There was a time when I felt guilty about the practices my body needed to arrive for the day.

Conditioned by an education system built to support compliant and productive little workers, when I wasn’t pumping out the emails by 9:00 a.m., there was a sense that I should probably hide what I was actually doing. I felt this even when I didn’t go into a formal office, even when I worked for myself.

I tried the early-to-bed, early-to-rise, approach, but that just didn’t work for my system. If I shortened my practices, a piece of myself felt left behind. The day was wobbly. ⁠

⁠⁠From being in relationship with other bodies of color, I’ve come to realize that so many of us share this experience.

The practices that ground and support us run counter to the productivity/worthiness quotient many of us have been trained to live up to.

We're conditioned to relate to the time we spend calling in, divining, dreaming, praying, moving, sleeping and the many other witchy things we do as an “indulgence” rather than what it actually is: body-wise, ancestral knowing for navigating living inside of systems designed to disempower and harm us.

⁠I'm so grateful for the healing that can come from being in community. Now, when my "workday" starts at 10:00 or 11:00 or 12:00 and I feel guilt, I'm reminded of the words of these knowing friends. "Remember," they whisper. "Your rituals and embodied practices are not diversions from your work they are the work."

Taking time to tune in to and honor what your body and spirit need is not indulgent, in the socio-political maelstrom we are navigating, it is wise and essential.

It is the work.