“We are not the idea of us, not even the idea that we hold of us. We are us, multiple and varied, becoming. The heterogeneity of us. Blackness in a Black world is everything, which means that it gets to be freed from being any one thing. We are ordinary beauty, Black people, and beauty must be allowed to do its beautiful work.” Kevin Quashie describes in Black Aliveness, or, A Black Poetics of Being.
Sometimes we can be our worst enemy. Sometimes we allow thoughts and feelings to invade our calm, our peace. Why?
Something I fail to understand or have a handle on. All I can do is practice. Have faith and trust.
So this little list of gratitude is practiced with the intention of appreciating what is right in front of me instead of skipping to the end and getting all the wires and paths crossed.
Today I am grateful for rest.
Today I am grateful for coffee.
Today I am grateful for the page and pen.
Today I am grateful for the time and space to commune with myself.
Today I am grateful for hot buttered toast.
Today I am grateful for the music.
Today I am grateful for the dawn chorus.
Today I am grateful for the sea.
Today I am grateful for the earth.
Today I am grateful for the light.
Today I am grateful to love and be loved.
(Speaking about Robert Lowell’s poetry) “Lowell removes the mask. His speaker is unequivocally himself, and it is hard not to think of Life Studies as a series of personal confidences, rather shameful, that one is honor-bound not to reveal.”
M. L. Rosenthal’s article “Poetry as Confession.”
I’m taking a four week confessional poetry course with midnight & indigo. Founded in 2018, midnight & indigo is a small publisher and literary journal that provides a space for Black women writers to share their narratives with the world.
Tw weeks in and I’m loving the course, Tell Me Something Real: How to Write Confessional Poetry. Not only is the tutor, Schyler Butler knowledgeable, and thorough providing great examples for poetry within this genre all from Black women, but the group of writers signed up for the course bring it every week with their insight and feelings around each poem we read and discuss.
And then we get to trial out what we’ve learnt through these close writings within our own writing, as the sessions finishes with time to write a first draft of a poem and then share it with the group. I’m enjoying what I’m coming up with after being inspired. Because in all honesty, from time I’ve been a confessional poet but have never smashed the term on it.
Confessional poetry in essence can be distilled to 4 main components.
I’m working on a new body of work now. So still in the draft stage but I’ll share a poem from time here, as evidence of my appreciation and dance with this form of poetry.
White Women
Within my family, there are white women.
White women who married black men. I forget,
neglect the fact that their blood flows through mine.
Trace the past, a sea of faceless white is mine.
The black men forefront, a mist of women
behind. Their names, I don’t know or forget.
They are the enigma, shadows. Forget
the cleaning and cooking, their duty and mine,
they went against the grain, steadfast women.
In the corner of the frame, you white women
are not forgotten. Your spirit is mine.
Family Album, 2011
When life throws you curve balls to knock you off your feet and forces you to reassess everything in your life, this is when you lean into the practices which have seen you right.
Those practices which keep you buoyed when it appears you’re drowning or about to go down.
Those practice which you practice everyday but really come into their own when the chips our down.
One of those practices is keeping a gratitude journal. And it doesn’t have to be something major or time consuming.
Thinking on one simple thing is enough to switch my thinking, to get me to count my blessings and step up again. Renewed, restored and ready.
This week has been a week of happenings and announcements and shit hit the fan moments. But I’m alive and here to live another day. So all is not bad.
I’m a firm believer that things happen for a reason. Maybe to test us. Maybe to move us into a better situation. To gain clarity and perspective. To live a better life on my own terms.
This card ‘thunderstorm’ signifies tremendous upheaval and change, happening or about to. And it is out of my control. But I must keep the faith, trust in Mother Nature that these things are happening for the best.
Things are out of my control. But how I respond to this period of upheaval is within my control.
I’m choosing to count my blessings, lean into my practices and give thanks. Give thanks for all that is going right or is good in my life right now. Here and now.
I’m grateful for the light. I’m grateful for rest. I’m grateful for a warm comfortable bed. I’m grateful for morning coffee. I’m grateful for time spent with the people I love. I’m grateful for my health. I’m grateful for my creativity. I’m grateful for all the opportunities which have and are coming my way. I’m grateful for food in the cupboards. I’m grateful for the roof above my head. I’m grateful for the air I breathe. I’m grateful for the earth between my toes. And I’m grateful for the water that holds me.
Dear Everybody
As my great nana Rosa ( the wee ginger lass who hooked up with the Ghanaian sailor) used to ask, ‘How you fizzing?’
There was a time when people lived their lives in deep connection with the Natural world. We lived, worked, ate, and designed our days and even our homes around the cycles and seasons of the planet, in sync with the Earth we depend on. That connection kept us grounded, mindful, and, in many ways, healthier in mind and body.
Today, research shows that 93% of our lives are spend indoors – and that was before the pandemic!
You don’t even have to be a nature lover to know that can’t be good for us. In fact, we’re coming to understand that so many of the world’s most pervasive problems – from heart disease, depression, and poor sleep, to droughts, wildfires, and rising oceans – can be traced to our personal and societal disconnection from the Earth and from our own “true nature” as humans.
That is why I’m delighted to share with you today an upcoming event created specifically to address this damaging disconnection with simple, practical tools you can apply to your life right away – no matter how busy you are.
🌳 The Rise Up Rooted Global Wellness Symposium 🌳
Reconnect with the Earth, Reawaken Your True Nature, and Rewild Your Busy Life!
EVENT AIRS: May 15 – 19, 2023
Click here to join now for FREE!
The Rise Up Rooted Global Wellness Symposium was created by my friend and colleague Alex Strauss and is taking place Monday to Friday, May 15 – 19. Click here to learn more & register (free)!
