#11: This sparks joy 💥💫

love is our birthright💫

Hello lovely people,

Happy Sunday to you! I hope this finds you where love is. Love of other people, love of the earth, love of non-human animals, love of your precious self and all the selves you carry. I dream of community for us all. Some day we’ll measure our days by the depth of the love we gave and received.

Yesterday, I walked around on a perfect spring day, and I was in awe of the earth. It felt enchanted to see the fresh green grass, the blossoming trees, the sunshine reflecting on the surface of the rippling river. The earth felt alive and possible. Relating to the earth with love and magic is life-giving. It’s through giving my full presence to these moments of being that I don't feel alone, even when I am in solitude. How can I be alone when the leaves bristle to greet me, when the sun shines to kiss my face, when the river shows off for me, glistening and shimmering?

In the midst of the despair I recently posted about, I’ve been reminding myself to take care of this moment. And, for now, in a life that is merely a series of nows, that’s all that I must or can do.

I do know that yesterday I had a perfect day. I spent it in the sun and I read the book “Black and Female” by Tsitsi Dangarembga, a Zimbabwean author, playwright and feminist. It was a piercing account of the impact that colonialism, imperialism, racism, and patriarchy has had on her life and career in Zimbabwe and the UK. While the book itself is not joyful, it gave me joy to feel so reflected and seen by many of her words, and to see sunlight strike the crisp pages of the book almost too harshly. Signals of summer. The discomfort of the prickling feeling of too-much-sun has been sorely missed.

I remember when I was younger, I would refuse to spend time in the sunshine out of fear of getting darker. My mom was dismayed by this; how I hid in the shade from the life-giving force of sunshine. You’re light skinned, you don’t get it, I would think to myself. I’m grateful that she always encouraged me to love my skin and eventually I believed her. I can now frolic in the sun with no colorist demons lurking in my consciousness. Like love, the sunshine is our birthright.

Here is this week’s list. Despair yesterday, joy today, you never know what you’re going to get with me ;) thanks for sticking around. I love you darlings!

1. This photograph

“My internet boyfriend is as real as anything”

Micha Serraf is a Zimbabwean-born, Cape Town based, award winning, fine art concept-based photographer whose work focuses on fashion, social consciousness and conceptual portraiture. Follow Micha on IG here.

2. This poem

found via @ReadALittlePoetry on Twitter

… and this one

3. This quote

“These days, we typically see platonic love as somehow lacking—like romantic love with the screws of sex and passion missing. But this interpretation strays from the term’s original meaning. When Italian scholar Marsilio Ficino coined the term “platonic love” in the fifteenth century, the word reflected Plato’s vision of a love so powerful it transcended the physical. Platonic love was not romantic love undergoing subtraction. It was a purer form of love, one for someone’s soul, as Ficino writes, “For it does not desire this or that body, but desires the splendor of the divine light shining through bodies.” Platonic love was viewed as superior to romance. — Dr. Marisa Franco, Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make, And Keep, Friends (p6).

Here is a podcast episode with the author:

4. This tradition

Elders in Okinawa, Japan, one of the original blue zones longevity hotspots, live extraordinarily better and longer lives than almost anyone else in the world. Moai, one of their longevity traditions, are social support groups that start in childhood and extend into their 100s. The term originated hundreds of years ago as a means of a village’s financial support system. Originally, moais were formed to pool the resources of an entire village for projects or public works.  If an individual needed capital to buy land or take care of an emergency, the only way was to pool money locally. Today the idea has expanded to become more of a social support network, a cultural tradition for built-in companionship.

In small neighborhoods across Okinawa, friends “meet for a common purpose” (sometimes daily and sometimes a couple days a week) to gossip, experience life, and to share advice and even financial assistance when needed. They call these groups their moai.

More on the moai from the popular book Ikigai:

“The moai has its origins in hard times, when farmers would get together to share best practices and help one another cope with meager harvests. Members of a moai make a set monthly contribution to the group. This payment allows them to participate in meetings, dinners, games of go and shogi (Japanese chess), or whatever hobby they have in common. The funds collected by the group are used for activities, but if there is money left over, one member (decided on a rotating basis) receives a set amount from the surplus. In this way, being part of a moai helps maintain emotional and financial stability. If a member of a moai is in financial trouble, he or she can get an advance from the group’s savings. While the details of each moai ’s accounting practices vary according to the group and its economic means, the feeling of belonging and support gives the individual a sense of security and helps increase life expectancy.” Ikigai by Hector Garcia & Francesc Miralles (pp. 15-16)

This is very similar to stokvels and other practices of collectivism that exist across the diaspora as well.

5. This mix

I had something uncomfortable I had to do and this mix at full blast got me through the first part of it! I sometimes prefer mixes to playlists, I love the cohesiveness, the vibes, the artistry of perfectly mixing one song/beat into the next…

6. This book

7. This photo

of my day yesterday, bringing it full circle to where we began. I can’t believe there were literal geese. And also, I got stuck in quicksand! Not pictured here — there was a segment of earth cordoned off by yellow tape. And I said, no one is going to tell me where I can go! (In truth, I said, no white man is going to tell me where I can go, which is unfortunately a heinous lie; cries in visas, borders, and the rest). I proceeded to have my childhood nightmare come true and sink deeper and deeper into marshy soil. It was hilarious and delightful. I love how I let time unfold as it wished, rather than trying to exert control over it.

Thank you for being here!!!! Take care of the moment, okay? Love you. <3

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