“Everyone wants to be a Bruja until it’s time to do bujeria shit.”
I have long since forgotten who had said this all too true statement. I am finding that now, more than ever, so many people talk about Hoodoo this and Maferefun that but do not consistently live a spiritual life.
Events over the past several days have me assessing and checking myself, doing a full spiritual exam of sorts. Am I a spiritual practitioner or do I live a spiritual life? Which is it?
I’d like to think that I fully live a spiritual life but the truth of the matter is, I exist in spaces between prayer and ritual. Those loud and quiet spaces where I drop collares and elekes for waist beads, dance shoes and time with my friends. Those spaces where I turn off the spirit chatter and for a brief moment, pretend I never heard the call. Those spaces where I find beauty in sacred weeds growing through concrete and listening to the sounds of the hustlers doing their thing in this ‘in between’.
I know first hand the transformative power of prayer, of how the properly done ritual will blow a hole through a seemingly unmovable obstacle that will make a nonbeliever know without a doubt that a miracle is what occurs when prayer and ritual marry. But, some days I need to breathe and simply feel like I did as a kid riding my bike along the East River. I crave these spaces during trying times where I have to put emotions aside and help someone transition or after one of those calls/texts at no sleep o’clock. I crave and need the in between.
LOL! As I write this I realize that I didn’t fully step inside of my in between because I have my no nonsense Yeye here asking me if I have finished with my “what is the meaning of my life moment”. She is literally reminding that my life and destiny is that of prayer, ritual and love. The spaces in between is what I have created along with the spiritual world to find my balance between the living and the dead. LOL indeed, I thought I would have time to get another cup of coffee, write and be all philosophical this morning but alas Yeye ain’t having it and her charge has work to do.