Good morning 🌞 Image ID: On Waking Up I am wondering when newer became better. When we forsook the familiar for ideas of the future, mistook the mundane for less than extraordinary, wrote it off like a story. I am wondering when less stopped being more. When we began to believe that everything could be found in a store, that satisfaction will never be enough for you or for me. I am wondering when we fell for the lie. When we accepted that we’re here to work til we die, that our days are measured not in meaning but minutes and maximum efficiency. I am wondering when we can say we’ve made it. When we will look back and claim that the searching for fame and the making a name was worth what was lost, becoming somebody. I am wondering when the world will wake up. When we will open our eyes and realize that in staying asleep to keep chasing the dream, we forgot all we have: just this, to be.

this year, and beyond, i will move with my own mutability as a gift and no longer search for performative one-dimensionality. being home has taught me this, as i have had to witness my own shapeshifting and reckon with the deep-rooted reasons for it. i remember one day hearing adrienne maree brown and bayo akomolafe ask each other, “so what if i’m a shapeshifter?” and how they instinctually move and mutate through the cracks of the earth, and i haven’t stopped thinking about it since. this piece of writing is inspired by that question. as i become many different forms, i will stay grounded in my ever-changing essence and merge together the many shapes i am capable of becoming. 💞