Marguerite Ann Johnson (Maya Angelou)
Maya Angelou (1928-2014), born Marguerite Annie Johnson, was an American poet, memoirist and civil rights activist. She is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.
via Regina Ochoa, July 24, 2020
"...people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel."
Regina: Good morning Marguerite, how are you today?
Marguerite: I'm so happy you've come to visit. We shall be fast friends waiting for each other beneath the Sycamore tree.
I have been here for a few years, months, days, minutes, seconds, and moments. I don't think it matters. I want to share with you and those who are willing to silence their distractive thoughts long enough to allow a bit of kindness to enter.
Your news, which repeats daily broadcasts and hourly breaking reports, has strangely become a source of materialism.
It seems that those who cannot nourish themselves from a source within must continually 'feed' upon whatever turmoil appears across an electronic device.
It saddens me that inability to shut out the chaos has been the banquet for the mass of humanity. Your headlines read: "Feed the anger, feed the dark injustice of oppression so that your rights to stand in solidarity will be strengthened and nourished by hatred."
I fought for our human rights, to be heard and seen as equal. My words spoke of a gentler heart. One that our God would be charitable toward.
I have learned that our God is charitable to all. Even those who create the dark chaos that you experience on the earth plane.
When I first passed over into the Kingdom, I was indeed surprised to find so many here who had challenged my human rights.
Many friends came to greet me. My hero Martin was here waiting. He welcomed me into this place without the usual distrust I had felt whenever I entered a new area or town or home. Folks often believed I was there to stir things up a bit. I have to admit that it was often the point of my visits. But even my family would find me a bit terse in my approach to any signs of injustice, inequality or oppression.
I understand the magnitude of anger, which currently festers globally.
One is born into a life of suppression and subjugation in many societies and cultures. It is the way of humanity and how we learn who we are.
Do we become warriors for justice and equality?
Do we accept our births’ fate of owing our gratitude to those who hold power over us?
The chaos today of oppression and superiority is not only of race, color or creed, or sex but the ultimate sin of greed and materialism. I say ultimate sin, not for religious decree rather that of a moral and ethical conscience.
As a 'member' of the Greater Reality Society (my humor), I have learned and seen many times over that when individuals who have transitioned from their physical body reengage with their soul, they must experience their "physical life review."
Life review would be to see what injustices and greatness have occurred by your actions when in the body.
Momma taught me as a small child that every action I took, even my muteness, created a consequence. Thus, be careful how you proceed with not only your words but your actions. As I have said many times, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." That continues to hold here in this Greater Reality. Life review is about seeing the responses or the ripple effect of your actions or inactions.
What do we do with this information once we have reviewed it?
How do we proceed in our evolution as a soul?
Atonement. But to atone is not about apologizing. It is about experiencing the emotional response of the one or many you fear, hate, respect or love. Experiencing this life review as the receiver of your actions gives each soul the window to see into the other's soul. We feel the unvarnished impact of our behavior. In this way, we learn about our ability to make a difference in another's life. Each life review is different depending on the individual soul, but once the review is complete, that soul can begin to experience the full significance of the Greater Reality.
Regina:
How do we mitigate the impact of our life review while still in the body?
Marguerite:
Begin today, this moment now, to wholly experience the impact of your words, your actions or silence. Are you standing up and present in your voice? Do you own your words? Do you hold yourself accountable for what you do or do not do? Do you know humility? Do you know what it is to be charitable? Or to forgive?
Do you understand your fear? Or hate?
Are you filled with resentment? Or respect?
Do you give joy?
Do you know what it means to love, to be love, to love completely?
Can you forgive yourself for your own choices and shortcomings?
Answering these questions with honesty is how you can begin to process your life review before your body expires. If not now, then when?
Our soul consciousness enlivens and sustains our bodies. When we die, our physical body returns the energy to the soul.
Understanding this, maybe we would begin to take action upon our fellow beings in the manner with which we hope others will treat us.
"Do unto others as you would have done unto you." Luke 6:31
These words continue to reverberate around the globe in all faiths, religious beliefs, throughout countless homes and households. The phrase was often repeated in work-houses and slave owners' fields. Unfortunately, today these words are trampled upon with anger, resentment and distrust. Fear has crept in to feed and nourish the hungry. Where has our love for humankind retreated? Where has compassion and wisdom moved?
Wake up, people!
It is time for you to recognize your voice and your actions. Let your songs of joy lead those who struggle for direction. Let your voice of hope be the music they follow. Let your compassion and wisdom be the light that illuminates the way.
You have a gift! Your mind and your soul! Your consciousness and your conscience know how to create the music with which your heart can sing.
Now is the time to participate in your life review. Now is the time to commit to your soul, your love for humanity and earth. Listen to your words as they part your lips. Feel your actions upon the other and embody their response. When you can genuinely do this and fully understand your impact on another human being or many, when you can atone for your story, you will make a difference!
This is how we change the direction of our chaotic, angry and fearful world.
Marguerite Johnson
Marguerite Ann Johnson (Maya Angelou)
On the Passing of John Lewis
via Regina Ochoa
July 31, 2020
" To submit was not John's way.."
