An idea or an Aha moment

“What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient… highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed – fully understood – that sticks; right in there somewhere.” – Cobb, Inception

I was kept awake last night by an idea that got hold of me and hasn't let go
I woke up awakened by the formation of an aha moment brought to life by that idea

Now the difficult part
After I get over the high of the idea and the excitement of its possibility
The real work starts - making it happen and believing in it through all the obstacles that may come

I will become a slave to this vision.

Black woman; you are beautiful

In case no one said it today; black woman you are wonderful, beautiful, etheric, copacetic. You are the reason, the answer and the question. Black woman you are mother of the earth, the heavens and everything in between. Black woman, nothing exists or survives without you. Black woman, raise your fist to the sky because the power you hold within yourself is second to none. Black woman, you outshine the moon and heed her majestic call. Black woman, your flame cannot be extinguished. Black woman, you are light the bathes the path, you are the darkness that challenges. Black woman you are the beat of my heart.

Black woman I am honoured to be you.

Source: J Quazi King via African Digital Art

Source: J Quazi King via African Digital Art 

Source: Daughters of Dilla

Thought into Action

Obviously in need of inspiration...

via web

The hair today

Not sure how long it will last

Tried some thing new

BLURRRYYY

At the weekend

Been having such lovely weekends lately, and I realise I'm not taking the time to capture even a single moment of precious memories. So I'm trying...

This past weekend was one of those lovely ones

Started off with a rested Friday night catching up on my reading
Saturday spent a few hours at the gorgeous Life Day spa getting much deserved relaxation, sipped some delicious cocktails at Absolut Blank party at Nelson Mandela Bridge annex, then finally ogled some dapper young men at the Tux Party. Sunday laughed and drank and ate (and made too much noise for the neighbours to handle) at Simone's new place with some lovely company.

I'm going to record these moments more often so I can look back and remember.

Saturday - Absolut Blank with Thami and Simone

Tux Party with Tebogo. (sad I can never wear this skirt again)

Sunday session

At sea

You know that feeling of weightlessness, when your feet don't completely feel like they are hitting the ground, when the air feels heavier than you are, that feeling of something being just within reach, but not quite.
It's an incredibly disturbing feeling.
I feel like I'm floating in a vacuum, and the most tangible thing is the feeling.

I am at sea.

Birthday Month Challenge #1 - Love

I don't have New Years resolutions because I rather choose March, my birthday month, as my month of betterment. So this year I've decided on a few things that I will do this month and continue doing as part of a self improvement lifestyle.

The first of the many challenges / resolutions:
To tell the people I love that I love and appreciate them.

Long list of people, but I realised that I love them all  for different reasons and they are a beautiful part of my life. It also helps weed out dead weight, by questioning my association with unnecessary or casuals who add nothing to my being and whom I can live without.

It's refreshing and frightening.

10 Things I Want To Say To A Black Woman by Joshua Bennett

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Finally got the text I could pick up from this incredibly powerful piece by Joshau Bennet. 


I watch / read it every time I slip and forget my worth... Enjoy

1. I wish I could put your voice in a jar. Wait for those lonely winter nights when I forget what God sounds like, run to the nearest maximum security prison and open it. Watch the notes bounce off the walls like ricochet bullets etching keyholes into the sternums of every brother in the room. Skeletons opening, rose blossom beautiful to remind you that the way to a black man's heart is not through his stomach, it is through the heaven in your hello, the echo of my unborn galaxy that pounces forth through your vocal chords, and melts ice grills into oceans, baptising our lips, until harsh words fade from our memories, and we forget why we stopped calling you divine in the first place.

2. When I was born, my mothers' smile was so bright it knocked the air form my lungs. And i haven't been able to breathe right since. it’s something about the way light dances off of your teeth. the way the moon gets jealous when you mock her crescent figure with the shape of your mouth, queen. you make the sky insecure. Self-conscious for being forced stares at your face every morning, and realise that the blues of her skin was painted by that symphony doing cartwheels on your tongue.

