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integrity |inˈtegritē|noun1 the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness : he is known to be a man of integrity.2 the state of being whole and undivided : upholding territorial integrity and national sovereignty.• the condition of being unified, unimpaired, or sound in construction :the structural integrity of the novel.• internal consistency or lack of corruption in electronic data : [as adj. ]integrity checking
I asked the Soul that Knows what I am to write about. The answer: Integrity. When I get a word that seems to come from ‘out of the blue,’ I like to look it up. We have our definitions of things, and then there IS the definition.
Integrity- the quality of being honest and forthright. The state of being whole and unified- having within a consistency which is undisputed, therefore cannot cause corruption.
Who among us has this kind of integrity? Who among us has the fortitude to get there?
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog about taking ourselves to the next level, and spiritual integrity is an essential ingredient in getting us there. It means we must- absolutely- be honest with ourselves, and if I may say so, so bluntly- because the next level doesn’t fuck around. If we think we are fooling someone, we aren’t. We are fooling ourselves. If we think we have it all figured out we don’t. If we have built a glass house it will shatter. And this is okay. We weren’t meant to stand on sand. Especially not now.
It is time to be 100% completely honest with ourselves, about ourselves. It doesn’t mean we have to go through every skeleton in our closet right now today, but we do have to at least go into the room where that closet is located and consider the cost of our spiritual integrity if we don’t. That is if our spiritual integrity is important to us. That is if we want to step it up to the next level.
Tonight at a dinner with friends, we talked about sacrifice and entitlement. We talked about politics and how my two friends want the truth from politicians. We cannot be lead to the land of the free if we don’t have hope and vision of this land. If we aren’t honest and courageous enough to face what is. If we don’t have the fortitude and bravery to get there. And we need a leader to take us there.
We need a leader who has our best interest at heart, and that may mean not protecting us, but by telling us there are sacrifices that we ALL need to make for the short term to get to our long term goal of : free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty I am free at last. And this doesn’t mean we have to wait for a leader in some other town. Some other room. Some other place. This leader in which I speak is inside of you, awaiting its mission and reason to be used. And I can’t think of a better time.
Are we ready as a nation to be used? Are we ready as a nation to sacrifice now, for a future we may not get to see, but our children’s children might? Are we ready to let down our guard and get real with not only where the nation is, but where we are; for we are the microcosm of the macrocosm. Are we ready, and will we commit?
Barack Obama will be our president because he is the symbol of the energy of what is needed right now. He came on the scene with an extraordinary speech in 2004 at the Democratic Convention. It brought in the energy once again of unity, which many of us briefly felt right after 9.11. He continued to speak this vision to create a momentum of ‘followers’- to unify us. To give us hope again. Whether you like him or not, we needed this. Now he has rallied many and it is time to put the unity into action, and it is clear he cannot do this alone, and this is where I get frightened, and may I say lose a little hope.
Will we unite not only when it is hopeful and full of promise, but when we are asked to make personal sacrifices which may make us less comfortable? Tonight I got a text from his campaign asking me to donate to the Red Cross. When he gets onto the stage to speak, he claps for us. He says, this is not about me. This is about you. He is asking us to show up, and we need to, and like the last blog I wrote- Commit to the eggs. But in this case, commit to the future of our planet and its people.
Yes, I am getting lofty. I will bring it down now. We have our own little universe waiting inside of us. Its the soul, and it needs our attention NOW. I know what my mission is. I know what my inner leader is trying to get me to do. She wants me to ask people to commit to the expansion of their souls. To look within and be renewed, and enlightened. To create the vision of our freedom. To be honest about where we are, and have the fortitude and the bravery to get there. And I am committing to this right now.
And this is why: because I believe most of us are in that room with all the perceived skeletons. Some of us are afraid. Some of us are lost. Some of us don’t know why we are here, and some do, but god dammit will do anything to avoid it. But there is no reason to avoid what is within. As the Voice Inside so eloquently said to me once, while I was about to go into a panic attack: There is nothing inside of you to be afraid of.
We are being asked to go where we fear, and this is within where much awaits. There are treasures there. Unspoken truths. Unlearned lessons. Unbelievable strength and fortitude.
Listen to Rumi for a moment: You have heard that every buried treasure has a snake guarding it. Kiss the snake to discover the treasure.
Kissing the snake is the sacrifice.
Oprah always asks her guests, “What do you know for sure?” Oprah didn’t ask me (yet), but here is what I know for sure: we are playing russian roulette if we think we can stay on the same course for which we have been. There was a time for it, and now there isn’t. It’s time for a new course.
In my own life, the course I was running on exhausted and exasperated me, almost to the point where I was becoming bitter and losing my will. I wanted it to end, and did not know how much longer I could take it. I then realized I do not want the course to end at all. I simply want to change direction and run a new course; one with new scenery, new obstacles and new horizons to gaze upon.
Personally I know I am now on that new course, and because of what I have been through I no longer think I have all the answers, and this is humbling and gratifying. I know now it is all about establishing trust with myself so I know what I need will show up just in the nick of time. I scrambled tough at the end of this last course. I knew if I didn’t I would be like the Titanic and hit that iceberg, but my soul didn’t need to hit it in order to change course. Some of us do need to hit it, and that’s okay too, but it isn’t necessary.
Be good to yourself. You are gentle and wise. It may seem like what is beneath us is shallow and insecure, and for awhile it may sway that way, but it is sand and will blow away, and beneath you will be standing on what is pure and real. It’s You, and it always was.
How can you bring in more spiritual integrity today? Trust, and ask your Soul that Knows.
Namaste,
Nikki
The Soul Reporter 
>Thank you for this, Nikki :)Very resonant with me right now.As for Barack – the country desperately needs that energy, so true! But it gets hard to keep spirits up especially with McBush pulling that “look I have a chick VP, I’m awesome” stunt.
>First I want to say apologize for falling asleep when you were reading your blog to me. I wanted to listen, but the desire to go to sleep was stronger.This blog reminds me of the scripture below:JOB 3:25 “25For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.”This is the truth of my life right now. I am where I need to be; even if it does not look the way I have intended it to be. But it is goodThis is the proof to me that we need to have a little faith in Self, Others, and our Devine Creator.So I agree we do not have to deal with everyting at this moment, but you can do it know or do it later. ~1BlackMansOpinion.com