I moved to San Diego in search of new love and only found pain.I moved to Las Vegas to save a few coins and only found change.I moved to Dallas in search of green spaces and only found rain.I am standing still in a state called Peace and trying hard to stay. So many apartments….
The Tree Is Up! And She Is Everything
For the first time in 6 years, I decorated a Christmas tree. I suppose the ice on my heart has finally melted. After years of allowing myself to get talked out of things that make me happy, I’ve returned to the Christmas tree tradition. I last hung decorations in San Diego for Christmas in 2016,…
Pressing Play On Life At The Trains At NorthPark
What Happens To A Dream Deferred? The other day, a YouTube video on Delayed Life Syndrome appeared in my recommended feed. When I first saw the title —I’m finally beginning to LIVE— a flood of deferred dreams rushed through my thoughts. I remembered all the outfits I told myself I’d wear after losing weight and…
Mapping The Unknown With My Kate Spade New York 2023 Planner
With 39 nights of sleep until January, I wanted to get a head start on mapping 2023. That task seems a bit laughable, considering how unpredictable and mindboggling 2022 turned out to be, but nevertheless, I persisted. Shopping for a planner in late November forced my decision between buying an 18-month planner that began in…
How To Swim In Mud: Keep Your Head Up
A Guest Post By Cherise Young During a morning of Scripture reading, I came across some passages where Job compares his former “glory days” to feeling like an outcast. Job’s words resonated with me. I understood what it’s like to go from feeling respected and valued to feeling left out and mishandled. In Job 30:19,…
Suicide Is Preventable
A Guest Post By Cherise Young In 2010, just two years after September was deemed National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, I led my first suicide prevention training. Based on the discussion during that training, it was apparent that viewing suicide as preventable was a rather new concept. In fact, saying “suicide is a preventable public…
7 Reasons I Smiled Over The Weekend
Happy Monday! One of my goals for 2022 is to finally do something with the 20K+ pictures and videos I’ve taken of my travels, my finds, and my kid. Yes, I really do have 20,000 pictures and videos saved on my Flickr, awaiting their forever homes. Unfortunately for me, it doesn’t take much for a…
Grief & Loss: Sometimes It Just Hits Different
A Guest Post By Cherise Young Around this time in 2020, I, Cherise, wrote of feeling weary. Having dealt with six months of a global pandemic that entailed isolation, collective loss, and traumatic images playing across multiple media outlets… I was tired… weary. Well, 2022 has been another heavy year. This time the yuck hit…
Sharing 13 Ways Dallas Humidity Changed My Routines
I left Las Vegas and moved to the Dallas area in mid-January, days before the city decided to freeze and revolt. Roads were unusable. Businesses closed. The snow went from pretty to pretty inconvenient overnight. In all the ways a person could not be ready, I was not ready for Texas weather. Not only was…
Going Green With Pelindaba Lavender Dallas
Since pulling back from Instagram, I’ve relied on my mom to keep me up on all the fun things in my city. When she told me about a store at Galleria Dallas selling all things lavender, I knew I had to check it out. Pelindaba Lavender is an all-things lavender franchise store and product gallery…
Blooming Beautifully At The Plant Project Dallas
Dwelling on both sides of a duplex in the heart of Dallas’ Uptown district is a beautiful space called The Plant Project. Touted as the first black-owned plant store in Dallas, The Plant Project was conceptualized and set on its way within seven days by Houston native, owner, and founder Bree Iman Clarke. While shopping…
Keeping The Pests Away With Pure Aroma Essential Oils
Now that I’ve clocked over 4,000 hours in Texas, I’ve had my fair share of run-ins with creepy crawlies and flying pests. I’m unsure if everything is bigger in Texas, but I’m convinced the bugs are. Since moving here from Las Vegas in January, I’ve had the immense pleasure of meeting flying roaches, mosquitos, spiders, earwigs, biscuit…
A Wellness & Wanderlust Journal ― Candace Aliké Smith, Founded 2015 