Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Midnight Train to Jo'Juh

Peace Family -

I just recently came back from a 14 hr drive. Chicago to NJ. By myself, with the seeds. Just hopped in the car and went. I love the freedom that I felt of being able to just pick up and go... and the children had a ball!!! I remembered the WHOLE journey... which is significant because that means I didn't have to black out on them once. lol. They colored and read and sang songs. It was a beautiful time.

A few women I know said they wouldn't or haven't traveled that distance alone. It seemed odd, or scary or just... not of interest. I have no problem with picking up and going however. Because if we wait on someone else to do it or go with us... it may never happen right? I have always been an advocate of moving, living, being whatever and where ever you want. By taking that ride... I had a long time to think about my priorities, my past, my present and future. It was theraputic and it freed me so to speak.

What journeys have you taken on your own that maybe some may not? Either mentally or physically? What would you recommend to any of us that may prove to be positive in our lives?

Peace

Q. Civilized Zag

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Show and Prove Memories

Peace,

With Show and Prove 2009 right around the corner, I started to wonder about my experiences at each one that I've atteneded since 1998. Wow! My first thought is Hot!, then Family!, then The Babies! and more. I remember my first Show and Prove was a little overwhelming. It was Hot, Crowded and full of Love. I wore a yellow headwrap that was the worse fabric that I could've possibly worn on a day like that. It was hot and heavy. :-) Since then, I've learned my lesson. lol What is your all-time favorite memory of Show and Prove Past?

Peace,
Devotion

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Raising Our Babies in the Hood

Peace,

Growing up in NYC has given me the opportunity to see many things. One of these interesting things is how parents in the “hood” raise their children. I think I’ve seen it all from putting lip gloss and a pocketbook on a little boy to mothers sleeping with their son’s friends. I know this seems simple to many of us, but for single parents, those with little money, those living in “the hood”, those raising children with special needs or exceptional challenges, or just being a parent with no damn common sense, it could be an especially troublesome road to navigate. Often it becomes a trial and error process, because there is little guidance available on the subject. I am doing research on the subject and want to know, What dumb sh&% have you seen parents do and what advice would you give to parents raising children now-a-days? Do’s and Don’t Do’s ? *Remembering that we are talking about parents in the hood who are trying to survive day to day, while having limited resources. They may not have the option to expose them things like art classes at the finest art schools, international sleep away camps, etc. They need some real live, tangible advice on how to raise their children. What should all children know when walking the streets? Ex; Stay in groups, make sure you have ID on you, etc. Consider the lessons you’ve learned while growing up.


Peace,
Sci-Honor Devotion

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Tell Us How You See It...

Peace Family!

Another new blog day, and again I'm not going to post another new blog. Why? Because we still need YOUR words of wisdom in regards to the below questions to go into The 14th Degree and Beyond Magazine's Summer 2009 "Show & Prove" Issue.

Thanks goes out to the Queen who posted her "anonymous" build to Wednesday's blog. One of the reasons we started the blog was to spark conversation about some of the issues that permeate our Nation, and I knowledge that many of the points the Queen made are true to life and definitely need addressing.

However, we also need to have a complete grouping of answers for our magazine's "Tell Us How You See It" section... so this time, I'm not responding to any answers posted. I'm just going to thank you now for taking the time to build with us and adding on to the fullness of the magazine... as we've said time and again, we couldn't do it without you, our readers and supporters!

So with that I'll say Peace - from Eboni Joy Asiatic!

And the questions are:

  • What can seasoned Earths do to welcome new sistas into the Nation?
  • Please share your experience as a newborn Earth and tell us how you were treated when you first came among the Nation?

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Sistas, Queens, Earths... BUILD WITH US!

Peace Asiatics!

Most of you know that in each issue of The 14th Degree and Beyond Magazine we include a section called “Tell Us How you See It” in which we ask a series of questions (usually four) to be answered by our readers. The answers that we receive from YOU are then published in the following issue of the magazine.

The questions asked in the Spring 2009 “Appreciate Your Earth, Appreciate Your Nation” issue of our magazine were:

1) How do you prepare for an unexpected illness or death in order to secure your financial well-being and children’s future (ex. life insurance, "Godparents", long-term disability, living will, burial/cremation arrangements, etc.)?
2) Brothers, what do you do to show your Queen that you appreciate her?
3) What can seasoned Earths do to welcome new sistas into the Nation?
4) Please share your experience as a newborn Earth and how you were treated when you first came among the Nation?

