How to Heal as a Black Woman – August 24th, 2018. 

1) Go to the river. Baptize. Sit and write. Take a nap. Find the rock in the sun and lay there eating oranges.

2) Write. Think. Think about your body. Ask each other how your bodies are. Talk endlessly about your body, your feelings. Notice the everything you normally don’t have space to notice. Go slow. Rush to nowhere. Write more. Talk about Sally Hemings. Talk about your grandmothers and mothers while crickets chirp outside. –

3) Go to the crossroads. Ask the Man to guide you on your path and to close the door on smallness and bullshit. Leave an offering.

4) Consult the ancestors. Look for ancestors in nearby New England cemeteries. Look for Native words on maps and road signs and whisper them through the air.

5) Rewatch Lemonade and Beychella. Take pictures of as many Beyoncé references as possible. Read Vogue. Think about her.

6) Strategize.

7) Smudge all doorways and walkthroughs.

8) Rub your body with oil while thinking about relationships.

9) Go back to the water. Sit near her. Watch bees.

10) Rub plants.

11) Roll your eyes together when interrupted over dinner and breakfast and lunch by white women who want to tell you things about themselves you didn’t ask.

12) Think about Detroit. Talk about Detroit.

13) Laugh. Laugh again.

14) Talk about Hoteps

15) Listen to Sade

16) Listen to The Velevt Rope.

17) Drive. Eat Jamaican food. Plan your next retreat.

18) Cry. Breath the air. Be grateful. See bees. 

~On Retreat with Taylor Aldridge ♥