Same Café, New Me: How I Found Freedom Without Changing My Life

“Trauma creates change you don’t choose. Healing is about creating change you do choose.” ~Michelle Rosenthal” Today I am sitting in my favorite café in Venice Mall. I got my favorite seat, the one near the water. I have spent countless hours here. I have cried here. Journaled here. Drawn here. Consoled myself here. There […]

On Juneteenth, Black Women Reflect on Seeking Freedom…

On June 19, 1865—the day we now commemorate as “Juneteenth”—the enslaved people of Galveston, Texas, learned they were free. The Emancipation Proclamation had been signed more than two years earlier. The news had simply not arrived until then. I think about that gap often. The distance between the announcement of freedom and the experience of […]

How I Found Emotional Freedom and 3 Unexpected Benefits

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” ~Maya Angelou What if the person you’re trying hardest to please is you? For years, I wore a mask—a professional, composed, always-on version of myself that I thought everyone expected. My need to please […]