Apparently I have been away for longer than it feels like. I have been keeping myself busy with numerous tasks, and I constantly feel the perfect amount of whelmed in my daily life. Work is busy, but delightfully so. Home is busy, but delightfully so. I have started my duties with Big Brothers Big Sisters and I will soon be leaving to go meet my Buddy for lunch. He’s a great kid, and I have loved getting to know him. Because of the timing of his lunch, it also means that I get to work from home most Tuesday mornings. It has given me some time to think, some time to catch up, and some time to do some wedding planning that I am always too tired for in the evenings. Today, we also have a date night planned to go see Black Panther and I for one am super excited because I can eat popcorn and water for dinner without guilt.
This month, I have been practicing meditation, prayer, and mindfulness. As a result, I have done a lot more introspective thinking that I have in the past. When framing my prayers, I think about who has touched me not just that day, but for those feelings. It has been an amazing experience for me to take a mental step back and really evaluate where I am and where I am going. I was thinking about previous years when I have done Black History Month posts, and I realized that if you have been following me for years, you are probably wondering where those are right about now. The answer is simply, I didn’t have the energy for it this February. At first, I felt guilty about that. Black History Month is a time of celebration and in the past I had been a voice for that celebration. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I am perpetuating an idea that I hate, the idea that we should only celebrate in February. Black History cannot be confined to 28 days, and therefore, neither should my words. I am not sure what this means in terms of my blog, but I have to trust and believe that great things are on the horizon.
So why the title? Well, for one thing, this is the longest I have gone without an update to the blog and I honestly do not have an explanation. For another thing, with everybody going to see Black Panther this weekend, I was thinking about the need for silence. In order to give that movie or any other movie our full attention, we must be quiet for an extended period of time. The people around us are also asked to do the same. We don’t talk to whomever we went with, and we don’t leave our cell phones on for other people to contact us during the movie. We sit, and we munch on snacks, and we watch and take in. For me, that is a lot of my life this month and I have to say it has taught me quite a bit.
How often do you sit, and watch, and absorb information? Without taking notes, without commenting, without doing anything but observing and listening, how often do you allow this to happen? For most people, it is rarely, if at all. But let me say, it has been an incredible thing to notice the faintest sounds and how they make me feel. To listen to my friends stories and feel like we’re getting closer to each other. To be in this world of 7+ billion people, and be aware that we’re all co-exisiting even when we’re unawares. I really hope that you take some time to sit and just be. Think about yourself and your life and allow the world to impact you before you return to impacting the world.
She’s Got a Whole PhD 