MC Hammer -- Pray

Sounds from Tuesday evening

Answering MIT CoLab's question: Where do you find freedom?  In the early morning just after sunrise, alone.  At my cleared desk with sunlight peaking through my blinds or a walk and stretch in the park or a path along a neighborhood of blooms or with the commute standing on the platform waiting for the next train. My favorite is by the water. There is a peace that opens space for freedom to pray, reflect, imagine, create and consider life beyond impending demands of the day.

Photo by Katherine Ellington:  Sunrise @ Shelter Island Heights, NY 

Morning Freedom

curling them around
i hold their bodies in obscene embrace
thinking of everything but kinship.
collards and kale
strain against each strange other
away from my kissmaking hand and
the iron bedpot.
the pot is black,
the cutting board is black,
my hand,
and just for a minute
the greens roll black under the knife,
and the kitchen twists dark on its spine
and I taste in my natural appetite
the bond of live things everywhere. 

Lucille Clifton, "cutting greens" from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton. Copyright © 1987 by Lucille Clifton.

Used with the permission of the publisher, BOA Editions, Ltd
 

cutting greens

Artwork and poem Siren's Song Remix in response to Romare Bearden's A Black Odyssey by Katherine Ellington (New York, NY 2015)

Siren's Song Remix: Our Days

Edgartown Beach by Lois Mailou Jones at Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Lovingkindness \ˌlə-viŋ-ˈkīn(d)-nəs\ is tenderness and compassion toward others, a form of friendliness.

In the lovingkindness meditation, we invite a sense of safety to arise in our own hearts.  Having the intention of offering such kindness to ourselves is in itself a powerful practice. Use phrases that help you direct kindness and compassion toward yourself.

katellington