Float Like a Butterfly
My love language is “words of affirmation”, so it should be no wonder why I love Muhammad Ali. Not just because he is an Icon, but because of the life that he spoke over himself. The braggadocio, I love it. It is my life blood. It makes me happy. To tell yourself the future and then being able to manifest it and hold it in your hand is the God particle for me. I aspire to be that friend, mother, friend, wife and human that speaks life more abundantly. Yes, you can, you can do it, why the hell not. Sometimes my own fears or judgments get in my way. But my true self is there, in the yes. Whenever I get nervous, I remind myself of what I can do and have done and that helps light my way. When I embarked in having a child I thought about what kind of mother I aspired to be. Hell, I’m still figuring this out, it is all an experiment. I think of my mother, who thought I could move mountains. She just set the standard and required that I met it, and supported me (sometimes just verbally) in getting it done.
I recall incredulously that she taught me how to swim, without knowing how. Yes, you read that right. It happened on our first ‘plane’ Mom and Daughter trip, we went to Los Angeles and at the pool with our swimming caps to preserve our hairstyles. I played in the shallow end and I must have let on that I was afraid of the deep end. And nothing spurs my mother to action is me, her only daughter confessing, harboring and wallowing in fear. That was not allowed. She told me to do this and do that and do this, like them over there, don’t be afraid I’m here and talked me through it and demonstrated it from the edge of the pool. Once I got it down and swam successfully in deep end several times. I said exhilarated “ok Mom come on with over there with me!” And when she told me that she couldn’t do it and that I should teach her how to do it — I was dumbfounded. How was that even possible, but it is. I am proof. She spoke life over me and supported me through the process and held a high standard for me to achieve it. Datsit. Knowing ain’t doing, talking ain’t doing, only doing is doing.
So when I learned about Drew Bundini Brown I was fascinated, he was Muhammad Ali’s trainer, cut man, lyricist and a Blaxploitation star in his own right. He was the one that penned the lines that Ali is most popular for, “I’m so pretty”, “I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.” That kind of confidence along with training, talent and skill is what get the job done.
Jesus said ask in my name and ye shall receive. As a man thinketh so is he. Proverbs 23:7. So if he think he floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. He will train that way and show up in the ring that way.
I still do this for my son and when I’m on my square for myself. My son hates it now, but I require that he asks for help, but sometimes my only help is to talk he through it, when sometimes he wants me to just do it for him. I tell him (and myself) that that kind of help can be kind and unkind only if I think you can’t do it on your own or if I’m being nice or polite.
My favorite poet Maya Angelou said “Pretty women wonder why” and it is that she knew herself and her worth and that was enough, that like Celie said she was here and when she had the audacity and temerity to speak it …the earth moved.
