May was full of movement & stillness, in equal parts, despite my often racing mind & heart trying to trick me into thinking I was running in place. You’ve been there, right?
Well here’s what I learned and can share with you, as the months whizz by like a too-fast train hurtling towards the future:
Treat your life like a front porch on a cool day.
In the South, taking time to just be, alone or with others, is called sitting a spell.
I spent many afternoons following my granny to sit on her porches —as an energetic young girl she had to fuss at to saddown and later as an introspective young woman who occasionally raced her to get outside to sit on her good plastic chairs.
All that mattered was the rustling of the tree leaves & neighbors passing by or through to share a hand wave in greeting or memory lane / neighborhood catching up.
Sometimes, the silence was also cut into by a car bumpin the latest jam or my granny asking me about my “schoolin” or to go get her broom that made a soft *schpp schpp* in harmony with the shuffle of her house shoes as she swept around her plants.
In my late twenties, towards the end of my granny’s life, I’d just watch her on the porch. The quiet of sunny days was mainly punctuated by her favorite radio station and her saying to me “lookadeuh”, as a squirrel or bird came close while I handed her coffee or from-scratch pancakes. That time was when I realized the power in sitting with yourself and reality, as my granny was in commune with nature processing how she was going somewhere nobody could follow.
& now, as a grown woman facing the depths of myself & these whirlwind-passing days, I yearn for those times with her.
Lately, finding moments of calm is all I wanna do and have been doing. Shuffling in my own house shoes with my feelings & thoughts, breaking into what the anxieties of my mind can mislabel as stagnation with meaningful teaching, creating community workshops, slow-designing for creative spark, and baking cakes & cookies for my growing bakery. (Those sweet deliveries have turned into cozy couch convos as the sun goes down and it’s beautiful.) Resting on beaches in Black woman sisterhood filled some of that yearning too. Sometimes the pauses were filled with dance breaks and business ideas without pressure to do anything beyond listening to drums.
I share the above to say: This year feels different. Urgent almost to do something with this constant swirl of world events, but I’m pushing back from rushing and encouraging you to as well…
Actively seek peace out and stay in it a while. Give space for good people to stay a bit with you too.
Just like my granny knew instinctively when to go inside to catch the news and Wheel of Fortune, I’m leaning into my instincts & my higher power to know when to make my next moves.
Friend, take your time in the sunshine and the breeze and with the catch-ups and your own solitude.
You & I both can trust everything happens right on time anyway.
Until the next letter 💛