I had the most amazing evening with my sister/friend Mystic. She is an amazing soul and very talented musician. I was please to make her acquaintance in 2000 when my business partner and I signed the music label GoodVibe Recordings. She was their featured solo female artist. She kept company with Slum Village, Martin Luther and a host of other talent as label mates. She is a revolutionary. A lover of humanity with a special affinity for the protection and education of children. A b-girl from Oakland, California, she rhymes and sings through her painful experiences and joys. She is so brave to share her world through her music. She inspires me. She always did and this wonderful day that I got a chance to reconnect with her. It had been over a year since I laid eyes on her and even then that moment was brief backstage at a Hip Hop festival I was working. Originally we had planned to meet at a pizza place near her spot but she decided to cook for me instead and play her new album while we caught up. My favorite movie is the subtitled film "Like Water for Chocolate"- a tale of how feelings infused in the cooking can transcend anything available to the naked eye. Mystic has this same passion. She loves cooking and she does it with such love and dedication. My meal consisted of hand pressed tofu coated with a homemade 5spice seasoning, mixed green salad with lemon ginger dressing topped with a spicy jumbo shrimp topped off with a mango, passion fruit chutney. For dessert, baked figs in a rum sauce and topped with a dab of some fancy sweet cheese that melted instantly on contact.
We chatted about everything. Music, life, friends, dating, food and I got a quick schooling session on the latest revolutions taking place over the globe. Out of all the heart-warming and thought-provoking topics we discussed one sentence that made me stop in my tracks was when she said "love is an action." This quote comes on the heels of me talking about recent disappointments from an ex-boyfriend whose actions didn't match his words. Hence, why he's my ex. As I'm participating in this game called human life I've discovered we all want to hear the words "I love you" from our significant other, parents etc. But I realize saying it is only a small fraction of this entity called love. LOVE is an action. When you do "in action" what you "feel" there can be no better demonstration of what alignment is. And while most of us look for someone else to show them love, I think we do ourselves the greatest disservice by looking for that action to come from outside of ourselves. The great sages of our time have always shared that Love is patient, Love is kind, Love is forgiveness. I'm coming to understand that I must be the one to be in alignment with my own actions as demonstration unto myself first. When I can speak and do love for me, I can then hold the vibration to attract like energy in all relationships.
As I listened to her amazing new album, I watched her pour so much love into every step in her cooking. It felt like a big hug even before I took one bite. The simplicity of sharing music, food and time is priceless. That was love in action.
*Mystic's first recording is titled "Cuts for Luck, Scars for Freedom" - it is a definite must have
