As I struggled to get my bearings while also narrowly dodging the oncoming traffic, I realized the harsh truth: literally and figuratively speaking, I had lost all balance in my life.

Beloved, how did you spend your Christmas week? For me and my Love, we went on a Southern Christmas Tour (as I like to call it) and visited pretty much all of the spots that I had visited in the past with The Institute for Common Power on our Educator Learning Tours and Symposium. We started by visiting the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville, Tennessee before heading over to Montgomery, Alabama. In Alabama I feel like we did EVERYTHING! We spent Christmas day with his high school friend and her family, visited the Legacy Sites (the Legacy Museum and the Sculpture Memorial Garden, having opted to skip the Lynching Memorial site due to inclement weather), and then we visited the Lowndes Interpretive Center on the way to Selma to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and learn more about Bloody Sunday and the March to Montgomery that began there in 1965. This was all before we drove over to Olive Branch, Mississippi to visit his dad and bonus mom for a few days and then dip over to Memphis, Tennessee to visit the Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Today is Monday and although we are back in Maryland and done with visiting museums for the year, we are still getting ready to have lunch with my cousins as we wrap up all of this holiday cheer.

WHEW! Just typing all of that was exhausting!

Despite how busy our week was, it was important for me to visit those sites with my Love. Recently I realized just how important it is to continue to share the complete US history with others because in the words of Edmund Burke, “if we don’t know our history, we are destined to repeat it.” And my Love being the phenomenal man that he is, agreed to this museum tour and my heart was so grateful! While I know that I am super nerdy, my heart filled with joy at the thought of sharing the places, stories, and history that blessed my life with him. In fact, at the Sculpture Memorial Garden, I was able to look at their towering Memorial Monument dedicated to honoring the formerly enslaved people and their descendants who were counted in the 1870 census. As it turns out, the names of my ancestors were prominent on the wall. I saw the names of my dad’s side of the family and my heart overflowed with joy, unspeakable joy in that moment. To this day, I am still shocked to silence to digest the fact that “I, too, am America” (I just love to quote Langston Hughes!).

All of this came AFTER the moment that quite literally changed my outlook on the entire week…

My Love was stepping into my teacher/nerdy world by visiting all of these museums so when he asked if I would attempt to ride a scooter with him, I made a slight compromise (after some hesitation) and opted to ride a bike over to the music museum. Y’all, I naively thought that it would be a cakewalk because I ride the stationary bike at the gym all the time! When I first got on that bike, I truly felt confident in what was about to happen. I put both feet on the pedals and mentally geared up for what was supposed to be a brief, easy ride.

Well, as it turns out, that ride was anything but brief or easy. Not even 100 feet from the starting point, I attempted to take off with the green light and ended up pedaling across the path of a car that was coming in the opposite direction (yes, I almost got hit by a car). Then when I thought I had gotten the swing of things, I realized that my greatest opponent was soon to come- the hill that separated where I was from where I needed to go. When I knew that it was coming, I opted to still pedal towards it, but once at the top of it, I literally saw my life flash before my eyes as I thought about the possibility of riding into more oncoming traffic and not being able to stop myself. Panic overtook me and I abruptly fought to end my time on the bike. A pedestrian and my Love saw me and they both grew increasingly worried for me. When all was said and done, I had fallen off of the bike and bruised my ankle (and my pride), but I had not fallen to the ground and I had not drawn any blood.

WHEW! What a relief!

Yet my mind perseverate on the entire situation for some time. I thought I had control over the situation, I thought I had balanced myself out properly, yet I was mere feet away from getting hit by cars- two separate times. Turns out, I definitely did NOT have control over the situation. In all of my attempts to self-regulate and balance my own life, I over-corrected and often made situations worse, creating way more work for God.

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Beloved, today’s unfortunately very true story is just the beginning. It is not meant to be a solution to anything, but merely lay the groundwork (pun intended) for what God is doing in our lives in 2025. In order for God to do His best work, we have to realize and accept our limitations. Today, Sweet Friend, I implore you to realize yours as we ask God to fortify us in this new year. Much like my bike ride, this new year will be filled with adventures, twists and turns, and hills to climb. Yet also like my bike ride, God will guide us, protect us, and sustain us. Say goodbye to 2024 and say hello to God’s balance.

Be blessed.