A year ago in October, I independently published the tiniest book ever, in hopes that it would make a huge impact on its readers.
I purposely sized this single-poem chapbook (The Pivot) approximately 4×3 so it would fit in purses and pockets, to be carried along and read as needed in moments that call for encouragement.
I picked a specialty paper for printing, so that its readers would experience the book itself as a gift, featuring words of resolve they would be personally invited to live.
So Happy 1st anniversary to my first-ever published poem, The Pivot!
And thank you to readers across the nation who have shared how this poem has breathed life into you during challenging days and dared you to dream bigger on courageous ones.
Thanks to the event organizers who have purchased copies for your speaker and audience gifts and to the women who have ordered books for your sister circle retreats or as group-themed birthday presents.
Thanks to the owners of REDDJobb, an independent bookstore in Charlotte’s Carolina Place Mall for asking to keep copies on hand for your patrons and to the organizations that have invited me to deliver presentations on its themes.
To readers everywhere who have endorsed the book, thank you for sharing with me how the poem has personally impacted you. Sometimes when our own words escape us, those penned by others can carry the message our hearts long to convey.
Because of its specialty design, The Pivot is only available through my website (rather than the usual online retailers) at StacyHawkinsAdams.com.
This may keep me from making faster sales; however, for now, it feels right to personalize the experience as a self-care gift as much as possible. If Hallmark or another publishing entity wants to help strategically scale it, call me!
For now, I simply say thank you!! I am grateful to be the muse and the steward for this beacon of hope, in book form.
Stacy Hawkins Adams’ poem, The Pivot
These readers of The Pivot received it as a gift!
One reader of The Pivot includes it in her morning devotions.
NYT bestselling author Kimberla Lawson Roby endorsed The Pivot.
We’re living in a time when our culture and our media offer emphatic representations of what success, happiness and fulfillment are supposed to be.
Thankfully, we still have free will and the right to choose who we want to be and how we want to do life.
My personal aim?
I’m striving to continually lean into the wisdom to always be true to yourself, no matter what.
This requires me to consistently carve out time to be still and quiet, so I can listen to and better know myself at every turn. When I hear from within, I am reminded of the values I want to inform my choices and the values that best align with my life’s purpose and goals.
Even with such focus, however, it’s important to remember that none of us is perfect. I – we – must be intent on moving with humility and generosity. We can’t dismiss, discard, disrespect or devalue others, for they are on uniquely divine journeys, too. In the circle of life’s reciprocity, what we render is also what we receive.
Consider joining me on this journey to honoring our truest and highest selves – the parts of us that operate with both heart and integrity. In doing so, I believe we’ll find the truest paths to success, inner joy (which supersedes happiness) and fulfillment.
As we settle into fall and and race toward the end of the year, don’t fret over what you haven’t yet checked off your list of goals; be grateful for what you have managed to achieve, and more importantly, for how you’ve grown.
Assess how you’ve nurtured, cared for, loved or mentored others, and give thanks for those who have poured some measure of tenderness and time into you.
Lean into all that fall holds and don’t stop striving. Stay the course in becoming.
Cherish those who cherish you, yet love everyone unconditionally.
Generously support and serve others, yet set boundaries to protect your self-care.
Forgive and forge ahead. Laugh and lighten up.
Dance or walk in the rain. Take chances and embrace joy.
Appreciate each day and embrace the lessons that this season, and previous ones, have offered.
Make peace with your present. Set new goals and arch toward new moutains.
Whatever you do, don’t dim your shine. As someone once said, keep being the light you are and others’ eyes will adjust.
You, me – we – are imperfectly human. But we’re here! And as long as we have breath, we’re meant to stay the course.
September is a great time to determine what you’ll focus on pursuing or releasing the final few months of 2024. Your answers to these questions can pinpoint your heart’s desires, your life’s calling, or your need to delve deeper within.
Set aside some quiet time to courageously listen, pray and journal. During that process, name your fears and claim the bold ideas and dreams that lie just beyond them.
Taking this path may require you to stand alone for a season – perhaps to foster your pruning and perfecting.
