Joni

Welcome beloveds. I’m so glad you’re here today. I have a very special guest for you. I have a beacon of light for these dark and tumultuous times. I have a friend and a soul sister. I have Yemaja Jubilee joining us today. Welcome Yemaja. 

Yemaja

Thank you Joni for having me. And it’s a pleasure to be with you today. 

Joni

Yes, I’m so excited. Let me share a little bit about you and what you’re up to. So our listeners have some insight into this, this trip we’re going to take together.

Yemaja: That’d be good. 

Joni: 

Yes. So if you ask me, I would say Yemaja is truly a creative force of nature and that she is always a breath of fresh air. She really is like a transmission of light in the most delightful package. She’s an inspirational speaker and a poet and author, a singer. She’s the co-director of Cultural Libations, an art & service collaboration with her partner, L. Roi Boyd III.

She works as a TV and radio hostess, a creative consultant, and she always brings positivity and a joyful spirit to her listeners. And she inspires people to recognize all the ways that they are not limited. She supports people in their unlimited potential and recognizing that they can get out of the box. She’s the author of a book of soulful poetry, I Couldn’t Keep it to Myself. She’s a guest columnist for the Charlotte Gazette writing on growing up black in Charlotte County, VA. And she has a new fabulous fun show called Celebrity Buzz. And we are going to talk about her journey with the feminine, her practice of forest bathing and all of her adventures. So welcome again. Yemaja. 

Yemaja

Thank you so very much Joni, what a lovely, I always love listening to your voice. Okay. Thank you for having me. 

Joni

Yes. Thank you for joining us. It’s taken us a few months to get you here, but here you are.

Yemaja

And that’s wonderful because I have patience and I know that things always come at the time that they’re supposed to come.

Joni

Yes, yes. So, as I said, at the beginning, your creativity and your positivity are your, I would say your calling cards or your hallmarks. And I see both of those as intimate elements of the feminine spirit. And I would love just to give you an invitation to dive in on your journey with the feminine and perhaps even your journey with your creativity. Have you always been this prolific in your creativity?

Yemaja

Well, I have always been creative, but since these times of uncertainty and COVID, I really have taken a very deep dive inside of myself and my connection with love, beauty, the big G – the God and goddess of the Universe.  It just seemed to have heightened. You know, all the external fears and anxiety that people are having. I haven’t had that much of it. And I know it was because of the practices that I’ve done ongoing all the years. But just seeing all of this, it’s like, I’ve taken an internal retreat inside of myself, you know? 

Joni

Mmm hm. Yes. So you’re using your practices to nourish and source for yourself. So you’re not plugged into the matrix out there?

Yemaja: No, And I didn’t take the pill. Okay.

But, you know, I grew up on a farm in Charlotte County, Virginia. And as a young girl, I always used to go into the woods and play, making friends with the trees and making friends with the birds and all of that. And my mother, I have to say, my mother was very, very in tune with plants and flowers in her gardening. So I feel like that was the start of me being in tune with nature and on a farm, I walked barefoot a lot. Okay. I played in the mud and played in the rain, used to love to be outside in the rain. And mom used to have to make me come inside.

Yup. And made red mud pies. Okay.

Joni

Ah yes. So, you were naturally connected to the earth and her energies. It sounds like.

Yemaja

Yeah. And, and my mother, my mother too, you know. You’re talking about, I’m talking about my creativity. My mother had gardens that you would, when everybody else’s vines were not doing any good, they were not bringing forth string beans, and squash. She talked to her plants and they always lasted longer than anybody else’s. And then she would, she taught me how to can food. You know, we preserved everything we ate. We got it out of the gardens or we slaughtered you know, pigs and things like that for the meat. But we raised, we raised vegetables. I mean, we, you know we had potatoes and everything like that. And I used to always have to go out and dig up the potatoes and onions. And I used to love it, love it because I got to play in the dirt, by digging up the potatoes.

Joni

So you were really close to the earth as a little one? And what a beautiful foundation to have. It so interesting how so many, I think are trying to get back to those roots of what you’re describing was your childhood.

Yemaja

Yes, yes. And so, you know, and when I look at my childhood and I look at where I am now, I’ve gone back to where I was. Because it’s always been there, but life has taken on layers of programming of how you need to be. Especially as a woman, uh, the roles you’re supposed to play as a wife and a mother. And also to what happened to, I found that the religious background that I was raised with. It, it, it, what did it do? It shamed me for being, not being what the religion said. And I had to work through a lot of that by finding the feminine energy, because that was just really a lot of masculine energy.

