Awaken to Service and Purpose

Your Path to Health and Well-being… Recentering to Awaken to Service and Purpose

This morning I was reading the message written by outgoing Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy. In it, he stated that his “parting prescription” for the American people is to cultivate a strong sense of community to help themselves and others. He added, “Relationships, service, and purpose are the time-tested triad of fulfillment that stands in contrast to wealth, fame, and power which define the modern-day triad of success.” When you awaken to service and purpose, everything in your life will change.

I believe this is valuable and timely advice for people all over the world. I’d love to know your thoughts on this; please leave me a comment here and reach out to me as well.

Can you awaken to service and purpose without being woke? Woke is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), originally meaning alertness to racial prejudice and discrimination. It is synonymous with the General American English word awake.

The phrase ‘stay woke’ has been used in African American English since the 1930s. The term acquired political connotations by the 1970s and gained further popularity in the 2010s with the hashtag #staywoke. Over time, woke came to be used to refer to a broader awareness of social inequalities such as equal rights for all, racial injustice, sexism, and denial of LGBTQ rights. Woke has also been used as shorthand for some ideas of the American Left involving identity politics and social justice.

Woke is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), originally meaning alertness to racial prejudice and discrimination. It is synonymous with the General American English word awake.

The word has a long history. It was used in Black protest songs dating back to the early 20th century, including by Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly, the singer of the 1938 song “Scottsboro Boys.”

The Scottsboro Boys were nine African American male teenagers accused of raping two white women in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial. Charges were finally dropped for four of the nine defendants. The other five were convicted and received sentences ranging from 75 years to death. Three served prison sentences.

Perhaps I’ve always been a few meters out of the mainstream. I credit my mother for this, as she was an artist while I was growing up and many people referred to her as a beatnik during the 1960s. I researched the origin and meaning of this term and this is what I found…

Beatniks were members of a social movement in the mid-20th century, who subscribed to an anti-materialistic lifestyle. They rejected the conformity and consumerism of mainstream American culture and expressed themselves through various forms of art, such as literature, poetry, music, and painting. They also experimented with spirituality, drugs, sexuality, and travel. The term “beatnik” was coined by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen in 1958, as a derogatory label for the followers of the Beat Generation, a group of influential writers and artists who emerged during the era of the Silent Generation’s maturing, from as early as 1946, to as late as 1963, but the subculture was at its most prevalent in the 1950s.

I think the only part of this that applied to my mother is that she did express herself through literature, poetry, music, and painting, engendering in me a love of reading, writing, and exploring artistic ideas. Perhaps that is why I have become a published writer of thirty books, so far.

I do not think of myself as being “Woke” in the pejorative sense; I am wide awake and serving others to help them awaken to service and purpose. I would love to know your thoughts on this fascinating topic. Perhaps you will leave a comment on this post.

I’m bestselling USA Today and Wall Street Journal author Connie Ragen Green. My goal is to help at least a thousand people to reach six-figures and beyond with an online business for time freedom and passive income and to awaken to service and purpose. Come along with me, if you will and let us discover how we may further connect to achieve all of your dreams and goals. Perhaps my “Monthly Mentoring Program” is right for you.