It gently, but quite obviously, gives the pregnant silence we all experience in our daily lives a set of subtitles. For all the unsaid feelings, the unimaginable circumstances, and the ways women have come undone at the seams, this book takes us deep into the American South and attempts to (and succeeds in) reminding us that despite our many differences, we all suffer at the same oppressive hands.
As a community, we've suffered more loss in the last year than we might have ever done in our collective lifetimes and I'm gonna be honest with you all, it's left us a little scarred, hasn't it? A little stripped of our defences and a shell of our most vulnerable selves.
Grounding and mindfulness exercises are key to our wellbeing and yet, they're things we prefer to use as buzzwords rather than a part of our daily life. Here are some ways we can start implementing them in our lives.
Dear You,
I have so many hopes for you, but the most important one is that I hope you simply enjoy being alive today, tomorrow, and for all the days of your life.
The days are dark, and the light seems as though it will never shine upon us, but we’re going to power through anyway and hold on to the most powerful thing we have, hope. The tides will inevitably change, and our paths will too often stray from the linear one we’d hoped for it to stay on, but that isn’t always a bad thing; sometimes what we need is different to what we want and it is in the right timing and situation that all which is right for us will align and make its self apparent.
On the good days and the bad, I reached out for my comfort book and read it cover to cover until my little brain pleaded with me to change it up a bit and read something new. But, my goodness, that book changed me.
And that’s the biggest difference in this new year of life. For so long I have lived for everyone else that I forgot that I’m a person too, and I deserve to be cared for by me.
On some mornings I still stand in front of the mirror for a minute too long and have to fight the urge to knock all of these products off the sink, but I have to take a moment to remind myself that this is for me. It hasn't always been for me, but it is now. I owe it to myself to be kind to my body, mind, and soul.