I’m proud to be a featured speaker at this event where I’ll be talking about healing with/in nature. I’ll be talking on WEDNESDAY, MAY 17th and it will be available for participants to watch for 48 hours.
And don’t worry – this event isn’t going to monopolize your week. Alex is committed to serving busy people so none of the interviews run longer than 45 minutes. So you’re sure to get all of the wisdom and none of the fluff.
Here are some of the other topics you can look forward to during this info-packed week:
🍃 Digital Detox: How to Rewild Your Brain and Body with Tracy James
🍃 Food, Nature, & Human Health with Robin Richardson
🍃 The Natural Path to Beauty & Self-Care with Face Yoga with Danielle Collins
🍃 Heal Your Home, Heal Your Body with Charlie Lemmer
🍃 Exploring Ancient Wisdom in Nature for Challenging Times with Beth Norcross
🍃 Pachamama is Calling with Mariela Maya
🍃 Nature as Creative Muse with Cathy Nichols
🍃 How to Use the Metaphor and the Wisdom of the Five Seasons to Guide and Inspire Us with Karyn Prentice & Elaine Patterson
🍃 Black British Women: Reclaiming the Landscape with Sheree Mack ( WEDNESDAY, MAY 17th and will be available for participants to watch for 48 hours).
🍃 Guiding Changemakers from Burnout to Renewal withDevorah Brous
🍃 Regenerative Design for Life and Landscape with Keri Evjy
🍃 The Healing Power of Trees in Cities with Jackee Holder
🍃 Telling Your Own Nature Story from Your Soul with Devorah Spilman
🍃 Bringing Children Back Into Nature with Ellen Dee Davidson
🍃 Walking in Nature: The 20-Minute Miracle Cure with Alex Strauss
…and many more!
You really don’t want to miss this.
You can attend the Rise Up Rooted Global Wellness Symposium completely FREE. When you register, you’ll be notified each day when the various interviews are available.
Click here to register (free) for the Rise Up Rooted Wellness Symposium.
Best
Sheree
PS – The amount of practical wisdom you will get access to for FREE during this event has the potential to dramatically change the rest of 2023 for you (not to mention the rest of your life!) I recommend you make the time. Click here to register.
PPS – Got a friend who could use a dose of Nature’s medicine? Please forward this invitation. All are welcome!
As it stands I’ve completed 20 miles of the 52.4 miles for the month of May. Nearly half way there and not even half way through the month yet. So pleased with how I’m moving.
I’ve mentioned my mum and walking , but she’s not my only inspiration when it comes to putting one foot in front of another.
At this time of year when growing up in Bradford, May light nights and rising temperatures, after tea ( as I am a Yorkshire lass!), each evening we would go out for walks. Dad and Mum, sis and me.
Of course I didn’t want to do it. It felt like a punishment. A cruel exercise is working out our energy before bedtime. How I hated going to be in the light nights.
We set out from our maisonette flat, take the bridge over the dual carriage way, to walk up the hill past the textile factories and into the rabbit warren estates of ‘Little Jamaica’.
My only joys of these evening walks, we’re picking up scraps of fur from the toy making factories and lining my pockets with them so I could stroke their softness while I walked.
The only other joy was if we called in Dad and Mum’s friend Beverley who lived over on the other side of the road, who had a son called Ivor, that I quite liked. He had Thunderbirds toys I liked to play with too.
These evening walks were something I endured. Something to get through. Now as I’m older, appreciating the light nights for walks out, I’m inflicting the same ritual on my daughter when she’s staying with me. Ignoring her complaints and marching her out the door.
And on those evenings that I walk alone, covering more miles and sinking deeper into my body and the present moment, no longer needed are scraps of fur in my pocket to keep me walking.
The act of walking itself, being outside with all nature has to offer, with heart and soul open is enough to feel joy and gratitude and light.
Today I am grateful for the light
Today I am grateful for the rest
Today I am grateful for the food
Today I am grateful for the company
Today I am grateful for the love
dark morels
clustering
against roots
of ash trees
moist
in gathering dark
night air leaning
into a textured silence
well-earned through
a receding wall of trees
I have a little series of poems inspired by fungi: mushrooms, toadstools and the like.
I’ve always enjoyed looking at pictures of fungi. I’d draw them from books and colour then in with coloured pencils. I started a collection of them, when a child. In real life, I’m not too sure, I like fungi up close. I think something the way they feel puts me off. And that they are alive!
Also the idea of spores frighten me. Obviously, the fear comes from a lack of understanding and knowledge about them.
What I do know is that they are vital to life. And that whole underground system they have going on of passing nutrients and messages between plants and ecosystems and other organisms is truly remarkable. And has to be respected.
Anyway, I was thinking of pulling these fungi poems together into a mushroom zine. I do love my zines. What do you think?
Of course I have to find the time to create it. But now I’ve stated it here, it lends some kind of accountability to completing the task.
Anyway, above is a brief extract from one of the poems. I think I have about 5 or 6 of them. So I’ll keep working on them and start thinking of some cool design to go with them.
Of course being here now, saying all this, is me thinking out loud. Making some kind of commitment to a dream and making steps to seeing it through.
I’l share some more of the poem in the next post.
To spiral is a magical course. One that we can journey on forever.
In the process of becoming whole.
Reconnecting with self, is a circling within. To listen.
Hear your inner wisdom, allow this voice to spiral outwards.
Show up in all your fucked up glory. Access how you are received.
Reflect on the experiences by spiralling back inside.
Turn each event and memory like amber up into the light.
See each crevice, each scar, each deep rooted lesson.
Regroup, patch up and offer yourself grace as you spiral back out into the world.
Rearmoured and ready to reconnect with the world on your own terms.
Spiralling in and out is the plan for change. Is a sign of love.
Living Wild Studios 