A Writes Note: The Black Mermaid
Rest is the new flex
I read off of a little 3.5 by 2.5 card.
It was sitting on top of my blue book bag next to my guitar case.
I hadn’t touched either in months…I was looking for that blue bag
Just on the floor in the corner.
I went to pick up the card but instead left it there
I wanted to take a picture.
Evidence of the moment I finally listened..
I need rest.
I was glad for the reminder
It reminded me of the other day I hadn’t slept since the day before.
I went over to the nightstand and saw the handwritten card they wrote me.
Thank you, I hope you love your tee..
I did. I was so excited to wear it.
I smiled and just said thank you.
I walked up to the third floor,
Her room.
To write this.
In the room that she once used to be in.
We talked for hours up here,
Sang her happy birthday
Packed up her room…
Her stuff is still here though,
some of it.
I chose to intentionally write this in here because this is me confronting my pain.
It hurts to be up here sometimes.
Life was so good back then.
She was still here…
I was lost in the fog just a moment ago.
I remember the task now
It’s time to do the work.
I can either stay here
Or do the work.
The hard work that brought me
Here.
I’m writing a story about passion and purpose.
About a Black Mermaids boldness
braveness and
Resilience
Julia Mallory
The Founder and creator of Black Mermaids*, and author of her latest piece Survivor's Guilt, sat down with me to share how love, grief and loss led to her discovering her passion and purpose.
“..It's anything that lights a fire under you ..when we have passion, I just feel like it's something that you just feel that spark, you feel that energy, it feels regenerative. It restores, it builds...it is the thing that is giving your life direction in any particular season."
In this season Julia Mallory says her purpose is to write;
to write about healing, grieving, and living. The focus being on the black community.
I'm supposed to center, black folks in my work, and my stories, Mallory said.
The 121 pages of her sixth publication include stories and short poems that explore the universal themes and complexities around grief and how courage is needed to navigate it in a grief avoidant society
cour·age
/ˈkərij/
noun
1.
the ability to do something that frightens one
The root word of courage is cor*, which means heart and I think that courage is needed because I think we have to face ourselves, we have to face..what our hearts are telling us; Especially for black folks, black women.
Black women are one of the most unprotected persons in the world. Black women birth nations and have been the pioneers and architects behind change but are often misrepresented and understood. Often told to be strong and have courage in a world that fails to protect them.
“Be courageous” in the face of a world that's way more invested in our destruction than it ought to be. I think we have to also be courageous to speak our hearts.. for people to stay in their emotional truth, around their grief when everyone else is going on and acting as if nothing is wrong. So I think there's just a certain level of being true to our heart. - Julia Mallory
Being true to her heart is what helped to lead her here.
If you ask me, Julia Mallory deserves an infinite amount of standing ovations. Her sixth publication Survivor's Guilt is one that I am sure will help shift our generation and change the trajectory of every pair of eyes that reads it.
A reminder to us all that..
The healing
is in the living.
-Julia Mallory
