Be part of Black history now

Black history isn't just events that happened in the past. They're happening now. In fact, you can be part of it. Dr. Hadiyah Nicole Green, one of the first African American women to get a Ph.D in Physics, created technology shown to eliminate cancer in mice and is raising funds to get the technology to human clinical trials. Go to oralee.org to donate and get more information on her groundbreaking work.

Beginnings

 It's on the heart of your humble blogger to speak on beginnings. To get a little personal,  this month was supposed to start a new chapter of my life,  but alas, life saw for things to go in another direction. By no means is it easy, but it means thinking about what that other direction is going to look like. That took me to the concept of beginnings. For me, the new chapter I thought I was going to have is going to have to be rewritten. At the same time,  what would have been is something that will always be with me, no matter what step I take.

The typical image of January is New Year's resolutions, which usually implies new beginnings, which usually has the implication of starting off on a clean slate. What if that's not always the case? What if beginning means building on what's already there? 

The song Auld Lang Syne is practically synonymous with ringing in the new year. How much thought, though, have we given to the meaning of the lyrics? According to Vox, the lyrics are rooted in rhetorical questions about old friends and old times. In other words, it's saying the old doesn't have to be discarded outright. There are things of the past that have virtue. 

New starts can have root in what came before. Whether good or bad, the past has lessons, virtues, and insights on which can be built something new. Again, this may not be a new concept,  but it's worth reiterating. 

-Ms RanaDee

The horizon leans forward,
Offering you space to place new steps of change.
Here, on the pulse of this fine day
You may have the courage
To look up and out and upon me, the
Rock, the River, the Tree, your country.
No less to Midas than the mendicant.
No less to you now than the mastodon then. (Maya Angelou, On the Pulse of Morning

The word for 2024

 Interestingly enough,  your humble blogger doesn't really do New Year's resolutions. They're too vague for me. What came to me recently is a word that would guide 2024-intention. If anything,  2023 taught me that that word has to be my guide going forward. While the concept of doing nothing without intention isn't new and the idea of using a particular theme as a guide for the new year was introduced to me a while back in a Facebook group I belong to, the soul clock is saying this needs to be the move for yours truly in 2024. 

Praying the best for you and yours in the coming new year,

Msranadee 

For the month of All Souls

While tears fall

Light reflects 

Forged in love,  hope and gratitude 

Shining on you 

As we remember 

News for Ace Week

Your humble blogger's Ace Week poem from last year made it to Sheauxtime Collective's upcoming short film, The Ace Files: Opening Act. Sheauxtime Collective is a platform for creative that highlights underrepresented voices. Check out their work here.

(Video via Sheauxtime Collective's Instagram)

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Grief and Imagination

 It's funny how serendipity works. A post on X about an article on grief led to finding Nnenna Freelon's Great Grief podcast. A standout episode was this one, in which grief speaks for herself. For your humble blogger, the concept that particularly hit was that of imagination being the secret. "I'm not one to give advice", she says, "...but I will share this with you. Imagination...There's your secret." Grief, playing a teacher role for me right now, has shown me that imagination is an especially necessary tool in the kit to deal with her. When grief hits, it's not easy to see beyond sorrow. Imagination is definitely helpful when trying to put one foot in front of the other. Imagining (or at least trying to imagine) something beyond the pain of loss is important when dealing with death is essential or else you'll be stuck in the pain. 

How is imagination working for me now? It's seeing grief as the aforementioned teacher, or a wave to ride when it comes, like surfing. Sometimes, it's a moonlit river coaxing you along the path laid along it's banks. Many times, it's picturing yourself getting through each movement you have to make through the day. That's where your humble blogger is at right now.

Ode to JEH

 

I just saw a homily 

Where the deacon mentioned 

It is what you value that makes you rich.

If we're to go by that, you were the richest man on Earth.

Your heart was big as the ocean

and valued life, love, and everyone.

Fly high, dear crow.