In your time, July 17, 2020, you have recently lost one of your great leaders of truth and wisdom, John Lewis. This man, brilliant from a young age, understood the value of belief and faith. He assumed to the fullest degree the courage -- and sacrifice -- expected in leadership. Facing near-death from being brutally beaten when he marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, he turned to his faith. With his life spared, John knew it would be his mission to help lead his race from the dark shadows of the nation that enjoys the "luxuries" of oppression.
To submit was not John's way.
Just as Martin received me, I met John when he passed. He was tired yet glad to be home.
Many believed in John Lewis and for all which he stood. How he stood before his Black Americans as a great leader. But John wanted equality for all who are suppressed by force and by pen.
He crusaded for all races. When John entered the room he leveled the playing field. Anyone who sat with him knew John would hear them. Weighing their anguish with a hand of equality and comfort, John understood. Now he rests for a time. He collects the pieces of his soul together, where his life had been brutalized and loved. John's life, a crazy quilt of events righting inequalities, is being stitched together by the hands of loving ancestors and descendants. Family and many friends surround him during this healing time.
Who surrounds him in his kingdom, so do they enfold the many still living who mourn the death of John Lewis.
John is a warrior for the African American. His peaceful demonstration of living his life will be an example for those who follow.
There is an unstoppable change marching forward today. The drumbeat is heavy and quick, and the cadence is upbeat to bring our youth alive. Soon the pounding of those who walk in John's footsteps will be so loud that the world will hear the pulsating rhythm.
The heartbeat of a race stirring within our children's children will not be silenced.
Marguerite Johnson
Marguerite Ann Johnson (Maya Angelou)
On Tearing Down Walls
via Regina Ochoa
August 4, 2020
" In fact, there are no walls."
Thank you, Regina, for taking me on that marvelous walk this morning. I'm so glad we were able to listen to the soothing voice of Angeles Arrien. She is one of the many blessed souls weaving through your new venue, "Cosmic Voices.network."
I like the appendage ".network." It describes who we are as incarnate and soul embodiments on both sides of "the wall" of which Daniel wrote in his "Greater Reality" introduction.
We create our own walls. The mind is aware of this, yet the brain strives a lifetime to make sense of this.
In fact, there are no walls! To accept this fact, we must turn our thoughts away from institutional beliefs structured for our purported well-being with the promise of entering some kind of Utopian existence upon our physical death -- if we obey the rules. I spent my entire life weighing the balance of this promised kingdom against the injustices put upon the human race by individuals who would rather exert control with fear and hatred than truth and wisdom.
I would like to write more about this perceived "wall" or "veil” -- that solid or near-translucent barrier between life and death. Between here and there. Between Earth and somewhere else.
Some of us have witnessed this transition. Some have only heard about it from another’s eyewitness account, how they watched a loved one's body succumb to death, as they passed into the hereafter.
“He (she) went to heaven,” is a phrase often used when talking about death.
I once believed in this barrier. I imagined it a very tall wall. Momma raised my brother Bailey and me to fear the repercussions of our actions because God, on the other side of this wall, would judge us, not only in the afterlife but the near-immediate future, upon any of our misdeeds. I was convinced of this by every switch laid upon me as a young child. Momma feared for my soul not being permitted passage through the Gates of Heaven.
Those Heavenly Gates were how I would enter through that wall into God's Kingdom. By the time I was 13, I was pretty sure I would be denied passage. Why would God allow this skinny negro girl into His beautiful Kingdom?
That faith, wavered yet unbroken, was shattered when I realized fully, and only upon my death, that it was completely wrong.
Could you believe my surprise and joy? There were no Gates! No walls! Only God, His love, my friends, my family, all the immense everlasting omnipresence of unwavering love met me when I died.
When I was just a child, my dear brother Bailey and I knew that God was love. Nightly, we prayed on our knees, to the loving God. He, we were taught, loved us all, no matter the color or creed.
But religion turned the faith of God into a weapon of choice. Brutality, slavery, oppression, ownership, denial, hatred, fear and anger. Religion instructs us in how to use these weapons against others. In the name of religion they become humanity's tools for building walls between each other.
When we are taught how to build walls to please God, something is terribly wrong.
There are no walls! They are only illusions created and maintained by fear, to separate us from our soul.
When we begin to take apart the wall, or just look through the veil, we will see ourselves returning our own gaze. Selves that are filled with love, God.
There is grace, peace, wisdom and creation. All that Is. There is infinite joy.
Love in all-encompassing enfolding essence to the core of your humanness. Our embodiment of this love is how the barrier ceases to exist.
From the moment we are born into the human race, our story is to discover the balance between love and fear. When we tip towards fear, we have grasped for all the materials and tools used to build walls. When we tip towards love, we build bridges and gardens that welcome our fellow man to walk alongside us.
Grab your tools of love: grace, wisdom, kindness, compassion, empathy and forgiveness.
Lead, teach, nurture, bring forth hope.
There are no walls.
Marguerite Johnson