Áṣẹ (Ashe, Ache)

Have you ever watched one of those videos with a title like, “10 Times Beyonce Forgot She Was Human”? What about something like “Artist Wows Followers With Hyper Realistic Paintings Using a Pen”? And there is a reason Brandy is called the “Vocal Bible” and why Naomi Campbell is known for her walk. Dr. King and Brother Malcom X shine, still, in the present-day fight for justice. These humans are (were) simply grooving with their Áse (a Yoruba term revered in several cultures).

Áse is tough to describe, but from what I have grown to understand, it is a universal power/energy that cannot be controlled or influenced. It does, however,  influence us according to Elemi (from Yeyeo Botanica, YouTube). It also holds true that each of us is born with an individual Áse that is expressed through our being.  This iteration of Áse is like a muscle and can grow if we choose to use it-otherwise it will lie dormant. 

As I’d hear the old folks say growing up, “I don’t want no rocks crying out for me.” I want to be operating at max potential-not max pressure, but max potential. I know what dormancy feels like. It is unsettling and quite unbearable. . . moldy lethargy, breathless. Dr. Angelou said “the deepest agony is bearing an untold story inside yourself.” I have to tell it-not because I need relief, but because it is who I am and I am who I am because of what is expressing itself through me. 

I am not Brandy, Beyoncé or a famed painter. I’m not Basquiat, James Earl Jones, Steve Irwin, or Oprah. I am not the countless influencers that have rocked my soul, but I have been influenced by them and I feel this energy yearning to be freely expressed through me.  It puts me in the mind of yet another quote I grew fond of in middle school, “what was freely given to me, I freely give.” Àse young Ted! I felt it even then. 

I don’t know about you, but I must fight to be a free instrument. I cannot break myself into these sensible parts that make me comprehendible. I want to snap like LeAndria, speech like Fredrick, dominate like Serena, and leave nothing left to the imagination like Cicely and Betty. You might see me doing a number of things-and some of them quite well. There is a lot that you haven’t seen. There is a lot that I have not yet discovered. But I am who I am and it is what it is. You are who you are and that is what it is.  Be.

You are expansive. You are a lot of things no one can control. Give yourself to it and do not apologize. I see and honor the Divine in you. Go! Express. Be. Flow. Àse dear friends. Àse, Ashe, Ache!

Teddy the Brave