3. Who else can make kings out of bastards? Turn a fatherless Christmas into a floor full of gifts and a kitchen that smells like the lord is coming tomorrow. We must eat well tonight. I used to think my sister was a blacksmith. The way she put fire and metal and made kitchen miracles at 14. Making enough food to feed a little boy who didn't have the words to say how much she meant to him back then, or didn’t have backbone to say so the day he turned 20. 

4. Your skin reminds me of everything beautiful I have ever known. The colour of ink on a page, the earth we walk on, and the cross that held my Saviour

5. I’ve seen you crucified too. Spread out on billboards to be spiritually impaled by millions of men with eyes like nails, who make martyrs of your daughters. So I’m sorry for the music videos, for Justin Timberlake at the Superbowl, and the young man on the corner this morning. Made you just want to shed your flesh and become invisible. Never doubt, they only insults you because... men are confused. We’re trained to destroy or conquer everything we see from birth.

6. If I ever see Don Imus in public I’ll punch him in the face, one time, for every member of the Rutgers and Tennessee women's basketball teams. Then i'll show him a picture of Phylicia Rashad, Assata Shakur, Eartha Kitt, my mother, my grandmother, and my 7 year old niece who’s got eyes like fire bombs, and then dare him to tell me that Black women are only beautiful in one shade of skin.

7. You are like a sunrise in a nation at war. You remind people that there is always something worth waking up to.

8. When we are married I will cook. Do the dishes, and whatever else it takes to let you know that traditional gender roles have no place in the home we build. So my last name is an option. Babysitting the kids a treat we split equally, and our bed will be an ancient temple, where I construct altars of wax on the small of your back. We make love like the sky is falling; Moving to the rhythm of bed springs and Bel Biv Devoe, angels applauding in unison, saying this is the way it was meant to be.

9. My daughter will know her fathers' face from the day she is born. And I can only pray that this superman complex lasts long enough, for me to deflect the pain this world will aim at her from the moment she's old enough to realise that the colour brown is still not considered human most places. But my daughter will have a smile like a wheelchair, and so even when I am at my worst, when the kryptonite of this putrid planet threatens to render me grounded, the light dancing off of her teeth, will transform the shards of my broken body into heart-shaped blackbirds, taking flight on the wind that reminds me of my saviours hands, of my daughters' smile, of my mothers' laugh when I was in her womb.

10. Never stop pushing. This world needs you now more than ever.

Samthing Soweto

The love I have for this mixtape I found yesterday while trolling Reverbnation is uncontrollable.
It has now been on repeat for hours!

Let me first begin by telling you where to find this little musical heaven of 10 freaking amazing tracks - SAMTHING SOWETO! - 'This n that without Tempo' by Samkelo 

I was caught off guard by my now favourite song "Dreamin of You"  which is a fun and tormented take on falling in love with fantastically beautiful lyrics and awesome beat.
A few listens later I realised that this really is a One man band, an instrument free one man band for the most part with mouth / voice acapella creating melodic bliss. His voice is fantastic and so full of range!

When I later discovered that Samkelo is actually the lead singer of another favourite local band, The Fridge, I knew I was in good hands. Love love love.

This mixtape is the gift that keeps on giving because with every listen I discovered something new and fascinating and beautiful and each listen far exceeds the already high regard of the previous.
Jazzy, rhythmic, poetic, folkie easy listening amazement all together.

I'm not doing the music any justice, so please just go and have a listen 

I'm living on it for a while.

Adele makes me Feel

Adele's cover version of The Cure's 'Lovesong' touches me deeply
Simple lyrics, warm and pregnant voice, emotional arrangement.
It makes me believe
It makes feel
Watch her perform it Live here

Whenever I'm alone with you

You make me feel like I am home again

Whenever I'm alone with you

You make me feel like I am whole again

Whenever I'm alone with you

You make me feel like I am young again

Whenever I'm alone with you

You make me feel like I am fun again

However far away I will always love you

However long I stay I will always love you

Whatever words I say I will always love you

I will always love you

Whenever I'm alone with you

You make me feel like I am free again

Whenever I'm alone with you

You make me feel like I am clean again

However far away I will always love you

However long I stay I will always love you

Whatever words I say I will always love you

I will always love you