"I cannot be comprehended except by my permision" Nikki G. |
On an Ego Trip and Can’t
Get Back
As a kid
growing up, I had some amazing role models; the 60s and 70s were full of them.
One of them was Nikki Giovanni, the amazing poet who wrote Ego-Tripping and Other Poems for
Young People.(Poem and other Nikki G.)
When my friends and I walked to school, we all took turns saying lines from the poem.
I was born
in the Congo
I walked the
fertile crescent and built the sphinx
I designed a
pyramid so tough that a star
That only
glows every one hundred years falls
Into the
center giving divine perfect light
I am bad
We all hoped
to be the one who got to say the line about being so hip that even my errors are correct. But my favorite was the one
about how I caught a cold and blew my
nose giving oil to the Arab world.
Oh sweet
Nikki. She must have known just how much we needed to believe in ourselves, our
people and our purpose. That poem still reminds me to think highly of myself.
But there
are some who take it a little too far; okay a lot too far. These are the folks who think more highly of themselves than they
ought. These are the ones whose problems are bigger than their accomplishments
and their woes are greater than their
works.
One day, my
daughter came home from school mad because a boy in her class kept bragging. I
told her that bragging was fine, but that you should always be able to back it
up. “Incredible claims call for credible
proof, “I told her. “Besides, it’s not bragging when it’s true.”
But I’m beginning
to feel like my daughter. Lately, I’ve
been seeing folks who think so much of themselves that they have forgotten that
we are all a part of a collective.
·
When
you take more than you need, don’t use half and throw that away; you are ego
tripping, and not the good Nikki G., self-esteem building kind.
·
When
you want the world to stop, look, listen and deal with your issues, you are ego
tripping and I can’t hear Nikki’s poem in the background.
·
When
you think that the world owes you for an investment you’ve never made; pack
your bags
·
When
you think you are not good enough for the best that life has to offer and you
wallow in that thought, you are already on the trip.
We all need to develop the kind of
thinking that enables us to dream big and see far; but when that thinking comes
at the expense of others, the ego is working overtime.
“The tears from my birth pains created the Nile. I am a
beautiful woman.” Nikki G.
Be you, be balanced, be
Beautiful
Bertice Berry, PhD.
The amazement of where life has taken me….journey’s full of pain, suffering, joy, happiness, and in the end… serenity with acceptance. I look back at those times when I couldn’t allow my blessings to reach me because of my self-centeredness; an ego which was out of control causing recklessness. I made the same mistakes over and over again because I didn’t trust the spirit. I was In and out of relationships, a nomad wandering the earth in search of manhood and to be loved. I found no love in all the wrong places…..yet a reprieve of sort came my way….Tears of acceptance of learning how to love me shrouded my existence and I started my ascension away from own egotistical garment of nonsense….How magnificent I am as I discovered me…a transformation worthy …. One who found refuge in coming out of the cocoon…of personality disorders…to be the butterfly that is grand, imposing, and absolutely, royal….
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