I opened up my email yesterday afternoon to see the above and was like OMG, that’s US! Lateef and I were asked in May to be interviewed for the show Black Love and had an amazing conversation with the director Codie Elaine Oliver (her husband Tommy Oliver is the Executive Producer). We didn’t know if it would air or not - they still hadn’t sold the special, but we were happy to spread our story in hopes it would help others. We talked about so much more - how we met and fell in love, how we’ve ...
The Power of Prayer – Our New Home
In early April as I began to turn the corner from the worst part of being sick with COVID, I began writing in my journal again. Writing in my journal became an outlet - a sounding board, an open letter with God or sometimes to my late father. It felt good to journal and I wanted to remember the ups and downs of it all. I also felt like I needed to break from just praying about gaining my ability to breath and getting my strength back. I needed to think bigger and also think about the next ...
Hero of the Pandemic
My husband, Lateef, is my hero of the pandemic. Our family’s hero of the pandemic. I know it sounds corny, but a close friend of mine started referring to him as that whenever I mentioned something he did while we were all home sick with COVID. "Lateef, the true hero of the pandemic," she would say. It is hard for me to put into words how thankful I am for the way that Lateef took care of me and our children over the past few months. It was all the little things he did. He has been more than ...
Mental Health In The Age of COVID: Interview with Carmen Margaziotis
It is certainly not business as usual right now. We have protests against police violence and systemic racism going on all around the world, which is occurring in the middle of a global pandemic of epic proportions. It is more than normal to feel stressed and have some anxiety around the future the future right now. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Because each one of us is going through something different - whether you are single or have four kids, are unemployed or overworked with no ...
TOMORROW I Am Going to be on Oprah’s OWN Network – Fear Not
Just a reminder that I will be interviewed by Iyanla Vanzant on the special Fear Not on Oprah’s OWN Network this Saturday, June 6th at 9 p.m. ET/PT (it’s DirectTV channel 279, Spectrum channel 173 in LA and channel 279 on ATT UVerse). As I was writing this, I thought about the fact that Fear Not’s premise is around overcoming the stress, anxiety and uncertainty associated with COVID and the tools I and others used to heal from a mental health perspective. Those exact same coping mechanisms ...
What Can We as Black Mothers Do in the Face of Racial Injustice?
Friday afternoon I walked into the bedroom and my husband was wiping tears from his eyes after watching the video of George Floyd being murdered by the police. “I can’t concentrate on anything,” he said. We both spent most of Friday teary-eyed on and off and feeling like this is all just too much. Yesterday morning I woke up and texted three of my close black and brown friends - “We are all mothers of black boys. What are WE going to do??” What are we going to do in the face of all of this ...