Thus far we’ve received a good number of answers to our first two questions, but only one answer to our fourth question, and NO answers to the third.

So I would like to ask for your input, insight, and honest build on your experience – SISTERS, QUEENS, EARTHS – in regards to the following two questions so that they may be published in our Summer 2009 “Show & Prove” issue of The 14th Degree and Beyond:

What can seasoned Earths do to welcome new sistas into the Nation?

AND…

Please share your experience as a newborn Earth and tell us how you were treated when you first came among the Nation?

Thank you for your honest insight… I look forward to knowledging the builds (to not only see those with like experiences, but to learn how I can better interact with my sisters of this shared culture).

Peace! Eboni Joy Asiatic

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Being and Doing as Mother of Civilization in the 21st Century

Peace and Blessings. I am building today for Mother's (of Civilization) Day, 2009. I am Mother to the beautiful young queen, Nyaa Asantewa Shabazz, who is understanding (3) years of age. She has brought such understanding to my cipher by way of her growth and development, her innocence, and her will and determination to live up to the strong name that I gave her. I am the Mother of her Civilization. I also co-exist as Mother of Civilization with my sisters to their children, our immediate communities, our ciphers, our parliaments, our Rallies, and our NATION.

WHAT IS A MOTHER? A mother can be a noun, an adjective, or a verb. It can simply mean a female parent, but it also means the source or origin of. It means maternal tenderness or affection, or something that is an extreme or ultimate example of. It means to give birth to, or can mean to care for or protect.

WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? Our lessons teach us that Civilization means "One having knowledge, wisdom, understanding, culture, refinement, and is not a savage in the pursuit of happiness." (17:40) The dictionary sources civilization as "a relatively high level of cultural and technological development; specifically the stage of cultural development at which writing and the keeping of written records is attained. It also refers to the process of becoming civilized.

Being a Mother of Civilization in this day and time is not the same as it used to be. As with all things in life, we must refine and grow with the changes in the environment around us. Today, there is greater knowledge, greater economical demand and accountability, greater educational and nutritional risk to our children's well-being, and overall, a greater need to equip them with the tools and faculties they will need in order to become and remain successful, knowledgeable, and financially stable adults. Although this demand for our resources has increased exponentially in this age, the one thing that has not increased greatly, are the RESOURCES! Therefore, much of that burden falls on our backs to be that "one" who will feed our children and communities the knowledge, wisdom, understanding, culture, and refinement, without losing the knowledge of our OWN selves, and thus, assisting in the development of our culture. Many of us are still working to accomplish this in single-parent homes, on single-parent incomes. The community organizations are overburdened themselves and can barely assist many of us with those plus lessons of completing our GEDs, or post-high school education, technology courses, resume writing, low or free-cost daycare and healthcare, quality schooling when we cannot afford to not work and home school our children ourselves. Now, in the 21st century, this is a great opportunity for all of the Mothers of Civilization to refine the “one” from being a single individual to constituting a UNIFIED entity of two or more Mothers of Civilization; all working together, pooling our resources, building relationships between our children, co-op-ing our childcare and home school needs so that we stay on that ONE accord of building civilization, for the common purpose of elevating ourselves, our children, and in turn, our Nation.

Assuming the title as Mother of Civilization indicates a great level of respect as well as a great level of responsibility as the black woman with knowledge of herself to not only BE the Mother of Civilization, however to also DO the duty of a Mother of Civilization. We do this, everyday, tirelessly, without want for reward, praise, or luxury.

This is why it is so important for us to continue to bond together, lean on each other, learn from each other, and gather together to combine our resources for the perpetuation of our duty, to raising and growing a civilized Nation, thus the development or that “writing” of the cultural or historical record of Nation is embossed in our babies.

It’s not always easy to come together for that common cause. Sometimes its not just the simple resource we need to make it happen – but also the way in which the resource is utilized, who is utilizing them and what is the best methodology to make those said resources stretch into the portions we need to, in an effort to reach the most effective solution.

