Sunday Kind of Love

It all started with a date in City Park!

Happy Sunday y'all,

Sonia Sanchez wrote, “We are sudden stars.. You and I exploding in our blue black skin”. Black History Month is a month that should celebrate our history, and how timeless black love is. Even though we celebrate this 365 days a year, this Black History Month we are seeing an increase in hate specifically towards Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. It is frustrating how people of color are hated for the sun in our skin. We are taught in our homes that we are lovely and radiant, yet the world tells us that our radiance is not normal and sometimes even unlovable.

Today I told my best friend that I did not want to write or release anything. She understood why yet told me that love is not a foreign topic to me. She reminded me that love is the first thing people say about me. It is, how I move and how I live. “Being able to be optimistic while acknowledging the realities of life is a form of self-love or preservation.” So today, I chose to press forward. To enjoy and share love. She asked me what I was grateful for and I made my list. I am overjoyed in knowing that my friend of fourteen years, who was also involved in an accident, was kept this morning by love. I am so grateful that she is alive and well. I received a gentle reminder that life is precious. That we have another day, another year to love and grow wiser together.

Where do you feel seen, heard, or loved the most? In the midst of it all, I hope that you have found love in any form. Laughter. Hope. Air. Celebrations. Laughter. New beginnings.

We’re the roses. Here’s to being plucked, chosen, admired, seen, and heard. Beautiful in our multi-faceted, melanated skin. I am very happy to introduce Cayla’s new drink recipe called Simple and Sexy because who doesn’t love champagne. Imani’s seafood mac & cheese because who doesn’t love seafood and cheese. This month we will be ending the celebration of black love with stories, interviews, and honoring us. Our first couple lives in New Orleans. They met through a mutual friend and had their first date at City Park; Kali said it was real New Orleans. They just sat and talked. When they went out as a group, she felt quiet, but he talked a lot when they were together. She told her friend when he picked her up from her house that she was going to marry him. Five years full of dates, growth, and transparency later, and still here. At the beginning of their relationship, they hung out every day, and she lost her phone. She would DM him on Twitter, and she sometimes goes back to those DMs and reads how they started.

If you are ever in Nola check out some of their favorite date spots: Morrow’s, Trenasse, Apoline, Cafe Ibiza.