Thembo-ism

Pretty Mindfulness Path and Meditation

Thembo and Thembo Paradise is a tongue and cheek, kitschy reflection on “beauty, the frivolous, the pretty things” as a meditation practice and a way of “being” safeguarded by the Flowers. It is inspired by the teachings of the Flower World, a realm known to Indigenous peoples across the Americas including the Yoeme. Thembo Paradise, like the Flower World, reminds us of the true purpose of life, to BE ALIVE.  

What is Thembo-ism? 

Thembo, baby, is honey suckled, nourishment time amongst the pretty pretty as a truth teller. Do you understand? This last sentence was for your heart.

Wherever you are, before you continue reading. Pause and breath into your heart. And then your feet.

Themboism doesn’t lack depth; it pulls us from constant analysis and sensemaking. Themboism says “Be Here and Be Alive, come alive through the curiosity of your senses”. Themboism brings you to life and the presence it draws from you. It is unproductive with nothing to be earned. Themboism is a reflection on beauty, the frivolous, and the nonsensical. 

How liberating is it to exist in the nonsense? Perhaps all that makes sense feeds into our inherited and patterned delusion. The nonsense is a pattern forming itself with us, it is the opening from which we can find ourselves again. The frivolous is nonsensical, because under capitalism everything must have a clearly defined and linear purpose to be worthy of time and recognition. What a wound it is to live in a world where one has to earn their worth. I would like to believe we are born with it, like any other living being.  

Themboism is a reclamation of time, desire, and purpose from the grip of slave masters and histories of extractive labor imprinted on blood and flesh. It defies purpose and appears shallow. And like the surface of any body of water, we can see clearly all that is and our own reflection. The frivolous is a reflection, in the way that any reflection reveals a truth rarely visible in the original image. 

Themboism is an exhale of relief from the narratives and judgements we place on ourselves and others. Themboism dissolves the metrics that measure “Stupidity” and “Beauty”.  All we really desire is to know we are worthy of being alive and being loved. These measurements care about the progression of the human project called “society”. Life values diversity and divergence, “society” cares about asphalt and canned cheese. There are many communication strategies our bodies and environments use to express, process, and contribute to the continuation of life that is beyond quantification. 

Thembo-ism cares about life and living. 

How big and alive is this world we call home? What corners lie beyond visibility that only a Thembo is equipped to see? What glimmering truth lies in the act of worshiping a blooming rose with our presence, putting on a pair of bunny ears and slithering through the market, screeching as a response to “how was your day” and enjoying every ounce of its release like a honeyed drink coating our throat and organs? 

I believe that those myths and folk stories from our ancestors about creatures and realms are secret realities that live amongst us. Why? I would also hide from this world we have created and have been subjected to if I knew how; to preserve a piece of paradise.

What if you could believe dragons exist, that Thembo Paradise, and the Flower World are as sentient as you or me.

Turn off the script and lean into beauty, the whisper of desire that pulls you to the unconventional. Perhaps those whispers are worlds waiting for us to be ready to receive them. Perhaps those are the whispers of (Thembo) Paradise.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ Thembo ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

thembo do you hear my call

crouched and curled in the matrix of fear and obligation 

of right and wrong 

of worthy and unworthy

reach out a limb and petal to graze the sun

twirl the generous buds of life between your finger tips

kaleidoscopes of roots and confetti transforming the pain that just won’t forget itself 

colors splayed out 

for consideration

curiosity 

the soft gaze of beauty

take refuge in me

yo soy como la flor // i am like the flower