Hampton Roads Community News
Spring’s Eternal Power
By Sean C. Bowers
Whether it is putting a little extra “spring” into your step, or “springing forth” a new idea, concept or creation, the warmth and longer days of Spring usher in our personal growing season.
Like plants surviving through the cold winter months, our “seeds” of inspiration often lay dormant (hunkered down due to Covid-19’s restrictions), awaiting the thaw of warmer climates.
Combing through the compact disc sections, looking for deals on motivational music, I stumbled upon the perfect jazz gift and (mental reinforcement) message. Bill Evan’s Jazz CD entitled, “You Must Believe in Spring,” caught my eye. As I flipped over the CD, the quote on the back was all I needed to make the purchase (sound unheard) for fifty cents. Priceless! It contained a Francis Davis quote, “Like all great art, this music provokes a spectrum of emotions – not least the elation of being in the presence of great art.”
Each week over these past twenty-four years of writing for the Guide, I have sought to create, write and bring my soul to life through my poetic pen’s purposeful willful art-therapy, always in search of the perfect balance, the truthful fairness of each address, the stick-to-it-ness to never sweep difficult topics under the “White Privilege” rug for any reason. That unattainable perfection is the constant goal.
Each of us has within those gifts that we have the choice to either offer to others and share, or to keep to ourselves. The decision to come forward “into the light” of public awareness is not a simple one. Yet our selflessness to share becomes, in many ways, another conduit through which to show just how much we can dare to care, no matter who approves or stares.
Our internal timetable, like Spring, is that blossoming and blooming of our “true colors.” We are all in this wide beautiful world, in living color, tie-dyed, stained-glassed, water-colored, walking, talking, singing, drawing, dancing, writing works of art, or waiting to be debuted.
For the hesitant, there is no time like the present. Kicking the internal “creative can” down the street for yet another year, reason, or season, can hold us back from making our truest maximum impact for good in the lives of others.
As the river has two sides, so do our offerings and spiritual “self-tithing.” Side one is how making the creation known frees up much needed space for new and even more intense offerings to manifest themselves from within and above. It “clears the mechanism” so to speak.
Side two has to do with interpretive impact. For the listener, viewer, and reader our offerings can be just the required nudge of inspirational confirmation that we are never alone, or on our own in the darkness of self-doubt. The view of our work from the other side of the river, by others, can be much needed feedback that our work is reaching, possibly helping, and inspiring others. Negative feedback, over-amplified, is the dangerous side of that double-edged sword of justice.
The cautionary note is that artists, writers, and poets must create and offer forth our best, regardless of the reception and feedback. Fame and fortune are all too elusive for many great artists who create because it is who we are. It is in our blood. We wouldn’t be who we are if we didn’t walk the life-or-death creative tightrope of performance-offering. That is how we maximize our impact; worth, and ultimately our mental self-worth. We write because we must, as in the Heavens, we trust.
To everyone reading this: G(r)o(w)- forth and prosper. Take the leap, make the difference you know you can. Become the person you are destined to become. Don’t worry about the results. Step out on faith. You won’t know the full power of your volume and the reach of your “WILL” until you fully engage with your gift. Humanity is waiting. Spring into action!
Sean C. Bowers has written the last twenty-four years, as a White Quaker Southern man, for the nations’ third oldest Black Newspaper, the New Journal and Guide, of Norfolk, VA, about overcoming racism, sexism, classism, and religious persecution. Some of his latest NJ&G articles detailing the issues can found by searching “Sean C. Bowers” on the NJ&G website. Contact him directly on social media at Linkedin.com or by e-mail V1ZUAL1ZE@aol.com NNPA 2019 Publisher of the Year, Brenda H. Andrews (NJ&G 34 years) has always been his publisher.
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