This week. This week. But also, our life? Truthfully, I’ve spent the better part of the week in what can only be described as a bit of a trauma fog. Thankfully, I had a little bit of EMDR therapy on Friday, and that helped so much. I want to remind black people to take care, because everything you may be feeling is so layerd. And I want to remind white people to continue to listen and learn. Be willing to truly learn. No one is winning best student, or top of class here. And it surely won’t happen in a week.
The kids and I had our Friday night rituatl of pizza and a movie, and this Friday may have been one of the best. I’ve been thinking a lot about how powerful it is to create ritual with my children, and keep to it, no matter the week or month.
I’m looking forward to turning inwards a bit this weekend. And while it’s been hard at times, I’ve also been inspired by so much:
+ Sesame Street’s Town Hall addressing racism
+ The simple act of doing laundry by hand as a method of meditation
+ Brown and Bougie. YES
+ “How bleak, unlivable, insufferable, existence becomes when we are deprived of artwork… The thought that leads me to contemplate with dread the erasure of other voices, of unwritten novels, poems whispered or swallowed for fear of being overheard by the wrong people, outlawed languages flourishing underground, essayists’ questions challenging authority never being posed, unstaged plays, canceled films — that thought is a nightmare.” The Source Of Self Regard
+ Still, not too late.
Art by Kenesha Sneed, Safe Space. I wanted to say a quick thank you for sharing my platforms and my work this week in an attempt to amplify voices of Black people across social platforms. Especially, my book, Woman Of Color. It’s been heartwarming to see it return to hands to comfort them and for others, to possibly educate them. While I work full-time in this space and on other creative projects, and the economic future remains vastly unknown, you can help sustain some of my work by becoming a $5 a month Care as Community patron. It is a courtesy that I’m thankful for, if you have the means.
As a kid I remembered my father washing his clothes in the kitchen sink. We had a machine in the basement, but for years he never used it. Now I’m wondering when he made the transition. Also wondering if it was his meditation. I hope to take your writing class if it’s offered again.
Yes! I would ask him if you can? there’s something about it. I’m going to try and write about it next week. I think i’ve been hesitant because of the complexity of blacks people washing and on the line, hanging clothes and then i was thinking about Beyoncé and the Vogue cover where she challenged the idea of that by simple imagery. The contrast in being THE PERSON in the front, the glamour, but also the power in the mundane historical task?
I find it so very meditative. And I’ve been reading a lot about the “natural” world. Which I know you already know so much about and inact daily. But things that keep us connected to the ground and things (that are natural) are really important to our souls.
I’ll be offering it again at the start of July!
xox