day 9: gratitude

dear Essence,

 thank You. thank you for the collard greens, fuyu, the avocado, cashews, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, sea salt, pepper and maple syrup in my morning salad. thank You for the earth that birthed it all, the rains, streams that watered the roots. thank You for the heat, rays, light of the sun that nourished, fed this plant life. thank You for the air that carried forth the seeds, that gave way to breath, in all its complexity. thank You for the tremendous pulls and tendencies of saturn and mars and moon and milky ways in the space, that influences and holds all together. thank You for the farmers who shepherded the Land, fostered this birth, acted as a vessel for harvest. thank You for the runners who carried forth the harvest. thank You for the shivering women and men in chinatown who i picked cherries from in the 30 degree city freeze. thank You for these teeth, to bite, this tongue, this throat, this alimentary canal, these intestines, these parts within, in this Divine machination i have no names for i have no names for. thank You for this mosque/church/temple, I reside in. thank You for minna, sadhya, julie, miguel, peter  - new energy, brilliant Light - who conspire with me for Higher. thank You for smack for keeping me grounded, from floating into the subways and talking out loud to myself in what is meant for only You. thank You for chino for being the multiple arms of ganesh and holding our old school crew together like a mother weaving a charollottes web to keep her wayward children from drift. thank You for kaz for always being open arms when i appear from air as thin as time. thank You for d for being the river i baptize in every session we interact. thank You for mo and lil sif and ash, who maintain family ties and keep me in harlem, just long enough to sustain my foot in this city. thank You for chris, who reminds me of the Ways and the why's of this land i somehow crashed into. thank You for ammu who is the reason i am alive, who keeps me ancient. thank You for abbu who has given my hand a writers swag, who has given my eyes the lens of nkrumah and nasser, bangla-bhundu and nehru, of resistance by way of Spirit, who reminds me why I am here. thank You, thank You, thank You. thank You for boro bhaiya who has shown me how being here is worth, it, how no matter how challenging the situation, battling obstacles will lead to Higher ground. thank You for chotobhaiya, my soulmate and brother and mentor, and guru and light, who i often swear is the mahdi the twelver shia talk about, that rumi referred to as shyams and yogis of old, climbed barefoot for days into the sky to see. thank You for sabu who quakes when i do, for ree, who understands, even when i'm so off tune, glass shatters, for nus, who reminds me that there are fruits of this world to be enjoyed, for salman, who reminds me the potential of human beings to be better than our prescriptions. thank You, thank You, thank You. thank You for all the beautiful people i have loved, have loved me, whose names are tattooed all over my organs, so that i see them with every breath i take. thank You for all the fist fights and name calling and racism and for placing me in this manifestation as branded by third world brown bangladesh and india and poor and immigrant and islam, of a religion so demonized that it has become synonymous with terror, of making me an other and the opportunity this has afforded me to grow deeper in your Path, when i Quiet and Humble myself. thank You. thank You for bjork and nas and portis head and nusrat fateh ali khan and bauls and mos and talib and lupe and mobb deep and krs and d'angelo and sade and hamza el din and ragas and bismillah khan and robert ester marley and peter tosh and celia cruz and bomba y plena and suzzana vega and depeche mode and the cure and coldplay and arcade fire and tu pac and tu pac amaru and the sandanistas and the puerto rican independistas and the july 26th movement and the palestinian liberation movements and the tuareg rebels and mukti bahini, ghadars and black panthers and black liberation and young lords and american indian movement and brown berets and weather underground and ramdev and the yogi path and rumi and this snow and this winter wisp and december and all praise, all praise, and so much, so much, thank You, all Praise is due for You, all praise, All praise, All PRAISE, ALL PRAISE IS DUE...

-in love, in struggle, in aspiration, prostrations, your servant, you and you and YOU