Chronicles of a Homeless Beauty Queen: Pageant Secrets Reveled (Snippet 1)
In the last thirteen weeks I’ve spent more time in transit on transit than I have in my own bed and when I say my own bed I mean crashing on someone else’s couch, floor or bed. Catapulted into another phase of transformation I have been displaced away from what I would call home and have been brought back again. To having a place to call home, to not feeling at home, to hear welcome home, for actions to show this is not your home, to broken hearted, to knowing the world is my home. To be courted by multimillionaires, to break bread with international super stars, to attended a beloved cousins wedding, to experience and express the true manifestation of God’s love. To receive a phone call after months of cold silence to hear, while in transit, “…I’m proud of you and I should probably tell you more…” to then find myself in the hospital overlooking weak bodies. To missing deadlines, to past due accounts my own desire has been tested. My morals, integrity, values and value have been challenged. I have been forced to reevaluate my own truth and have had to stand alone in truth.
I did not plan on viewing TED.com’s “Best of the Web” Harvard University Commencement speech by author JK Rowling entitled “TheFringe Benefits of Failure.” However, I have come to learn that everything happens for a reason and there are in fact no consequences. As I sat on the eve of my birthday and eve of my anniversary of my graduation from Texas Christian University (May 8, 2010) in what seemed like my own commencement ceremony listening, learning and reflecting the parallels of the speech and this course mirrors my own current personal and professional positing. Reviewing this seasons lessons and confirming future actions.
From train to Funerals the greatest lesson learned is that “Failure” has “Fringe Benefits.” Rock bottom provides a solid foundation for us to become architects of peace hope and encouragement in our global community. It is at this place we can choose to do more than survive we can in fact thrive, live and master ether to manifest something greater than our own physical surroundings. Interesting enough l have been asked to stand before others in royal regalia and speak in less than 48 hours on a topic I was literally texted a few moments ago. My audience is not a graduating class from Harvard University – but they could be and more so the potential in the audience could change the world. I would be remiss if I said I didn’t feel the weight of such a responsibility and honor. Like JK Rowling I will probably start with a joke, do my best to sprinkle a few seeds and hope that when life spreads fertilizer they will endure and produce good fruit. You can count the number of seeds in an orange but you can never ever count the number of oranges in a seed. The details of the last four weeks I’ll further elaborate on in a few chapters of my work in process called Chronicles of a Homeless Beauty Queen: Pageant Secrets Reveled.
References:
Harvard Magazine. J.K. Rowling – Harvard University Commencement (June 5, 2008) The Fringe Benefits of Failure http://www.ted.com/talks/jk_rowling_the_fringe_benefits_of_failure