What Got Us Through

Beautiful!

'Reading Rainbow's' Levar Burton To Livestream Readings Starting Friday He'll livestream readings on Twitter

Join this LIVE broadcast today for some tips and tricks and camaraderie - for those whose "snacking and sitting" behaviors are giving them anxiety!

lovely painting by siwabayek on twitter! tony’s fantastic at capturing attention and energy through their work.

beautiful painting by fostercared on Instagram! 💙🦋

https://view.publitas.com/p222-14835/patron-saints-of-earth/page/1

Check out this exploration of ecofeminism by Jasmine Renaé, a concept revolving around the marriage of womanhood and earth.

My publications - Patron Saints of Earth - Page 1 - Created with Publitas.com Patron Saints of Earth

gorgeous piece from zotaita on Instagram and Twitter! juno’s world building and story telling is immersive and out of this world.

a beautiful piece from Finn Eliezer , who has a knack for fashioning dreamlike states through his art. 💙

In this dark and unsettling time, let your true colors shine through.

True Colors - Camden Voices (virtual choir cover) In a time of physical isolation, we believe more than ever in creating new ways to stay in touch and keep doing the things we love. So, with that in mind, he...

Be Optimistic Featuring Lee Mo and Ahmad Sanon It's been quite a rough time in our world. Let's try to spread some positivity and joy! Let's stick together! We will get through this time. We are Optimistic!

Hair Dilemma

Maybe I'll do locs,
like Mother Toni.
I already kinda look like her--
similar eyes and mouth and forehead... same nose.
She could have been a sister
to my mother--
one of Blanche's daughters--
strong of will and mind and spirit
just like Pearl and Sue and Mama.
I could do worse than emulate her--
let my hair go gray,
its coils coil into and onto themselves,
rolling and dipping,
writhing and twisting, yearning
to spill all my secrets
but only to those brave enough
to risk their fingertips
in my depths.

Teresa Freeman Barnhill
March 23, 2020

Keep dreaming. Shane Evans, thanks for sharing!

Shane W. Evans Performs Olu's Dream Theme Song @ BloomBars Shane wrote this some for his latest book, Olu's Dream, the first of a series that will inspire children to dream the world over. Shane will be back at Bloom,…

Do you journal? No time like the present.

‘Write It Down’: Historian Suggests Keeping a Record of Life During Pandemic Tico Braun offers many suggestions to create a record of what’s happening – for the sake of history and to be part of a different kind of community.

When I was going through my divorce 12 years ago, I started something called Facebook poetry.

I would ask my friends a provocative question and use all of their answers to create a poem, then share it and tag them as co-authors.

While people enjoyed the outcome, it was the process that I found healing. Friends, it is time to revisit Facebook poetry.

Today's question: What are you most grateful for?

Please comment below.
Chiquita Lockley Chris Cain McKalpain Eric Joyner Teresa Freeman Barnhill Help me kick this party off!

- Tara Jaye Frank

Will this be a weekly occurrence? D-Nice and his IG Live Party “Home Schooled” was LIT!

D-Nice Breaks Instagram Less Than 1 Hour Into His Virtual Party People are having virtual concerts and performances... but no one broke Instagram like D-Nice and his “Homeschoolin’: Social Distancing Dance Party.”

Doing whatever it takes to get through!

Brilliance! Leave it to Avery*Sunshine. 💙💙

WELCOME!

When times are tough, creative people make things. It's how we deal with loss, change and uncertainty, and helps us maintain optimism.

From writing to visual art to music to fitness routines to cooking and baking, people everywhere are creating and sharing. So we thought we'd offer a home for all of your beautiful (and delicious) things.

Thanks for visiting. We hope you stay, and what's more, we hope you post what you're creating to get you through.

I am so excited to be part of this with you, Tara Jaye Frank! And with all of you fellow creatives. This is the intro to the new book I'm working on: The Art of the Return. You all will inspire me to keep returning to art. To stories. To connections with my fellow humans.

The Art of the Return
by Jacquelyn Fletcher Johnson

ARRIVAL

We all begin from a place of innocence. A place of grace and beauty and love and perfection. Yes, my friend. Perfection.

And then things happen.

We’re told stories about who we are and what we’re capable of. We hear from other people what is expected of us. And who we’re supposed to be in order to belong.