Joni

Yes. So you were raised, I’m guessing in a more traditional perhaps Christian Church. And so just that patriarchal perspective.

Yemaja: Yes. Yes.

Joni: Yeah. The supremacy of the masculine.

Yemaja

Oh, definitely. You know, that God was a man with a white beard, sitting on a throne writing down everything that I did and I was worthless, I was a sinner. There was no room for any feminine at all in that concept.

Joni

Hm. And I’m, I’m wondering when you were growing up, how were race and spirituality, was there any link there around religion and race or?

Yemaja

Well, going back to the articles that I’m writing a series of articles for the Charlotte Gazette. Because I’m talking about my experiences growing up as a black woman in Charlotte County. you know, the last piece that I just wrote that will be in the Charlotte Gazette next week, it’s called Light Bright, almost White, but Not White. And I grew up with a lot of racism in the neighborhood. And I grew up with a lot of, you know, I grew up with signs that said, Jim Crow, laws were signs that said colored, and I was not permitted to play with the white kids. I went to segregated schools and then in the church, going back to the church, when you walk in the door, there was white Jesus, there were white angels. And then the Lord’s Last Supper was all white people. It affected me. And then too, you know, having to, having to be, um, I remember one thing about growing up black that really affected me as a young girl, was seeing the Klu Klux Klan ride by my house and burn a cross in the field across from the house. I was, I was terrified.

Joni: Of course, how, how old were you then? Do you remember?

Yemaja: Probably 12, 13 years old. If not younger. It, it terrified me.

Joni

Yes. So your positivity doesn’t come from a life free from challenge or free from really seeing the, we’ll say a harsh potential that we humans can do to each other. So it, I believe it makes it even more, I’m going to say valuable or inspiring that you have found a means to have a direct connection with the Divine and with an outlook of positivity given all of that.

Yemaja

Yes, definitely. And it’s been a process. It’s a process of knowing, sitting, praying, meditating, and keeping that nature upfront. And finding that energy for me, that works for me. It may not work with somebody else. I had to come into it on my own. I met two ladies in 1986. And I lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And those ladies and I used, I referred to those were… I never had any women of color to be my close friends. 

Joni: Mmm, really? 

Yemaja

No, not at that point. There were some women, but they were not spiritual. 

Joni: Okay. 

Yemaja: Yes. So that’s the difference. They were women, and I’m not putting down women of color, but I always knew that there was more, I always felt it. I always knew it deep within, it’s gotta be more to life than this and there’s gotta be something out there. And I went after it. 

Joni: Yes, With a deep hunger.

Yemaja

Yes. A Hunger, hunger, hunger, hunger. And the only thing that started feeding my hunger is when I let go of some of that old programming. And meeting these two ladies, and then my poetry. That’s the other thing just, the poetry. I wrote the first poem when I was 16, about the religiousity that I was under was called, Where Have All the Christian Folk Gone? They Sure Ain’t Goin’ to No Heavenly Home.

Joni: Right. Wow. You call it like you see it. 

Yemaja: Yes, yes. 

Joni

Yeah. So being, you have always, it sounds like expressed the truth like you have through your creativity. That that’s my perception. 

Yemaja

Yeah. Yep. Yeah. It started at 16 years old. 

There used to be a Rexall drug store in Chase City, Virginia. And I had a racial incident in that store. Because as a young girl, my mother would go to Chase City to shop when she did shop at the market. They had a farmer’s market there. And I would skip down the street and look at all the windows and the dresses. And I would see these white mannequins, young girl mannequins with blonde hair. And then I would go down to the next door. And there was always white men. Everything was white. So I got thirsty cause I was playing and you know, a kid – innocent.

Joni: Right, right. Yeah. Being a kid.

Yemaja

I went into the Rexall drug store. I’m going to get me something to drink. And I sit down on the stool and there was a Caucasian lady that was there. And she moved and looked like, look at me like I was nothing. And then the drug store man told me he couldn’t serve me. And I, I, I, I was so afraid because I didn’t, I wasn’t even aware. I ran out of the store and ran to my mother. And my mother told me, you cannot go in that store and sit down. You can only go in there and buy things, you can’t sit down. So I went back in that store and bought a diary. I bought a diary at 16, a little pink diary. And I wrote that first poem. That’s the first poem. I started putting my poetry and my secrets about myself. I started writing. Nobody never knew I did that. So the poetry and expression started at 16.

