Dear Sisters, Dear Brothers,


I am sitting here, the morning after, stunned.

Here in Senegal, the jubilation has subsided as so many return to a life not quite of their making. Tomorrow, is our in country day and as preparations unfold, my heart leaps at the momentous moments we are living, we are creating. We, doing this mighty work of leadership, of promise, of true transformation, are divinely placed, I humbly understand now. Watching Barack Obama respond to the historical imperative of not only generations of enslaved Africans, but millions more poor, disinherited, and disempowered, I understood that this work of creatively invoking, naming, deciphering, envisioning, building destiny IS the vital work that Monica Sharma writes about, and we are on time, brothers and sisters, ON TIME.

What does this mean? What does on time offer? We cannot afford anything but hope and hard work. We cannot create anything but conversations of worth and power because this calling is greater from us -- it comes from a universe that embraces Black, White, Yellow, Brown, and Red. It comes from a spiritual wellspring that all of us -- regardless of religious affiliation or political denomination have access to and must consistently invoke as we practically build.

I am so proud to stand by your side. I am so proud to be alive. I pray for each and every one of you who receive this message that you move forward in the work of family, friends, community, and nation with all of the power and faith available to us. None know what tomorrow may bring, and this not only makes us curious but necessarily large -- large in the sight of God and our fellow men/women --much larger than we might ever, ever know.

Yet we stand with the courage and confidence of a Barack Obama, knowing that not only we are not alone, but we are growing, we are numerous. We, with the 'audacity' to believe and hold light to new roads we are forging with our steps -- a journey that perhaps our children will finish, in a future more beautiful than imagined. UBUNTU, UBUNTU, UBUNTU.


God Bless you all, I can't wait to see you in Nigeria.