While in Washington, D.C. last week for the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington with a few American Baptist College classmates–and students from Morehouse, Alabama State and Howard–I found a new understanding of the ‘little things.’ This is because of something my colleague Jacques Boyd said in mid-conversation.
“I am thankful and appreciative of these moments,” he said. “When one is thankful they are glad of what they have. I am thankful because I am glad of what we Blacks have. When one is appreciative they do something with what they have. As we go back to our communities, we must continue the fight and do something with what we already have.”
Feeling good feels good; when you feel it you know. Here are 3 things you can use to create your own happiness:
1. Fun
Our call seems to be to live out life in many different arenas. Many times life is about having fun and enjoying what the world has to offer. (The chili dog from the classic and Ben’s chili bowl are perfect examples.) Having fun seems to temporarily soothe all the hurt, pain and injustice of world. Let’s face it, what college student doesn’t like to have fun? Just be sure that “fun” does not consume you so much that daily tasks become impossible. Having fun is what revives you to live and fight another day.
2. Faith
In “Across that Bridge” Congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis said “There is one question people ask me more than any other: How did you do it? How did you hold to nonviolence when a pounding wall of vicious hate was pushing through you like waves of fire during the protests and sit-ins of the Civil Rights Movement?…The answer is simple. Faith. Faith has the power to deliver us all, even from the greatest harm.”
The call to faith is a call that, on the outset, lasts and makes lasting impression on ourselves and the people we come in contact with. Life is the gift God gives to you. What you do with it, however, is your gift to God.
3. Freedom
Having freedom is the part of the call that will take the most work and effort. Freedom has never been handed on a silver platter to anyone in history. It has always been earned. If we want to vote freely, go to universities with financial help freely, be able to walk to the corner store to buy skittles and iced tea freely we must demand it in ways that show our resilience, and our intestinal fortitude to conjure “Yes, I’ll give you what you deserve in the first place.”
