Something inside of her told her: “The only way out is to write.”
She started with a gratitude journal to remind herself of all of the people she should be grateful for in her life. She realized, however, that grateful people didn’t feel the way she felt — angry, anxious, depressed, confused, disillusioned, desperate (to name a few of grief’s cohorts).
Looking back, she realized that what she was actually doing was trying to avoid her grief.

Like many of us, she didn’t know that gratitude and grief are not mutually exclusive. She learned that she couldn’t skip over the emotions that make her uncomfortable and recognized that there is a complicated cocktail of emotions swirling inside each of us that makes us feel alive.

I talk to Bethany about the launch of her new book "Dipped In It," her odyssey into writing her book after the loss of her father, and the wisdom her emotions have brought to her life. Listen to her read a few excerpts and hear about how her daughters played a role in bringing her book to life.

In this episode we talk about:

• Postpartum depression & how this shared experience brought Bethany and I together after the birth of her daughter Ruby.
• The cracking open that happened after her divorce and then the death of Bethany’s beloved father.
• How the expression “Dipped In It” came to be and what it means to her.
• Our tendency to want to skip over difficult emotions or spiritually bypass the ones that have the most to teach us.
• Grief does not have an expiration date. There isn’t a specific time in which grief can be completed. It doesn’t work that way.
• Why sharing our stories with others is so vitally important and why daring to go within ourselves to dip into our own well of grief is where we can find the greatest treasures.
• How allowing ourselves to be where we are in our darkest human emotions is sometimes the greatest gift we can give ourselves.
• How normal it is for us to want to look like we have it all handled, but how much it can hurt us when we don’t tell people that we are struggling.
• Sometimes being a good friend is looking more closely at those around us and asking, “are you ok?” - because drowning doesn’t look like drowning, literally or metaphorically.
• It’s ok for us to normalize not being ok. We can’t always be ok. That’s not how life works.
• Grief and gratitude are not mutually exclusive. Our human emotions can exist within us simultaneously; all of it gets to belong.

Links:

• Dipped In It by Bethany Harvey
• Facebook - Dipped In It
• Instagram - Bethany Harvey/Dipped In It (@harvey_bethany)

In this episode, we talk about Decolonizing the Mind and what it means to empower womxn by raising the awareness of unfamiliar intersections and conversations that other women like Truth encounter daily.

• Truth chose her name because she has been seeking her truth with all of her heart and has become aligned with that truth, especially since coming out.
• Truth feels liberated by giving herself permission to be who she is and to seek her truth, and speak her truth, no matter what.
• No one can write your narrative for you, and your personal truth does not have to align with anyone else’s.
• We are given these hidden scripts that dictate how we “should” live, love, and be, and these scripts can be incredibly harmful if you do not fit in a cultural box.
• Truth agrees with James Baldwin’s writings - that we can disagree with one another, but it’s not ok to harm one another for being different or for having a truth that’s not a cultural “norm."
• Truth was born into a male-gendered body, but this was not the essence of her spirit. Truth knew at a very early age who she was but felt that she could not be true to this due to her upbringing and what the church dictated.
• Truth's mother knew she was having a girl, and yet, she birthed a boy.
• It’s only in the past few years that Truth has felt like she can fully express who she is, and it’s made a tremendous difference in her health and her joy.
• Black Mamas Matter focuses on the disproportionate rates that black women die in pregnancy and childbirth and how black women are treated based on stereotypes that subject them to unnecessary trauma and pain.
• Truth is passionate about art, modeling, music, and self-expression based on activism around issues such as police brutality, disparities in health care, and the treatment of queer black and brown people.
• We are seeing a lot of activity in progressive areas, but Truth understands that this is not yet the case in many places.
• Truth wants to bring change to how Black and Brown Women are treated. She wants to create more spaces and have access to the same opportunities without being discriminated against. She also wants to help educate through her art, voice, and activism.
• Pose, Drag, and J-Sette are art forms that are growing and being celebrated.
• Silence is violence. Truth works to bring her voice to the many ways racism is covert and hidden and how it needs to be revealed.

I loved this conversation with Truth. I will continue to follow and celebrate her beauty, grace, and fierce love for humanity and her incredible stand for making change happen in the world. Thank you for all you do as a cycle breaker, artist, and activist.

Links:

• Episode 54: Coral Brown - The Biology of Belief
• Facebook: Truuth Speaks
• Instagram • Truth (@truthspeaks207) photos and videos
• Patreon: Truuth Speaks (Truth) is creating BLACK MAGIC (writings, videos)...