On my birthday, I had wanted to post a gift for the broader network of humans I am lucky to be in community with thanks to the internets and art-making! A little belated (untangling myself from the rigidity of time), here it is my little love note to all of you. 

I had been struggling to celebrate (kinda always but especially this year) -- during isolation and during this period of excruciating grief and loss, in particular amidst the dailiness of so many Black and brown lives disproportionately lost to COVID-19, police violence, and systemic racism (though I recognize that this isn't necessarily new, just perhaps more visible). Celebration felt incoherent, honestly. Leading up to my birthday, my sweet friend Cynthia said: what if you were allowed to be grieving and celebrating? which I honestly hadn't considered. (I burst into tears when she said it). Yes. Yes to being in the fullness of our humanity in each moment, yes to not shutting down parts of ourselves because of a particular day on the calendar, yes to being with all of ourselves in all of the feels, and all of each other. Yes to honoring loss and celebrating life at once. 

This image is inspired by my beloved Arnold Lobel's* story "Tearwater Tea," in which Owl makes tea from his own tears and drinks it. 

love to you in all of your feels. 

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

[a simple black and white illustration I did of a barn owl in profile looking toward the viewer, framed by two stems of thorny roses and two sprigs of rosemary. In the owl's talon is a ribbon banner that has handwritten text reading: "I love you in your grief and joy, in your rage and wonder, and all the rest."]