Paper Dolls

Happy Birthday Ms. Diana Ross! “You can’t just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream. You’ve got to get out there and make it happen for yourself.” – Diana Ross As a child, Diana Ross could do no wrong in my eyes. She was beautiful, graceful, glamorous, and was aContinueContinue reading “Paper Dolls”

All the Good

Looking back, I truly feel as if every time I thought I couldn’t make it or wanted to just drown myself in a sea of my own, tears something or someone wonderful would be integrated into my life. Most times it was ephemeral, but it was always enough to keep me in afloat with dryland in sight.

Cousins

  “Cousins are people that are ready made friends, you have laughs with them and remember good times from a young age, you have fights with them but you always know you love each other, they are a better thing than brothers and sisters and friends cause there all pieced together as one.” Courtney CoxContinueContinue reading “Cousins”

A place to call home

I used to imagine that the splattered seeds mixed with the green and white chunks of Osage-orange flesh were what brains on the pavement would look like. I thought that until a few kids and I stumbled on a bunch of blood and what appeared to be brain matter on the ground behind a building on our walk to school just about a week before. It was not the same, at all! We, I mean I, poked at some of the larger greyish chunks with a pencil from my bag. I was so fascinated by the soft and delicateness of it. It didn’t seem reasonable that this soft fragile mass could be the source of who we were. I could not comprehend what happened to the magic of the memories, thoughts, and love as the neurons that produced them lay in the street.

Burnt Toast

I loved being a chocolate baby doll, I remember hearing “You’re so cute!” “Look at those eyes!” and “You have a head full of hair.” I never heard the qualifier “you’re so cute, for a dark little girl” all I heard was “cute dark girl”. It wasn’t until kindergarten, I started associating my skin complexionContinueContinue reading “Burnt Toast”

Fear Part 2… Weight or Motivator

Fear is a powerful mind fuck. For over two weeks I found myself in the grips of fear over my mammogram results. My first appointment was canceled and instead of me searching for the silver lining, fear dug it’s claws in deeper. I promise I can feel the undiagnosed cancer spreading through my body. IContinueContinue reading “Fear Part 2… Weight or Motivator”

I Am Afraid To

Fear had become a part of me, like a vestigial organ, hiding in the space between my heart and my lungs. Serving no purpose and providing no benefit at this point in my evolution. It would squeeze my heart just a bit to keep me from fully experiencing joy, reminding me to not get comfortable or let my guard down because pain was sure to arrive soon. It would push all the air out of my lungs and leave me gasping for oxygen when I began to consider the possibility that I was enough, conditioning me so I would know that I was not…