It’s no surprise that two of the most cited books about trauma and healing, The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk and My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem, have references to the body in their title.

My myth begins with reflection of ritual, family, and the land through my story. I’ve shifted from not having an altar to creating my own. From having no daily ritual to feeling “off” if I didn’t remember to revere my ancestors, and myself, in the morning.

My healing story is a love story, and, really, so is everyone’s. I love to think about it in this way because it show how, at the core, there is always love in the bell of humanity: love for ourselves, love for others, love of the Earth, even when it doesn’t seem like it.