The  Mindfulness Thought of Consciousness to Grasp and Embrace ‘Resiliency’

• The insights and the intel for the appreciation and realization of the attributes and traits brought forth through growth, development, and maturity while enduring difficulties and challenges 

• Upon finding myself being a dissident voice in the desert of the wilderness, where I managed to muster enough strength to reach up and out of the widow of despair to connect to ‘Traits and attributes of Resiliency’ and rise up to overcome, survive and thrive...

I digress and reflect, I am the oldest of ten siblings born and raised by  African American parents who were sharecroppers, as we carried out and performed the farming chores to Chop, Hoe and Pick Cotton. While living on Antebellum Plantations in the Cane River area of Southern Louisiana. This was during the time of the late 1940s up to the mid-1960. Where cotton was king. The focus was on the cotton farming activities and chores of working in the alfalfa, hay, and soybean fields, tending to livestock and other animals, especially for people of color

Since this was the era of Jim Crow not much attention was given to pursuing studying to get an education. Young able-bodied black male teens were denied, restricted, and not allowed to start attending public school until they were 9 to ten years old. The young females were exempt, as they were given the chance to attend at age six, sometimes sooner

 

 While living and working on those Antebellum Plantations we experienced an enormity of difficult and arduous times. Where we grappled with the manacle chain of prejudices and the feat of discriminatory practices. Therefore, because of the monstrosities of racially discriminatory practices, the late start to public school, and the numerous challenges of ill treatment. This pushed me toward being propelled to be on a quest and mission to pursue and obtain the highest level of achievements

 There were certainty doubt and despair. However, due to my faith, passion to achieve, and the fire in my belly I persevered, and I diligently studied my subject matter both in elementary and high school and graduated second in my class from High school and with honors from college. 

After graduating from college, I enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where I served in the Vietnam War and was exposed to the Deadly Mustard Gas, ‘agent orange’. I and my shipmates encountered debilitating unhealthy bodily damage, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, peripheral neuropathy, nerve damage, hearing loss, and eyesight conditions. I served eight years in the US Navy and rose through the ranks to become A Naval Intelligence Officer, with Top Secret clearance for covert/covert military operational activities.

The aftermath and reflections-delving into the advent to grasp and embrace resilience traits and attributes

Uppermost in my conscious thought of mindfulness is the recollection for:‘The travails of the exodus’ from the perils of the travesty from the dusk of the Antebellum Plantations' existence. Such that allowed me to achieve the quest for the epic manifestation to grasp survival modes to overcome disrespectful and inhumane treatment, and to connect to the traits of Resiliency To Survive and Thrive ... 

In Addition, the Antebellum Plantation experience provided the hard-learned wisdom as follows:

• Seeds when planted in the darkness of the soil of the earth shall sprout up and grow as a productive plant or as a blade of grass

• On the path of the journey during difficult times with a focus on how to overcome there is a tendency to be relentless, and determined to grasp the necessary strength to reach out of the window of despair to connect with ‘Resiliency’, such efforts allows you to get up, bounce back, get up, bounce back, again, again and again...

Know that during the journey of life, whenever you feel crushed, under pressure, or in the midst of darkness. Be not dismayed, why? because you’re in a powerful place for the revelation  and the vicissitudes of transformation and transmutation {Transmutation- an act that tends to change the form of character or substance of something} source, Book, “Vibrate Higher”-by Lalah Delia

Steve Braxton, Member of the Bishopric, Non-fiction Author, Critical writer, and contributing Blogger sbrax57@gmail.com/ http://twitter.com/brasr6/