I have felt for some time that I have no business helping anyone until I help myself. As a woman, I tend to everyone else before I think of my own needs. It’s a bad ole tradition that saps the life out of my creativity and steals time and energy. This problem presents within it the solution of forcing me to look at my condition and my requirements and to follow through in applying the remedies. If I put my energy into washing the dishes, cooking or gardening…yes, it improves my families’ lives but it’s a patch, a band aid, that won’t solve the fundamental problem or heal the spreading wound.

I know I was born for a certain purpose. And I know what that purpose is. Because of the usual ‘isms’ I’m held back, thwarted and sabotaged. And yet, like a rat in a maze, I must pursue freedom, justice and triumph. The world is mine too. I have a right and obligation to heal and be a wounded healer. I can increase health for goodness sake.

When I change everything changes in relationship. Each individual has an effect on everyone around them and everything. When we improve our thinking, words and deeds our position is enhanced. The National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs motto was “Lifting as we climb.” That is a human responsibility…one that must be accepted. When we hold ourselves back or when other folk are held back, humanity loses evolutionary ground. When we lift ourselves we lift whole situations.

We live in a time when liberation is the only true work. Mental, physical and spiritual liberation will heal this world. Truth is all that’s left to live for in the service of love. Freud defines mental health as the ability to love and work. People have to have the freedom to pursue meaningful work and relationships without interference or machinations. The cure is within us or is us. Having the courage to manifest from this core truth will liberate the world.