LIVING Unreleased Successes
[Music]
foreign
[Applause]
23 days i spent in my bed
grappling for air it was hard to breathe
i was told to lay on my stomach
i was told to make sure you lay on your
stomach
fevers 102.7 chills and body aches like
i had
never felt before it felt like every
piece of my body was in pain
i was coughing they say it’s the kovid
cough
it was a very different cough it felt a
little wet
and dry at the same time but i never
felt anything like it covet 19 had
entered my body
sometime in that period between
and celebrating my daughter’s 32
birthday
in charlotte north carolina we had
driven in from atlanta
my son had just celebrated his 33rd
birthday
and after the birthday party was over
and we were on our way back to atlanta
it felt like the longest drive
ever we had to pull over to the side of
the road
and i had to go use the bathroom a
public bathroom
at target now if you’re gonna use the
public bathroom
let it be tarjay but i
knew that i was sick
it didn’t feel right we got back to
atlanta
and on that monday morning my daughter
rushed me and my husband and the whole
family because she’s the logistic one
over to have a cov19 test now i’ve
already been tested
prior but this moment on the way
to that testing site i became agitated
and irritated
and i began to aggravate my daughter now
this is actually her birthday
and december is a special time for my
family both of my children were born in
december
we celebrate my granddaughter is 10 and
we celebrate maddie like never before
we turn up for christmas and we were
headed for the first time ever
to go on a family winter
vacation i was gonna be a black girl
skin
and i was excited my daughter got us all
wrapped into
this beautiful idea of going to colorado
to go ski now we were going to do every
precaution
to make on to make that trip happen but
when i got back to atlanta
that monday morning rushing out the door
to go have this test
and on the way there like i said i was
aggravating my daughter
i didn’t know it but my head was pressed
against
the window pane you know it felt like
the big c
word for everyone who’s been diagnosed
with cancer
it felt like someone was about to tell
me
that news and that i had x amount of
time to live
we got there there were other people
lined up
car by car by car by car
it just felt so eerie like could this
truly be my current
life situation questions started to form
in my mind
and i was in a place far away
from that coveyed test she came to the
car
and she began to share with us all what
the procedure would be
i was watching the woman outside
my window who was in the car next to me
and she seemingly was having
an experience that wasn’t like the one
that i was feeling inside
so i’m like hey i want to be where she’s
at so evidently she has
gotten a negative test result but
all and everything in me the recesses of
my body my
consciousness the spirit being
my pain body picked it up you’re gonna
be positive
before she even swabbed
and when she swabbed it felt like
everything entered that swab entered my
brain
everything began to swirl for me she
checked my lungs
and my lungs she said sounded as if i
had a little bit of congestion
my husband then he’s sitting in the
front seat where my daughter begins to
get a little worried
and he’s like hey babe are you okay
now at this moment i don’t know if they
say i’m okay or not i don’t want to go
to a hospital for me the hospital
represented something
that i wasn’t prepared to have
that experience covey at 19 is
serious people are dying 2.3 million
people to date
plus have died globally
and i didn’t want to be one of those
people
but nonetheless my heart and soul was
with each one of them in that moment
and from the days from that moment
i had to battle covey at 19.
there was a moment in my experience
in the middle of the night days in
i did not think i would make it
i just really shut down
my total the total me the inspiring me
the encouraging me
the woman that believes all things are
possible and you can do
all things to christ i was so
done i was scared i was seriously i was
scared
and i normally am that warrior woman
but i know what i was scared of i
finally
understand what i was scared of
my fevers were so high my family was
gathered
my breathing was not so great
and i just knew they were gonna have to
take me to the hospital
but i fought and i fought and i fought
for my positioning
i was going to live every minute i could
get a lucid drop
thought through i was going to live
there’s still more in me
there’s still more in me i have more to
do
i have more to put out in the world
in this very moment in this very moment
we all have more to do unreleased
successes
i came by to give you a glimpse
of what’s still in you
you know i had a ken show awakening that
moment where
pain actually awakened me
to know that there was still more for me
i’ve accomplished some amazing things in
my lifetime
i’ve overcome teen pregnancy i’ve
overcome poverty i’ve overcome losing a
million dollars of my assets in the real
estate crash of 2008.
