could not have withstood what we have withstood and still be happy. He said he admired black people in America because we still manage to smile and press forward after such experience. He then asked us this questions:
Do you know how special you are?
When I reflect on this question it reminds me of a story told by Dr. Maya Angelou that she tells in an interview with Dave Chappelle, where she recalls a incident were she, without knowing who he was, ends a fight between Tupac Shakur and another man with this beginning with this same amazing question of “Do you know how special you are?”
Today as I watched the funeral of Dr. Maya Angelou along with at least
37,000 others, it came to my realization that we really have this thing all wrong. Because, we tend to see greatness later in a persons life and sometimes not until “after” their death. And this especially applies to us when we think of our own personal self. But greatness doesn’t all of a sudden happen. It grows over time and it is not always going to be recognized.
I had the privilege a few weeks ago to visit and walk through some pretty good gardens, one was a community garden and the other was a private garden and as we walked through the vegetation in each garden, the gardeners asked each other which plant it was and if they had trouble recalling they would smell it and if that didn’t help they may taste one of the leaves. They could not just look at the plant and tell because they are still growing and not yet in full bloom but they both had enough knowledge of plant life to know what it was. Now imagine me your brother who is not a gardener looking at all of this. I was amazed because most of it just looked like leaves to me (smile) I just spent most of the time just listening and trusting them or chewing on leaves, when you don’t have a knowledge of a things then you just have to learn from those who do.
Now, where is the expert gardening guide on your life and talents? Who can see your greatness when you are not in full bloom? Can you?! And do you know that they have something called companion planting where a gardener puts different plants next to each other to keep pest away that may destroy the crop they want to grow?
If plants need gardeners and farmers to help them grow, then so do you. We choose great ones in our lives to guide us. I and many others chose Minister Louis Farrakhan. We chose him because he gives us knowledge and guidance. It’s not about the personality really. What is important is to get knowledge and learn how to apply it.
Look at how we are choosing money, sex, drugs, and alcohol over books and learning and surrounding ourselves with people who are always looking for the turn up. Well, how is that working out for you? Are you like the drunken master using your master karate skills to beat everything around you? No. You are just stumbling through life and it will not change until you change it.
We have to stop with all of the excuses and the lies that we tell ourselves. You may say well it’s hard out here or that the struggle is real. Yes, and? So what!? Tell that to the billions of sperm you beat out to get to the egg in your mothers womb, because the rest died in the womb. That means you were the best, the brightest and the strongest from the beginning of your conception. Yes you have been through and are going through a lot, but you have also overcome a lot and the real strength to overcome whatever difficult thing that you faced came from within you. So now it’s time to dig deeper to overcome this next challenge.
How are you going to beat it? First you have to change the way you think. Find the good in the bad and focus on the good. Then set some goal for yourself, something you want to accomplish and don’t stop until it’s done. Find things that inspire you and feed on them. I have included a few videos that have helped me, including the interview I mentioned above between Dave Chappelle and Maya Angelou, May God be pleased with her. I hope you will find these videos helpful also. Push for your greatness because the whole world is waiting on you! Peace..
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Staff Writer; Brother Tremikus Muhammad
Official website; http://brothertremikus.blogspot.com/
May also connect with this talented brother via Twitter; Tremikus and Facebook; PushOnThroughStruggle.
