The Reason Behind My Voice

                                                                      Photo by  Simon Berger  on  Unsplash One lesson I have been avoiding is how temporary everything can be. I thought that the longer I evaded this lesson, is the longer it would not apply to me.  Unfortunately, that impermanence also extends to our bonds and relationships. My good friend Novie says, "We do not own people." And that is very true. We do not own their human experiences nor do we get to dictate how long people stay in our lives . They can walk away when the need arises. We are allowed to go our separate ways. We often want to stay longer than we should and want to fight for love and relationships, when these things should come easy. We often give in to the urge to stay even when th...

  The Adinkra symbol  Sankofa has   been heavy on my mind lately.  The symbol is a bird that flies forward but looks backward. It means "Reach back and fetch it." Photo credit: Adinkra Corner How many times were we told that we should not look back, only forward?  Poets like Lucille Clifton were always "reaching back and fetch it" for great wisdom resides in the past. When Hurricane Maria struck on 18th September 2017, life as I knew it was over. Instead of celebrating my 25th birthday that year, I was salvaging my belongings. I concentrated on all that was lost. I held grief around my neck and, my waist and I carried it with me for years. When my birthday comes around, so does a great sadness. Photo credit: Melchior Damu     A few days before my birthday this year, I subconsciously began noticing things that had survived the floodwaters. Like my family, my guitar (which I haven't touched in years), my hot wheels cars, my favorite fountain pen, and my ...

Photo by eberhard 🖐 grossgasteiger on Unsplas h It took me a while but I am finally woman enough to admit it. I used to be afraid of being happy. I was afraid of experiencing joy.  It might seem silly, I know. But cherophobia is more common than we care to admit.  I think much of my fear stemmed from the false narratives I was fed as a child. "After laughing is crying" I would often hear. Whether it was on the basketball court, at school, or home. It did not take long for me to associate joy and sadness. I came to view happiness as a preamble to mourning. Photo by eberhard 🖐 grossgasteiger on Unsplash After hours of playing basketball or swimming in the river without my mother's permission, I would come home to a waiting belt. No matter how much I enjoyed myself that joy was overshadowed by the punishment.  I had my first and only birthday party at 12 years old. I enjoyed it. But soon after that, I lost most of my friends who came to the party. Part of me wished my mo...

                                                                    Photo by Hans Isaacson on Unsplash I recently listened to the Talisman album by Colton T and it has been on repeat since then.  In all honesty, the compilation has given me fuel to continue creating but it also helped me realize how difficult it is to create when we have been fed false narratives. "It is my story. I will write it." Too many people wanted to write my story for me. Too many hands attempted to spin my narrative. It was and still is my life and I had to be brave enough to live it on my own terms.  Too many times we allow others to project their fears onto us. Too many times we drink the potions we are offered and take it as gospel.  They will try to tell us how our dreams are too big and ...

  It Gets Better!                                       Photo credit: Nappy As the curtain closes on Mental  Health Month, I felt led  to share my story with my readers. But before I go any further, I would just like to remind you of a few things.  Mental Health Awareness is important.  Your mental health is important.  Your thoughts matter.  You matter. It is no secret that there is a common but undeserved stigma attached to mental health. Whether or not we want to admit it, everyone  has mental health. Just as one is concerned about their physical well-being, the same should apply to their emotional well-being.  However, this utopia does not exist and many of us neglect to take care of our minds. Being raised in the Caribbean I have noticed that we do not talk about our feelings, we do not share what is bothering us and we seldom reach out ...

  Photo credit: Javon Swaby   I had so many plans for this year! This was supposed to be my year of revival, releases and recovery. I thought for sure had seen enough down days and I had been educated at the school of hard-knock for long enough; it was time for graduation.   It was much to my dismay when this lock-down was  issued and my plans had to be placed on hold. I did not plan for this. Where did this set-back fit into my plan? After all, 2020 was really supposed to be a movie. I had to learn through the disappointment, through the pain and loneliness. As a writer, you learn to see the good in everything but when you are "in medias res" this can be quite a task.    If we are to be honest a lot of good has come from this lock-down.     Photo credit:  Kehn Herman   It has made us more creative.   As creatives we are taught that the world is our stage and we must always be prepared to perform, ev...

I recently had one of my senior students ask me, "Is life really a journey?" The question posed to me by someone almost half my age, really made me think. How often have we stopped to think of this overused yet true analogy.  "Is life really a journey?" A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. – Lao Tzu If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t walk run, then walk, if you can’t walk, then crawl, but by all means keep moving. – Martin Luther King Jr. What about life makes it a fitting comparison to a journey (of any kind)? To journey means to travel from place to another. A voyage. A trip. An expedition. Those who embark on such trips are often referred to as pilgrims, travelers or sojourners.   In its own way, life can be said to be a journey. We embark on this journey, the moment we have been birthed into this world. From birth until our death, we should have traveled from one point to another. Whether it be as a result of personal...