On other days, you may be compelled to stand by as others race past – giving you an opportunity to celebrate their wins, as you take consistent steps in the right direction. (Trusting that there are enough to go around.)
Every day, you can choose to stand in light and love, so that as you give it, you become it. This effort may be the most important of all, so that as you lean into becoming “what” you have in mind, “who” you are becoming simultaneously aligns.
Five years ago today, I posted the photo and the sentiments below about the start of September and the looming end of this year. All these years later, this digital journal entry of sorts still resonates and feels worth sharing.
As you launch into September 2024, may my reflections on walking my life’s path encourage you to more fully appreciate your own:
I entered the first day of September (2019) with a morning trek along a path that was brand new to me. It was beautiful, breezy and serene.
I talked to God, and then I stilled myself to listen, even as my feet kept moving.
Then I saw it – a juncture in the road where the paved path yielded to gravel – leading to uncultured, unknown territory, and to a bend around which I could not see.
I advanced a few feet, then retreated, deciding to explore more fully on another day.
For in that moment, I had all I needed – fresh air, a lush green setting and a visual reminder that at every turn, I am loved, worthy and deserving of joy. That was the response that filled my listening heart.
That walk reminded me that even when we’re on the right path, we’ll encounter some pebbles, stones, rough patches and dirt. We won’t always know the end before we begin or even when we’re mid-journey. Yet, that’s why it’s so important to enjoy each step of the journey itself and to find value in each phase.
In the right season, at the appointed time, we will discover the beauty around those bends, and perhaps appreciate the extra effort (courage?) required to get there.
Wherever we are on our path today, we can lean into the truths of how God has already blessed us. Think back over your life for a few minutes and count the ways.
Then, set your intentions, determine what you’ll do next (or how you’ll surrender), and say “thank you” in advance for the good that lies ahead – on paved roads, gravelly paths, wood trails and all.
A late afternoon appointment yesterday took me to an area of town I used to frequent. As I passed the large lake with the walking trails I used to enjoy, I remembered the sneakers I keep in my trunk and decided that my Wednesday evening walk would be one down memory lane.
My trek around the lake was lovely and peaceful, and many of the markers I’d seen many times before struck me differently this time.
The matted goose “matter” I had to navigate along one tiny stretch of the otherwise pristine path was a reminder that sometimes we have to navigate around or through life’s muck and keep going, with our purposeful goal in mind.
The sign asking walkers to use an underground tunnel, rather than cross the busy street to get from one side to the other, served as a metaphor for us sometimes needing to take the less-glitzy path to reach our destiny in a safe and timely manner.
The Environmental Protection Area sign? A nod to remember that rules of conduct matter. What if we set boundaries around our hopes and dreams and hearts that allowed others to connect with us, yet only in enriching ways?
And then there were the lake, the small bridges and the path itself. All organic reminders of the Creator’s talent and majesty, and of our privilege to experience it – with the only cost being to help preserve it.
What a walk. On a familiar path, yet enjoyed with child-like wonder.
Wherever your To Do List or path leads you today, consider experiencing some of it in silence, so you can fully see and hear what being present in those moments reveals to you.
My mile-long adventure yielded gratitude that will linger.
Stacy’s shots along her walk. Chesterfield County, Virginia
Be the bigger person, no matter the curveballs tossed your way.
Embrace a glass-half-full attitude and
Find silver linings in the surprises along your path.
Whatever the audience, show up in a way that honors who you are.
Speak truth with grace and let the rest take care of itself.
Keep your eyes on the prize (your singular and beautiful purpose)
And continue to take the world by storm
With your own unique brand of hope, laughter and love –
The greatest of these being Love.
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A friend invited me to dinner on Juneteenth a few weeks ago, and when I crossed her threshold, she placed a book in my hand that touched my heart.
The title alone – Grief is Love – met me in the season I’m currently walking through and made me smile with gratitude. I share this book with you today, because while my losses are fresh and still sitting with me as I carve out a new normal, I know that I’m not alone on this challenging yet sacred journey.
