There is a full blog post written a few days ago upon realizing that I have not posted in close to a lunar cycle: 29 days. Well, where have I been? I am having a bit of fun with myself in this piece—writing in both kind and teasing manner but also being reflective and accountable. September 9th—my state the last time I wrote here—feels worlds away .
Been reading these (folks):
Gloria Rodriquez (DeAlmas Women’s Collective), Pema Chodron, Tao Te Ching, Sonia Sanchez, Anne Winters’ Night Wash, journal articles on high-achieving, first generation college goers and TIME magazine.
Been getting restored by these Muses:
Friday Open Mics in East Passyunk | Monday Writers Group at T-Bar |”Freak and Geek” Events (talks, readings, kink causal weddings, bookstores, meetings, reflexology lessons, bars, etc.) | Hardcore gym time with a new strategy of circuit weight training + crunches first and then running on “hill” or “random” settings on the treadmill for more effective calorie burning. (Tightened up to lower about half a dress size.)
Today picked up this 1990 young adult, futurist novel, Invitation to the Game by Monica Hughes. It began in the year 2150—worlds away. Yet, the future, past and present all feel with us, bleeding into one another—with me when I began reading this morning. This was a similar sensation I had when reading Octavia Butler’s sci-fi jewel Mind of My Mind.
The last 21 days have marked such profundity upon my life such that the lines between my experience over the last few weeks feels as one—all intersecting with and strengthening me now.
Been reading these (folks):
Gloria Rodriquez (DeAlmas Women’s Collective), Pema Chodron, Tao Te Ching, Sonia Sanchez, Anne Winters’ Night Wash, journal articles on high-achieving, first generation college goers and TIME magazine.
Been getting restored by these Muses:
Friday Open Mics in East Passyunk | Monday Writers Group at T-Bar |”Freak and Geek” Events (talks, readings, kink causal weddings, bookstores, meetings, reflexology lessons, bars, etc.) | Hardcore gym time with a new strategy of circuit weight training + crunches first and then running on “hill” or “random” settings on the treadmill for more effective calorie burning. (Tightened up to lower about half a dress size.)
Today picked up this 1990 young adult, futurist novel, Invitation to the Game by Monica Hughes. It began in the year 2150—worlds away. Yet, the future, past and present all feel with us, bleeding into one another—with me when I began reading this morning. This was a similar sensation I had when reading Octavia Butler’s sci-fi jewel Mind of My Mind.
The last 21 days have marked such profundity upon my life such that the lines between my experience over the last few weeks feels as one—all intersecting with and strengthening me now.
Overview:
Wellness is now entrenched. Although I have not been writing about it here (I’ve been using a book journal), I have kept up, if not turned up a notch, my wellness practices.
I began walking out of my apartment to the front lawn barefoot on the grass and morning dew to ground myself. Facing east toward the rising sun, I would give thanks and pep talks.
On another level, I began drinking soy-based protein shakes to support my muscle building and supplement the lack of protein in my vegan-ish diet. My body is soaking it up! What a difference! My muscles became really defined and responsive to workouts. I recover faster and am able to go deeper and more angular in my exercise routines.
As busy folks in a day and age where your speed gets conflated with skill or intelligence and where we all are made to feel as if we are playing catch up, taking care of your body is definitely a must—especially nutritionally!
However, it helps if we can do it quicker with quality. Here’s how I answered this dilemma below. All are quick and easy, highly nutritious, fast absorbing. They support weight management and mitigate hunger cravings.
Wellness is now entrenched. Although I have not been writing about it here (I’ve been using a book journal), I have kept up, if not turned up a notch, my wellness practices.
I began walking out of my apartment to the front lawn barefoot on the grass and morning dew to ground myself. Facing east toward the rising sun, I would give thanks and pep talks.