Even if these stories don’t fit who we are or feel all wrong, we begin to tell ourselves the stories we learned, because of course, if we don’t—if we disagree—our young minds believe we will die. We will be left for dead in the forest. Abandoned. Forever.

And so as the stories become embedded within us—these stories, layered one on top of another on top of another—we begin to abandon ourselves.

This avalanche of words from the humans, the culture, the religion, or the gender we’re born into turn into beliefs. In this way, these words become our identities. We begin to tell ourselves stories based on what we’ve heard. We twist the stories and get them wrong. We even create stories that never happened in order to help us survive.

The problem is this—we rarely examine our stories for truth.

Some of us never open the book of our beginnings to read the words there and find out the authors of those stories or the genesis of those tales.

Some of us only open the book because we’re forced to when we’re in crisis.

But all of us can choose to walk the path of consciousness. You can choose to build your awareness of your relationship to your own heart. Your body. Your mind. Your emotions. Your spirit.

And when you commit to understanding this creature that is you, you begin the journey of self-mastery that all the ancient wise ones before us spoke of.

All of us can come to know the words written on our souls. All of us can return to who we really are.

And that’s what this book is about, my friend.

The Return.

You see, in all my years of studying mindfulness and human development, resilience and perseverance. In the thousands of interactions I’ve had with the people I’ve worked with over the past two decades. In all my years as a struggling human on this planet, I’ve realized that the most powerful thing we can learn is how to return.

When we learn to pay attention to the breath with a mindfulness exercise, we are practicing the art of the return.

When we have a tough conversation with a commitment to stay connected to our hearts, we are practicing the art of the return.

When we get back up after falling on our faces and re-engage with the world again, we are practicing the art of the return.

You see, the return is the primary tool of self-mastery.

The return is the way we get up again and again—from heartbreak and disappointment and grief.

From stress and burnout, divorce or devastation.
From misplaced self-hatred, self-sabotage or self-harm.
From bullying and violence, fear or failure.
From a crisis of faith in humanity or a crisis of faith in whatever higher power you believe in.

No matter how much you think you screwed it all up. You can return.
No matter how dark your heart is with blame or shame. You can return.
Now matter how hurt you are or how helpless you feel. You can return.

To return is to find ourselves.
To return is to find our strength.
To return is to know that even though this world is messy and ugly and horrific sometimes. And that you are messy and ugly and horrific sometimes…you can still choose to return to a place of grace and beauty and love and perfection.

The return is the domain of the evolved human.
The return is the practice that the wisest among us know well.
The return is self-mastery.

Calling on our musician friends to post your singing/instrument playing vids to the page. This Friday is incomplete without them! Mark Rock Nelson JohnJason Cecil Lalah Hathaway Kamala Harrington Nyne Blackmon(Shower singers are welcome.)

What Got Us Through

There’s more space in my calendar now.
The flight alerts are gone.
Our children are social distancing –
from school, friends, sports.
None of us knows what comes next.

I’m holding my breath –
not just this minute, but all the minutes.
Scanning the horizon for silver linings
in a fog I believed would come much, much later.

Creature comforts no longer feel comfortable.
It’s been a week, and already
I would trade modern conveniences
(grocery delivery, streaming, webcasts)
for the things I’d trained myself to minimize –
a carefree trip to the store.
A Friday night at the movies with loud teenagers.
A business meeting I didn’t want to attend.

But here we are.
Alone, together.
Clinging to our routines with a growing awareness
that half of them mean very little now.

I’m busying myself by peeling back the layers.
Reflecting on what matters, and who.
Doing seemingly mundane things more thoughtfully:
making dinner, listening...telling stories.
Considering how I can do the most good.

We must stay alive, friends –
mentally, emotionally, and relationally.
We must harness our inherent value and pour it out –
into shadowy spaces,
onto people who are suffering,
over rising fear and helplessness.

I’m starting here. With this. With you.
With creativity and vulnerability and generosity and love.

Because with all the technology
and affects we’ve wrapped around ourselves,
they are the only things that ever got us through.

Life. When it gets tough, creative people make things. Share what you’re making to get you through - art, poetry, music, food, drink - ANYTHING.

What Got Us Through updated their business hours.