Time to reintroduce The Mess

Where does mess-making and non-linearity belong in the decolonization of prose?

My platform has grown and changed over the past few months. It may be time for me to reintroduce myself and its purposes!

At engage the mess, we honor the incomplete thought.

We don’t despair at the half finished notepad or the “abandoned” manuscript. Because, as the marginalized/ underpublished/ underheard…as the hosts of untold stories… EVERY act of self-archival IS A REVELATION.

We aren’t here to honor “The End” or the final submission or the plaque on the wall. Here, I want to honor the satisfied smile we have when we realize we can still write at ALL… After years of saying you couldn’t or you weren’t a writer, not a “real one” at least.

I honor the poem left at an ancestral altar or at a photo wall, that which may be petite and private and just for them. I honor the notes left in a child’s lunchbox that live loudly only in their hearts. I honor the typos in my own blog posts because their presence tells ME so much about how I felt in that moment, when I rushed to shoo it out the door before that excuse to not hit publish opened its jaws.

And through these not-so-small moments of self archival and storytelling, it is what we become in our lives and spirits that is a true masterpiece. I think the self-transformation is just… SOMETHING. It really is something that matters.

It is everything (work AND play AND prayer) to sing while we sweep, to write words without urgency to our loved ones, to make songs of our daily lived lives, to turn external noise into a beat against our legs…

If you haven’t celebrated these wins in… the wins of living life as both play and prayer… maybe remember to celebrate today.

I also want to take a moment to thank and celebrate subscribers for being here with me. If you’re new and confused about what’s going on here… I know *said sheepishly.* the direction of my storytelling has changed, becoming messier and less linear. This is intentional, as I explore what it looks like to let go of “making sense.” What if I just SAID stuff ? What if the curation and crafting stopped… And I just made words? Would those words still be heard, then? I’m not sure yet.

I recognize that a coherent flow of ideas is crucial to most storytelling and communication. But it was cramping my style, hahaha!! And the Publish button seemed to move further and further away from my finger as I became more singularly overworked by the concept of “curation.” 

Engage the mess isn’t a curation, it’s a 3-month accumulation of unmatched socks. Sometimes you find something that pairs and works, sometimes the asymmetry grows on you, sometimes you decide it’s a flip flop day instead. 

Take it or leave it, these words are here to stay!