Even When it Hurts

Moving Towards my Truth

Happy September Beloveds,

Recently, I answered an application question about how my identity as a woman has informed my writing practice. A beautiful, loving friend helped me to begin working through this question to honor my truth in a way I never have before. I’ve decided to share that response with y’all. Once again, something has broken open in me and I am grateful that the earth is still up under my feet.

I hope y’all find something to take with you.

-In Love, Natalie 💛

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"Black Snake Blues" (1994) by Alison Saar, offset lithograph on paper

My mother wanted me to be a boy.

She often tells me the story of how, after raising my older sister for a tumultuous 16 years, she was disappointed to learn from the doctor that her burgeoning fetus was to be another girl child. I do not question the love she has for me, but as we learn from the Yoruba goddess, Yemaya, existence as a woman is a constant negotiation with complex, profound truths that are intrinsically linked to the natural expansiveness and imposed synthetic limits of gender identity. This negotiation has been firewood for my writing practice.