Closer Not Closure

If you're reading this, it means I've admitted several things to myself over the last few weeks that were a little more than just hard-to-swallow--they've been, quite literally, life-changing. For those of you who aren't aware, I ended my Peace Corps service on Thursday, June 1st, 2017 with a little less than a year left …

“V” is for Validation (& good vibes & small victories)

A little peace of my mind & soul, honoring the rich diversity among today's Peace Corps Volunteers and #BlackHistoryEveryDay Source: “V” is for Validation (& good vibes & small victories) Though no one whose known me since my younger years would argue I’ve always had a rather developed vocabulary, it’s only in recent years I’ve …

Meet Oniel

"To make words sing | Is a wonderful thing | Because in a song | Words last so long"            --Langston Hughes The first time I met Oniel was in a summer school session. I so graciously had offered to help run it but ended up taking the reigns and converting …

Namaste, Terry

Two months ago, one of my former colleagues, mentors, and yoga instructors, Terry Winter, passed away.  In an email to some of his students, the studio owner where we worked wrote “the cause of his death was sudden, natural, and unknown, and of course it’s been a shock since he was so vital and healthy.”  …

The Last Three Months

The last three months... What can I say? I should probably just slap together a bunch of profound adjectives and call it a day, but that wouldn’t serve what’s been the most unbelievable cluster of time I’ve experienced in my short 23 years justice (not that I think it can be justified at all, really). …

“You get to reintroduce you to yourself.”

My two-week absence should be indicative of yet another struggle over the written word and its failures for us a s a people, but it’s something more along the lines of cut-up knees and stomach issues.  Thursday before last, I took a dignity-depleting “drap” during a footrace across a dirt field behind a school filled …

The Rasta

"The practicing Rasta is a man of astonishing presence… He is a public figure, a picture of self-confidence and self-assurance. He is quick-witted and philosophical, flaunting his striking simplicity and peculiarity of dress in the face of cosmopolitan pretensions of Babylonian fashion. He exudes love. His conversation is lively verse. His replies are razor-sharp repartee. …

“Wi listen ou wi feel.”

I’ve sat down and stared at this blank page for what feels like hours, trying to conjure up the perfect and most precise methods for sharing pieces of my new life with anyone who’s interested in hearing/reading about it.  This often crippling perfectionism leaves me now with an endless list of quotations I’ve been compiling …