Selah // Something Witty

Freedom rains.

Date: 07.05.17 -- Day 39
Music: "Now We Are Free" & "The Rains of Castamere" / Tina Gao

Travels update. I made it back. Kind of in pieces, but it was worth it. The experience was a life-changing weekend. I got to meet some of my distant cousins on my father's mother's side. It gave me a window into her life a bit, making her a bit less elusive.

The amazing thing about DC is that I got see the National Museum of African American Culture and Heritage. I have no worries to explain what walking through the museum meant to me. So many emotions of pain, pride, and a small sense of peace. Like a part of myself settled into its rightful place. These are my people, and that I was able to share that experience with family made it more of a momentous occasion. I cannot recommend going and experiencing this museum if you're ever in DC.

I was also able to spend some time at the African American Civil War Museum, which one of my cousins serves on their board of trustees. I was able to see the names of my ancestors on the monument standing in honor of the soldiers who fought during the Civil War. To be able to circle back and acknowledge them, even in a brief, silent moment to myself was something I still do not have words for. More than ever I wanted to let them know that we made it, that we remember them, and that they will not be forgotten.

DC as a whole was not what I expected. Honestly, I had this image in my head that it to be taller, LOL. The heat and humidity were something else. It was already too hot before dawn arrived. But it definitely a place worth more exploration. I'd like to go back some day, walk the city more, get a better feel of everything. I'm not city person by any stretch, but if I had to choose a city to live, I think DC would actually be a place I wouldn't mind (except in summer because dear me that was intense; and I've done my time with extremely hot summers long ago).

So I came, I saw, I experienced, I returned. Should be grounded for a while.