Joni

So do you believe that that, that was part of what helped you? Because you had, you really had at least two layers to overcome, you had both the gender issue and the race issue. That, that you were born female and you were born in a black body.

Yemaja

Yes. Yes. And the layers that I’ve had to just really layer by layer, look at all my life. And I’m still, I’m still looking at it. It’s a process, you know, it’s cause each time I always know that there’s more. I’ve had to work through it with different people. And people, you know, it’s amazing how what you need when you need comes to you, when you are persistent and you are pursuing and knowing that it’s there. It’s the attitude that, Hey, there is the answer and asking the un-askable question what people feel like are the un-askable questions. You don’t ask it. And questioning all the answers that society gives you that you’re supposed to believe. 

Joni

Yes, yes. So tell us about your current forest bathing practice. You shared a little bit about the roots, but when and how did you start getting into that and take us through an imaginary walk with you through the forest.

Yemaja

Oh, gladly, gladly. You make a big smile on my face and the joy in my heart. I love to dance and move. You know, I, I taught Nia and I’ve taught lots of movement, gentle movement exercise. And one of the things that I got into when I go into the forest … like I said, it started when I was young. But when this pandemic came, I found that if I stayed longer, the more connected I felt, you know. And I started sitting on specific things in the forest for instance if I enter the forest I might hear a brook running. The water trickling. And I look up at a tree, a tall Oak tree. And I talk to the tree and thank the tree that you’re here today. And then I go hug it. I hug the tree. I sit down for awhile. 

I have specific places that I go to in Forest Hill park and in Rockwood park. I, I either sit on a rock. And when I sit on a rock, I get what I call downloads from the Goddess of the Universe. Because I always get more, and I become more in touch and in tune with Spirit, just sitting on a rock. And I recorded a lot of those downloads that I get. I go the next day, I go back and I might be told to sit on a log that has been rotting. And I sit there. It’s not rotten to me because I sit there in peace and I received the message. I sit on it, I look up and I listen to the birds sing and I get a song. Sometimes I see owls in the daytime. And I know that that’s a spiritual sign. Sometimes it’ll be someone’s dog that will come up to me.

It will be really friendly with me. And they’ll tell me that dog has never been friendly before. Because I know my vibration is high. And I have a rock that I sit on that is shaped like a heart in Rockwood park. I would sit there some days. And then when I walk across the stream, that’s in Forest Hill park, I stand in the middle of it and I just throw my arms up and just receive all the energy from the trees. I’ll talk to the trees. And then I go and I smell the fragrance of each tree. 

I hug the tree. Every tree has a different fragrance. The Pine, the Oaks, all the trees have a different fragrance. And I thank the trees. And then I put my back up against the trees and I ask them to remove any negativity that’s out of my body. That’s in my body – out of my body. And then I just hug it and sit there. And then I’ll go from that spot. I have every 20 minutes when I walk. I set my alarm on my telephone so that I know that I have to find someplace to sit in the silence and in the stillness. And as I walk, I walk from 10 to 20 minutes barefoot. 

Joni: Ooh, In the forest?  

Yemaja

Yes, in the forest, in the forest. You know, if I’m walking on a path that might have some pine cones and needles, I’ll take my time because that’s slows my meditative. It’s a meditative walk. It’s very meditative, you know. And my feet, I know the energy of the earth rises in my feet and I can just feel it. And some days I sit on a park bench and I allow the sunlight and I thank the sun for being out today. And having the birds fly across and I talk to the sun, I talk to the clouds, I find pictures in the clouds. I get very playful. It’s a childlike experience. You know, you have to be childlike in order to receive. To me I get excited about that. And even in the rain, Joni, I have a red umbrella and there are certain stumps that are in Rockwood Park that I play with.

You know, I sit there and I let the umbrella up and sit on the stump and then I’ll, I’ll take a picture of that stump for the day and thank that stump. And then I see the birds flying across the Lake there, wherever I am and I’ll talk to them. And, and then sometimes there are ducks and I even talked to the ducks because they come or there are different types of insects. There’s an otter that’s in Forest Hill Park. There are herons. And there are all kinds of wildlife. And I’ve made friends with the wildlife, but the trees and whatever comes their day, I’ll sit there and I look across the water and just allow it to just bring its energy to me. I ask for the energy to come.

