Hey Love, 

We're about mid-way through 2020. A year that continuously rivals any other in recent history.  It feels like we're living in the pages of a history book; each of us raptly trying to chronicle what's happening in our communities, our country, and our world. Through conversations with friends, family, and online communities, there's a sentiment of revolution about. We all want to be active in these "historical" moments. Whether that's through participation in Black Lives Matter protest, signing petitions, donating, or engaging in difficult conversations about racism with loved ones. We want to take an intentional role to usher in the change we want to see. As someone who regularly journals, I often catch myself looking 5-10 years from this moment and reading my journals. What will I have written, what will I have witnessed, who was I in these moments? Surely I don't know the truth in this moment; what I do know, is who I hope to be.  


I hope to be someone who showed up. In this age of social media activism, speaking out against an injustice is easier than ever before. However, I don’t want to simply retweet and post something on my story. I want to show up in the marches, I want to show up with my money, I want to show up with accountability, I want to show up with knowledge, and most importantly, I want to show up having examined myself. What role do I play in perpetuating falsities; am I mindful of the ways white patriarchal systems shape my outlook in many arenas, because it does. As a Black woman living in America my experience is repeatedly dissected by those who can never share in my reality. My existence is exploited, exported, and appropriated with no credit to my being. When I look back on this moment, I hope I showed up as who I am, who God's blessed me to be; a Black woman.  

When the post about BLM stop trending, when the protest inevitably cease, when the world attempts to relegate my existence back to an inferior realm, I will still be a Black woman. I am living on the precipice of fundamental change. That change happens with my deliberate participation. I have to be intentional about what I engage with online and in person. Actively choosing to support brands, artist, producers of all kinds, that are align with the vision of a more equal world. I won't wait for the next artist or brand to be cancelled or for another innocent life to be unjustly taken away. Am choosing in this moment to proceed in life with an awareness that this change I want is going to require immense effort and a great deal of mindfulness to bring about.  

I want to be committed without prompt. I want to be committed for my future children. I want to be committed because I know humanity is able; because God is able.  

I believe in us. 

Faithfully, 

Marie