rest

I stopped napping over a year ago but my afternoon naps are making a comeback in 2021. My weeks feel so full and that’s partly my fault—I’m still saying “yes” to too many requests—but it’s also Black History Month, and I thought I’d have time to teach and give keynotes and visit schools virtually because my deadlines were LAST month. I met all three but, of course, that doesn’t mean I’m done; my editors circle back needing more poems, more revisions, more more. By the time I reach 3pm, I’m out of steam. If I curl up with a book to read for an hour, I invariably fall asleep after twenty minutes. I’m keeping up with my daily steps and the treadmill and my vitamins, yet I still feel bone tired some days. But this week, after all my Zooms, I took a moment to celebrate myself with High Tea at Home prepared by a local French cafe, Patisserie Coralie. I got a box for myself and a box for my nearby friend and we toasted each other over FaceTime. Not the same as a leisurely three-hour tea off a three-tier tray in a swanky hotel, but it was still nice. I’m very grateful for my friends! This week I’ve felt myself withdrawing, getting cranky each time I’m asked to do some small thing. I did my first IG Live event on Wednesday for World Read Aloud Day. I was nervous and wasn’t sure I could read a picture book using my phone but Gayatri (Desi Book Aunty) made everything easy and was so calm and affirming during our chat…when it was over, I immediately turned my phone’s camera back on and filmed another read aloud for a bookstore in CA. I’d been fussing about that but doing the first run with Gayatri made me feel more confident about doing the second book. Scratched that off my To Do list and then sat down for another online meeting with a pre-service teacher in TN. She asked such excellent questions about literacy and community-based publishing that I felt truly hopeful about the next generation of readers and writers. Yesterday I led a poetry workshop for middle grade students in Brooklyn participating in the Black Lives Matter at School Week, and this morning I did story time for the Hospital for Sick Kids in Toronto. I started this week by surprising a class of 3rd graders in Toronto who read and loved DRAGONS IN A BAG. Tomorrow I’m looking forward to a conversation about Black joy, which is part of the Capricorn SFF conference here in Chicago; everything is virtual so feel free to register and join us. I have nothing scheduled for Sunday and I’m not booking anything more for April or May. Folks keep asking what I’m working on and I *do* have several projects that are patiently waiting for my attention. But those stories will have to wait a while long because right now–it’s nap time! Enjoy your weekend.