May 13, 2020
Rise and shine, my loves. Stay focussed. You are worth it. #journeyback2centrelove (at Sista Zai Storyteller & Curator) https://www.instagram.com/p/CAJB30Jgl1C/?igshid=1rv3iayvyzjjq
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Rise and shine, my loves. Stay focussed. You are worth it. #journeyback2centrelove (at Sista Zai Storyteller & Curator) https://www.instagram.com/p/CAJB30Jgl1C/?igshid=1rv3iayvyzjjq
What exactly is my intention for being here? For being here on social media? I’ve been mindlessly scrolling but now it’s time to take stock and re-evaluate where, in whom and in what I invest my precious life force and love. . . . I am here to become more of myself. I do the work to shed layers of social conditioning and just be me. Some might call it Decolonising the mind. Other sight it as spiritual/emotional/personal development. I am here to thrive, not merely survive. My mission is to get free and live a life of deep meaningful connection to (the ever transforming) self, my community of humans and nature. . . . I know that my views and perspectives are very very left off centre, for the place and time I live. I’ve made peace with it. 🤷🏾♀️ That’s me. And I only know this about myself because this “me” is an integral part of a community of people (you all); and each member of this community sits along different points of the spectrum of ideas/philosophies. This is how I define a community - live and let live and love everyone. . . . My intention for being here on social media is to nurture deep and meaningful connection to myself (first and foremost), so I can show up authentically and serve community - by being and constantly growing into more of myself. This is a #journeyback2centrelove and you’re here to witness the unfolding. Some of you have been here from the start - look where it’s at now and it’s only going further. 🖤. . . . As practice the courage to show up as I am (because who I am benefits the entire community), I’m actually returning to my roots. “I am because we are” is a Bantu principle - “uhnu” or “Ubuntu”. It’s not quite individualism but it is definitely individuation. It’s our Ancestors wisdom that a truly liberated spirit fosters a healthy and well-adjusted person; and that it is the role of the village/the community to support this individuation because each person alive at the same time has a mission to fulfil and all of these missions, once activated in the same place, will ensure that the entire village/community prospers. Be yourself, my loves. Get liberated or die trying. We are the ones we have been waiting for ♥️🖤💚 https://www.instagram.com/p/B9XmrS6nE0FRod2OsRbZkr2KCf_KX_yL4PTcDw0/?igshid=p17lomjf4qti
Okay. Storytime. Get comfy 🤗 So, you’ll soon find out on my next podcast episode , or even sooner, if you’re my Patreon fam, I walked towards a Creative profession after completing law school. May I just say, I was a nerd of the highest order and this move completely shocked everyone who knew that academic version of me. Inevitably, however, life brings us back full circle, in our new form. An opportunity to integrate all parts of ourselves fully and become whole. A new part of the #journeyback2centrelove unfolds. This time last year, I heard my Spirit tell me to go back into academia. And I, of course, gave Her the side eye. But after suffering greatly for not listening to the call to become a Creative (it took 5 years to finally make that move) I now know better than to fu*^ with my Ancestors. So, with confidence in my intuition, reservations in my mind and lots of fear about whether I could even do it, I started reaching out to academics who I know. Spirit actually brought them into my life at just the right time ... those synchronicities are a whole set of stories but you see how God/dexx is in control. Following on from those synchronous meetings and my explicit requests to my new friends for advice on how to re-enter academia, I performed and sat on arts-related panels at both RMIT and University Of Melbourne. Give thanks! They were both really beautiful experiences. I think bell hooks would approve ... Personally, it was also a really healing experience - PoC at uni know what I mean ... (hence the side eye to Spirit). This year, Western Sydney University has invited me to travel up and present a workshop on “Disenchanted Diversity”. And guess who is the featured guest? None other than the renowned Black Feminist and Hip Hop Feminist, Patricia Hill Collins. I read her work when I first started programming a Women’s and First Nations Hip Hop show on 3CR radio in 2011, the Hip Sista Hop show. So it’s an honour to finally meet her in person. There is an amazing line up of BIPOC speakers. If you’re in Sydney, there’s still time to register for “Disenchanted Diversity”. Here’s the flyer. Come through. I’m presenting a paper based on a @herafricaisreal https://www.instagram.com/p/B7X0ajAg9EI/?igshid=ma30aaeg5pne
Create a beautiful day, my Loves. Work on that highest frequency. Do the work. #BlackJoy #BlackLove #BlackGirlMagic #papoets #journeyback2centrelove https://www.instagram.com/p/B3aqAMZgYIY/?igshid=o7w33yn4tm4f
This week, I received the same message from two different sources - two grounded and spiritual feminine energies in flesh suits. What I heard them both say ... or, rather, what they both expressed which struck a resonant chord within me and caused me to stop and check myself? They said it’s time to let go of the narrative that we are oppressed. The stories we tell have a huge impact on how we see ourselves in the world, how we move in the world, what options and roads we believe are open/foreclosed to us in the world. Freedom begins in the mind. If I do not apprecilove the narrative you speak of me in order to validate your own existence, what options can I exercise to move through and out of the relationship you attempt to coerce. I can refuse to consent - tacitly and openly: I can continue with my life, defining myself for myself on my own terms. That’s my liberation. I am free. All ways. Country thoughts. Recalibrating. Healing. Self-loving aka calling myself out on my own shit with the intention to grow. Healing. #journeyback2centrelove https://www.instagram.com/p/B3VOFwMAuba/?igshid=99g88e7xm4pq
Two of the best moments in my creative journey. Symbolised in stone and metal. Gifts from @malovivian and @lonnieholleysuniverse set on a window ledge somewhere in Cape Town, between Lions Head and the ocean. Two symbols set here to keep Rhodes at bay, with Palo Santo and a white candle lit every day. #sistazaitravels #capetown2019 #journeyback2centrelove https://www.instagram.com/p/BzAt_RVg4t3/?igshid=cqxj06mvlo88
Two of the best moments in my creative journey. Symbolised in stone and metal. Gifts from @malovivian and @lonnieholleysuniverse set on a window ledge somewhere in Cape Town, between Lions Head and the ocean. Two symbols set here to keep Rhodes at bay, with Palo Santo and a white candle lit every day. #sistazaitravels #capetown2019 #journeyback2centrelove https://www.instagram.com/p/BzAt_RVg4t3/?igshid=cqxj06mvlo88
Some super intense emotions came up yesterday. Stuff I thought I’d dealt with years ago came knocking. It’s all part of the creative process. While I give thanks for the insight, I prefer not to hold onto the toxic stuff. So, I’m easing into a water detox. Starting the day with a key lime juice squeezed into a glass of luke warm water, sipped slowly on the balcony while I breathe in that ocean air. #sistazaitravels #capetown2019 #journeyback2centrelove https://www.instagram.com/p/By9V3fVgmgS/?igshid=333ms5ny1td1