The beauty of the day is to wake up and embrace it with energy, enthusiasm and the excitement with what you can positively contribute to it. My name is Richard Brown. In search of myself I have been many things over my lifetime. The ghetto rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief, the con player, procurer to a junkie in need. I am thrilled and honored to have this opportunity to write for the Phoenix. Why, they have survived the many downs and the very few ups. They are survivors. Cassandra Harris is a light of inspiration because her struggles only made her stronger.
A very brief history, I have had four youth detention terms from the age of ten to sixteen, five prison terms from the age of sixteen to my late fifties. I have had forty plus years of drug use, fast money, fast women and the fast pace of the street life. I have survived the hard blows of poor decision making, wrong choices and covering up low self-esteem. It is easy to continue to do the wrong things, because we have become comfortable with whom we think we are. We convince ourselves it’s what we desire. However, we have been conditioned to think failure is not a means to succeed but a road we are glued too. There is a road sign we encountered early in our childhood that states, road under construction and there’s no detours. So the road becomes cluttered with misconceptions, wrong identifications and false beliefs that create phantom values and principles we attach to our repertoire for how to live our lives. The streets are littered with violence, drugs, prison life, and death.
I am putting together an event, tentatively scheduled for the Spring of 2022. The purpose of the event is to encourage change through self-awareness and spiritual enlightenment. Self-awareness is the ability to think about your very thought process. The pressures of life test our faith, our beliefs become weary, and we lack substance to provide meaning and understanding to our struggle. Therefore, we continue to fail and shrug our shoulders as if this is the way it’s supposed to be.
When you hear the word spirituality what comes to mind? Does it conjure up images of a God, Allah, or a type of religion? What if you’re a non-believer of God, how would spirituality apply to you? Spirituality gives you a look inside yourself. It gives you insight and recognition to identify the truth and it’s the truth that sets you free. It’s the guiding light that leads you out of the darkness of your own tainted thoughts and feelings. Pass it on.
The event will provide singing, rap, poetry, honoring Dr. (Rev) Martin L. King, Jr and a number of other performances. We need the young people to step up and show their talents. If you sing, dance, rap or play an instrument. This is your time to shine and get recognized. We will be conducting auditions in the very near future. We will be doing original songs and they will be recorded. Who knows you may be the next super star. Don’t miss this opportunity. You will be able to display your talents and when you leave there you will be spiritually uplifted. Spirituality awakens you to the fact that you are more than what meets the eye, your life has purpose. Spirituality is the seat of perception. It is a source of insight, realization, and recognition of the truth. It is the force, power and creative energy behind every creation.
For those that may not pick up the Phoenix, Pass it on, tell others about this important event. This is an event you cannot afford to miss. It will be thought changing, behavior changing and life changing. Pass it on. Until the next time, I leave you with this thought. “A farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he scattered them across the field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. They were more invested in the world than themselves, everything was surface. Other sees fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. Those seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow, but the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. These are the pressures life brings to us through circumstances and situations. Our faith does not make our character, it reveals it. Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked the tender plants.
These are the children that are influenced by external conditions and follow the wide path of destruction, chaos, and mayhem. They walk in total darkness and stumble over everything in their path because they are the blind leading the blind. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil. These are the children that will eat the fruits of their labor. They will maintain their faith and continues to walk the narrow path of righteousness and do not allow the wicked to influence their heart and mind.
Pass it on. God bless you, stay focused and stay positive.
