Vital Signs

If you have ever been to the doctor, one of the first things they do is check your vitals: temperature, pulse, respiration rate, and blood pressure. These are all important measurements when evaluating your health. Of course, there are other things they check as well, but these are key. When was the last time you got your vitals checked? Naturally and spiritually. Do a temperature check. How’s your mood? How’s your attitude? How’s your environment? When was the last time you enjoyed yourself? When was the last time you felt a thrill or a chill? How’s your breathing? How are you sleeping? Have you gotten any good rest? Pause Take a breath. What’s your blood pressure like? What have you done to get your blood pumping? When’s the last time you let yourself really feel? Check your body. Check your soul. Check your mind. Check your vitals signs.

Chatter

Falsely accused. Arrested. Not given a fair trial. Beaten. Condemned. Executed. This echoes too many stories of black people in this country. It echoes the story of a man who died on calvary over 2000 years ago. We have a collective history of violence. Our black bodies have been beaten and bruised since our arrival in this country. We have endured hardships and deliberate experimentation. We have been ostracized and sterilized. We have been sold promises of an unrealized American Dream. How many bodies must be stacked up in this nightmare on our street? So. We wake up and take to the streets in protest only to attest to rubber bullets fired in our direction. Tear gas choking us out. We can't breathe. You're on our necks like nooses from Southern trees. We will never have enough degrees cause we've never been given room...from the bottom decks of slave ships to concrete jungles in the sky to boardrooms. We've been groomed to grow roses in concrete. We learned to survive in gentrified neighborhoods that used to be our Black Wall Street. Everything we have...has been appropriated. We've always been on the frontlines. We were the calvary, infantry, and the air force. We understand excessive force oh too well. We've been hunted in Georgia since Antebellum days. We've nursed your babies and raised products of rape. Our blood turned Georgia clay Red. America has always redlined us with red tape. Outlined our bodies with chalk then gawk at us when we say black lives matter as if another name isn't added to the list from police radio chatter.

Heroes

Real heroes don't wear capes. They are on the front lines fighting an invisible villain. They are wiping down grocery carts and stocking shelves. They are volunteers at testing centers. They are bus and truck drivers. They are garbage collectors. They are postal workers.  They are nurses and doctors. They are in drive-thrus. They are in warehouses. They are civil servants. They are essential. They are making everyday life a little bit easier. They are risking their well-being for ours. They are our real life heroes. Thank you for all you do!!!!

Revive

I know it doesn’t feel much like Spring. It seems like we are trapped in an episode of the “Twilight Zone.” Life seems more like a movie than reality. Media is focused more on mortality than humanity. We will recover. We will survive. We will thrive. We will revive.

Reset

We have a wonderful opportunity to get a “do-over.” We can create new habits. We can change our perspective. We can alter our life’s trajectory. We have been blessed with a reset rolled up under the guise of a pandemic. We can panic or we can pray. We can have faith or we can have fear. We can focus on our family. We can focus on our friendships. We can focus on our businesses. We can “reclaim our time!” Due to current circumstances, our excuses are null and void. We have nothing but time and opportunity. Reset!

art

I’ve been binge-watching Hunters on Prime Video. Its a crazy show about Nazis in America and a colorful group of vigilantes who are hunting them. There is one scene when they find themselves in a bank vault with jewels, family heirlooms, and art that was confiscated from the Jews before they were sent to the Death camps. I kept thinking that the only remnants from these countless families were their material possessions. If we found ourselves ushered off to death camps because a foreign regime….what would be left? What paintings and poems and stories would come from our possessions? What would people learn about us from our things? What would our art look like?

“With age, art and life become one. ”

-Georges Braque

Full

Life is better when you’re full. Full of joy. Full of peace. Full of happiness. Your car rides better on a full tank. Your refrigerator looks better when its full.Babies sleep better on a full stomach. There is something about functioning at capacity. So, why do we try to operate out of an empty glass? Why do we ride on fumes? Why do we give more than we can afford? Mostly, because we’ve been conditioned by lack. We get used to not enough. We get used to disappointment. Change your mindset. You lack nothing. Ask. Seek. Receive. You are complete. You have more than enough. You operate out of your overflow. You are full.