I travel often for work. And when I get home, I want proper Nigerian meal of jollof rice, or eba and egusi. Few things ground me more firmly than egusi, a dish native to my mother’s hometown of Ijebu.
What also grounds me is a morning walk. The morning after I return from travel, I lace up my sneakers and head out, sometimes with my dog Shadow, for a walk in the quiet hours of the morning. The sound my sneakers make on the asphalt as my feet fall, the chirping of the birds, the squirrels scrambling off the path, and the way the morning sun peaks through branches all serve as a familiarity that anchors me.
Home.
These early morning walks take different shapes depending on the day, how much life is life-ing, and what my priorities at the moment are. Sometimes they serve as a way to work out kinks in a story I’m writing or a work project, other times they are a time to dream big and visualize the realization of my goals.
My favorite moment of these walks is when I turn a specific corner and the sun is hovering, peaking through a cluster of trees, as if waiting for me to appear just so it can kiss my face. I always lift my face towards it to receive its kisses.
The. Best. Feeling.
My gratitude practice also anchors me firmly to who I am and how I show up in the world. As such, one of my favorite walks to take is a Gratitude Walk. I had one of those heart-filling gratitude walks yesterday. The night before, our small community of neighbors gathered to send off a neighbor moving to another state. On the same night, we remembered the life of our beloved neighbor who passed away earlier this week. He had lived in his home for about 40 years and was the kindest, warmest man, and he gave such great hugs. We recounted memories of past gatherings with him and his late wife, reminisced about summers and the kids’ lemonade stands, laughed about school bus escapades, marveled at towering kids and college plans, and that one Christmas when we gathered with ugly Christmas sweaters and Ms. Mary made special holiday cookies. 10 years in the blink of an eye. What is time?!
On my walk yesterday, I played back the night before, as if to replay it is to etch the night even more firmly in my memory bank. My heart filled with so much gratitude - to have memories to revisit is to have lived to create those memories. I was thankful for the casual run-ins in the cul-de-sac, the late bus that stretched our morning conversations at the bus stop, for the expired powdered milk that caused me to reach out to ask a neighbor for some for a recipe, for the snowstorms that allowed for sledding down the neighbor’s perfect-for-sledding backyard, for the hugs, the laughs, and the random delivery of hydrangeas from a neighbor’s bountiful garden.
For the mourning and the grief, for to grieve is to have loved. And as the music from my playlist swelled, I offered it all in gratitude - I am grateful to have experienced it all.
Yes, I’m grateful, full to the brim
I am, I am, I am, I am
I am grateful
More than I have been
Yes, I am, I am, I am
- Grateful (song by St. Finnikin)
P.S. Sharing a few songs on my Gratitude playlist above. A couple are in Yoruba language so just… enjoy the vibes! 🤪
So, tell me, what grounds you? What anchors you to home?
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