January Recap: Make You Remember How to Smile Good

Hola beloveds,How long it has been since I’ve graced the keys of my keyboard to write a blog post. Welcome back to my corner of the internet and my very first blog post of 2020. A month has passed, it’s now February--one of my other absolute favorite months--and it seems like Winter is over here in the nether regions of the US. I hope that the first month of this year and decade has treated you well. In lieu of such a long absence after my #25daysofcreativity challenge, I thought I would share with you what the last month has looked like for me. January was definitely much more steady-paced than December. I entered the year with a lot less movement in the sense of busyness. Everything felt as if peace had moved in and although my schedule remained somewhat packed, there was more peace, fewer hours of work as everything wound down from the craze we as humans sometimes make the Christmas season to be.So, you may ask, what have you been up to the last 31 days? Here is a somewhat short, yet descriptive list of what the last month has looked. 

January Recap

• Poetry Surprises: A few months ago I published my debut poetry book in November to Amazon Kindle. You can check out that post here (Debut Poetry Book) This book has been a work in progress for over two years and now we can all feast our eyes on this beaut, the hard copy of For Wonder in the Wilderness! I am in a sense of awe of this dream becoming a reality. For the last two and a half years, I developed a title, edited, and categorized poems to fit into the short book of words to share with you.

So, dear reader, if you would like to purchase a copy of this book, you can do so here. For Wonder in the Wilderness poetry book.  You can purchase either a digital copy or a physical copy on Amazon at the link above!

K-Pop Concerts: This year, so far, I began the year going to a concert with my roomie and the band was a K-POP band. For those of you who know me personally understand the deep affection I have for Korea, the food, the people, the customs, and of course the music. Over the last two years, I felt that I was "growing" out of K-POP music because of various reasons. However, when I went to this concert I found out how wrong I was. The band SEVENTEEN  sparked this rekindling for Korean music and reminded me why I fell in love with K-POP to begin with. I mean, the choreography was beyond amazing, I may have fangirled just a bit, but it was totally worth it. Also if you don't know who SEVENTEEN is, give them a listen. If you like dancing, watch their videos. I mean Woozi blew me away with his moves seriously dude can dance.

Finding Rest & Rhythms: In the midst of editing and publishing my poetry book there has been a lot of rest and reclaiming of quiet. For 21 days I did a fast with my church and chose to fast from certain foods and social media. Over the last year, I have found social media to be a distraction. Seeing as I use a lot of it to share what I do as a creative person, as a writer and a poet--it feels that I am consuming a lot more often than I'm creating. In not browsing constantly through my feed and IG stalking peeps I haven't seen in a while, I realized how I was able to breathe more. Creativity flowed more easily because the intent was to create simply out of the love for creating and not to create to share, post, or glean from it some profound thought. To maintain a rhythm of inner peace and stillness, this looks like a lot of Jesus time, self-care, and creativity for the sole purpose of creating out of joy and love. I want to create from wholeness and from peace and all that God is. This year, I want and desire to have balance in my in all areas of life including my creative life.

As February begins to take off, I hope this month yields awe-inspiring and deep love for you as I hope it does for me.Sincerely, Antavia a girl remembering how to smile good.