Today, I wanted to chat with you a little from off top. No prompt. No question. Just thoughts about where I am on this first day of February in 2023.

First of all, it’s Black History Month. Every day, I rep who I am as a young black woman with an entrepreneurial mind and a heart to serve others. But let it be known that for this month, I’m especially vocal about being blackity, black, black, black. If you don’t know, that means I take pride in my culture as a black American, acknowledging the paths that brought me here, to the innovations that will take me to my future. I love my culture, and in the midst of remembering (and still witnessing) its tragedies, I celebrate its goodness.

Second, this year is very new for me. This month last year, my family and I said goodbye to one of the most chill, good-natured, and loving men we knew. My husband and I lost a brother (in-law, though that’s not how we saw him), my sister lost a husband, my nieces and nephew lost a father, and my parents lost a son. The shock of it all still racks us, and while this is typically a month for celebration, I know this year it’ll also be a time of grief.

Where does that leave me? It leaves me unsure of how I will be able to approach this month. I have good things on the horizon that I’m happy to take part in, but I know that this will be an intense period of reflection, vulnerability, and courage. So, I am going to show up where I am in each moment, understanding that I don’t have to do any more than that. And that’s where I’ll leave it. To you I say, “Peace, love, and soul!”