First, peel with your teeth

Remembering mama, releasing me

I recently had the opportunity to write an essay about my mother, the late Sistah Sonia Nunes O’Connor, the city I love, and my journey of releasing old guilt to make room for new breath, new breeze, a new season of mangoes. The essay was published in Saveur:

https://www.saveur.com/culture/miami-mangoes-mothers-loss/

It’s taken me 18 years to get into this publication. Pause. 18 years. The process of writing the piece mirrored how I felt about writing it. There is nothing romantic about releasing. The reason why the butterfly’s metamorphosis from caterpillar to winged creature is so often used as a reference for transformation is because we don’t actually know what the butterfly is going through. We are not in the chrysalis. We don’t know the sensations it’s feeling, the pain, the anguish. We get to relish in what we see.

I hope you feel what you read in this essay. I share it with you with my whole heart. Happy Mother’s Day today and every day to every woman who mothers and the men who support women on their mothering journeys ♥️🙏🏿