#9: This sparks joy 💥💫

a big hello from me to you!!!

Hello everyone!

I have been busy busy but I have been eager to return home back to you! How is your heart today? Sending you love. I learned from a dear friend to replace “How are you?” with, “How are you doing, mind, body, and soul?” The distinction between mind and body is false and from the colonial imagination, but I do find that this question helps get beyond how simultaneously broad and narrow “How are you” can sometimes feel. So, how are you doing, mind, body, and soul? Perhaps a journalling prompt or a voice note to self to check in with yourself. My mood is the weather, and spring is almost upon us, so I am excited. And I am holding lots of other emotions, but I will save them because, this sparks joy! Here is this week’s list <3

1. This art

Caption: “Dear black woman, Thank you for your Grace, thank you for your love, thank you for your protection, thank you for your support, thank you for your existence 🙏🏽❤️”

Follow the artist, Lani Tsamela on IG here!

Title: Can’t keep me down

2. This idea

Sometimes I think we underestimate our natural born storytelling capabilities. We are storytellers. We will find a way some day to make sense of what is happening to us today. There are events in my life that I now can draw connections between, because with more time and distance I can see the threads take shape. If you are contemplating an “illogical” step that doesn’t make sense to you or your family or friends, know that in time it’s not just that it will passively make sense — you will actively make sense of it. That’s just what we do! The dots connect backwards.

3. This book

I tore through this book this week. A Spell of Good Things by Ayobami Adebayo, a dazzling story of two Nigerian families “caught in the riptides of wealth, power, romantic obsession, and political corruption”. Ok the story itself doesn’t spark joy but reading novels always reminds me of being a child.

4. This tweet

Soledad Francis PhD @SoledadFrancis

Being loved thoroughly changes your whole being. Being loved changes you. It fuels you. It powers your work and propels you in ways nothing else can. It’s spiritual. Metaphysical. Mystical. It’s all the poets of old said it is and more.

Loneliness is a manufactured product of capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy. It is a product of not having shared public space and time, as well as a failure to provide education on how to love and be loved, need and be needed, help and be helped. It is a product of a society structured to isolate and then to blame the isolated. Loneliness is not something you simply are, but also something that was done to you by a society that was set up to ensure it. If you are feeling lonely, I am sending you love, and I am dreaming of a world where community is the air that we all breath, and we all have the resources, time, energy, and education to have deeply fulfilling bonds with each other.

5. This song

This song has been the background to a lot of my TikToks. The full song is even better!!!

6. This bookstore

For my US-based readers, I love this Black- and woman-owned independent book store, Reparations Club, based in LA but with online orders here.

7. This quote

Many things can become a miracle if you slow down and breath with them. I am grateful that you are alive, breathing, here. You have nothing to prove. You are worthy, loveable, and whole as you are today. Everyday I am trying to remind myself that. I have nothing to prove. I am here. I am love. I can’t be measured or quantified. I am here. I remind myself not to over-identify with things that are not me.

8. This poem

Poet: Morrocan Abdellatif Laabi. Found via: @readalittlepoem on Twitter

Thank you for reading!!!

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