Muhammad Ali. The Greatest.
I was one among thousands who lined the streets of Louisville last Friday to pay my respects to Muhammad Ali. As the processional drove by, I couldn’t help but be overcome by the scene. All people. Young, old, black, white, rich and poor were throwing flowers in the street, carrying heartfelt homemade signs, and chanting…..”Ali! Ali! Ali!” I took the moment in with awe and wonder, contemplating the impact that one life can make.
Ali will be remembered as an athlete, an activist, a humanitarian, a conscientious objector, many things. Let us also remember Ali as one of our spiritual teachers. Not a guru that performed miracles, not a spiritual teacher who cloistered themself off from worldly things to find wisdom, not a theologian with years of scholarly study and preparation, but one of us. He fought. He was a father. He got divorced. He had to change careers. He got sick. He was steeped in the “stuff” of the world, good or bad and drew wisdom and faith from it. And it was his spiritual wisdom that touched all corners of the world and it will be this wisdom that will live on for years to come.
Impossible is Nothing.
I Am the Greatest. I said that even before I knew I was.
Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.
I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want.
It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe.
Don’t count the days; make the days count.
Ali.
Thank you for sharing your prophetic voice.
Thank you for modeling for us what it means to be courageous and uncompromising about who the Divine created us to be.
Thank you for standing by your faith and spiritual beliefs in the midst of persecution.
Thank your for showing us what it means to be a human being that lives into their Greatness.
Photo credit: Getty Images, Stanley Weston