photo by Courtney Reid-Eaton

February 13, 2022 - It’s Me

After our journey through kin/g themes, we find ourselves in the mirror once again. This week we celebrate Audre Lorde’s birthday on Feb 18th. In today’s offering we begin with our Black Feminist Breathing Meditation Chorus practice in honor of Audre Lorde (2020) and end with excerpts from the original BFB Chorus (2014). Sangodare offers a sermon in between that includes references to Tweet, Adele and Lionel Ritchie in addition to this week’s Black feminist texts.

Also, join us today at 3pm for a session on Gratitude Practice ($16). Gratitude Practice: The Revolution of Power

February 6, 2022 - King of Kings

Check out the final sermon in the series on Goin to See the King. In answer to “Who is the King?” Sangodare shares about legacy, love and, as usual, practice as paths to the King. (audio only)

Jan 30, 2022 - Going to See the King of Courage

Join us for today’s sermon. I have a particularly exciting announcement at the end. Also, Alexis and i will be doing an Instagram live sharing at noon today. Refresh if you don’t see the audio. Love to you family!

Jan 23, 2022 - Hail to the Chief - Goin to See the King

Jan 16, 2022 - See the King

Due to the surge and the snow in Durham today our plans have changed a bit. Join us at 11:30am. Sangodare will share the first in this sermon series, See The King. Audio Only. If you have any challenges or don’t see the audio we suggest you refresh the page. Love to you all!!!

Look forward to seeing the folks enrolled in Transcend Practice today at 1:30pm.
Interested in Transcend Practice? Visit transcendpractice.com

Jan 9, 2022 - What is time?

As Alexis and I plan the year, we are learning a lot about alternative time. We are practicing a shift inour orientation from the supremacy of Gregorian calendar to the rhythms of the moon and the sun. It feels so good to destabilize a story about when I should work and rest. When I should be awake or asleep. It is also revealing to me the genius of our ancestors who seemed to be more in tune with the rhythms of our great teacher, this planet.

Afformation:

Why is it so easy for alignment between head and heart, body and spirit, the physical world and the energetic world to guide my time?

From everything I have been taught, researched and read, it seems that such a deep resonance to the natural world around us makes it easier to perceive and feel our holographic world. By this I mean the cycles and form of phenomena and noumena like time, seasons, our bodies, the planet, the stars, our spirit, our energy bodies, etc. are replicated within one another. As above, so below. As inside, so is outside.

I am excited to share more as this deep dive bears fruit.

ASK:

What natural cycles do I notice and ignore in my life?
What would I do with my time if ignored the story of what a day, hour, month, year is?

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Next Sunday, is our first service of the year. I hope to see you here for our live service!

Jan 2, 2022 - Gift Giving & Receiving

What if our total liberation was dependent on our ability to articulate our needs and desires?
How close would we be to freedom right now?

This is an area of growth that I notice we require significant practice with. Many of us struggle around requests and helpfulness. It shows up sometimes in the strangest ways:

1) Like when people get angry at folks who ask for what they want, whether it’s to have extra pie crust (the best part of pie, in my opinion) or to borrow money. When other people’s genuine requests anger us, we have an opportunity to consider why?

OR

2) Like when people say “no” to an offer of an item, our help or even just to go ahead through a door or in a line; and then the one who has offered can’t take “no” for an answer. Have you heard it? The helpful/generous person might say, “Please.” or “Oh, I insist.” Or worse demonstrate their feeling of being rebuffed with an insult. When we want to give but can’t take no for an answer, we have the opportunity to consider the real motivation of our giving.

When people opt out of our courtesy or generosity it is important to listen. It is not a negative reflection on us if someone doesn’t take the last pancake when we offer, let us carry their bag, go through the door we are holding open for them, etc. If anger or insistence gets stirred up, could it be a reflection of us? Could it be that we assume others have a hard time receiving because in fact it is we ourselves that have a hard time receiving? Or Could it be that we get our self-worth and value from how much we “help” others?

OR

3) Like when you have a guest and encourage them to let you know if they need anything and they do not but give an account at the end of the day of all the things they went without all day long - the toilet paper, ironing board, the salt, warmth, etc. When we’re asked what we want for dinner and we ask for something that is not “too much trouble”.

and on and on.

Will you be interested with me for a moment?

I am very interested in these, sometimes subtle and sometimes not so subtle, dynamics. Because I know we will not achieve complete liberation when we deny our own desires as the norm; while we ignore or disrespect the desires of others; while we disregard consent for the sake of our need to “help”. Practicing truth telling (and truth listening) does not just have to be in relation to so-called social justice movement work. It is just as relevant in the personal and the everyday. It is necessary to practice on every scale.

AFFORMATION: Why is it so easy to know and articulate my desires?

I know we’re still learning about the flow of energy. What needs to happen in the root chakra to allow us to feel safe enough to get in touch with our desires at the sacral chakra. Then to allow that energy to flow through balance at the solar plexus / navel chakra allowing us to tap into the power to achieve the desire. I know there is still so much we are learning about consent. Let’s lean into all of it with grace for ourselves and one another. Let’s learn with low stakes to grow our capacity such that we have the muscles for the heavy lifting in case the high stakes and big challenges present themselves.

ASK:

What desires am I silencing to myself?

What request am I stopped from voicing by my own fears?

Who is one person I can share an unspoken desire with today?

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See “Sunday Service Archives” below for past services and other offerings.

Announcements

Stardust and Salt

Also, sign up here if you want to ground yourself in the wisdom of Fannie Lou Hamer’s effective organizing during election season. And Stardust and Salt Alexis’s 10-day (re)activation of your daily creative practice is also available to you to do any time. Sign up here.

Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals

Alexis’s newest book Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals is now available wherever books are sold and is an affordable gift for the deep divers in your life. In this image you can see Alexis’s father Clyde Gumbs’s book in the background. You can get his book Without Apology: Poems in Honor of Black Women here.

For more news and updates sign up for our email list (above on the right) and for Alexis’s newest poems check out her site where she posts new poetry and reflections often.

NORTHSTAR CONGREGANTS: We invite requests, comments and reflections at each service. Service Notes is where I comment on the notes congregants put in the collection basket.

Archived: In Person Services from 2020