Tracey Michae'l Lewis-Giggetts's Blog, page 10

PTSD is Real���Ask Me and Olivia Pope

I havent been quite right since the abuse. I havent been quite right since the accident. The sexual abuse and later, rape, I experienced when I was younger has created emotional and spiritual blocks for me in most of my relationships. I either become too needy with people Ive deemed safe or too hard and…

When the Devil is Busy, Don’t Get Mad���Get Foolish.

I am so excited. All week I���ve been preparing for the��launch of my new ebook, ���Diaper Bags and Church Shoes: Living at the Intersection of Faith and Motherhood��� (with a foreword by MBB���s Head Mommy/Sistah/All-Around-Fabness, Denene Millner) In an effort to promote the stories, many of which have appeared right here on MyBrownBaby, I���ve been…

The Sun Won’t Wait For You: Lessons in Being Present

I���d forgotten that I���d left my blinds open when I woke up that morning. The light streamed into my window and after a yawn and a stretch, I found myself staring into the most amazing sunrise I���d seen in a long time. Red and violet streaked across the horizon. The slow rise of golden light…

Hope. Or When History Stops Repeating Itself.

We all have heard the stories. They usually begin with ���back in my day������ and what follows is a litany of exaggerated narratives about how life back then was so much harder than the present. How she���usually some gray-haired elder wearing a pillbox hat and compression stockings, hiding the tobacco chilling between her gums and…

Raising Fearless Kids (Or What I Refuse to Carry Into 2015)

I’m the worst passenger in a car. Anyone who knows me well, knows to pop a couple of valiums before driving me anywhere long distance because stress is most certainly a’coming. Because of several car accidents over the course of a couple of decades, I’ve developed a serious case of PTSD when someone else is…

TMLG’S Top 6 Posts for 2014

So here we go… *again with the booming, echo-like, movie trailer voice* THE TOP 5 6 ARTICLES/ESSAYS/BLOGS I WROTE THIS YEAR (based on views/comments/stats) Setting the Narrative Free: Bill Cosby Is NOT Cliff Huxtable This piece got picked up and shared so many times, it might as well had been a hundred dollar bill.

Oh Why Not?! TMLG’s Top Ten Reads of 2014

I’m not a routine person. There are some people who can do the same thing, in the same way, at the same time every day. That isn’t me. At all. I’ve tried all the tricks and read all the books, but for whatever reason, I tend to work and live organically. I don’t even eat…

Dear Celebrities: The #BlackLivesMatter Movement Needs More of You to Step Up

For over a week now, I have been working on an essay that began as a harsh critique of celebrities’ lack of involvement in the #BlackLivesMatter and #ICantBreathe protests. The silence has been deafening. But in that time, a trickle of A-listers have started to emerge, like Jay Z and Beyoncé, ChrisRock, Dave Chappell, Samuel…

People Say That I’m a Dreamer: My Journey to a Protest

So I really wanted to go to DC or NYC for one of the marches for justice that were happening across the country this past weekend–had actually planned to go to DC all week long–but the kid was sick (fever, snot and such) and in a battle between my mommy-self and my activist-self, mommy usually…

From Rage to Rest and Back Again: The Importance of Self Care in the Face of Injustice

Here’s my truth: I don’t do tragedy very well. Not my own and definitely not the calamities of others. There’s something about heartbreak and injustice, death and destruction that breaks my heart over and over and over again. As somewhat of a depressive, these kinds of events can send me to the extremes of…