This is for all the artists, creatives, designers, dancers, chefs, barista, bakers & bartenders, makers, moves, speakers, performers, actors and event planners. This is for anyone at home reevaluating their whole life. This is for you. This is for me.
Breathe.
Last Sunday at the Mobile Homecoming Sunday Service led by Sangodare and Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Alexis did an oracle reading from Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters. She read a section where a drunk man recognizes a woman on the street and called out to her. “Hey teacher lady!” She was not teaching in this moment and yet, even in his inebriated state, he knew her.
Breathe.
Over the last week and a half I’ve been asking myself a question; why are so many of my dreams tied to fallible institutions? Broadway is shut down right now. As all the shows closed along the Great White Way I wondered, what if I never make it there? What if it’s gone before I’m ready? And if I don’t get to Broadway, I can’t win a Tony. And if I never win a Tony… It spirals from there. All the things that won't be available. All the ways I won’t be able to signal success and made-it-ness.
So when Alexis read this passage from The Salt Eaters and said “they will recognize you by your purpose,: I felt like she was talking right to me. If Broadway were to crumble and fall, if they never give out another Tony or Oscar or Pulitzer or Emmy, my purpose will remain.
And so will yours.
These institutions may fall away, your purpose will not. The people will still see you and say “Hey Artist/Chef/Dancer/Poet!” We will still recognize you. And we will expect you to fulfill your role. We will expect you to show up to your purpose. Because we don’t recognize you by the accolades or accomplishments, we recognize you by the impact you have on us.
Take your time. Rest. Heal your mind, body and spirit. Do something frivolous. Grieve what was. Breathe. Take more time than you think you should. And then show up doing whatever you can as only you can. We’ll be ready for you and we will recognize you.