Richmond, VA

Merry meet Friends,
Michelle here, bringing lots of love and light!

"You were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it courageously." - Steve Maraboli

In February of 1986, I was on an annual forty day fast with Temple of Judah, which was the church I attended at the time.  I was praying in my youngest son Jason's room.  While praying I heard these words: "The LORD is in his holy temple.  Let all the earth keep silent before him."  I felt that the voice could not belong to God or anything having to do with God.  Why?  God certainly wouldn't interrupt me praying and I was praying in tongues, no less!  So I did what any legalistic, self-righteous Christian would do; I ignored the voice and kept praying.

The voice came back again stronger than before: "The LORD is in his holy temple.  Let all the earth keep silent before him." I knew I was the earth and THIS time I thought I had better pay attention.  I was very nervous.  I'd heard the voice of God before so that wasn't it.  It was the intensity of the voice.  At this point, I had a vision and an impression.  I "saw" two men dressed in the garb of an old English castle blowing the long horns with banners hanging beneath them.  I heard the sound and the impression was that a king was entering the court room.  I was extremely nervous now.

A different voice than before spoke (I assumed this was God) and said this to me: "I want you to go to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let my people go!"  My reply was: "When you said that to Moses, You really meant Egypt and Pharaoh.  What is Egypt for me?"  God said, "The hearts and minds of my people."  I asked, "And who is Pharaoh?"  The answer was, "Anything that keeps my people in bondage.  I want you to go to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let my people go!"  The presence and everything associated with it left as quickly as it came.  I pondered these things and kept them in my heart for sometime before I shared with anyone.  I kept asking, as did Moses, why me?  To ask that question when God has given a mandate is not humble.  I think it's more arrogant than anything.  It is ok to question God, but if God tells you to do something, it's because God knows you are able.  God doesn't call the qualified, God qualifies the call.

Later that year, in September, I was directed in prayer to Luke 4:18. "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free." (NIV) That was a confirmation of the vision I had been given.  I still had no idea from what I was setting anyone free or where I would speak.  In 1988, I was in a charismatic church and the Prophet/Pastor of the church gave me the Isaiah version from King James.  It speaks of "binding up the brokenhearted" and "the opening of the prison to them that are bound.".  The recurring theme is freedom to those who are enslaved, wherever that may be. 

I have known for quite some time that I am called to the empowerment of women.  I wasn't sure what I would be setting free, so to speak.  I wondered was it from abuse since I've experienced it. While that would certainly be a part of anything that I undertake, it didn't feel like it explicitly.  Sometimes I don't consciously think about the call from God but it is always with me. I am a seeker, which means I seek.  I always want to know more of God. Reading Iyanla Vanzant, in the nineties, led me to New Thought; Science of Mind and Unity Churches.  I know that some people, including my own children at times, have thought that I had gone off the deep end because of my current beliefs.  What I have discovered in life, is that when something resonates with us as truth, it is because it was in us all along, just unmanifested.  

Last week I started a Facebook page, Wild Women Gypsies.  A friend, Brenda, said to me that my page started her thinking about living life fully.  At first she said she didn't quite get it because of the way we, as a people, have been conditioned to think.  It occurred to me that some other women may have the same problem.  When I say, wild, I don't mean it in the sense that we normally associate with the word.  I am speaking about being the you that you were/are before patriarchy told you what is acceptable as a woman. We have been told most of our lives how to behave and act.  We are concerned with the opinions of others and even ourselves; yet we applaud women who are free.

Wild for some women may mean painting their lips and nails red, going to the theater and restaurant alone, speaking in front of a group, lounging all day in pj's, etc.  Everyone will not take a picture on or by a pole.  Leave that to me, lol.  It is doing what one normally wouldn't do or think they couldn't do.  It is living authentically.  It is living boldly, whatever that is for you.  So I am beginning to think that the "setting free: that I am to do, is to help women recognize who we are inside and not be ashamed of that. Also being a gypsy doesn't mean leaving hearth and home.  It's the gypsy spirit that matters; the spirit to live free.  Take day trips or spend a weekend in an exotic place or a place you've never been. Explore in the way that my friend Cher does.  

My friend Whitney did a Shamanic journey for me in October, 2012.  She saw women thanking me for being an instrument that aided them in living their truth.  As the quote above says, I have to live my purpose and do it courageously.  If I can cause one woman or person to think about being, then I am doing what God/Goddess asked, nay, told me to do! Selah!  Be you;  the bold, beautiful, freedom loving, free spirited person that you were created to be.

Until next Sunday,
Merry part and merry meet again,
Blessed be!,
Gypsi Mama Michelle