As of 12/31/19, the first draft of my first book - Daily Meditations for Women of Color - is complete and available on...Instagram at @dailymeditations_for_woc! Weren’t expecting me to say Instagram? Let me explain…
At the end of 2018, I noticed yet another space where the voices of women of color were left out/forgotten/purposefully ignored/erased: daily meditation/intention books.
Based on my research, the works I found largely reflected male and/or white voices as the arbiters of wisdom (in the form of the daily quote). When people of color and/or women were cited in the daily quote, it was often done in a generalized, impersonal fashion (e.g. “African proverb”, “Buddhist saying”), or in ways that perpetuate a colonialist/capitalistic mentality with ideas like humans dominating the earth. Exclusionary at worst; stereotypical and tokenized at best — I knew I could do better.
I wanted a daily practice that reflected voices like mine and that spoke to my intersectional experience as a woman of color. I also knew that such a work’s resonance would not be limited to only women of color.
So, on January 1, 2019, I opened a brand new Instagram account and challenged myself to find a quote from a woman of color, to write a reflection/meditation based on the idea in that quote, to post to Instagram, and to do so every single day of the year. I knew that having to post daily would hold me accountable to actually doing it, but I still had no idea if I could. It felt scary and daunting and I could not conceive of an entire year where I stuck with something Every. Single. Day.
There were some days when finding the quote was easy and the caption just flowed, and then there were days when it took what felt like ages to find something I liked, days where I truly couldn’t keep my eyes open and all I could manage in the caption was one line and en emoji. On days when I was traveling, I had to get creative if I was going to be in the air when midnight hit. And some days, I just flat our didn’t want to do it - being tired, or sick, or simply feeling uninspired. But I pushed through and truly learned the meaning of ‘a day at a time’ this year by embodying it through my daily posts. I also learned about my process as a writer — that often the best ideas come simply by starting, not by thinking, and how true this lesson is for so many things in life.
The most unexpected and magical change I experienced was that the amazing women of color I learned about through this work started to create the richest tapestry of ideas and connections in my mind. So much so, that when a patient, client, friend, or family member would tell me about a problem or dilemma they were experiencing, I started to easily respond with “there’s a quote for that”.
My quotes followed a four step rotation with the sequence: Black, Native, Asian, Latina. I did my best to include voices of women from all over the world, however there is definitely a bias toward U.S. Americans. I repeated some of the same women (however not in the same month), but every quote is unique. I also looked to include transgender women, and in my second draft will be working to increase inclusion in that respect.
As This Bridge Called My Back featured writings by radical women of color and pushed for a more inclusive, decolonized, intersectional feminism, I hope that that this work provides a space where radical women of color, who are continuing to fight for such a feminism, can be seen and can rest. Sisters, in seeing our own voices, struggles, wisdom, humor, vitality, resilience, and joy reflected back to us, may we be supported in accessing our highest selves, living unapologetically out loud, and in, ultimately, getting free. My wish for non WOC readers is the same...and that, in reading voices that are different than yours, perhaps you come to new understandings and envision new possibilities for how life can be lived.
My plan is to turn this work into a book, but in the meantime, I had one follower say she is going to go back to the 1/1/2019 post and start journaling/meditating daily on each entry. I thought that was a great idea, which I hadn’t considered. Depending on your phone and operating system, if you’re so inclined, it shouldn’t be too hard to scroll back to my very first post from last year and do the same. Feedback WELCOME!
Wishing you all a happy, health, and expansive 2020 and beyond, filled with much love, pleasure and axé.