Hey friends,
First, I'm late. Let's just acknowledge that.
It's the end of the week, and the week has been full. I missed my own personal deadline, because life was still asking for more: wife, mother work, buidling this in 5 days, and the pressure to KEEP GOING. Also, procrastination. However, we are here and if anyone is actually reading this we just are gonna continue like it’s 4pm.
I’ve been thinking about what happens to Black women by the end of a week. Especially during these times. What is happening to our nervous systems. What is happening to spirits. I believe most of us are tired. It’s not always the "I'se tired boss" kind of tired, sometimes it's the kind where we have answered the questions, held the room, carried the tone, remembered the details, made the decisions, and still wondered if we did enough.
That is part of why Hava exists.
Hava means breath. Life. The first one. A call for us not by constantly seeking to turn up or force ourselves into a permanent rest. I believe it’s time to remember to center down.
For me, that matters because I don’t believe we are actually looking to become something else. We are looking for a place to return. A place where rest does not have to be explained. A place where joy is allowed to be simple. A place where the nervous system can stop performing wellness and actually feel safe enough to...BE.
Hava is being built from that place.
The practice is simple:
Be still.
Be·hold.
Begin.
Be still does not mean disappear. It means pause long enough to hear yourself again.
Be·hold does not mean fix everything. It means witness what is true without rushing past it.
Begin does not mean start over from scratch. It means carry yourself forward with more breath than before.
That is the spirit behind The Founders Brunch this Juneteenth weekend in the Texas Hill Country. A gathering for us.
And this newsletter, Hava Fridays, will carry the same feeling.
A place to get Unfridayed, where we can shake off and shake out what the week has tried to leave in us.
For when the week has done too much, and too little at the same time.
I’m glad you’re here at the beginning.
With breath,
Hava