Roots & Hope
Soulful Reflections on Faith, Healing, and Young Adulting
Category: Self-Love
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After church today, I went to a grocery store that I frequent often. This time though, I wore my flowery dress, and I chose not to dim my light. Walking through neat aisles of packages, prices, and produce, I held my head high. I smiled because I felt free. I noticed that when I carried…
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When the fear that she is forgotten drops on her window like a fallen icicle, she consoles her startled soul with a quiet prayer, “Lord, may I be more than a snowflake, Intricate and unique, Only to melt away. Remember me, God. Amen.”
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“Tell me what I gotta do to please you. Baby, anything you say, I’ll do. Cuz I only wanna make you happy. From the bottom of my heart, it’s true! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!” (These are crucial lines + adlibs from “I Wanna Know”, a ’90s R&B classic sung by Joe. Warning: Don’t even think…
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Every day is an honest struggle to fight the fear that I am forever alone, a war against mental snipers and automatic thoughts: Always forgotten, Always forgettable, Always unlovable, Always broken, Always left out, Always invisible, Always boring, And ugly, And hurting. Always empty and half-enough. Nothing stabs me like the days I’m given…
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These days burst with quiet successes, no rounds of applause for being you and showing up. These years, you search for things you don’t always know how to name. You reach for the fame of being known by people who will see you, sliver by sliver until you’re bare, bare being, bare heart, bare scars,…
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For the past few weeks, I’ve been visiting Central Baptist Church in Northwest Detroit. During church today, the pastor taught about depression while referring to a Biblical story in 1 Kings 19: 3-18. He said something like, Being depressed is not a sin. It does not mean that I’m spiritually disconnected or a bad Christian.…
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Shivering in the driver’s seat of my parked hatchback, I called one of my best friends who picked up after the first ring. I confessed to her that I was struggling in every area of my life. I was afraid of not only becoming a failure but also looking like one to everyone else. **…
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On November 15, I spent my hour-long lunch break eating my usual leftovers and doing some introspection. I realized that I was fed up. In my relationships, personal and otherwise, I’ve strived to be consistent and (impossibly) perfectly pleasing. “Show up and do all that you can to prove you’re worthy even if it means…
Roots & Hope 