A Year In Review

To way too many people a yearly reading, or any reading from Orunmila for that matter, is an opportunity to have one’s fortune told for the following year. But Baba Orunmila is no fortune teller and the yearly reading is not a fortune for blessings for the next year. The yearly reading is guidance for helping people stay on their spiritual path for the next year. In less than four weeks 2007 will be coming to a close and the yearly reading for 2008 will be revealed. Now is a good time to take inventory of our spiritual stock and see how well we adhered to the yearly reading for 2007.

I have to confess this has been a year of some serious pain. The lack of resources has put a serious hurtin’ on my ability just to get from one day to another. I thank Olodumare himself for my mom and my immediate family for giving me the strength just to get by. It’s hard out here for an unemployed American.

However, on the flip side of things I have to admit that this year was truly a banner year for my personal development. I started this blog back in late March and it has been a serious benefit in helping me grow spiritually and socially. A lot of people didn’t or don’t care for a lot of the things I have said or have to say. But I a lot of people have given me a lot of food for thought and a lot of positive feedback and support. For that I am truly thankful. In this respect, I have had some serious personal enrichment and personal enlightenment. I had been promising myself that I would start a blog for years. This year will be a true milestone in my life.

As far as the pain goes, as Orunmila says this too is a part of life. Just because we may have a spiritual connection doesn’t mean that we are free from experiencing all the components of the human condition. People in Ifa will still suffer the loss of loved ones, accidents and other financial setbacks, sicknesses and poor health, and in other less pleasant drawbacks to life including death. Don’t let anyone tell you that there is a ritual you can do to prevent any of these things. These experiences, just like their more pleasant counterparts, are what we as humans are here for. It’s all about the choices we make. It is about as far from rocket science as you can get.

As the year winds down to a close I’m happy to report that I am on my spiritual path. In fact, right at this moment if anyone were to ask I’d have to say that I’m a little down personally. The last job interview that I had was such a good one I just knew I was going to get the job. But it didn’t happen. At least not yet. There was always the chance that someone better would come along and do a better job of selling his or her self. I was really hoping to put this economic tailspin behind me. But nevertheless, through it all I am still on path.

I have said it before and I’ll say it again many times in the future the spiritual entities that are here to help guide us are not our personal genies and servants. We cannot expect them to come and save the day each and every time we find ourselves in a sticky predicament. When some of us pray or perform rituals and things still don’t go our way we want to soothe ourselves and say things like Orisa work in mysterious ways. But there’s nothing mysterious about it. They aren’t here to grant our wishes. They are here to help us develop our character along the lines of the divine plan. It’s all about staying on path whatever that path may be.

I guess this is a very clumsy way of saying that you have less than four weeks to the end of the year. If you’re a practitioner of Ifa you may want to do some reflection on the past forty eight weeks and ask yourself how well did you stick to the reading for 2007? If there is something that might be a little amiss then time is running short and you only have a few weeks to get things in order. Even if you’re not a follower of Ifa it will do you good to sit back and reflect on how well you did with your personal endeavors this year. The New Year is coming with its own to do list so you probably don’t want to add any of the outstanding stuff to the list.