Energy and Will - Part 1
April 1, 2025
You are invited to join us for this week’s series of Daily Reflections on “Energy and Will.”
It takes energy to do anything, and that incudes getting up in the morning. But have you ever thought of what gives you the energy to WANT to get up in the morning? Honestly, on many mornings I would like to languish in bed instead of facing the day. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a demanding or stressful day, but in bed, the warm covers seem much more enticing than anything else, so I ask myself, “Why get up?”
Then it hits me — my reason for living, my purpose, my raison d’etre. Sometimes this reason is called “what’s ours to do,” but whatever we call it, when all is said and done there is something we are to do, and someone we are supposed to be — that no one can do or be except us. This “something” inspires the indomitable human drive to live. This something gives us will and the energy to exercise it. Our purpose is not an ‘option’, it is a must. It is not a matter of preference — it is an internal mandate. If it were not for my internal mandate, the warm covers would take over and eventually smother me.
I think of the enslaved people of our country and how they were cruelly treated and lived under extremely harmful conditions. They were shackled and beaten like animals but there was another cruelty they lived with that was possibly the worst; loved ones being separated from one another regardless of age or relationship. Over one half of all enslaved people were sold away from their parents, children, or spouses during their lifetimes.
Can you imagine the terror of living under the constant threat that you or your child would be sold like livestock, to live far away? That constant threat would seemingly drive the will to live right out of our souls. But instead, for many of the enslaved, it increased the will and energy to live — an energy that knitted families even closer, and developed deep bonding that even separation could not undo. The very thing that was meant to break their spirit miraculously increased their divine will and energy. And many made it through the agony to give birth to future generations — who then inherited the same engendered spirit, and who also passed it along.
At the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, there are many fine pieces of art that depict the struggle of America’s enslaved persons. Among the many there is a particular bronze that invited me to stay and learn from it. It is a life-size sculpture By Kwame Akoto-Bamfo (born 1983), of people of both genders and all ages shackled together. The figure of the mother carrying her child is unforgettable to me. In her face and body are unspeakable anguish, woe, and desperation, but I can also also see her uncompromising will to live. I looked into her eyes and saw that indomitable will, so brilliantly portrayed by the artist.
Thankfully, in our country, most people are not in a profound struggle for spiritual and physical existence such as the African American enslaved people endured. Though the type of enslavement before and after the civil war is no longer going on, there are still profound forms of degradation, marginalization, oppression, cruelty, subjugation, and hatred of human beings. And we all have challenges that try our souls. But regardless of what we face, we have the same access to our divine will as did the amazing people of enslavement. They and their survivors teach us that the choice is ours.
Spiritual practice and self-inquiry: Presently, what is your most profound challenge? Do you have the will and energy to face this challenge? If you are disconnected from a level of will that can see you through, list ways that you might connect to the divine will and energy that was placed in you as it was the enslaved people of America.
Dear God,
For allowing me to see, even in bronze eyes, the will to live. I am truly grateful.
