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