Thanksgiving is Good Advice!

November 9, 2007 at 11:16 pm · Filed under Faith, Holiday Joys and tagged: Black History, Faith, religion, ThanksGiving

I was standing outside of my job today, and a co-worker named Sharon, came up to me and began to hum.  It was a deep throaty hum similiar to the old Negro Spirituals from the deep south!  I felt a sense of something very powerful  sweep over me just for an instant!!!   I said,  Yes!  Amen!   Halleluja!!!   Sharon said “That’s right!!! Praise Him!” 

I was feeling good,  knowing that someone else who believes as I do was responding to that feeling of  sweeping peacefulness in the midst of the storms of life! 

I told her of my visit to Georgia one year before I got married to my (*missing now for nine years)  husband.   We went to a African American Baptist Church that had chairs mounted in the floor at the foot of the alter arranged in a semi-circle. 

 The people who sat in those chairs were the Elders of the Church–Assistant Pastors, and Deacons—Those gentleman had begun a deep throaty hum in unison and yet separate parts would emerge to collide in a thunderous  rainbow of high and low pitches of tones and vocal intonations that made my throat well with the desire to cry,  and I began to fight back tears.  

I felt at that very moment in time that I had reached back through time to the slaves that had lived and died —not aware that people like me would one day sit in the areas where they had been brought and sold into slavery in Georgi.

—-but yet I knew from the sound of that traditional vocalizing in that African American Baptist Church that the souls of those deceased slaves truly were in the midst of us at that very moment.   Those who passed on from the wip,  or the beating,  or the exhaustion of working the fields, were surrounding us now in that congregation  that very morning. 

 I looked around me and saw the faces of the descents of slaves and saw pride,  and a type of fearlessness!  

 They were fearful of oppression —but they were not afraid to allow their faith in God to provide their answers to oppression and life’s struggles. 

   I closed my eyes and thought—-“I did not come down here to meet my husband’s grandparents and cousins before we get married—-God had a greater plan for me.  I came to meet my ancestors that  would give me the strength to carry on no matter what!”  

 I used to think it very silly when I would hear Gary Bird (Afro Centric Radio Personality)  talk about the “ANCESTORS AND THEIR SPIRITS GUIDING US!”  But  that very moment in that Church in the Middle of Augusta Georgia (Home of James Brown)—I felt something—-I really did! 

  My husband asked me what was wrong—I could not speak…I told him later that I had felt such a strong emotional bond to his grandmother’s church.  I had never felt like that before.

So,  getting back to today,  2007—I shared a little piece of that with my co-worker and she just continued to inspire me like she always does and said,  “Just Praise the Lord Gurl!!!!  Just Give the Lord Thanks!!!  Raise up your hands  and Praise him!!!  Bless His Holy Name!!!!”

I love to talk to people that like lady.  She always has something positive to say—EVERY DAY SHE SEES ME!!!

Sharon  reminds me that THANKSGIVING IS EVERYDAY OF THE YEAR—-THREEHUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE DAYS,  TWENTY FOUR HOURS A DAY,  SEVEN DAYS A WEEK!!!—My co-worker Sharon even tells me that even when I feel my worst—PRAISE AND GIVE THANKSGIVING ANY HOW!!!

Thanks Sharon—for giving me a reason  to celebrate at this very special time of the year!!!!

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