Joni

Yeah, So it seems as though you have just stayed in that childlike wonder, or you have returned to that childlike wonder, and it is a doorway for you.

Yemaja

Yes. It definitely is the doorway. And it’s been the key for me in these times of uncertainty. And I have to tell you I’ve gotten more … One week, I got eight poems. 

Joni: Eight poems, that’s a lot.

Yemaja

Yeah. And I have a new book called Soul 2 Soul that are 12 poems that I’m writing with Martha High, the goddess of soul. And she’s painting – interpreting the poems. And one of the first poems in the book is about a letter to my younger self. Okay. About rainbows and colors. Like the colors of the chakras. That’s the first poem in the book. Right? But it came, it came as a result of me being in touch with my childlike state. And I don’t write the poetry. I don’t. If I try to write it, it don’t, I can’t make it happen. 

Joni: So how does it happen? 

Yemaja

I channel it. I download it. Put a pen to paper and let’s see, what’s going to come up next. I had the new program that I have, Celebrity Buzz. StudioWBuzz.com. I had not written my monologue for the opening show and I was trying to make it happen. And I got so frustrated and I’m saying Yemaja you know, you know that this is not how it works. And I went for like three, two to three days I had no monologue. And guess what happened? I woke up the morning of the show about 2:30 maybe three o’clock. And I sit down at my dining room table and I wrote the whole monologue in less than 15 minutes.

God wrote it. I didn’t write it. I downloaded it.

Joni

Yes. Yes. And that is the receptivity of the feminine. Yes, for sure that we can, that it can be easy in that way. We don’t have to struggle or fight or, or work so hard for it to come. So I, I just want to note that you, I’m going to say have an exceptional level of trust in allowing that, because one of the biggest struggles I see in, whether it’s people I work with or, or just people, I know it’s that trusting to allow that to come through. So is there anything you can tell us about how, how you came to that or maybe you’ve always had that trust?

Yemaja 

Well, no, I didn’t always have that trust. I didn’t always have that trust. One of the things, going back to the programming and the conditioning that I got as a woman. You know, that to be a wife and a mother, and to do those roles, that are ascribed to us as women, it pushed it all away. And I lived in Nashville. I lived a lot of different places. And then I lived in New York and when I was in New York, um, it started coming back a really, really, really real big because I had to use my creativity to implement programs and I wanted to be different from everybody else.

Joni: Mm hm, unique and different.

Yemaja

Yeah. You know, different, unique and the gifts that I had came through. And I remember, I remember having to come up with things that would enhance the quality of lives for the seniors that I worked with. And I put flowers on the tables, you know, just making bouquets. I had florists donate flowers, decoration. I surrounded them with beauty. And that beauty was of a Divine Feminine energy. 

Joni: Yes. 

Yemaja

You know, the beauty of flowers and the smell and the fragrance of all different kinds of flowers. And I remember them being so appreciative of when they had to eat, they had a centerpiece of flowers on their table and the tablecloths to match. I believe in it, in the energy of the colors. Okay.

Joni: Absolutely. Yeah. The vibration of the colors matters and is real. Yes.

Yemaja

And then I would wear, also bright colors. I had someone to tell me yesterday when I was on my trip to the forest yesterday, she said, Oh, you got on those bright colors. Don’t they look good? Yes. It does. You look so bright. And I raise my own vibration about what I wear every day. So it’s been a process of embracing. That’s why I call the Feminine, Love Beauty. It’s love and it’s beauty, of course. And embodying that through dance and movement, you know, I love to move. I love to embrace the melodies and the notes in the music. I can feel it in my body. It resonates.

Joni

Yes. You are very sensually in tune. Everything you’re describing. Whether it’s the smells or the feels the way things feel or what you’re seeing, like all your senses sound like they are alive and turned on. 

Yemaja

Yes. And internally there’s a different kind of connection spiritually. There’s a oneness that comes with that.

Joni

Yes, yes. Yes. I agree. Wholeheartedly. Yes. Yes. That when we turn on our physical senses, it opens our spiritual senses in a way.

Yemaja

Yes, it does. And I sometimes when I have been awakened like at 2:30, three o’clock in the morning and I’m, and I’ve learned that when I need a, when I need a new idea, one of the things that I’ve come to know about myself, if I wait, I don’t get it but one time.

