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jujuward.bsky.social
Therapist, musician, mother, artist. Let’s talk about love, care, community, and liberation.
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Whether you are single or partnered, check in today with those who make your heart happy. Remind those you love of your care. And, give yourself some extra care today, too. Photo of p.5 “all about love” by bell hooks

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Valentine’s Day is a good reminder of the importance of love in our lives. However, our focus on romantic love (which can be joyful/wonderful/amazing obv) distracts us from friendship & kinship love, which is often the most sustainable, lasting, challenging, and enriching relationships we have. 1/2

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Happy Valentine's Day! Love is an action and a practice and need not be romantic. Love fiercely, love humbly, love truthfully, love deeply. We all we got.

submitted 9 days ago • 14 comments

Ack I missed posting yesterday so two books today: “All About Love” a bell hooks classic AND “Pleasure Activism” by Adrienne Marie Brown! Joyful, thoughtful, explorations of love and loving in thought and action!

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Black History Month book recommendation time! If you’re interested in psychology, you’ve probably heard about somatic therapy and trauma. The best book on this topic is “My Grandmother’s Hands” by Resmaa Menakem. Incorporating clear and thoughtful writing with effective and powerful exercises.

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

Yay Black History Month! Okay - here’s a great book (essays!) examining the intersections of race, beauty, politics, pop culture, money and more from the BRILLIANT Tressie McMillan Cottom. Her work is unflinching, provocative, funny, and full of “oh shit” statements that floored me.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Black History Month book rec time! Don’t sleep on romance! Jasmine Guillory writes the best meet cutes. Her debut novel “The Wedding Date” is cute and smart and fun and lovely - even for ersatz misandrists like me!

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

Black History book rec! “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler. Stunning prose with an important message kind of frightening in its prescience. Everyone is telling you to read it and everyone is right. Brilliant work reminding us of the importance of imagination, self-sufficiency and COMMUNITY!

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

I remember watching Star Wars as a kid and asking myself, who would voluntarily join the dark side? I understood Darth Vader's motivation, but not the stormtrooper's.

submitted 18 days ago • 1316 comments

Day 5 of Black History Month book recs from a white lady: “The Warmth of Other Suns” by Isabella Wilkerson An extraordinary and meticulously researched non-fiction tale of the great migration. This book explores the decades long migration of Black Americans to northern cities. A must read!

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Day 4 of Black History Month book rec from a white lady. “Communion” by bell hooks. An exploration on love and loving from the female perspective; unpacking expectations around caring, learning to love as a skill, and the impact of patriarchy, imperialism, misogyny, race, etc on same.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Today in Black History book recs from me, a white lady. “Giovanni’s Room” by James Baldwin. An exploration of masculinity, homophobia, comphet identity, social alienation, all in a tidy novel with the most gorgeous writing you could ever hope to read.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

It is the third day of Black History Month! Part of removing the veil of white supremacy from our eyes is celebrating human achievement in our diversity. The contributions of Black people to our world is staggering. Acknowledging that fact is vital to collective liberation! ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

It seems odd, even to me, to explore the importance of love during times of such horrifying political machinations. But how are we to persist and resist these horrors of dehumanization without fierce love as our compass? Care is more important than ever. I hope you get some comfort today.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

Today’s thought: how can you give yourself the care and love you give to others? Can you be more patient with yourself? Can you release shame for resting? We are the best at supporting justice and community when we are cared for. Learning to care for yourself is vital.

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments

Love is an action verb. I’m tired of hearing about how much we love something while we make the evidence of our love invisible. Love without action is egotistical. Love that excludes is oxymoronic. Love is a fighter for justice, a blanket, a cup of coffee on the nightstand, and a kick in the ass.

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

If you’re waiting for a charismatic leader to step up and fix everything, get used to waiting. There’s no mythical rescuer coming. There’s just all of us and the daily work of supporting our communities. Find a local org, get involved, help the people around you. That’s the only answer.

submitted 33 days ago • 203 comments

My heart is hurt and angry today, so I am being tender with myself. I am caring for myself and my family. I am reaching out to my community. I am rededicating myself, as I do every single fucking blessed day, to love in its ferocity and tenderness.

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

And I’m not talking about emotional bosh when I talk about love; I’m talking about a strong, demanding love. For I have seen too much hate. and I say to myself that hate is too great a burden to bear. I have decided to love. If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love.

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

From Dr. King: And I say to you, I have also decided to stick with love, for I know that love is ultimately the only answer to humankind’s problems. And I’m going to talk about it everywhere I go. I know it isn’t popular to talk about it in some circles today. 1/?

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

I am often overwhelmed with a feeling best described as dolor. A dark mood overtakes me and I feel like I have failed somehow in controlling my moods. But constant positivity is impossible and untenable. The darkness can be loving, too, if I welcome it without shame.

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

I led a workshop this morning about community care and mutual aid at a local high school. Community care, friendship, love, mutual aid- these are all tied together, bound by empathy and our shared efforts to support one another. They humbled me with their openness and caring. It’s brave and hard!

submitted 37 days ago • 0 comments

bell hooks defined love as “a dedication to another’s spiritual growth.” She did not mean religious awakening, but rather the soul’s freedom to become and be accepted and supported in that becoming. How can I live that definition? I ask myself this question regularly. I invite you to do the same. ❤️

submitted 38 days ago • 0 comments

As a mother, my child’s personality is his own- he is not a mini-me. He is fully himself. So, I get to love him as he is and provide guidance and structure and unconditional love to help him in making secure decisions aligned with his values.

submitted 38 days ago • 0 comments

As a therapist who works with kids, I often explore how love is shown in action with parents. For example: caring attention is loving, validation is loving; And so are boundaries and challenge. The work of parenting is (or should be) the work of loving.

submitted 38 days ago • 0 comments

We have left the conversation about love to poets, artists, and philosophers- and, as producers of the human experience, we have been right to do so. But, love is central to all of our lives. As parents, as friends, even as workers - love and loving are vital to our lives. 1/?

submitted 38 days ago • 0 comments

So first, I’m asking this question: How do you define love? Is it a feeling? What does it feel like to you? Is it an action? An intention? What words come to mind when you think of love?

submitted 39 days ago • 1 comment

I’m here on this new app to talk about love. How we learn to love ourselves and others, how we learn to live as loving people; The complex ways we understand love and friendship. I want to open a conversation of love that extends beyond the romantic and expands on the work of bell hooks and others.

submitted 39 days ago • 0 comments