What. A. Time. Against a backdrop of fiery Los Angeles and images that portray a hellfire on Mother Earth, I celebrated the start of my personal new year on January 7. As per usual, it was brick cold, and like the winter months tend to evoke in me, I wanted little more than to hibernate, nest, and turn my focus inward for this cold and dormant season. Yet my gratitude and joy for another year intermingled with feelings of grief caused by news reports about the thousands of displaced families, their painful material and spiritual losses in L.A., and growing upheaval as the U.S. transitions to a new presidential administration and government. Moreover, the loss of any semblance of sensible American leadership guts me daily, knowing that all this human suffering—and that which is imminent—is preventable. Yet, I have become skilled at holding contradictory realities like both pain and joy  simultaneously.

I also had surgery for the first time in my life on January 13, a surgery that cured my body of precancerous cells, required general anesthesia, will include a prolonged medical leave, and no exercise for (count them) six weeks. (So expect more e-newsletters and blog posts in the coming weeks. Haha.)

When I walked into the operating room, I was in awe. A room of super high-tech machines, devices and giant robots, it looked like a StarTrek “sickbey” set on steroids. I was astounded by humankind’s ingenuity. I can honestly say I felt a swell of excitement and curiosity, and I wished I could witness my own procedure from above, as if I was watching through a camera lens on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

I am grateful for my all-women medical team, their dedicated study, mathematical and scientific precision, collaboration, compassionate care, and ongoing professional development—and interventions based on the latest research and intimate awareness of preventative health and health outcomes for Black women—all of which transformed what could have become a potentially fatal disease into a few hours long, life-altering procedure. All this occurred while a dismantling continues of the very values and institutions that made my procedure accessible and affordable—because I have good health insurance and because I live in a state that still has excellent women’s healthcare. My fortunate circumstances should not be privileges, but fundamental rights and the norm.

While watching chaos—not unlike a Greek tragedy—play out via the media, a perfect harmony of cooperation and supportive community is what I’ve been experiencing in my personal life. I am overcome with gratitude despite this striking and dissonant irony.

For the next four years and undoubtedly beyond, my energy and focus will be directed toward experiences with people that bring this kind of focus, brilliance and high vibrational purpose and action to all they do. There are so many of us that have compassion, collaboration, creativity, community, equity, prevention, innovation and liberation hard-wired into us, and we will light the way for others to remember who they are as well. I don’t believe we have a single moment to waste doing anything but cultivating these qualities in ourselves and others. At the same time, I have my ear to the ground, preparing and acting in ways that help myself and the most vulnerable in my community dodge the harmful impact of plans by an extremist oligarchy—by being smart, safe, flexible and ready. I hope you are, too.

I have always felt protected and guided in this life, and if you feel similarly, I have faith that the answers and solutions that are needed to usher in a society and world that is habitable for all will be sourced from this guidance, and not be found in dominant culture beliefs and systems. They will come from fortifying indigenous, womanist, Black liberation, collectivist, compassionate, and Earth-centered orientations that relocate our human experience into a context that honors our interconnectedness, our capacity for spiritual connection, and the environment that sustains us.

Wintertime quiet is a wonderful time to take that deep dive into spiritual practice, literature and wisdom teachings that might help change our future. Pause + Press Play Retreat for Women of Color w/ Marla Teyolia, my March Together: A Yoga Retreat in Southern Portugal, and clinical therapy sessions with me at ATD Therapy are a few offerings intended to support that end. I hope to see you in 2025. Take good care.

Therapy space at my clinical internship site, ATD Therapy in Manhattan.

Pause + Press Play Retreat for Women of Color at Mar de Jade in 2024

Together: A Yoga Retreat in Southern Portugal, rooftop of our private villa