Tag: journey
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Keep stories of mothers, airplanes, and children!
On nights we make believe, I tell the story of the old lady who lived in a shoe. It’s a short story and my kids seem to like my many take on the lady. Like why a shoe, or why so many children? Why even feed them one by one? Why didn’t she even know…
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Keep change with life lessons!
Who are the bearers of messages most important to our lives? How are they helping you actively work for change? For me these days, black authors. I find myself reading and reading books from authors who voices are amplified more so in death than while alive. Audre Lorde first comes to mind. Her words have…
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Keep knowing the power of walking together.
There is a power that emerges when you gift yourself and your family, the simple and freeing pleasures of walking. We gave that gift to baby almost 2 days after his arrival at home. We took him for his first walk along the paths of Forest Park. The pandemic was still breathtaking in its design.…
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Keep flying to new heights!
I remember the day we met. I was summoned to a meeting at a faculty office by the Director of Health for Student Services. He was a close friend to my family. I say summoned because I tried to excuse myself from it. My excuses too were valid as I was on maternity leave. I…
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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 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 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 Pidgin English and other broken English in mind!
Bell Hooks took me on a journey today. The past few days have been full of work-related rejections with academic papers I wrote, one protocol and another a debate paper that I will dwell on another day. For now, transforming the language used by the rejectors is a profound passion. Bell Hooks reminded me of…
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Keep being as patient as vultures or Udene in Igbo!
I saw a vulture up close today. It is as menacing as literature has depicted it to be. My middle son actually saw it first. It was perched on our grounds and it stopped him in his tracks while running towards me. He kept saying I can’t come and I kept saying, just come. He…
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Keep Clef Club in mind as you remain a bold black woman in academia!
When generations look back at the history of this nation, they will ask questions? Like why is the story of this country so incomplete? Why do we know so little of what it truly meant to be enslaved? Or why did it take 156 years for us make Juneteenth a holiday? They will also ask…
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Keep daylilies and their ‘beauty for a day’ in mind!
I am in love with yellow daylilies. They started blooming this week at the back of our home. Naturally I was drawn to their colors. Something about yellow flowers in the middle of scorching summer heat was calming to me. Daylilies scientifically are known as Hemerocallies. Hemero for ‘day’ and Callis for ‘beauty.’ In essence…
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Writing with Juliet Iwelunmor 