Joni: The idea just comes once. It doesn’t come back.

Yemaja

It just comes once and if I don’t get up and write it, I do not have it anymore. And I’ve learned, that’s part of me doing this pandemic as well, because the ideas come so quickly that I have to either carry, I carry a, I got all kinds of notepads in my purse. But in the forest, I record everything on the phone. I just take the phone on and start talking because the downloads come instantaneously. There’s no strip. The downloads come and I say, okay, Yemaja it’s time to get your phone out, get your phone out. And I started talking and I let, whatever comes through my mouth come. It’s beautiful. It truly is. It’s beautiful. And it’s divine. And I know it’s Love Beauty. 

Joni: Yes. And does it feel good? 

Yemaja

Yes, I am so intune, I am joyous and I would say blissful, blissful. Because there’s a connectiveness. There’s a difference between feeling happy and feeling blissful. Happiness is an external thing, comes from external things, you know, getting a new car, a new dress or whatever. It’s a temporary state of mind and feeling. Joy and bliss comes from within my heart and it’s lasting. And there’s a connectiveness, it’s like a tapestry that runs through every cell, every bone, every joint. And I’m connected, you know, just, I just feel so good. And I guess sometimes I have to contain myself.

Joni: No, don’t do that.

Yemaja

And I’ve learned, you know, some people I knew growing up when I used to do all that it was going up and people would tell me that I was crazy. They would call me crazy. You know? No, I know it’s not crazy now, you know. It’s not, it’s a gift. I am so in touch with that. And the brilliance I have, I have embraced my brilliance and my creativity. Because a lot of people teach, you to package, your, your brilliance and package your creativity. No, I don’t believe in a box. There is no box. There is infinite potentiality. And I can have infinite ways of expressing it.

Joni

You are such a permission giver for that Yemaja 

Yemaja: Yes. 

Joni: Like listeners, I want you to take that in. There’s no reason that only Yemaja gets to live that way. Like we all have the possibility of living that way. Right?

Yemaja 

And it’s very easy when you ask to be shown ways to express. I’ll tell you what I do. I bless my head every day. I bless my thoughts in my head. I bless my ears. I bless my mouth. And most of all, I bless the uniqueness of my face that I take forward in the world. I got that practice. I’ve had that practice from my Ilyana Vanzant, a long time. And I do it in the shower. I do it in the shower with the water and I bless my whole body. I bless my whole body. And then, you know that really helps me to start my day. And then I wrote myself a body affirmation. I use affirmations. I wrote myself my a body. This is my body. This is my body. My body is a vessel that is filled with the divine spirit. It is, my body is the vessel that holds and houses my spirit and my soul, you know? So I do all those things, you know?

Joni

And that’s how you maintain a vibration that is exceptional. Joyfully, exceptional, exceptionally joyful.

Yemaja

Yeah. Yeah. Right. And you know what it is, is a thing where some days I’ve learned one of the things that I feel like I was doing as a woman. 

Joni: Yes. 

Yemaja

I was beating myself up with them old tapes in my head, you know, about that? You know, that I was not good enough and knew that you’re crazy. And all those old tapes would come up. So what I had to do, you know, we all have an inner roommate. We have an inner roommate that is there. I’m laughing because I’m laughing at myself, right? But journaling and knowing that it’s there and then I can reframe. And I use what I call taps T A P S. That means that I have Tools. I have a toolbox with tools in it. Then I have a change of attitude, looking at a positive way. The A is for attitude. And then A stands for alignment. Okay. And the P stands for infinite potentiality infinite potential that are always in the universe and they’re always happening. And the S stands for spirituality. I use TAPS. I use TAPS that way. And I call, you know, ever since we’re doing everything via zoom and everything I say to the people that I work with, you have to zoom in on yourself. Then you zoom out in your perspective.

Joni: That’s wonderful.

Yemaja

You can use zoom. Just like we’re using zoom to do this recording. And you can use it for virtual. Zoom in on yourself and do an introspective and look at your heart and stay in your heart center! Zoom out and look at all the perspectives that are around you. And you have the opportunity to change your perspectives, change them, transform them! Transforming them. I use this. That’s some of the things, and I, I make up a lot of things on the spot, you know, cause I never know what’s going to come through me, but I trust it, as you were saying. I’ve learned to trust it. 

Joni: Yes, yes. So I have to ask you because I don’t, I don’t think your given name was Yemaja, was it?

