August | Life Lately
Happy August Full Moon! If you’ve been here a while you know this is my favorite time of the year. This August I turn 30. Plenty of reflection going on as I enter a new decade. A decade that always felt so far off. I can barely keep up with how much change has happened! A little 10-pound ball of sweetness & smiles may have something to do with that also. Redemption by Warsan Shire hit home for me this month. Watch Beyoncé read the poem. It’s a million times better in spoken word, especially from Queen Bee for Lemonade album.
Every Mother is a Working Woman tee by The Bee & The Box
My 30th birthday | Like many people’s plans for celebrations this year, my 30th birthday has been watered down to the essential. Joel had grand plans to rent a boat on Muskegon Lake for family & friends to watch the sunset over the lake. It was going to be mermaid-themed everything; outfits, drinks, hors d'oeuvres. Then we got pregnant. Then the pandemic hit. Now it looks like my birthday will be the 4 of us safely alone at my in-law’s cottage with a pontoon ride in the middle of the week (fingers crossed!). My parents gifted me with a beautiful concrete mermaid for the pollinator garden I hope to have next year. Mermaid; the symbol of transformation. Joel asked me what I wanted last weekend on the lake & I said a bonfire with my closest people all around. By the time we reached our porch, they were all there. The fire was started. It seems I got exactly what I wanted after all. If that isn’t the lesson of 2020, my Goddess, what the hell is.
The fourth trimester | I knew it’d change my life when I became pregnant last year but I had no clue it would be such a tectonic shift. Our baby girl has changed what I prioritize. My values, identity, interests, all of it. Each day I am a Mother, I’m convinced the fourth trimester needs to be 100% dedicated to babe & mama for presence, growth, healing, & development. This time has been a blessing. Every woman should have the right to paid maternity leave with fair standards in place when a woman returns to work. The United States is the only developed country that legally doesn’t have to pay women on maternity leave with a handful of other maternal injustices. Why aren’t women in a collective upheaval? Probably because they’re so damn tired raising children while being the matriarchs of their families. I’m in the middle of researching a lot on this topic & what can be done.
WNBA 2020 Season | I’ve started watching the WNBA again. I played basketball my entire life then got away from it in my 20’s. What better time to focus on my love for the game than this new decade after bringing a baby into this world during a pandemic?! Ha. I patiently wait for my body to be ready & for the pandemic to be over to get some pick-up games going at the park. In the meantime, I’m watching the WNBA. $17 for a WNBA league pass to watch all the games through September. Not only are these women top athletes but they’re using the entire 2020 season to protest the social injustices in our nation. To keep the conversation going about Breonna Taylor & Sandra Bland. Each game presents a platform to raise exposure to these systemic issues. The best part? This is nothing new for the WNBA. they’ve done this all along. It’s what happens when you have a group of badass women playing for something bigger than themselves.
Currently
Reading | Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Listening | The Michelle Obama Podcast
Watching | Expecting Amy by Amy Schumer
And with that, this is my last full moon monthly post. 36 moons later I’m ready to hang my hat on my monthly documenting of our life lately in tune with the moon. It has been a wonderful three years of trying new design styles & writing formats through my love for the moon. I’ve found fellow moon lovers because of this series & gotten much more in tune with the moon through my research, the rhythm of the phases, my menstrual cycle, & so much more. The moon, of course, isn’t going anywhere. And I will continue to look up to her all year round like I always have. You can see all full moon posts here.
As always — Happy Full Moon, friends! xo, Em
