currently | frivolous with a side of serious

Now seems like a good time for a little life update. Want to come and virtually sit with me for a minute?

Listening to | Can't Hold Us. I know this Macklemore song came out a few months ago, but I was a bit late to the game. This has been my morning jam lately. I first thought John Legend was the featured artist, but it's Ray Dalton who has that smooth, soulful sound. I need to look up more of his other work. Fun fact: He used to be a gospel singer.

Craving | Anything from Humani-T Cafe. Can I just live there? Or better yet, can their chef come live with me? My current favorite treat is an iced vanilla soy latte. I gulped mine down in less than ten minutes last time. So yummy. It was the first time I had tried an iced latte and I'm already dreaming of my next one.

Yesterday I had their African Peanut Stew and was pleasantly surprised. I have a go-to recipe for this soup, so I was worried it would taste "off" to me, you know what I mean? Thankfully, the flavour was completely different from my recipe and I loved it! It had just the right amount of spice and had big pieces of sweet potato and celery.

Procrastinating | on a project. I've been pretty creatively productive lately - ever since I took a night class at NSCAD in the Spring. But, I've been slow to make progress on a new creative expression program I'm building. More to come on this in a few months... I can't wait to share more with you.

Wishing | I could sleep better. A few situational factors have resulted in me sleeping a little over half of what I normally would. Yesterday I survived the afternoon on chai and a dark chocolate energy boost around 3:00. I trained myself to love the dark, smooth bars by Lindt. Right now I'm loving the 70% plain, but the one with almonds in it is also worth stealing from your coworkers treat drawer. Not that I would ever do that.

---

Thinking about | how to truly acknowledge and more importantly, dissect white privilege. I thought I understood the term before, but I didn't. Last week, I read this post about how to be an anti-racist ally and could not stop thinking about it. The article is very accessible and it helped me recognize a few areas which I needed - and still need to - read up on. 

Although I have been involved in diverse community groups for some time, only now do I realize my own limitations in facilitating diversity workshops. It may sound obvious but as a White person I will never be able to understand what it is like to live as a person of colour. I can assume, carefully listen to others' experiences, read every existing journal article on racism, and even empathize but I will never truly know. This is the very first step to humility. Baby steps.

In the same way, confronting my own biases and prejudices is a never-ending process. It can be uncomfortable at times, but is so necessary. There is still so much I need to learn about diversity, racism and how to advocate respectfully and appropriately for and alongside those who are systemically oppressed. With time and patience...

Thank you so much for reading. I appreciate you stopping by and reading my rants and rambles. Especially when they are about things that are so important to me.

xx Janelle

Post idea credit to Dani at Sometimes Sweet.