For it To Soothe

• I wake and glory in the nothingness of the beginning, A gorgeous, undiluted moment between dawn and day.

• 5:am mobility exercises for an aging body, prayer & reflection for an aging mind, and ginger mint tea for an aging heart.

• OOTD // I adore; I rightly gladden how rose gold rests against my brown skin.

• I love my job.

• I hate my job.

• I am profoundly saddened that ego and politics often avert nurturing an environment that ameliorates the intellectual exploration of young people.

• Tomorrow marks six years of co-parenting beside Toya, like sunrays and shadows dancing in an empty room late in the morning. I hope we dance the way we boogie forever.

• My life feels like it's invariably in flux. A uniformed and revolving round of newness and collapse. Like Peter on a sinking boat staring into the darkness, with a voice bidding him to move forward. (I wonder how many times I've chosen to stay and patch up the ship) My family deserves bravery & faith. I deserve bravery & faith.

• What happens when you do the "right thing" and not your voice, but your world shakes?

• Sometimes, I feel like I ain’t built to be around people. Like I’m part plant, part library.

• Croatian freediver Budimir Sobat has the world record for holding one's breath at 24 minutes and 37.36 seconds. The life in my chest is overwhelmed, at ease, fearful, faithful, drowning, and trying to remember how to cry as a form of breath.

• Tonight’s menu says Noodle Day. Zoe won’t let me forget.

• "Love alone means nothing unless you have a tortured heart for it to soothe." —Piper Payne

• The electric tea kettle hums next to me, and I wonder what it means to be so peaceful and full of soft roar.

• Everyone is problematic to a cause.

• Everyone is a hero to a cause.

• Cherry Jolly Ranchers.

With all my heart…Té