2021: Year of SOUL
As I reflect on this year, I can’t help but smile.
Been one of the best and hardest years of my life.
Guess that means I’m growing.
As I slow down over winter break and take stock of my life so far, I can honestly say I am supremely content. If I died now, I’d die happy.
I’d die happy knowing I chose a life of my own design. I’m living a life for me.
Not soul-y in a self-serving way. I offer myself daily in service of Spirit. A vessel of light and love. A beacon of hope and truth. An instrument of Spirit’s generosity.
I am committed to living in alignment with the highest expression of my soul. That doesn’t mean I’m perfect or enlightened, quite the contrary, I’m constantly on my knees, getting schooled and humbled by life.
This year I went to hell and back.
Lost myself only to find myself again.
Like the Mesopotamian Goddesss of Heaven & Earth, Inanna, I scaled the Seven Levels of the Underworld. With each level I had to surrender my bangles and belongings one by one. I moved through a heavy dose of heartbreak, depression and grief. Questioning my sanity and myself. With the support of my therapist, a number of coaches, healers, friends and family, I worked through many of my deepest wounds. I took ownership of my trauma. I took radical responsibility for my pain and myself.
There’s a quote I keep on my mirror that says, “for a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who didn’t understand growth it would look like complete destruction.”And that’s what the first seven months of this year felt like.
Thankfully I was given a heads up, African indigenous cosmologist and wise woman @shesash8pshifter did my numerology in the beginning of the year and let me know I was in Year 9, “Death and Rebirth”. A time of major change, endings and transformation. She advised me to treat myself with great care, like a pregnant woman. And she was right. When you hit the bottom that’s when you really discover who the fuck you are.
And she was right. When you hit the bottom that’s when you really discover who the fuck you are.
At the bottom of my grief and heartache, I found only love. I didn’t just grieve one ending, I grieved the many endings in my lifetime and beyond.
In one of my darkest moments, a friend told me that there was so much love around me but that I pass by it like sage, I’m so used to it that I don’t even take it in. He encouraged me to let that love bolster me during times of challenge
I took his advice to heart and began to receive the love that was already surrounding me. When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change and I began to experience SO MUCH ABUNDANCE.
This changed the way I related to others, instead of through the eyes of expectation, criticism and judgement, I began to see differently.
In the same way a mother does when she sees her newborn baby for the first time, I saw myself and others through the eyes of unconditional love.
This new way of being and seeing granted me the courage to answer a higher calling and give birth to something called SOUL: School of Unconditional Love.
Though SOUL is is in its infancy it’s purpose is expansive!
SOUL is an emerging global platform centering BIPOC love, liberation and healing. We exist to be a catalyst for the human spirit, a multicultural, multidimensional church and school for the soul 💒
We offer courses, coaching and community events and are currently halfway through our first Love & Liberation Course cohort for women & femmes of color 🧘🏻♀️🧘🏽♀️🧘🏾♀️🧘🏿♀️
This course has been a massive undertaking. There were many times I felt like giving up but I am so thankful for the unwavering support to “keep going”.
Building SOUL carries on the legacy of a lineage of educators in my family, including my great grandmother, Lily, who started a school in China in the 1930’s. This year when I called on my ancestors for guidance, her spirit said to me, “creating a school will be one of the hardest things you ever do, but it will be worth it.”
And she was right.
While this is only the beginning for SOUL, I can honestly say my spirit is fulfilled and I could die happy. I don’t intend to because there’s more work to do but that truth gives me great peace.
In 2022, I hope to codify and scale both SOUL’s offerings and my own coaching, consulting and facilitation work. I hope to shepherd more students, teachers, and funders into the fold and I hope to further get out of it’s way so it can fly!
While I may be the Mother of SOUL, I am certainly not the only parent. It takes a village to raise a child and I could not have made it without the countless brothers, sisters, mentors and friends who supported me so far.
To my coach @lyndalopez - thank you for being with me every step of the way in developing SOUL and the Love & Liberation course. Your wisdom and guidance is invaluable.
To my brand doula @reginafelice - thank you for your incredible patience and unparalleled creativity in making the brand and website shine!
To @mazinjamal_ @rockeaseroad @holisticunderground - thank you for believing in me and being so generous with your support in making this a success
To my community manager @carobface - thank you for your steadfast and heartfelt support and service, thank you for holding me with so much love x grace
To my SOUL doulas @karmaysahara @smdymontoya @thechristinejuang @flodabokemp @rockeaseroad - thank you for saying YES to this journey and guiding our students in their growth and expansion
To my beloved model friends @natalieorozco @namikouno @smdmontoya @darrelljones3 @mazinjamal_ - thank you for being the beacon and poster children representing the spirit of SOUL and to @lexmexart for capturing it so powerfully!
To those who held SOUL circles (womxn of color healing circles) this year @natalieorozco @jyomaan @mabengi @smdmontoya - thank you for sharing your energy, presence and gifts!
To our Students of Love & Liberation - thank you for taking a leap of faith and saying yes to your soul calling!
To my personal support team Sally, Kendra, Benjamin and my fam bam Audrey, Justin and Lauren!
To all the lovers, friends, healers, teachers, and collaborators who have contributed to my life’s journey, thank you!!
And to each of you with a dream…a calling, a quest. I encourage you wholeheartedly to GO FOR IT. Spirit’s got you! Your people got you! Fortune favors the Bold.
Godspeed.
IT’S WORTH IT.
With endless gratitude,
Lotus Wong
Founder of SOUL
