I posted the message below eight years ago today, right after my sister Pat’s passing.
As I head into my late mother’s birthday tomorrow, and the 1st anniversary of my brother’s Dec. 20 passing,
and hold in my heart friends and loved ones who are grappling with loss during the holidays, I find it important to share these words again-
to remind you that grief is a necessary part of life and to love yourself through it.
Please read on, then doing something kind for yourself today.
I’m completing some writing projects this morning,
getting a massage this afternoon, and
spending time with friends this evening.
Sending a virtual hug to all who need it and encouraging you to cherish good memories.
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I’ve been exercising my creative juices for the past month on a small, but special project that I’m excited to share with you soon.
What I’ve loved as much as the process of refining the words and getting the aesthetics just right (with a gifted artistic partner) are the friends and fam who have offered feedback and edits, burned the midnight oil with me to ensure that I create in excellence, and reminded me that as “Ms. #LifeUntapped” not only CAN I think and move outside the creative box of titles and genres, I betta!
This is what rising together takes.
Iron sharpens iron.
Vision multiplies vision.
Shoulders lower so you can climb aboard.
What matters most is the art itself.
There’s a tired-but-happy place feeling that centers you as you’re producing it, and eventually the joy that comes with hearing readers express renewed hope or joy or value after experiencing your words.
More to come on this project in early October. In the meantime, thank you to my tribe! When it’s your turn, the rising, sharpening, encouragement and lowered-shoulder moments will come full circle.
Trees offer a reminder of the importance of finding balance in life – standing tall, resilient and beautiful on your own, yet being planted close enough to a neighbor, friend or loved one to send encouragement, share special moments and extend some love.
This week, may you succeed with both. Enjoy your time alone and make room to dance with others.
For it is in spending time with you that you discover how you’re meant to uniquely impact the world. And it is in doing life together, with likeminded souls on a positive trajectory, that we rise. Embrace life’s duality and enjoy this season of your journey.
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Can you believe there’s just over 4 months left in 2023? Make the most of this day, this week and the seasons ahead.
You matter and so does what you choose to embrace.
Lean into what feeds your soul and forgive yesterday’s troubles.
Choose joy and focus forward.
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My meditation and writing time one morning last week yielded this gem for the main character in the fiction I’m writing, and I have to share, because it’s a word for us, too:
Sometimes we have to give up who we once were, or how we’ve always done something, in order to embrace who we’re meant to be in THIS season. What worked for you a decade ago, or maybe even a year ago, was for that stage, age or chapter.
Stacy Hawkins Adams
So keep learning and leading and loving. Get excited about your present, and for what’s to come, because now you get a chance to write your next chapters with the clarity, confidence and intention that will be relevant for what the world needs now, and for the purpose and peace that are your birthright.
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I hadn’t intended to stay away from this blog for so long, but here we are, in mid-March, with many of us preparing to spring our clocks forward in honor of the U.S.’s Daylight Savings Time mandate and to welcome the looming change in seasons accompanied by longer days, warmer winds and sunnier skies.
I’m here with a smile in my heart, after giving myself some space and time to grieve the death of my brother during the Christmas holiday season; to appreciate a return to better health after a challenging year, and to sit with my thoughts and in prayer to determine which projects from my Dreams & Goals List to focus on in 2023.
My novel-in-progress has remained atop that list, and I’m earnestly revising my completed first draft. I’ve also been supporting an author friend by championing his amazing body of work, which continues to resonate with readers of all ages – from children to seasoned citizens. Thank you, Kwame Alexander, for taking me on the journey with you. I’m learning at your feet as you do the work of changing the world, one word at a time.
I’ve continued to mentor a small band of writers who are members of my online Focused Writers Community. Last month, we celebrated the first anniversary of the anthology On Womanhood that we jointly published in 2022. This book is still resonating with readers of all ages and stages, and for that we are grateful.
Today, I’m delighted to celebrate the power of women and our stories as we settle into Women’s History Month, by sharing with you one of my signature events – a storytelling brunch I hosted in fall 2022: Still We Rise: Celebrating the Power of Women’s Stories.
If you’ll invest your time to watch (solo or with a group of friends!) I hope you will savor all that is expressed and end the experience changed for the better. May the truths and aha moments offered during the program help your heart open, your courage rise, your empathy grow and your understanding (of self and others) multiply. For you are a pearl in progress and your story is worthy celebrating, too. Onward!
Stacy Hawkins Adams (center) featured with speakers and presenters at her October 2022 brunch, Still We Rise: Celebrating the Power of Women’s Stories
Someone I care about entered hospice a few days ago, beginning a process that is both dignity-rendering, yet leaking with sadness.
Only our Creator knows the exact time left, but this person would want no pity, and if possible, would be cracking jokes and setting you straight on your attitude and actions at every turn, with declarations that life is to be enjoyed and celebrated.
With that in mind, I issue this Wednesday Wisdom to:
Love on yourself more, just because.
Tell others what they mean to you while you can (I have and I regularly do).
Cry when you feel like it.
Laugh every chance you get.
Forget about yesterday’s grudges.
Love those who love you back.
Be kind to those whose rudeness often means they need more kindness.
Challenge yourself to leave everyone better than you found them – with what you say and what you don’t; by how you share and where you set boundaries; and by giving with no expectation of receiving.
Let your heart break. The only way through grief is through.
Say Thank You for everything – because every breath, every day, and every person who crosses your path is in some way a gift.
When Bern Nadette Stanis – aka Thelma from Good Times (and more recently, Nee from The Family Business) – visited Richmond, Virginia in the fall, I couldn’t let her get away without learning more about her journey before, during and after becoming the first Black teenager on American television.
She shared some gems about her professional life and about her experience of serving as a caregiver for her beloved mother who lived with Alzheimer’s.
Her sweet spirit shone through during our chat, along with her message to always be yourself and to always lead with love.
Thank you, Bern Nadette!
Click Here to View my chat with Bern Nadette – aka Thelma from Good Times
We’re 6 days away from what I’m believing will be another God-kissed “Still We Rise: Celebrating the Power of Women’s Stories” inspirational brunch, and
while many of you can’t join me in person, perhaps you can spend a few minutes with your family or a circle of friends replicating this brief storytelling exercise that my friend Maya Smart guided guests through during my 2014 brunch.
If you participate, be sure to answer with “who” you are, not what you do.
Fast forward to today and you’ll discover with a quick Google search that Maya is a brand new yet already renowned author.
I salute her on this countdown to brunch number 2 by describing her with this one word: Amazing.
Maya Smart, author of the nonfiction book, “Reading For Our Lives: A Literacy Action Plan from Birth to Six”
It’s wonderful when life comes full circle, and my visit to Albuquerque, New Mexico last month to attend a Women’s Fiction Writers retreat was one of those occasions.
Thirty years ago, in the summer of 1992, I spent six weeks in ABQ interning for the city’s now-defunct morning newspaper, The Albuquerque Tribune. I lived near Old Towne with two sisterfriends who shared a house – Cathryn McGill, a renowned singer, songwriter and actress turned black leadership entrepreneur, and Pamela K. Johnson, a then-reporter at the Tribune turned author and filmmaker.
Pamela has since moved back to her native California where she continues to write for numerous national publications (Hey, Pam!) while Cathy remains in ABQ and continues to contribute to the community and the arts in a myriad of ways. She and I met for breakfast while I was in town and traded updates about life and goals as if time had never passed.
Stories abound! And as one of my mentors always says, Just keep living and life will keep giving.
Still Unfolding with Stacy Hawkins Adams 