Practicing Presence...Again.
I've lived too much in the past and future...when joy exists in the present
Hi Friends!
It’s been a minute, I knoooow. I spent the entire month of July on sabbatical, resting from a very busy first half of the year. My brain was fried and I needed to “saddown somewhere” as my elders used to say. LOL My intentions for the whole month were as follows: rest, joy, and ease. And, for the most part, I accomplished that. (Check out my recap on IG)
Here’s what I found myself sitting with during this time: reclaiming JOY requires presence. If you struggle with giving yourself permission to experience joy, it might be because you are spending too much time in the past (replaying the “tapes” of what went wrong or right) or in the future (plotting, anticipating, manufacturing new stories). To be clear, neither exploring the past for your healing, nor planning for your future are bad things in and of themselves. But spending all your time in the past or future steals from the joy that’s only and always available in your present. And here’s another thing: being present takes practice. Practicing presence, in all the ways we can, is a commitment to our healing. It’s an act of faith. Buuuut it’s not without its challenges.
I think most of us have become comfortable with distraction. It’s the norm nowadays. The internet and social media, retail therapy, binge watching shows (all things I love, by the way) are common ways we “escape” our lives and get a hit of dopamine in the process. Not to mention that we often find ourselves having emotional and spiritual whiplash trying to keep up with one injustice after another, one scandal after another, one betrayal after another. Too damn much going on.
This is why I think it’s important that every day we simply decide to show up, as ourselves, to the stillness. After a bit of a hiatus due to my own preoccupation with the past and future, I’ve recently returned to my contemplative practice of centering prayer and I have to admit I notice a significant, wonderful difference. Not only am I more grounded but I feel energized in a way. That said, this 20 minutes of stillness in the morning has not been easy for me at all. It seems like I’m returning to my sacred word every other second because of how utterly wild it gets in my brain. But I do notice that even if my mind is running, my heart and spirit are much calmer afterward.
Now I’m not telling you to do what I do but I do encourage you to take a beat to hear your own heart and to tune in to the whispers of the Spirit, in whatever way that looks like for you. It won’t be easy. You aren’t going to always want to. But the practice is necessary to steady our hands and feet and help us be present in these strange, strange days.
Love y’all. 💜
tmlg
Good News! BLACK JOY PLAYBOOK is on the way!
In July, it was announced that Ink and Willow/Waterbrook/Multnomah, and imprint of Penguin Random House will be publishing my Black Joy guided journal. Listen, this Black Joy train ain’t stopping, y’all.
Supersonic Joy
This August marks the 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop, Y’all! Can you believe that? As a little Black girl from Louisville, KY, I fell completely in love with the genre. Poetry? Beats? Samples from the soul music played in my house already? YES PLEASE! Soooo… I’m just going to leave y’all with one of my fave, unsung Hip Hop groups in hopes that you will get up and dance just a little with me. This song gives me SO MUCH JOY when I hear it. Nostalgia on overload.