You Are Your Best Thing

So it feels only right to start this writing journey today.
A remembrance of when a document stated that the last enslaved people were emancipated.
A remembrance of the eternal ways in which Black people continue to be enslaved.
I imagine these words, these truths, can maybe lighten the load of what my body carries…that these words can be part of my freedom…

I have been thinking a lot about this quote:
“You are your best thing,” said Toni Morrison.
These days, I am breathing her words in as I sit with all the ways in which the world will tell a Black woman that she is not good enough and all of the work that goes into resisting that lie.
All the work.
All the time.

When I read Queen Toni’s words, I think of how important it is to center joy, to laugh, to love, to breathe, to learn, to meditate, to exercise, to connect, to write, to hydrate, to experience joy and pleasure, to pray, to watch, to acknowledge, to just be, and to rest.
It’s a forever job to interrogate and understand how all of that and more fits into my life puzzle, and I never want to resign from that job.
I owe it myself.
I owe it to myself to remove anything from my life that is not serving me (which is easier said than done).
To cultivate communities and relationships that work towards my passions and also allow me time to heal.
To intentionally take breaths to honor those who came before me and for those who no longer carry breath in their bodies.

To be my best thing.