There’s no greater reward to being and doing as the Mother of Civilization than to see our children progress developmentally, culturally, educationally, and to also see ourselves gain strength in our own learning, financial power, relationships with our God, sisterhood with the Earths, the travel through our lessons, and all of the 21 ciphers that we balance, rotate, and revolved on a daily basis. In addition, there is much more to us being “Mothers” such as being that source or origin of Original Woman on this planet; we are caring and protective of our environments and will only for the best.

Add on, Family...

What do you see are attributes, challenges, and/or blessings in being Mother of Civilization in this day and time?

PEACE
Victorious Lanasia Earth

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

True Strength Lies in Submission...not Obedience

“True strength lies in submission which permits one to dedicate her life, through devotion, to something beyond herself.”

Peace and Blessings. As cognizant, conscious sisters, it is important for us to continually visit (and sometimes revisit) those issues that are a big part of what it takes to be and sustain as Earth and/or Queen; sometimes even those cultural practices or qualities that deter sisters from truly accepting their natural existence as Earth, or cause them to stray away from civilization due to dissatisfaction, or mis-understanding. This is what we strive to avoid through proactive education, building, and asking the questions we do each week in our blog. This allows us (collectively) to gain and grow in our own understanding based on the responses of our readers.

One of the concepts that we rarely build on to really gain a complete understanding of is "submission," and its important distinction from "obedience." In this context, I am speaking about submitting to God/Husband, our culture, and/or our lessons. One reason for this (in my opinion), is that we have not fully removed the religious and negative connotations in certain instances from our growth and development of our culture, lessons, and relationship to each other as Gods and Earths, and what it means to "submit."


Let's first take a look at each word, its definition, and my understanding of the word...


submit (v): 1) to give over or yield to the power or authority of another; 2) to present for the approval, consideration, or decision of another or others: to submit a plan; to submit an application. Submission involves the actual "act of" doing the above.

Submission requires love, respect and a wiling yield to another. Submission requires a personal relationship where there is devotion, knowledge, and forsight to the future and happiness to that cipher. Submission is done as a very purposeful act, where the one you are submitting to has proved themselves worthy of your submission, devotion, and most of all, trust.

obey (v): 1) to comply with or follow the commands, restrictions, wishes, or instructions of; 2) to comply with or follow (a command, restriction, wish, instruction, etc.). Obedience is the "act of" doing the above.


Obedience doesn't require any personal relationship between the one giving the "command" and the one obeying the command. Although obedience can be an attribute of submission, initially and independently, it is done with no purpose, cause, or reason other than being told to do it.



Once we remove the negative implication(s) from the word "submission," we can better appreciate and accept the place it should play in the relationships we choose to maintain. As I mentioned earlier, submission is purposeful will in giving power to another, while obedience is blind will. The opening quote reads, "True strength lies in submission..." The true strength is what we MUST do as the Original Woman to do the knowledge to God before choosing him as the head of your cipher, it means fully researching this culture, this knowledge, the lessons, and all other aspects of how you will choose to change your life and accept your natural place in the universe as Mother Of Civilization, Queen, and Earth.


An example of strength in submission is simply looking at our Universe (as we know it). We have a solar system consisting of 9 planets, which are powered by the light of the Sun. Each planet has its placement, speed of rotation, its temperature ranges, atmospheric energy, and other attributes that make each planet what it is. The light of the Sun is consistent, strong, and powerful enough to keep each planet in its proper place, doing what it does to maintain the element and ORDER of the Universe. At no time does any planet fall out of line, try to move up or back, or even take the place of the Sun. Even the Sun has its place its accepted, along with the responsibility of its tasks to keep chaos out of the Universe. This is a brief example of the strength in submission


What misconceptions of submission did/do you have in regards to our culture? Do you see submission and obedience as interchangable? Why or why not?


PEACE
Victorious Lanasia Earth

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Momma I Made it!

Peace All -

I am actually writing this a day early so that I don't forget tomorrow in the rush to go to the Oasis Parliament. I build that everyone is having a beautiful weekend.

This week... I received my 120 Flag. Not that I hadn't knowledged it years, months and days ago but - I built for it finally. And... the feeling that I had... once I completed it... was indescribable. King Civilized put me through it in regards to all the questions I had to answer as well as history but - I appreciated it and felt very accomplished afterwards.

I find myself researching a lot more and relating things to myself much better. It may sound funny but - the is one of the best rewards that I have ever received.

What to you remember about building for your 120 flag or a major accomplishment? What changed afterwards if anything?

Peace

Q. Civilized Zag