Author: Juliet Iwelunmor, PhD
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Keep a mother’s love and happy 1st birthday my Ranyenna!
My awakening summer was 2020. Like the entire country, I was literally in labor. Something wonderful was born on this day, by 9am last year. We became parents to our fourth child. We call him Ranyenna. In Igbo, it means giving him back to God. His hair was full, short, brown and crinkled. His eyes…
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Keep grace in mind!
The idea that grace is all we need has been stuck in my head since Sunday mass. Three times I asked to take it away, the reading said. But the answer, was my grace is all you need. My power is greatest when you are weak. I was weak this time last year, waiting for…
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Keep knowing that we are never meant to walk alone!
Our room was shaped like a square with a baby cribbed next to a wall covered in grey paint. There was a grey rocking chair for breastfeeding and a silver and white changing table stood next to the window awaiting the arrival of baby. There were no baby rooms. I was never a decorator mom.…
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Keep the beauty and brilliance of black mom light!
I begin this week in awe of becoming a mother for the 4th time. My last baby arrived this week, last year. The pandemic kept us all distracted. This was the 4th month of mask wearing, social distancing and lockdowns. It was also a time where the virus was so debilitating that I feared a…
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Keep the brilliance of Hibiscus for mother’s during summer days!
As a flower, Hibiscus ranges from white, to pink, to orange and red. It’s beauty greets your eyes and leads you on a journey where your heart is fully fed. The diversity of its shape, it’s size and it’s color, even it’s shrub is outstanding, full of brilliance, full of elegance. My hands touched a…
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Keep remembering God with all your plans including your home!
Exactly one year ago today, we closed on our home. The experience seems hazy now looking back as it was at the beginning of a pandemic and I was expecting a new baby. Looking back, we didn’t do all the things people do when they purchase new homes. There were no housewarming or gathering of…
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Keep Fela’s ‘water no get enemy’ in mind for sustainability.
Fela’s anthem ‘water no get enemy,’ has always been a favorite song for me. If you want to wash, you will use water. If you want to cook, you’ll use water too. If your head is hot, water will help you cool it down. And if you want your child to grow, use water. Such…
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Keep mentors who plant and harvest in you!
There is an Igbo saying that states: The cock that crows in the morning belongs to one household. It’s voice though is the property of the neighborhood. Every single thing we do in life, has a ripple effect. Our actions maybe ours alone. But they too matter for others. I remember growing up listening to…
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Keep orange day lilies in mind for public health!
We have orange day lilies in our garden. My kids and I spotted them. Their beauty greets the eyes in an unexpected, but magnificent way. It is impossible to stop staring at them. Nothing about them is hidden from view. Their distinctive orange color, in a sea of green shrubs, bores down into your soul.…
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Keep being fire!
Have you heard about Fire? Not the real thing as in flames or burning or combustion. But a quarterly literary magazine set up by Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman, Aaron Douglas, Richard Bruce Nugent, Gwendolyn Bennett and John P. Davis, to do one thing one only (in my opinion): to express the truth…
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Keep the public in public health!
In a 1989 conversation with Charles Rowell, Chinua Achebe shared a story about the goddess of creativity. He described this as the earth goddess, called Ala or Ani by the Igbo people. Not only is she responsible for creativity, he mentioned that she is also responsible for morality. For her, art cannot then be in…
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Keep being a burst of light for public health!
I am in the business of light making. It is messy, very complex with turns that keep winding. When rich countries get 40-60 percent of Covid vaccines and others, especially countries in Africa, get only 3%, you will understand why I choose light. When racism, especially structural racism is at the heart of why we…
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Writing with Juliet Iwelunmor 