Haiku: Self Reflection 9.19.22

soft prickly edges

sleepless nights without soothing

sorrow in satin

Musing 8.23.2018

If you choose to marry or partner, choose the one with strong character. Choose a person with integrity. Choose someone with a plan, a vision for his or herself and you as a couple, as a family. Choose a giver. Choose a spiritual partner. Choose someone who will celebrate and praise all your gifts, even those you struggle with. Choose the one who values and sees your contributions. Choose the one who makes you feel like you are the prize. Choose the one who will push you, hold you, laugh and cry with you. Someone strong, firm, grounded. Then be the same for them!

Musing 7.20.2015 (7 years reflection)

have to make solid space for what i love. too much work, too much other folks stuff, makes my head and heart turn to wood. i love/need those moments when it's just about me! hate feeling that some folk just want you well for their own pleasure or need. 

i used to wander. scared my parents to death. i still wander. i always felt it was my right. i was the responsible one. i never decided that! people were always telling me who i was or who i was going to be. i never believed them and i still don't. it may take my entire life but i'm blessed to be forever blooming! my inside self doesn't work on deadlines: it gathers, prepares, senses. my true self knows this is all rehearsal. i trust my own process. until then, i work and work and work.

Haiku 7.20.2012 (found)

love this wildflower.

love, treat my heart like orchid.

love bloom like lotus!

#Simplify

You don't see me. I don't see you.

Haiku Before Super Moon 6.13.22

full moon head red hot

thunderwater ibori

challenge of courage

Musing 5.29.22

I'm grateful for the few folk in my life who are too elevated to constantly compete, mimic or minimize others, in the name of relating. I'm grateful for the few folk I truly fuxx with who consistently self evaluate, work on their own healing from trauma based beliefs/behaviors- instead of projecting and random dumping with no sense of solution. I'm grateful for the few folk who are not threatened by light, powerful vibration, beauty or a different expression. They see it as opportunity for growth, opening their hearts and the broadening of their curiousity/perspective. Truly grateful for those who see and believe another person's silence is their personal call for innerwork, not a time for ousting or shaming. How lovely to honor another's space without being asked! Eternally grateful for those who self correct, revisit and take personal responsibility for less than perfect human moments. This is also where I am and these are the only relationships that I honor. #truthseeker #selfwork #selfworth

Black Sheep, Boxes and Balance

Some of your family/community black sheep, scapegoats and outcasts in traditional settings were griots, historians, healers, priests, master artists/artisans and sages. They stand out and refuse to be boxed. Discarded, silenced, ridiculed, blamed, extorted and ignored, many are forced to find their own way without support. That's why so many families lack balance. The ones we usually praise, follow and excel at the status quo. Both perspectives are needed to build community. Normalize embracing those who go against the grain. Come out of the illusion of dangerous, unrewarding, unnatural trap of group think. We miss out on our most valuable resource, right under our nose. Time to grow.

Musing tb 2.15.2017

i speak about love everyday. i try to be loving everyday. people take a lot and i get drained but then i have an opportunity to go into myself and self nuture. to self check. most folk i give love to don't deserve it. real talk. this ain't no atm, yo. i am human. i love this time in my life bcuz i am truly into me. i got healing work to do. i am here to do it, too. it ain't never pretty. some think they are "there" for me couldn't hear me/ wouldn't if i were falling off of a cliff screaming. they watch the show w/ popcorn looking for a benefit. i see you. i been seen you. i look for benefits, too and act accordingly. some think you are grown cuz you grown. some hurt with no remorse but consider themselves nice people. flowers, candy, poetry, diarrhea of words ain't shit when you are a coward. i have never been an easy woman. it may seem so to limited folk. i am a tiger. i am aware of my power. you are always right to step away if you are not tall enough for this ride. i bite. yeah. i see alla of you. i am more interested in developing my empire for me and mines. trust. i will tell and teach this to any woman/developing woman i know. just like i am being gathered and taught. many of you are fools in masks. i own alla my sides. you don't know me.

Musing

Right now, people are not ok. 

Acts of kindness and humanity goes a long way!

Musing: When the Bmore Ravens Became Superbowl Champs in 2013

caw caw. caw. yes. we know what it's like to be the underdog. bmore really, really came out for the ravens! superbowl champs!!!

i grew up during a thriving time in bmore. plenty of rec centers, basketball/baseball/football, dance, theater, music, art...everywhere for everybody...some of these partnerships and collaborations happened spontaneously or with a phone call or visit. we didn't have a lot but as young kids we did everything: sing, dance, act, draw, produce shows...my mother, newly divorced and a teacher's assistant, didn't have the funds to put her 4 and 5 year old daughters in classes for all the things they knew how to do. she found a program, the urban services cultural arts program (later the eubie blake cultural arts), we took ballet (miss hope later leaving to join new york ballet) and my mother joined a group, the john taylor dancers (a group of dancing models whose children were in the program). this program was $2 a week. no joke. it was on the campus of dunbar senior high school, a school both my parents, some of my family and many of their friends, they still have today, attended.

throughout the years, we were able to take dance, theater, music and art with phenomenal baltimore legends: stephanie powell, hugh carey, phadelma ashley, sylvia hardison...not to mention the countless students who came to work with us from morgan, like troy burton, lea gilmore, joseph wormely (poochie), maryland institute (my daddy still calls it the institute from when he went in the 60s, he refuses to say MICA lol), and even from places in other states, like fisk univ. in the summer when we were teens, the blue chip in program didn't just give summer employment to youth in offices and cleaning streets, we actually got paid to learn and perform musicals. the school for the arts students could come and produce their work too...this is a long story but the moral is that there is such a rich history of arts and community involvement in bmore...it didn't have the red tape it has today. now we have to jump hoops in something that happened so naturally in the 80s...anybody of any race can give time, energy, love to black children but it cannot truly be successful without the help and assistance of black folk. period. we have to show people who we are. this is our culture to teach. these children struggling are us. support all efforts to help our and any children. make sure you also support those organizations whose culture match the communities you serve. 

so just like bmore can come out for our team, we can come out for our youth. when you don't invest in programs for youth, you crush them under your feet. give time, money, resources, consult/partner with organizations whose ethnicity matches the youth you work with, stop competing and find more collaboration. there are all boys schools in bmore without gym and schools with no art. come on, folk. why ask permission? 

WE ARE THEM. IF WE DON'T DO IT NOW, WE DENY AND ERADICATE OUR FUTURE. THE ULTIMATE GENOCIDE.

Heart Open Wide

wounds so deep 

without name/ sound 

slowly reveals/ heals 

the anticipation of touch

Work in progress

Refuse to be undermined by anger. Work and work at conserving and redirecting your energy. Look it in the eye and let it go. 

Musing 1/30/2022

 I love men but I trust women.