A Love Like This…Forever
To say I’m overwhelmed with emotion is an understatement right now. This week has filled me to capacity with love, Black love. There was the joy of seeing the growth of my new Imani Geniuses (students) who are following the BHM 2018 lesson plans. The incredible creativity and grit my own two children have displayed in pursuit of their dreams has fueled me. One of, if not THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE, (yep, “Black Panther” is coming for “Coming to America” and “The Color Purple”) was released and I sauntered into the theater opening night with a king on my arms and a breeze on my thighs. My first children’s book was finally published after five years of hard labor. And, I was honored to have a sacred request by a dear friend to honor his beloved wife for Valentine’s Day; that by far was the most fulfilling.
I didn’t meet Kira Johnson in this lifetime, but I know her well now. She first came to me in a dream and spoke words through me to deliver to her family; specifically to the love of her life, Charles. It sounds unsettling if you fail to understand the impenetrable connection between that which was, is, and shall be. But, if you understand that we are spiritual beings in flesh, then you can grasp how our spirits can transcend time and space and guide the here and now. (Seeing “Black Panther” this week was no coincidence.)
The words in the tribute he requested I record for this occasion came through me the night she transitioned. Just hours after delivering her youngest son in a scheduled and routine C-section, Kira passed and left wells of grief. I immediately shared the lines with a mutual friend because I knew he was near his brother to comfort him in the midst of this unforeseen tragedy. I wasn’t sure, however, how to deliver them to the intended recipient or if it would be well-received, but I’ve learned not to allow fear to interfere with the work of our ancestors. So, I just listened and obeyed.
I prepared the words for delivery on a canvas and emailed a picture of the artistry to Charles prior to her Celebration of Life as I was led to do. While I sat in King’s Chapel of Morehouse, which was brimming with Kira’s loved ones, listening to the heartfelt and somewhat comical profusions of love for her, I began to see the words Kira had shared with me. But, it wasn’t until her husband, the father of her two young sons who she would later lead me to teach, stepped to the dais that I truly heard her words. When Charles spoke of his wife, in present tense while embracing each of his baby boys, he said some of the same exact words, verbatim, that I had penned days before. I nudged my husband who had also read the words and we both just sat in awe and humility.
I’ve seen love my whole life. I’ve been very fortunate in that regard. I know of its power to move through realms and shift paradigms. I’ve witnessed marriages of every kind, healthy and unhealthy, long-lasting and terse, loving and contentious. But, I have never seen a union strengthen after a transition like that of Charles and Kira. I know there is still work she is doing through many of us, and only she will let us know when that is complete and a new day can begin. Only the fulfillment of her purpose will heal the hearts left torn. But, until then and the end of forever, we honor the love that was, is, and shall be.
To see love is to live freely.
To know love is to live faithfully.
To be loved is to live fearlessly.
To love is to live fully.
To have love is to live forever.
