Aren’t we all in the midst of an exodus? Moving, shifting, and changing our direction until we find what fits.
Richard Wright wrote:
“I was leaving the South
To fling myself into the unknown …
I was taking a part of the South
To transplant in alien soil,
To see if it could grow differently,
If it could drink of new and cool rains,
Bend in strange winds,
Respond to the warmth of other suns
And, perhaps, to bloom.”
Inspired by this poem, Isabel Wilkerson is the American journalist who wrote her profound bestseller, The Warmth of Other Suns. Both her parents were part of the migration to the northern and mid-western States to escape Jim Crow laws. She dedicated her book to her parents and others because their “migration made me possible, and to the millions of others like them who dared to act upon their dreams”.
My family also set out in response to opportunities in ‘other lands’ – except instead of North, we crossed the Atlantic in 1962, headed East. We journeyed over the vast African continent to Uganda for nine years and Nigeria and Ghana for another nine – they chose the warmth of African suns.
I ditto Ms. Wilkerson in that my parents’ migration also ‘made me possible’ and they dared to act upon their dreams.
In order to take action toward your dreams, you may be called upon to shift gears in a very major way; to step out in faith toward doors that appear to be closed – believing they will open. You may not even know what is on the other side of them. You may also be called to step out in faith toward the warmth of other suns – even though you don’t know when the monsoons will fall.
We easily forget how much courage it took for the millions who came before us to step out onto uncharted territory. We want the easy and fast life, and we don’t know how to weather the storms that get us through to the other side.
As you continue your journey toward the unknowns and the new year ahead … remember the courage of those who chose to ‘grow differently’.
Keep moving toward the warmth of your dreams!