Yemaja: No, my given name was … See that’s another thing that had to change.

Joni: Yes. Yeah. I want to hear about that.

Yemaja: My birth, given name was Ann Delores Brown. 

Joni: Wow. 

Yemaja

And through my life, that name never fit. And because of the programming that I had received, that you had to be married, you had to have 2.5 kids and live in a nice house and send your kids to school. I ended up, what happened was I thought that if I was married and got a married name, that that was going to be it. And I did it one time and it didn’t work. Okay. And then I did it another time and it didn’t work. Okay. Then I did it another time and it didn’t work. 

Joni: Oh boy.

Yemaja

And by the fourth marriage, I got told by my ex husband, that I need to go somewhere and find myself. 

Joni: Mmm, Wow. 

Yemaja

He told me I should find myself. And so what happened was even before that, the process had started before him. Because I was never comfortable. The married names didn’t make me.

Joni: Right. 

Yemaja

And what happened as I went along… I wrote poetry about it in my book, I Couldn’t Keep it to Myself. And all the poems talk about my transformation. But when I changed my name, it was in a dream. I had a dream that I was on this altar and I was dressed in purple and all the smells were ethereal. And there were these white beings in white robes. There were beings that were in white robes. They didn’t say a word to me. It was telepathically said to me that your name is now Yemaja. 

Joni: Wow. 

Yemaja

Every time you hear that, it’s going to take you back to who you really are. You will now be called Yemaja, Yemaja.

Joni: Wow. 

Yemaja: And they gave it to me telepathically. 

Joni: Wow. 

Yemaja

Yeah. And the last poem in that book, Couldn’t Keep it to Myself, it’s called What’s in a Name. What’s in a Name, because the more names that I took on from being married, and thinking that’s where I had to be. It got worse for me until, because I was in this process. After the third marriage, I had started working on myself more deeply. And by the time that I got to the fourth marriage … and my girlfriends, those two ladies, I told you, I met long time ago. They tease me and say, look, you had to do it one more time. You didn’t get it. You didn’t get it.

But I finally got it. And when my ex told me to go away and find myself, and what I did was when I knew I was on the edge of something. My name had changed to Yemaja. And I woke up one morning and I heard a voice, this wonderful voice saying, it’s time to leave. 

Joni: Wow. 

Yemaja: And I had never asked Spirit to show me when I needed to leave a marriage before. I had never asked. And I was in that marriage, miserable, married to a person that was an alcoholic. And all of the things that were going wrong were related. I had put myself into therapy in a women’s group. I was in a women’s group. I drove like 30 miles to go to the special women’s group because I interviewed therapists. And so she told me, you know, you have been … the biggest thing that has happened to you in life with these three other marriages, there’s one significant thing. That’s true to every situation. And that is the common denominator is you.

Joni: Sobering.

Yemaja

Yeah. So I went back and I went back and I asked Loved Beauty to show me what I need to do. When I needed, if I needed to leave, show me. If I needed to stay, show me. And it woke me up after a couple of years. There were some more years there. And I heard it say it’s time to leave. And I sat up in the bed cause I thought, okay, okay. Where am I? What is that? And went back to sleep. And it came back again. And on the third time I got it. Okay.

Joni: Wow.

Yemaja

And I left and I never looked back. And then going and finding myself I found out that I already had myself. Because I covered it up with all the addictions and the marriages and what people think of me and how I was going to be. It was there all the time. It’s in all of us.

Joni: Yes, absolutely.

Yemaja

Yes. So I get to talking on about it, but I just, my journey has been one where I have evolved into owning my voice. I have Moxy.

Joni: Yes. You do have Moxy for sure!

Yemaja

And I do my meditations and walking in the forest as a way to go higher. Like it’s a bit, like I said, my vibrational level has been risen. And I do a lot of reading. I do a lot of reading and I do a lot of writing and all the poems. I tell you, I’ve got so many poems now with the new book coming out in all the ones that I have. I have new poems. I have all these poems.

Joni

Yes. So I want to know if, if people were interested in your books, purchasing them, how, how can they, how can they do that.

Yemaja

Well, they can go to amazon.com and you’ll find, I Couldn’t Keep it to Myself on there and the new books. So actually I got two new books coming out.

Joni: Tell us.

