Happy Birthday To Ya, Dr. King!

What's on my mind these days? Peace. World peace. Inner peace. Peace. Peace. Peace.

How do you we find it? How do we maintain it?


I spent Martin Luther King Junior's birthday with a few individuals who subscribe to living a peaceful life, 24/7. I mean, they're serious about it. What a concept. To be fully committed to creating a peaceful world.


For the fourth year in a row, the ceremony was held at the Powwow Lodge in Pine Mountain Club (aka PMC, the community where I live), and it was in collaboration with the Jizo Peace Center in PMC. The event was hosted by Sister Moutique Ayodele El, who, in addition to educating us on how it took ten years to legally implement the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, also sang some kickass songs that left us feeling inspired and joyful; including Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday To Ya!, which is actually a birthday song written specifically for Dr. King. Did you know that? We didn't. Which is one of the many reasons why I am glad I was there.


It's always interesting to me when I sit in a small group of people who are meeting for the first time, who have a shared purpose for being there. We all wanted to honor Dr. King. It was that simple. We chose to pause for that one hour in our day to hear about Dr. King's struggles, the struggles of the Civil Rights movement, past and present, and the stories that some of the people in the circle shared. For example, Ruth Handy, the founder of the Jizo Peace Center, shared a story about how she was nineteen years old when she marched with Dr. King.


"We stopped at every real estate office and prayed." Ruth, a small woman with a large message, kept our attention as she went on to tell her story. "I was young and naive. The IRS was there and asked us to sign some forms. For the next several years, the IRS gave my parents a hard time about their taxes. I had no idea that the government could do that."


After the ceremony, we all feasted on some wonderful food, and then, Sarah-Jane Owen (proprietor of the Powwow Lodge), led us all in a drum circle. Actually, Sister Moutique's 5-year old daughter led us. Turns out Mama isn't the only talented musician in the family! If you have never participated in a drum circle, I highly suggest that you put that on your list of things to do ASAP. The words primitive and community come to mind. It's like church, but here, you're allowed to bang on something and scream, and people praise you. Not too shabby.


I'm glad I went to the MLK ceremony for different reasons. I'm glad I was there because I personally need to not feel alone. And that is not to be mistaken with feeling lonely. This world can get crazy. And life can feel discouraging. Personally, I need to feel that I am connected to others who share the same ideologies as me. The same IDEAS. There's a concept - sharing the same IDEAS. I'm glad I was there because I need to connect with people who like to talk about ideas. I'm glad I was there because I felt complete, right, as a human. Maybe it's kind of like when people who belong to secret societies. They have their secret meetings; they feel connected to something greater than them. But then they go out to the world the next day and do their thing. But when they are walking down the street and they see someone who is in that secret society, they immediately connect that person to a shared idea, a shared vision. I need to bump into someone at the grocery store who I saw at the MLK Day ceremony so I can be reminded that we are all part of a bigger picture. Something bigger than me. So if I see that person deciding on which yogurt they should get, for a half of a second, my mind is going back to sitting in that circle, hearing Ruth tell her story about marching with MLK, stopping in front of all of the real estate offices, and praying. If I bump into someone at the post office who was sitting around that circle, maybe I'll hear Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday To Ya! in my head, Sister Moutique's beautiful voice singing into our psyches. Those are my moments of 'prayer', so to speak, my time to sing in celebration of justice and peace. Those are the moments that remind me that I am not alone, that others walk the same path as me, and are making a difference in their world. It replenishes my soul. I need that. We all do.

Happy Birthday, Dr. King.


Imagine
by John Lennon
Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one