the housing crash changed my entire life
i woke up hungry
homeless and hurtling around for what
was next and my dog went through it with
his family my two children were in
college and i was scared to deal
that was that moment in time where i had
to
find my unreleased successes i had to
say
what’s more for me this is not the place
i’m gonna die
this is not the place i will be left
with unrealized dreams and goals and
innovations and
ingenuity stuck down in my belly
in this moment you
have unreleased successes that’s what i
came by to share with you
that’s what i came by to deliver to you
that’s what i came by
to give you a glimpse that you
just like me we still got more
more work more joy more
peace more glory more ideas
more innovations more
goals more desires more dreams
more moments that will take our breath
away
it’s not going to take a kensho
awakening for you
because i came by to let you know you
don’t have to go that route
buddhist zen says that there is this
idea of the satori moment
s-a-t-o-r-i satori moments are those
moments
of insight a burst of insight when
you hear something right and you
feel something you’re using all your
senses
your touch your smell your hearing
your taste everything gets in connection
in that moment
the universe starts to deliver a message
to you and it starts to download
and then you get so excited because in
that moment you have a stroke
of genius you feel it you get it
it’s like an ah moment where a kid’s
show
awakening is like my covid experience
or your covid experience or someone that
you know
dear that you may have lost during this
coveted journey
but for sure we don’t have to have
painful awakenings
we can enjoy life because this is a
message for the living for
us to decide that we’re gonna pursue
life and happiness
a life fulfilled but how do we get there
laura i
heard this before we want a life that’s
fulfilled
i’ve heard these stories before so
what’s so different
about what you’re selling what you’re
sharing what you’re telling me
what’s different is
you have not explored them
the difference is you’ve not explored
them
see it’s one thing for someone to tell
you you’re great you got it
go do it but it’s another thing for you
to know it
in the deep recesses of your body and
that’s what was happening
even to me out of all the successes
hey i made a third i made 33 million
dollars in my 30s
i made 33 million dollars my total
sales in the real estate business in my
30s i became a millionaire
in my 40s i became broke
and now in my 50s i’m going at it again
because i decided there was more
in me there was these
unreleased successes the ones that i’ve
yet
to touch the ones that i’ve yet to
experience and that’s
what you have you like me you got that
how are you exploring but the biggest
question is why
why are we afraid to explore all of us
because it’s predictable what we’ll find
why are we afraid
to go in our deepest recesses of
ourselves
and go find that acres of diamonds that
exist
inside because we don’t know what it
looks like
in its rough state why
why are we afraid like my uncle george
you know i had that
one moment that i was laying in the bed
and
i began to really really really go back
because when you’re looking at your life
right whether you’re gonna make it out
of a thing
whether you’re going to wake up the next
morning my husband had fell off to sleep
while he too was battling covey and he
was amazing at
taking care of me with because he got
right back up
he was asleep the house was dark
everybody was tired
and i had awakened in that moment
i had a moment of prayer and meditation
and i had this way back
vision of my uncle george george
washington
actually is my uncle’s name my
grandfather was george washington singer
my uncle was george washington jr
he was a poet he was an artist
he was a son and he was my mother’s big
brother he was a father
he also was a heroin addict my uncle
served in the vietnam war like so many
other young men and he came back from
the war
a heroin addict and in that moment
i knew having this vision was so
powerful for me my uncle taught me
how to use words to express my life
and how to use words to actually inspire
others so i’ve been
doing this thing called speaking since i
was 13 years old storytelling
as i thought about my uncle beautiful
and how he would come and
save us from poverty moments and things
that were not so good at home
i remember this i remember
that while yes he was a heron addict and
yes
he died that way
aside the road in a pamper
he remained a drug addict addicted to
heroin his entire
life he would i remember him telling me
there was so much more he wanted to
accomplish
and that’s what i remember what he had
not accomplished
the acres of diamonds so many of us
in this moment are gonna have to search
for it so you’re gonna have to look for
it
you’re gonna have to go inside and
actually begin to
search it out how are you gonna do that
how are you gonna do that there’s an
amazing
story about an african farmer this
african farmer
he looked all around africa for diamonds
he heard that there was
diamonds in the diamond mines and he
wanted to find his
he went all around to find those
diamonds to no
avail he did not find him he looked and
looked and looked he searched he
searched he searched
he became despondent he became
discouraged
and he threw himself in a river and
drowned
he sold his farm and you know
what’s so amazing is this farm was full
of diamonds
the farmer that took his farm he
searched and he searched and he searched
and one day he stepped across a little
stream
and down there was a shiny object he
picked it up
and guess what that was a diamond he
said on his mantle
a guy came along days later he said do
you know what you have in your hand
he says no it’s just like this this this
dirty old rock
he said that is a diamond this is the
most incredible
most expensive diamond in all of africa
the reason that we’re not
releasing our successes from inside
because we haven’t taken the time to
search them out
we’re looking for them through
algorithms through tweets
through posts through friends to
co-workers
through messages just to come and just
knock us on the head
that’s not how this is gonna work you’re
gonna
have to do the work search out
your acres because inside
is everything you need i’m excited for
you in this moment
because now you got a glimpse of what it
can be because the programming that
you’ve had
it will no longer be what the rest of
your life
can be the program when people told you
to be quiet
what you’ve got to say didn’t matter
your feelings
they’re just not important every single
piece of your consciousness that’s
speaking to you in this moment
is pulling for you it’s cheering for you
it’s calling for you and it’s connecting
you
to your greatest you go find your
unreleased successes
what is it that you want go get it and
you go be great