birthday

Pumpkin Spice Season

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iced pumpkin spice latteMy favorite Starbucks Reward is my free birthday drink.

Outside of that, I can’t be bothered with how many stars I’m going to earn for buying this or that.

I really like pumpkin spice. Since the weather was quite warm on the day I decided to get my drink, I enjoyed an iced pumpkin spice latte with soy milk. It was heavenly.

I’ve written about how it is so strange to me that the seasonal conversation about pumpkin spice centers around it being a thing for white people.

A recent blog post about pumpkin spice on Black Girl Dangerous gets to the heart of matter about how this conversation has seriously twisted the truth. It really makes me think about how for many years, as a person of color, I was made to feel strange for enjoying pumpkin spice.

The writer of the post, Sasanka Jinadasa, a Sri Lankan American, gives us a short history of the ingredients that make up pumpkin spice: cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, allspice.

Below is a taste of her post, but I hope that you’ll click over and read the entire thing and learn why she wants to #decolonizepumpkinspice.

Sri Lankans are proud of their cinnamon, a natural crop with a violent history, in which Portuguese traders, Dutch “allies,” and British colonists used a combination of guns and debt to monopolize the cinnamon trade in my parents’ homeland. …

The same culprits (Portuguese, Dutch, British) monopolized South and Southeast Asian nutmeg through the spice trade. The same thing happened to ginger. …

As for pumpkin? A squash native to the Americas? Who do you think grew that first, the Pilgrims? Think just a little further back. …

It’s not pumpkin or pumpkin spice that’s the problem; it’s the commodification of our resources as somehow exotic when used in non-white foods and comfort when used in white foods. And when we mock certain foods as “white foods,” particularly in America, we’re capitulating to a lie—the lie that anything we eat in the diaspora isn’t touched and flavored by people of color.

Catching a Glimpse: Boston

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Boston's cobblestone streetsNo matter how many times I walk around Boston, I still find myself taken aback by the beauty of this city.

Something about the curve of the street, the cobblestones, the shadow and light, flags blowing in the wind. And even the neon Red Sox sign. It caught my breath.  This street has felt a lot of footsteps. Seen so much history along with the mundane.

Next Friday is my birthday and my driver’s license was getting ready to expire. Luckily, where I was working yesterday wasn’t too long of a walk to the Haymarket branch of the RMV. A month ago when I went to the opening of Boston Public Market, I noticed that location.

As I was leaving the RMV, I saw this street and had to double back and take a couple of pictures. All the tourists were too. Or maybe they were just like me. Locals seeing Boston with fresh eyes and wanting to keep a piece of it.

For the past few months, I’ve been reading Chani Nicholas, a really interesting astrology website. For those of us who are Virgos, we’ve been in a pretty interesting cycle.

Before I even read about it, I could feel a pull to the past. Like things were resetting and coming full circle from a few years ago. I was wondering what was going on, so when I read about Venus retrograde in Virgo, it started to make sense. Below is a portion from one of Chani’s posts.

Venus will be retrograde from July 25th to September 6th 2015.

Within our lifetimes (thus far) Venus has gone retrograde between the signs of Virgo and Leo once every 8 years. Therefore you can look to see what of significance happened in your life 8 years ago to get a feel for what this retrograde cycle could be about.

Venus deals with issues of love, connectivity, art, pleasure, pleasing, what we value, how we feel about what we value, creating culture, erotic energy, Goddess, anyone who identifies as a woman and all things to do with relationships. When Planets slow down to station retrograde, they tend to have a powerful effect on our lives (especially given the topics they govern).

This Venus retrograde begins in Virgo. Venus in Virgo is said to be in its fall; it is said to not “work as well,” meaning that all this Venus wants to do is work. That’s not what the goddess of love and hanky-panky usually likes to do though. Therefore this Venus station retrograde could have us working over time.

I suggest utilizing the energy of Venus in Virgo stationing retrograde by doing intentional ritual (Virgo loves a good structured, devotional practice) that is focused on purifying, cleansing or cleaning (Virgo wants it tidy) out old baggage from past loves. That could be emotional messiness, physical objects that are cluttering up your energetic space or habitual patterns that cause romantic casualties.

I’ve gotten back into my yoga practice and have been working hard. Figuring out some other things too. This weekend, I still have a lot to do, but definitely plan to take some time to stop and smell the flowers as I head into my birthday week.

Have a wonderful long holiday weekend!

Welcome To The New Blog!

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sunflowers

Thanks for stopping by my new blog home! I’m still getting used to things over here, so it will take me a bit of time to get up to speed. But I am loving this new space!

Thank you so much to Donna at Wicked Simple Marketing! She designed this new blog and was wonderful to work with. All the random stuff that I showed her and we spoke about, she has brought to life.

The plan in my head was to have the perfect introductory post all wrapped up and ready to go last night at the stroke of midnight. But my time on the planet  has shown me that sometimes you just have to go with the flow. That’s what I’m doing today.

I just finished baking my birthday cake, which is an adapted version of these strawberry cupcakes. I put blueberries and shredded coconut on top.

As I enter this new fifth decade, I’ve found some inspiration from a few recent news articles.

There are many stars turning 50 this year. Doesn’t Sandra Bullock look amazing?! 51 ladies shared some amazing words of wisdom.  I really like these three quotes below.

“Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.” ~ Nora Ephron

“I wanted to be an independent woman, a woman who could pay for her bills, a woman who could run her own life — and I became that woman.” ~ Diane Von Furstenberg

“If you’re creating anything at all, it’s really dangerous to care about what people think.” ~ Kristen Wiig

I love the model Cindy Joseph. She wasn’t discovered until she was 49 and is still going strong at 63 years old! When she was asked to give advice to women who want to be happy, healthy and beautiful, she gave some great advice. It’s now another favorite quote.

“Live your life according to you and what gives you pleasure. That way you will trust your intuition, follow your dreams, and take care of your body and spirit.” ~ Cindy Joseph

Her words are sounding pretty good to me!