We have officially moved to Substack. Same newsletter, same energy, same me being a Professional Troublemaker every single week. We just got a fresh address, that’s all.
Nothing changes for you. You’re here. I’m here. We’re still doing this. 🫶🏾
Now. Let me tell you about this WEEK. The Grammys happened on Sunday and somebody made me mad. My Threads algorithm sent me into a quantum physics spiral that had me questioning the nature of reality at 2am. And I have a podcast I need every single one of you to go listen to immediately.
But yeah, let’s get into it. 👇🏾
So the Grammys happened on Sunday night. Artists used their platforms to speak on real things happening in this country. Immigration. ICE. The attacks on our communities. People showed up with courage and conviction.
And then Pharrell got on stage to accept the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award and told everybody to never stop working. 😒
Sir. SIR.
His exact words? “Never stop grinding. Never stop working. Stop doing anything else but working.” And then: “If you do what you love every day, you’ll get paid for free.”
I respect his legacy. I respect the body of work. But this message? On THIS stage? In THIS moment? When artists before him and after him were using their time to speak on the fact that people are being rounded up?
He had a GRAND STAGE and used it to tell people to never stop working. When the majority of the people watching have to work for the rest of their lives by NECESSITY. Not because it fulfills their soul, but because they have bills and children and a world that demands their labor whether they love it or not.
Shallower than a Snapple cap. 🗣️
And look. I need to address the broader message here because this isn’t just about Pharrell. This is about a saying that has been floating around for TOO LONG and needs to be laid to rest immediately:
“If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.”
FALSE. FALSE. FALSE.
There are many of us who LOVE what we do. Writers. Creatives. Gifted storytellers. Coaches. Teachers. Artists. We know we are walking in our purpose assignment. We know this is what we were put on this earth to do.
And it is STILL WORK. It still requires discipline and sacrifice and showing up on the days when you’d rather stay in bed. The passion and gifting alone does not magically remove the labor. It does not erase the deadlines, the burnout, the difficult seasons, the financial stress.
I have written five books. I LOVE writing. It is my calling. And every single one of those books was WORK. Late nights. Revisions. Crash outs . The love didn’t make it easy. The love made it worth it. Those are two VERY different things.
Loving your work doesn’t mean it stops being work. It means the work means something. 🗣️
So let’s give that saying a permanent rest. Bury it. Write a nice eulogy. Say a few kind words. And then never bring it up again.
And Pharrell? IKYFL. Don’t put that curse on me, Ricky Bobby. Why in the HELL would I wanna work all my life? 💀
I wanna rest. I wanna travel. I wanna sit on my couch and watch trash TV without guilt. I wanna live a life where work is a PART of who I am, not the ENTIRETY.
Do better. 🤌🏾
This week I talked about how I’ve been in the section of Threads that is entirely about quantum physics. And “time isn’t linear.” And the nature of the universe. And I have not been the same since. 🤯
After posting about it, I woke up the next morning and the thread had over 10,000 likes and more than a thousand comments. Quantum Physics was trending by the time I woke up.
It wasn’t just the science people in my comments. It was the faith people. The seekers. The woo woo folks. The spiritual-but-not-religious crowd. The devout churchgoers. The meditators. The astrology girlies. ALL of them were in my comments saying “YES. This is what I’ve been thinking about.”
This isn’t new for me. I wrote about this in my first book, I’m Judging You. I said:
I’m not knocking anyone for not believing in anything, but I have a firm belief that we are all connected.
When I look up to the stars at night and see them twinkle, I wonder if they were designed by a Master Architect who just wanted to give us something pretty to look at, even through the ugliness of life. When I see a diagram of the atoms that make up our bodies, and they look identical to those very stars, I cannot help but think it connects to how we’re all made from the same dust the universe is. When I see a scan of the brain and it resembles a map of the Milky Way, I am moved to believe that it’s because everything that exists is also a part of us.
I wrote that in 2015. And here I am in 2026, scrolling Threads at midnight, having scientists and philosophers and pastors and mystics all confirm the same thing from different angles.
The quantum physics Threads were talking about time being a construct. About particles being connected across distances that shouldn’t be possible. About the observer effect, where the act of watching something literally changes its behavior. And all I could think was: this sounds like prayer. This sounds like faith. This sounds like what my grandmothers knew in their bones without ever reading a physics textbook.
African philosophy has been saying this. Indigenous traditions have been saying this. The concept of Ubuntu, “I am because we are,” is a quantum physics principle dressed in ancestral clothing. The interconnectedness of all things isn’t a new scientific discovery. It’s an old spiritual truth that Western science is finally catching up to.
We are STARVING for this kind of thinking. We are starving for permission to be curious without choosing a side. To be a person of faith who is also fascinated by physics. To be a logical thinker who also believes in something bigger than what can be measured.
I said in I’m Judging You that if the goal of science is to study patterns in systems and spirituality is a belief in a master architect, couldn’t it be possible that the creator designed patterns in nature for us to understand creation better?
The three wise men looked to the stars for guidance. That was totally prehistoric Google Maps. 😅
I think the expansion that we all need right now isn’t just professional or financial. It’s intellectual. It’s spiritual. It’s cosmic. It’s the willingness to look at the world and say “I don’t have all the answers, but I’m willing to keep seeking.” 🙏🏾
The universe is too intentional for me to believe we are accidents. And science keeps proving it.
Whatever your faith tradition, whatever your relationship to science, whatever your current understanding of how this whole thing works, stay curious. Stay open. Stay in awe.
Because I truly believe that the more we learn about the universe, the more we learn about the God who made it. And the more we learn about the God who made it, the more we understand ourselves.
And maybe that’s the whole point. 🤌🏾
Speaking of consciousness being more vast and layered than we imagine…
Have y’all listened to The Telepathy Tapes podcast? Because if you haven’t, you need to fix that immediately.
This podcast explores the origins of consciousness and the unexplained abilities of ESP through science, real stories, and actual testing. In Season 1, nonspeaking individuals with autism reveal striking telepathic abilities that challenge EVERYTHING we thought we knew about the mind. By episode 7, I was in a full existential crisis because WHAT DO YOU MEANNNNN??? 🤯🤯🤯
There’s even an episode dedicated to addressing all the efforts to debunk it. They’re not running from the skepticism. They’re sitting in it and saying “OK, now let’s talk.”
Each episode takes you deeper into the territory of consciousness beyond the brain. This ties directly into everything I was saying in the reflection above. If science and spirituality are having the same conversation, this podcast is pulling up a chair and recording it. 🤌🏾
🎙️ Listen to The Telepathy Tapes (start with Season 1, Episode 1. Let it build. By episode 7, you’ll want to be texting me.)
Physics geeks, woo woo folks, believers, philosophers, seekers, skeptics. This podcast is YOURS. Tap in. 🙌🏾
What’s been expanding your mind lately? What’s something you’ve stumbled into recently that made you rethink how you see the world? I wanna know. Leave a comment and tell me. 👀
With wonder and fire,
P.S. Now that we’re on Substack, you can leave comments right on this letter, share it with friends, and even gift subscriptions to your people. I love that we can build more community here. So if you know someone who needs a weekly dose of truth and wonder in their inbox, tell them to come sit with us. 💫
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