baby steps.

It is utterly ridiculous, I know. But I am profoundly proud to say that I conducted my first “field interview” today. And really, I can’t call it that for it was simply a beautiful walk and time of sharing, listening, and camaraderie with a black sista in my small town. Now, she does not live here, it’s true. She’s only here to visit. But she comes with regularity and calls it a home. Connecting to her and witnessing her sense of herself in this place was a gift. 

I am inspired to dive in to this research as an opportunity to listen, to learn to ask questions, and to face each soul I encounter (whether in person or through their poetry, written stories, or photography) with my heart wide open. Open to the strange and subtle, if not glaringly obvious ways, that my own story rests in theirs and theirs in mine. 

To tell you the truth, I am terribly shy and feel rather inept when it comes to this stuff - this ‘reaching out’ business. But this is the path I want to walk, and come what may, I will walk it.

Portrait by Laura Wheeler Waring (American, 1887-1948)