The art of living · moving through

Survival

After the storm comes the long ordinary middle — the quiet, stubborn work of moving through. Not the triumphant part of the story, but the keeping-on when you cannot yet see why. These are the days we endured, and what they taught us in the dark.

Latest Survival

Keep a new school year.

Yesterday was the start of a new school year. It was also the start of Pre-K for my baby born during the early months of the pandemic. I was overwhelmed and very anxious for him. He cried and stopped and cried and stopped and eventually we were forced to leave. He seemed to take it…
Keep these ideas as you wait for early intervention!

I have been thinking about what parents can do while they wait. A family member runs an Applied Behavioral therapy group and she is having a hard time finding therapists for her many kiddos. I said it must be tough and is the waiting list much better now. My reasons and full disclosure, one of…
Keep making time for long walks with boys!

And there is time for everything. For taking long walks with you. On days were the skies are blue. And love is in the air for you. Baby bunnies and two little birds will try to say hello. A colony of brown ants too. We will see trees rustle in the wind for us. Trees…
Keep the happiness under your nose!

Our flights got cancelled last week. In a land were cacti dwell. We could either complain or chose peace even in such chaotic moments. For happiness is still right under our nose. Then we were told of a place where tulips dwell. We were told we could spend hours there. We could go from cacti…
Keep hope and a dog named Simba!

Igbo people say that Nchekume ka o-li-li or in other words, that which you hope for is more important than eating anything. So long as you keep hope alive, eventually that thing you wish for, will come to pass. At the beginning for summer, I took my kids to a dog park. We walked for…
Keep Belle’s depths with ease!

Only our memories will linger on, against the cobbled streets in the city of lights. And who can choose between there and here, between the depths of the past and the ease of now. Darkness every time will lose and who can choose between the joys of a future where Nkiruka or the hurdles of…
Keep being visible.

My daughter cut her hair off today. It was by accident and she has been crying ever since. At first I was angry. I told her to go to her grandma to remove her braids. Grandma has always done so before. She felt she could do it on her own and didn’t need any help.…
Keep flying beyond the skies!

Blue, skies are blue. Smile, big smiles are big. Love from you is love. Grace will do, will do. Otito Chukwu. We celebrated our Tochi with grace and gratitude today. The skies were the perfect blue. Family flew from afar and full of love. We smiled, we toasted, we celebrated. If you knew how this…
Keep a taste of humanity!

My baby boy hugged strangers today. I tried to stop him, but he hugged their back a little tighter. I proceeded to apologize for his touchy feely ways but the strangers, two African women turned around and hugged him back. I smiled. Then he he told them his name. Shared the name of his brother,…
Keep love!

The sight of love, from eyes that never lie, restored a balance time almost tried to hide. Watching their eyes widen, holding ourselves tightly, is the reason why living is a fire. There was happiness all around, for love they know and a new love trapped in a new house they own. The one with…
Keep all your tears!

I have this memory, etched forever in my minds extremity, of tears, of chaos, and vows that I made, as winds rustled by, that you my son, the one God gave to us, the one that taught life’s extremities, those that flair up on their own, those that rhyme on their own, those that bang,…
Keep your books!

I like to find treasures in books. Some old, some new. Some full of prose, some simply poetry. If beauty was measured by the books you read, I’ll be the most beautiful reader you’ll ever meet. Keep all the books you read. My last son is in his ABC recital phase and one book I…