You will love again the stranger who was your self.

I accidentally forgot to wear makeup to work yesterday and instead of royally freaking out, I just shrugged my shoulders and said "oh well. I'm still sexy:-)" If this would have been two years ago...omg! I probably would have driven right home for my makeup bag. This is not to say that I don't care about my appearance, but that my self worth and confidence doesn't lie solely in the external anymore.

Self esteem used to be this soft and elusive thing, that I could never fully grasp, and my days were literally filled with "if only's." If only I were skinnier, taller, smarter, nicer, lighter-skinned, more reserved, more outgoing. The list went on and oooooooon. But, with every year, I care less about who I am to the world and find my identity more firmly staked in who I am to God. Yes!

“See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” - Isaiah 49:16

Now, that's some heart-warming truth! For once, I'm starting to love myself and believe that I am truly worthy of love. It's a strange, new feeling, but I think that I wear it well:-)

Anyway, this beautiful piece below captures my sentiments exactly...

Enjoy, sweetie pies! And remember, love begins with you.

Love After Love
BY Dereck Walcott

The time will come, when with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome
and say, sit here.
Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine.
Give bread.
Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you.
all your life, whom you have ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit.
Feast on your life.

Women Everywhere Look Just Like Her?

I was planning on ranting on and on about the objectification of women of color in America. About the decades of media propaganda that have allowed little but half-bakes caricatures of Chinese/ Latina/ Brazilian/ Ethiopian/ Caribbean / bi-racial/ (insert any non-white group of) women to dominate our popular culture. About the ignorance of the word "exotic," when applied to people, and of the cultural/ sexual hierarchy that it creates. But I decided against it...this time.

Instead, I will let Suheir Hammad speak for me:-)

A recent conversation with a friend reminded me of how much I ::HEART:: this piece!! And, in typical Suheir style, "Not Your Exotic, Not Your Erotic" is both fierce and tender. Wonderfully written and beautifully performed. She quickly cuts to the heart of the matter in a way that only she can.

Listen closely and open your hearts.

"don’t wanna be your exotic
some dark, fragile, colorful bird
imprisoned
caged in a land foreign to the stretch of her wings

don’t wanna be your exotic
women everywhere look just like me
some taller, darker, nicer than me
but like me just the same

women everywhere carry my nose on their faces
my name on their spirits

don’t seduce yourself with my other-ness"
(full text)

My First Lucille Clifton

I knew I was in love when my out-of-town-boo sent me this poem in email. It was the first I had read of Lucille Clifton, but now I'm hooked. What can I say...I'm a sucker for a guy with appreciates the beauty of words. At least he's not a poet. I think I'm done with those for a while:-) Enjoy this very sassy piece and remember that you are some.damn.BODY!

luv!

What the Mirror Said
BY Lucille Clifton,

listen,
you a wonder.
you a city
of a woman.
you got a geography
of your own.
listen,
somebody need a map
to understand you.
somebody need directions
to move around you.
listen,
woman,
you not a no place
anonymous
girl;
mister with his hands on you
he got his hands on
some
damn
body!

Screw Fashion!! This is a Matter of Principle!

WTF Friends!! Just found a BBC.com article about a woman in Sudan that has been jailed for wearing trousers. She refuses to plead guilty to their trumped up charges and refuses to pay a fine for what the government is calling "dressing indecently." Although the fine amounts to about $200, she says she's not going to give legitimacy to their ruling by giving them a single penny. This woman is fierce and the defintition of a real feminist!! But why oh why do we live in a world where women are still being jailed and fined for wearing trousers!??! Madness!

In the words of my home girl Suheir Hammad - "I will dance and resist and dance persist and dance!!" Not for the sake of fashion, but because there is no progress without struggle!

Read more below -

Sudanese 'trousers woman' jailed
A Sudanese woman has been jailed for a month after refusing to pay a fine for "dressing indecently" by wearing trousers, her lawyers say.

Lubna Ahmed Hussein did not want to "give the verdict any legitimacy" by paying the fine of about $200 (£122), her lawyer, Nabil Adib, told the BBC.

Ms Hussein, a journalist in her 30s, could have been given up to 40 lashes.

Before the verdict, she had said she wanted her trial to become a test case for women's rights, correspondents say.

Ms Hussein had resigned from her job at the UN, which would have given her immunity.

"She thinks she was unfairly tried and convicted and was not given a proper chance to put her defence case," Mr Adib said.

He said Ms Hussein would appeal to both the Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court.

Kamal Omar, another of Ms Hussein's lawyers, told the AFP news agency his client had been taken to the women's prison in Omdurman.

The BBC's James Copnall, at the court in Khartoum, says that Ms Hussein had previously said she was determined not to pay the fine but her lawyers had been trying to convince her to do so.

More