On another level, I began drinking soy-based protein shakes to support my muscle building and supplement the lack of protein in my vegan-ish diet. My body is soaking it up! What a difference! My muscles became really defined and responsive to workouts. I recover faster and am able to go deeper and more angular in my exercise routines.
As busy folks in a day and age where your speed gets conflated with skill or intelligence and where we all are made to feel as if we are playing catch up, taking care of your body is definitely a must—especially nutritionally!
However, it helps if we can do it quicker with quality. Here’s how I answered this dilemma below. All are quick and easy, highly nutritious, fast absorbing. They support weight management and mitigate hunger cravings.
Daily Foods:
· V8 Low Sodium Vegetable Juice (11.5oz)
· The Soy-based EAS (Energy, Athletics, Strength) AdvantEDGE Carb Control Shake (11oz)
· Broccoli and/or Kale
· Apple and/or Grapefruit
· Juice Plus+
· Fiber One Bars (35% of daily recommended fiber)
· Raw shelled peanuts (bought by the pound)
· *Treat – Green and Black Organic Chocolate
All of This toward What End?
Isn’t journey—the rise and fall progression toward that to which we aspire—an end unto itself? Yes, in this case very much so. And also, here is the secret. I have been working to get well for a reason: To evoke my poetry’s return—my brazen, creative voice.
Mind, body and spirit—I have been working to integrate these such that I embed support to write what my heart is calling desirous: Learning to hold primary the practice of gardening, cultivating of the creative soul.
Today, a group of dynamic womyn and supporters will gather on Sonia Sanchez’s plot above her Philadelphia mural on N. Carlisle and Diamond Street to plant bulbs and clean up Sonia’s garden. This is to honor her work as grassroots organizer and nurturer of community space.
In preparation, the profundity strikes me all over again: We must, as with gardening, make practice of nurturing our creative selves, voices and spaces. This involves daily, weekly and special occasion ritual practices.
Without such, it is as if asking our creative selves, “Grow, would you? Although I have not prepared any such space for you to do so.” That voices that eventually fades to whisper will in falling crescendo ask: “But, where?”
This is the support side of SPR™ (Support—Push—Recover™). My secret is that I was working to get well to make space for what I have known to be arriving (present); I have seen it before (past); I have seen it as it will be (future); my little lightening; well-supported creative voice.
· V8 Low Sodium Vegetable Juice (11.5oz)
· The Soy-based EAS (Energy, Athletics, Strength) AdvantEDGE Carb Control Shake (11oz)
· Broccoli and/or Kale
· Apple and/or Grapefruit
· Juice Plus+
· Fiber One Bars (35% of daily recommended fiber)
· Raw shelled peanuts (bought by the pound)
· *Treat – Green and Black Organic Chocolate
All of This toward What End?
Isn’t journey—the rise and fall progression toward that to which we aspire—an end unto itself? Yes, in this case very much so. And also, here is the secret. I have been working to get well for a reason: To evoke my poetry’s return—my brazen, creative voice.
Mind, body and spirit—I have been working to integrate these such that I embed support to write what my heart is calling desirous: Learning to hold primary the practice of gardening, cultivating of the creative soul.
Today, a group of dynamic womyn and supporters will gather on Sonia Sanchez’s plot above her Philadelphia mural on N. Carlisle and Diamond Street to plant bulbs and clean up Sonia’s garden. This is to honor her work as grassroots organizer and nurturer of community space.
In preparation, the profundity strikes me all over again: We must, as with gardening, make practice of nurturing our creative selves, voices and spaces. This involves daily, weekly and special occasion ritual practices.
Without such, it is as if asking our creative selves, “Grow, would you? Although I have not prepared any such space for you to do so.” That voices that eventually fades to whisper will in falling crescendo ask: “But, where?”
This is the support side of SPR™ (Support—Push—Recover™). My secret is that I was working to get well to make space for what I have known to be arriving (present); I have seen it before (past); I have seen it as it will be (future); my little lightening; well-supported creative voice.
RSS Feed
