01/09/2026
It's actually quite embarrassing for the oppressors when you think about everything that's been intentionally done to keep black people down yet here we are with all our swag, joy, and undeniable influence all around the world. I love being black. This time and every lifetime.
These colonial systems are crumbling. Every last play in the play book is being tested to see if we're still dumb and gullible. This is soooo pathetic and exhausting is all I have to say about it.
No one will ever convince me that more hatred and violence is going on in the world than kindness, respect and compassion. I'm convinced the only way to convince us that the former is true is by having us locked into a reality we aren't directly a part of. Online and away from our own communal experiences.
When I go out into the world with my phone out of sight people are smiling, saying hello, being helpful. And its beautiful. Are SOME people SOMETIMES as****es and gross? Yep, and I stay tf away from them.
If I could go and stop every bad thing happening in the world I would. But it's my responsibility to accept that this is not possible nor my obligation. I show up day in and day out being the highest version of myself where I can and where it matters. And this is the impact of change I have the power to make in the world.
It's not going to be packaged into pretty little reels or waxing poetic posts (ironically here I am I know lol). Its gonna be in the raw, lived expression of my willingness to show up and shine my light regardless of how dark and wacko the world seems.
When they shut down the internet and we don't have these perfectly curated online communities to turn to whose number will you have? Whose house will you be able to show up to unannounced with a gift, act of kindness, or needing help?
I gleefully withdraw my participation in the thinking that our collective human story ends with the Commanders (hello Handmaid's Tale) keeping us from reaching our destiny. Its love. Its peace. Its unity. Its not perfect. Its not pretend. Its not all the time. But its real. Its honest. Its lived.
Now go hug a tree and tell someone you love them.
In Truth and Love,
Ashley 🌻
