In the Kindling of Cancer Season
Parenting is an illuminating mirror, ancestral veneration for the greater good, and food for blistering days
An emphatic grunt from Romelo’s room — “I’m frustrated, mamá!” I close my work laptop and peer through the door frame. The mechanical lever on his garbage truck can’t lift the weight of all the toy’s he’s stuffed into the bin, which I explain with a sorry tone. Romelo sighs and lightens his load, pleasantly surprised with the outcome.
My two-year-old can name his feelings and emotions, and I’m proud of him for it. And in feat of my longtime spar with anxiety, I, too, have named the roots of those deep-seeded churning thoughts lately. Gratification and anguish marry as I rewrite the trauma and the triumphs of my childhood.
I often think of this harmony in raising a child: I learn from him as much as he learns from me.
I Stopped Hearing my Ancestors
They used to show up in dreams with cowrie shells and omens, or with a buzzing whisper between sleep and wakefulness. “You have to invite them in,” my mom said on the phone the other day. Any attempt is a good one, so I’ll start with cleaning my altar and placing an offering with a verbal invitation.
“[The] Ancestors’ purpose is to uplift and elevate us from the invisible realm while we are on Earth. The success and safety of the descendants is the direct success and health of the lineage as a whole. Veneration brings acknowledgment to their duties and provides them with proper energy to allow us to have a prosperous life full of ease and avoid any unnecessary chaos. Venerating them doesn't just help us individually, but also your immediate family as a whole creating any necessary healing and mending.”
- Ehime Ora
Make This When It’s 111° Outside
Pasta e fagioli-esque pasta salad - cannellini beans or garbanzos, zucchini, shallot, carrot, celery, herbs, parm, whatever else lies in the fridge
Arroz con salchica - Polish sausage/Kielbasa sautéed with sofrito, cooked with medium-grain rice, adobo, garlic powder, paprika, and saffron water in the rice cooker (+ green olives and pimentos if you have em)
French toast for dinner - 1/2 cup milk, 2 eggs, 1/4 tsp vanilla extract and plenty of cinnamon plus a sprinkle of salt, then soak stale bread and pan-fry with good butter, serve with bacon and stewed apples + Greek yogurt
Melon juice - let a melon ripen for a few days, then cut, blend, sift and enjoy
Smoooooothies
✴︎✴︎✴︎
Listening To:
Victory Lap - Fred again.., Skepta, PlaqueBoyMax
🐐
beautiful beautiful beautiful Julia!!!!!!!