When I look at black women, I see a complicated dance of beauty, creativity, ingenuity, bravery, and compassion. I’m so happy that in this time and space continuum, when I could’ve been anything, I was made into a black woman. As a black woman, we are often in resistance. Honey is what helps me love and live with more ease. I used to think honey came from denying pain. Or that someday, I’d magically be rescued into another life. I used to believe I had to be perfect or do BIG things. I wrote @honeyistheknifebook during a pandemic, on the heels of what could’ve been a total nervous breakdown. I was back living at home, reckoning with all the ways I’ve tried to outrun myself through rejection and overwhelm. I was meeting all the ways I ignored my own truth in place of someone else’s. I know that the journey of coming home will not be over until I take my last breath. We are on the frontlines of gender, racial, and anti-human wars that will outlast us, even as we make tremendous gains and progress. We are not an easily defeated entity, us black and woman. But we still deserve to dance. This is what Osun and her honey teaches me, what she can teach all of us. I am no Ifa initiate. My Yoruba is meh. I do not carry the precise dance moves of Janet, nor was I blessed with the vibranium knees of Megan Thee Stallion. But I do have a dance in my soul. And so do you. • #hannaheko #honeyistheknife #bookcoach #writingcoach #developmentaleditor (at Los Angeles, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/CafeaOBPgdJ/?utm_medium=tumblr
