Roots & Hope
Soulful Reflections on Faith, Healing, and Young Adulting
Category: encouragement
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If I weren’t Peter, James, or John, I would likely ask myself and God, “How come Jesus didn’t choose me to be in his inner circle among the disciples? How come he didn’t take me up to a high mountain instead of leaving me down here with everyone else? What makes me less special than…
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Geography ain’t innocent. In the U.S. alone, white colonizers stole and spit on land, partly through mapping, naming, occupying, and defining borders with no regard for Indigenous communities. They committed genocide and displacement while also stealing my ancestors from Africa for centuries of bondage. Within the context of geography, I have long hoped to understand…
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To whom can the title, educator, call home? How is it defined and fully embodied? Questions like these underlie my life’s hope of honoring legacies and possibilities for Black, intergenerational wisdom and healing. In mid-October, a graduate school fellowship brought me back to New Orleans, Louisiana. My first time going was in July 2019. That…
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Do you believe that you are alone? Perhaps, you are in a season of yearning for companionship, whether romantically, platonically, or through community in another context. Maybe, you’ve grown frustrated searching for a church home or seeking mentors who can support you. Your desires are valid. Not feeling seen, connected, or chosen is painful. What…
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God, when I die, will I be able to fly above the clouds? Will I be able to time travel and see myself being born and celebrated? God, what was the top Hip Hop or R&B song on my true birth day? Can that be the soundtrack of my voyage? When I die, will I…
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1. You will learn that it is beautiful and okay to need support. If none of us ever supported each other, how would we survive? What gifts and stories would we rob people of showing? What aches and fears would we unnecessarily continue to suffer through? How fulfilling was it when you have offered time…
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I wish I learned how to swim I wish I learned how to dance I wish I learned that I could enjoy something without being good at it I wish I learned how to color outside of the lines I wish I learned how to fight I wish I learned that adults were still kids…
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What if loneliness didn’t have to be the end of the world? What if, instead, it could be a beginning? An invitation to admire strangely beautiful scenes and just wonder, for the joy of it, about everything. * Today, I cried at the beach. I craved a lover to sit with me, but my sadness…
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Forgive yourself for not always standing up for yourself. Forgive yourself for pretending like those offenses made against you were okay and even laughable. Forgive yourself for letting others define and limit you. Forgive yourself for all the unkind words you’ve said to yourself and really believed. You are not that person anymore; yet, even…
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I was never designed to breathe in two places at once. I was never equipped to audition my jealousy for highlight reels without me. I grow empty grieving all the parties, vacations, degrees, relationships, and celebrations I scrolled through but could not live. I’ve been tempted to post every cosmetic thing while privately pleading, “My…
Roots & Hope 