Having lost my two eldest siblings in less than two years, and both around significant seasons, has led me into a season of giving myself extra grace.
Some of you may recall that my only brother passed away a few days before Christmas in December 2022. My eldest sister graduated to Heaven less than 90 days ago, three days after my daughter’s wedding, while still in town for the festivities.
And while my ache from the passing of my sister Pat eight years ago is no longer fresh, as my first sibling to enter Heaven, she’s also top of mind these days. I am the youngest of five, with one living sibling to physically cherish.
Many of you are freshly grieving the death of someone you love, too, or soothing your heart after being triggered into revisiting a not-so-new loss.
Either way, I’m here to gently remind you – as I daily remind myself – that it is okay to have our moments of teary reflection and to be tender with ourselves.
If you’re a person of faith like me, you can remind yourself that even Jesus wept upon his beloved friend Lazarus’ death – and He knew he could (and would) raise Lazarus from the dead.
If you are seeking other ways to process your loss, there are multiple resources available to you, from books like this one, to grief coaches and professional therapists to music and meditation. Follow your heart as you find your way.
My season of abundant self-care and self-reflection has required me to be patient with me.
I still owe some beloved friends thank you notes for the beautiful ways you reached out to me in April, right after my most recent loss. Forgive my faux pas and know that I am truly grateful.
Nature is my friend, and my quiet walks with God and myself have given me strength.
The friends and family who have allowed me to bend your ears, and who still hold space for my tears, without judgment, are my personal national treasures. Your gifts of presence are acts of healing.
And of course, I am writing and praying my way forward. Sometimes for me, the two are intertwined; and as I often tell the writers I mentor, the gems you pour into your journal will surprise you in the ways they serve you. Write and go with the flow.
As Marisa Renee Lee, the author of “Grief is Love” writes: The foundation of a full life after loss is love. It is choosing to continue to love your person in present tense. It is moving forward with life, bringing them with you.”
As we move forward, may we all do so in ways that we know would make our specific person – or people – proud. Perhaps because of what we’re doing, but most importantly, because of who we are still becoming.
This time last week, I was wrapping up a visit to Savannah, Georgia, where I had an opportunity to gather with some of my favorite people – women I’ve coached over the past 8 years through Focused Writers, an online membership community I founded to support budding authors.
Stacy Hawkins Adams and members of her Focused Writers coaching group.
I am sunsetting this version of my coaching service as I prepare to launch a new model in 2025.
Our farewell month for the group included this “girls trip” to Savannah.
We strolled River Street, dined at the famous (and delicious) Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room and enjoyed a seafood boil at the beautiful home of our group member Wanda Lloyd.
Wanda invited local Gullah-Geechee storyteller (and recent TEDx Savannah speaker) Lillian Grant-Baptiste to join us for an evening of conversation about the power of oral and written stories, and their role in preserving culture and history. Lillian enthralled us with a performance of one of her works.
And I read my first draft of an inspirational nonfiction piece that I hope spoke to the women’s hearts.
Today, “writing in Savannah” (among other things) is on my To Do list, and I’ve scored a perfect pair of new readers to help me get it done.
Gullah-Geechee storyteller Lillian Grant-Baptiste
Part of that time will include penning some grateful reflections for having had an opportunity since 2015 to closely guide 30+ writers of all ages and stages through some facet of their writing journeys.
From as far as London, and from the East Coast to the West of the U.S.; from brand-new scribes to a veteran newspaper editor; from a global speaker and retired educators to a law professor and entrepreneurs, it has been my honor to mentor them through the birth and publication of their books, blogs, essays and articles; to prep them for traditional publishing opportunities and self-publishing journeys, and to advise how to market themselves and their work.
The most treasured aspect of Focused Writers has been the community of authentic care and support that we collectively built.
My pivot from hosting the group in its current membership format means new and exciting things are on the horizon. (Updates will be shared first with my newsletter subscribers. DM your email address to be added.)
However that unfolds next year, my mutual respect and care for these amazing alums, and others from the Focused Writers community, will endure!
Still Unfolding with Stacy Hawkins Adams 