Hold on to your Dreams and Welcome Spirit Home

Dreams by Langston Hughes

 Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

Welcoming Spirit Home

Tomorrow I celebrate my Birth Day!  Though some may argue that birthdays are just ordinary days, for me, birthdays are extraordinarily special days for many reasons.  

For starters, they mark the emergence of a courageous soul who signed a contract to co create with the Universe to do work that only they can do.  They mark the resilience of this courageous soul to continue this assignment in seemingly unbearable circumstances. 

Birthdays mark milestones in ones life that demonstrate the process of unfolding ones purpose. They honor the lives that have been touched by the presence of these souls. And, birthdays allow us too to honor mothers and fathers who also signed a contract to not only give birth to these miraculous seeds, but to commit to their care and survival.    

Today I celebrate life, transitions, and the spirit of being fearlessly and wonderfully made as I pass the hat with a BIG ask...

A few days ago I was I saddened to read about the transition of Sobonfu Somé. Her book, Welcoming Spirit Home: Ancient African Teachings to Celebrate Children and Community changed my life!

Her death brought me back to a time when I was traveling in transition (homeless) with my three children. They were babies at the time and we were living out of a traveling bag sharing a one bedroom apt in New York with family we didn't even know.

It was the winter of 2000, and moving by faith, my then husband and I were preparing to make a move to North Carolina. At the time he was a New Orleans fireman and was in his final interview process for a transfer to the city of Durham. The process had taken months to complete.

In sheer anticipation, our bags were packed and everything we hadn't sold was in storage ready to be loaded onto the moving truck. But, the week that we were preparing to move, he received a call that he didn't get the job. We were devastated, yet, still determined!

He continued to work while looking for employment in neighboring cities, but now we were without housing. We leaned on family for support but because it was five of us, we were separated. For nine months I traveled from home to home with my three young children as we lived out of a green suit case.

During these nine months, my husband convinced me to go to New York after one of his siblings offered to house me and the kids. While he continued to work, he put us on a train.

Instead of focusing on feeling homeless, I imagined that I was taking a vacation. However, traveling alone with a nine year and a set of two year old twins didn't feel like one. Once we arrived in the big city and I got a taste of maneuvering a twin stroller up and down the subways, I wanted to be home.

By the time we arrived to our destination and discovered that his family lived in a high rise building without an elevator, the vacation was over! Home was never wanting to leave the apartment! Though I will always be grateful for the warmth and kindness that his family gave us, it was a nightmare.

Except one day, while looking out the window, the light came in. I turned the television to a community station and saw Sobonfu Somé being interviewed about her book. She captivated me with her soft spoken presence and her beautiful spirit. I jotted the information down and as soon as I could, I ordered her book. I fell in love with every page.

Fast forward, a few years ago I reached for the book in my collection, but I realized that I had probably loaned it out and it was never returned. I was heartbroken because it was an original printed copy. I eventually ordered another one, but it wasn't the same. It sat on the shelf.

Two days ago after I learned of her passing, I opened the book to look for a quote only to see that she had signed this book. I couldn't stop crying.

Thank you Sweet Spirit!
May you rest in Joy...

"The community concept is based on the fact that each person is invaluable and truly irreplaceable. Each person has a gift to give, a contribution to make to the whole. The kind of gift a person brings, the kind of being a person is, is very unique to him or her and is valued by the community. The community is constantly affirming each person, and that constant affirmation is why people are always in the community. We sleep together. We work together. We walk together. When we are 'separate' we are vulnerable and are more likely to underestimate the self. This way of life may sound like an invasion of privacy to a lot of people, but not in my village. Being in community forces us to cultivate a deeper sense of intimacy with one another, to notice one another and value one another's gifts."— Welcoming Spirit Home

Time to Celebrate Me
"When your Mind unwinds your Spirit it will find." Shawn Trimble

By the end of 2000, light bulbs were going off. Spirit was welcoming me home. That same year, I started Freedoms Drum! It's been 17 years that started with a quest to explore this thing called spiritually [apart from religion], discover my unlimited potential, and share with others what I was learning along the way. It's been an amazing journey!

My vision back then was to be an instrument of healing in communities and to support people who were bound by conformity through empowerment, motivation, and authentic spiritual enrichment.

Since then I have facilitated countless personal growth and healing workshops.  I even started a community center from my living room.   At the end of last year I held a fire ceremony in my back yard and a dear friend who attended one of my workshops in 2006 shared with the group that my workshop saved her life.  I was moved beyond words.

Freedom's Drum Marketing & Consulting is now an inspirational healing center that creates and promotes spiritually enriching activities, workshops, movements, publications, and products.

I have met masters and gurus and some of the most beautiful people in the world. I have survived Katrina and other storms of life.

Today I celebrate my resiliency as I recall times that I created a way out of no way. Times like when I was going thru my divorce and I used food stamps to buy food to make cleaning products when I didn't have money. Not only did this cleaning service got me through college, but those home made cleaning products connected me to the earth and a more loving experience with the environment.

I celebrate the global movements that I've started including, Legacy of Prayers and the With Love Movement- World Day of Healing thru Letter Writing. I am honored that more than 10,000 people have joined this movement alone.

I recently started the Center for Herbs and Healing. This is an exciting project for me especially since my son was diagnosed with MS. The center will include a space for healers from many healing modalities to not only come together but be a resource for those in our community who seek alternative methods of healing.

I celebrate my social and political activism. I've been on the front lines and have even been arrested for standing up for what I believe in. I celebrate the power of We the People and democracy that does win!

Today, I celebrate my mother and my father, my ancestors and

the Kings and the Queens of this world.

I celebrate the richness of being born black and being comfortable in my own skin

of being born a woman

of being a mother

of being human.

Today I celebrate ME and being alive!

I celebrate a little girl, born Shawn Marie Trimble in New Orleans LA,

who asked Life some tough questions

“why am I here?”

"What is my purpose?"

who am I

to be dreaming of healing the sick,

traveling the world,

following freedom and her drum,

lighting the path

with Sunshine

with Love.

Today I celebrate the answers found in the gift of breath,

the gift of being present,

the gift of serving,

the gift of being joy,

the gift of being love in motion,

the gift of putting one foot in front of the other foot and trusting that the steps that I take are leading me to my greatest and highest good.

Today I celebrate YOU and the gifts that you bring and the dreams that you are with small reminder:

 Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

Passing the Hat  

Today, my BIG ask on my Birth Day is that you deposit a gift in the hat.  

I am not a non-profit organization, and it may surprise you to know that I have funded my projects out of my own pocket on a shoe string budget. It is not always easy to do what I do, but when passion is involved struggles become blessings and opportunities. 

Your gifts will allow me to continue moving this Love machine, known as Freedom's Drum, forward so that I can give birth to more ideas and continue the work that I love to do.  Thank you for the years of love, support, prayers, and today, your financial blessings.  

Please Pass the Hat!

Deposit your Gift in the Hat here

Thank you in advance for your gift.

In Gratitude With Love,
Me

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Healing Sage Trio