Yemaja

Soul 2 Soul is with Martha High, doing the art. That will be out by the end of the year if not January. And then Sisters Sitting N the Blessings, is a book with all black women, paying homage to a poem that I wrote called Sisters Sitting N the Blessings and what person mentored them, what person was a role model for them through their life. And I’d like to read this poem called She, it’s very short to you. 

Joni: Yes, please, please. 

It’s called She. And it says, 

My mind was inspired today. 

By someone God sent my way 

she wore a beaming smile. 

And I could tell, I could tell her heart was filled with love. 

And as she began to talk and to explain, 

I felt, wow, this sure feels good to be in the presence of positive thinking again. 

And as I began to share my hopes and ideas, and even my dream, 

I felt so completely at ease. 

I knew when a conversation had ended, she was someone I would come to know and love her. And at last I would be able to call her my friend. 

And what I discovered was she was me and I was she.

Joni

Hmm. Wow. That is … my, my heart I can feel the, the warmth and, uh, kind of radiance emanating from my heart. That’s quite beautiful. Yemaja. Thank you. 

Yemaja: You’re welcome. 

Joni

Yeah. So we need to bring this to some closure. And if a listener wanted to get in touch with you or stay tuned to all the amazing things you’re doing you said the best way to do that is to follow you on Facebook. 

Yemaja

Yes, you can follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And also everything that I do now really is on Facebook. My website is under construction because things have just prepared where I have to move to another level, right? I’m willing, that’s going to be, it’s going to be lovelightpositivity.com and that will be going up. 

And I just want to say to, you know, to say, to give a nugget to people that are listening to this to never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever give up on yourself, become your own best friend and surround yourself with your soul tribe. And soul stands for Spiritual Oneness Use for Living.

And when you have people in your circle that are growing and not all the people have to be where you are. Have some people that are far beyond, you want to be like them. And not have people that are on the same level, because you don’t grow. I’ve learned that with people that are on the same level with you, you know, you have to have people. Have a soul tribe, a soul tribe, and also too, in having a soul tribe, you support someone else’s growth. And in these times make it a diverse group. I have diversity in my soul tribe with everything now. We, as women are so powerful. We are powerful.

Joni: Amen. Yes. 

Yemaja

And Dr. Lamar Price said something that has stuck in my mind. He is saying that of the species, the male and the female, the woman is the one that has the power. And when you wake up, knowing that you have that power to yourself, you can do extraordinary things for yourself and for your community.

Joni:

Mm. I love that. It’s so true. It’s so true. And I think for most of our lives, many of us have either disowned that power or been frightened of that power. But I would say the time is now.

Yemaja

The time is now in. I always, when I go out, I, you know, I have another poem called Shitty Days. Right. And when I get those days, cause I consider the shit, the fertilizer it turns to fertilizer and you grow. So when I get those days, you know, I tell myself that, okay, I’m going to be learning something new here. You know, with the way that the uncertainties are around us now, we are all in this global transformation, inner transformation and it starts with us as well. And I just really believe in all the positivity and all the love. My mother was a loving person. I first learned how to love from my mother.

Joni

Yes. I was feeling, I was feeling your mother right before you said that there was something about your mom. And so she offered you a, it sounds like a legacy of love that you are for sure passing on.

Yemaja

Yes. And that’s what, you know, my daughter and I. And I am, you know, like I told her, you will never be able to say your mama didn’t live her life in the fullest and give me a party. Don’t be throwing me in some casket. You know, you know, when people come in and look down and your face and say, “Oh, she don’t look like herself”. No, I’m dead! I want a party to celebrate my life because I am bringing and asking Love Beauty. And knowing I’m going to receive whatever I ask and whatever I believe.

Yes, indeed. Amen. Well, you Yemaja, thank you so much for being the beautiful light of positivity in this world, because we need you. And for joining us today and sharing so generously.

Yemaja

You’re welcome. And thank you for allowing me to come and be on your platform. I really, really, really enjoy your broadcast. And I listen to you every time you put one up. So I followed you for a long time as you were, as you know.

Joni

Yes. Well it’s a treat and I know listeners when this comes out and for, for years to come, are going to be enjoying this episode.

Yemaja: Thank you so much, Joni.

Joni

You’re so welcome. I’m so glad we could do it. And I appreciate it. And I of course want to thank you our dear listener for joining us today as well. And as always, what do we say Yemaja? As always trust what your heart knows

Yemaja: Trust with your heart knows that’s the right place to be in. 

Joni: Yes, Amen. All right.