the tea with honey: the sweet refrain

hey y'all, how ya mama nem?

Sometimes you need a minute. Sometimes you need 262,800. It's been almost seven months since my last newsletter, and we have so much to catch up on. For starter’s: I am officially an east coast girlie! I moved to my dream city (Raleigh, NC) in November to enter the biotech arena, and I couldn’t be more excited to be kicking off this new journey. When I started 2024, my goal was to move by Christmas, and I had no idea how I was going to make that happen. There were no job prospects, no savings, no clear path forward. On my birthday last year (01/11), there was a new moon in Capricorn (natal cap sun and venus), and I spent the day at the library visioning out exactly what I wanted from my twenty-sixth year. As the year wore on, I noticed so many evolutions and transformations within myself and how I approached life. Still, there were no prospects for Raleigh. It was still a dream (an obsession really). I started taking tiny aligned steps with the assumption that I was moving. I’m talking decluttering my space, clearing out debt, stacking up move in fees. I even serendipitously booked a flight to Raleigh for a random weekend in October, just to land an interview at my current job for that very Friday. God, the Universe, my ancestors and all the divine beings that smile on me were working fr! I was being prepared for a sweeping exit like I have never experienced. I remember thinking I need to prepare to have to make a move quickly with little thought and nothing left to chance. My exodus from Mississippi also unfortunately coincided with the loss of my grandfather. The whirlwind of events at the close of the year left me reeling and fighting for my footing. My life has always been one full of glaring contradictions, immense joy has had to exist at the same time as blinding pain, and being catapulted into this new beginning was no different. I found myself shifting between completing my leasing paperwork and tax information and helping my grandmother with obituary mockups. From the day Pop passed, I had exactly two weeks to make a multi-state move and start a new job. Beyond that initial loss, I would go on to lose so much that I never even bargained for—friendships, my sense of self, my routines.

pop and granny <3

I would be lying if I said that I have since made a seamless transition into my new life here in Raleigh and that my wellness routines have been stronger than ever. What I will say, though, is that I am more resilient here. I can breathe a little more freely here. I'm honing the skills in pivoting I learned over the years I spent in Mississippi finding my feet. My new life here is small and intimate. I get my groceries, take the dog out to different nature trails, and I put one foot in front of the other. There are tears—of joy, of grief, of pain—but, there is also laughter. One thing I can confidently say is that I am in need of returning home to myself in a big way. The stunned sensation brought on by the abrupt move, the grieving, the changes, and the adjustment to said changes is lifting, and I am ready to reconnect with my routines intentionally. It’s funny how you can manifest something and then be looking over your shoulder everyday once you get it, certain that it will somehow come to an end. I’ve been there for the past few months if I’m honest. I am being pushed to grow in a way that I wasn’t aware of needing but also seem to be already prepared for. I am in space of wanting to take complete ownership of my life and habits, to show up fully and unabashedly in this wonderful reality I have cultivated for myself. It would be a disservice to this little life of mine to continue to exist in the margins and not fully embrace it.

a typical morning for me and beaudie:)

Current Faves

• I’ve been obsessed with these music mixes on YouTube for background music. Very soothing, very groovy.

• Ofc, my fav YouTube girlie is Amani Rakeia . Living Alone Diaries gets me through this crazy life of mine and has even inspired me to take Late Bloomer Diaries in a new direction…stay tuned ;).

• For The Healthy Hoes Podcast keeps me fresh off a crash out every single week, and the guided mediations that Ri does…chef’s kiss.

This season of my life is teaching me to just show up. Imperfectly, meticulously, curated, scared, tired, overwhelmed, euphoric, all of these, none of these…just show the fuck up. I have been so in my head about returning to this platform or branching out into others because I wanted things to be perfect or to have the best conditions, but I have learned through the upheaval at the end of last year that there is no such thing as perfect conditions. If this is something I want, I have to just do it. The only way to do it is to literally DO IT. Consider this a reintroduction, a quick hey and see you later. Same time next week? Next time, we’ll go full out…just needed to flex the muscles a bit lol. Byeeeeee<3