It’s 7:46 AM on November 5th, 2008 and Barack Obama is still promised to be the next president of the United States of America. Last night was not a dream. The past 20 months of prayer, hope, and anticipation of this moment were not in vain. The reality of this historic feat has just begun to sink in, and I am moved beyond measure. How can I rise every morning from this day on and not be fully inspired? How can one ever not aspire to be “the change we can believe in” from this day forth? I am speechless and tearful, but I am assured that this is a new day. A small child just passed by my New York City window chanting, “Obama-bama-bama.” This is real. This is real. While I know Obama’s task ahead will not be an easy one, today we have an uncensored license to dream. Dream of our future on this planet with an imperviously abundant sense of possibility. Yes we can! Si se puede! Ndiyo tunaweza!
I have not written in this journal for several months now. I have wanted to, but often felt unable. Consumed by many unexpected life challenges, I allowed my voice to fall silent for sometime as I weathered through those challenges. While I’ve always hoped to reemerge feeling stronger and more inspired, today I am reminded that we must never fall silent. We must always believe – even when it seems there is nothing to believe in beyond ourselves and our God. What we must remember is that that is always enough. We are enough. And this is real. Indeed, Mr. Obama, the audacity of hope. Thank you, thank you, thank you for reminding us all of the beautiful and infinite possibility in our own lives and in this world.
Love,
Somi
November 5, 2008 at 4:12 pm
[...] Somi’s new mornings and the audacity of hope [...]
November 5, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Beautifully written Somi.
I am inspired, and just as I told Shebs…Sean, Prince, Shona, Kara, etc – can now dream the impossible.
I’m still speechless!
YES WE CAN!
January 3, 2009 at 9:09 am
In listening to your interview on Friday morning, 2 January 2009, with Mr. Gordon. I enjoyed listening to the story behind your story, Your sense of family and how it is a supportive foundation for who you are, how you are shaped, to be the person you have become, moved me deeply. I am neither Jewish, nor Arab, but am part of a melting pot of both. I am African American, a descent of U.S. slaves, with white, Irish, native American, as well as,
definitely African. Although many African American slave descendants cannot, will not, do not know how, may not want to, put a finger on where their dis-ease comes from, sense of rootlessness that springs from not knowing where you came from, I am buoyed by the Barack Obama elections. He keeps “hope alive.” The many giants before him, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and many before him, all continue to remind us that the African American family, descendants of U.S. slaves, is no longer fragmented, that we need to continue learning the lessons from the past, we need to fight this “bubonic disease” of the slave mentality, and break the chains on the brain, for it is now pschological warfare that we must combat, that racism is within, the obvious surrounds us, if we are to continue to evolve as a people, once whole, but still fragmented in all its ills. To find peace in our surroundings, we must first find it within. Once we find peace, only then can we open the door wide open, and let positive growth takes its course. Although no family is perfect, there is so much more that is positive about where you as a person, come from, both spiritually and emotionally.
Thank you for sharing your interview with the world. Trisha
2 January 2009