Welcome into the Café, my Love!

Confession, I never know if I should say “in to” or “into.” Lol

Anyway, this will be a shorter than usual newsletter. It’s quite a busy season for me, though I did manage to spend at least half an hour gazing and dancing at the Taurus full moon last night. My binoculars balanced on a tripod made a perfect makeshift telescope. And yes, I may be a tad tipsy off that Taurus Full Moon Shine 🌕 🤓

As Venus and my natal planet Mercury are now both retrograde, it tracks that I’m going back to my hometown for this week’s Book Tour stop with 3 events! Last week, I had 3 in-person author events in 1 week, which was a first for me. And this week, I’m doing it again! The first is a talk for LSU grad students about my journey during and after grad school. Then I have 2 more events open to the public.

This one is truly a dream come true! I used to go to the LABF as a fan with my mom all the time and met famous authors like Walter Dean Myers, Ernest Gains, and Louis Gossett Jr. I always hoped to be one of the featured authors speaking someday. My someday is here!!! I’m on a panel at 1:00pm in the State Library, Second Floor, Meeting Room. Get details here.

This was a later addition to my Fall book tour schedule, so I don’t have a detail page yet. However, I’ll be in conversation with a long-time comrade, Donney Rose. This event will focus specifically on colorism’s relevance in art. As the title suggests, it’ll be held at the Baton Rouge Art Gallery at 4:00pm.

Channeling for this week’s waning quarter moon in Leo, I got a message about Leo as a sign of leaders and leadership. The first aspect of this message is that all leaders must eventually pass, either pass the throne in retirement or “pass” as in pass away. The waning phase is significant here. On a collective level, there’s a literal turning over in leadership now that we’re in a big election season here in the United States. While this may not reflect the trajectory of every single elected leader, elections in general align with this theme of a changeover in leadership.

A key aspect of this was the message that a sign of great leadership is seeing your people continue to thrive in your absence. True leadership empowers others to also lead, to lead themselves, and to lead in community. This is soulful leadership stoked by true love for the people as opposed to pseudo-leadership that loves to lord over others for ego validation. The ideal outcome of parenting, for example, as a form of leadership, is not to make codependent children who can’t function without you, but to empower your children as they grow up to be the authority of their own life.

Finally, with the waning moon phase in Leo, there’s a collective call to turn our leadership inward, and lead ourselves from within ourselves, from our heart knowing, from our intuition and soul guidance. This is in contrast to seeking to navigate our lives based on prescribed social scripts, societal standards, external pressures and expectations of others. Leo is big heart energy. As you lead yourself forward, practice tuning inward to that heart resonance as your compass. That is a form of self-love, and authentic, unselfconscious self-love is as Leo as it gets.

Mountain air, city lights or somewhere new? There's still time to make your fall plans take flight with Alaska Airlines. See the fall foliage in Boston, sip cider in Seattle, or swap your flannel for a swimsuit and head to Hawai'i.

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