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The Radiant Smile of a Carefree Black Girl

Smiling French Singer Inna Modja

A SMILE is one of the most wonderful human expressions one can make. A smile denotes pleasure, happiness, and sociability. In fact smiling provides a positive feedback loop to our brain which generates a more positive feeling from within. So contrary to what some people belief a genuine smile does not show a sign of weakness but rather a powerful gesture when used correctly.

A woman's smile is in fact a powerful gesture that increases happiness within her and towards others. Now to take it a step further, the smile of a carefree Black girl is one of the most pleasing smiles to come across. But wait...what's a carefree Black girl? Per writer Jamala Johns in her fantastic article on Refinery29 Carefree Black Girls, its broken down like this:

Over the last 15 years or so, there’s been a heartening evolution in the works that I’ve been proud to be involved with. A while back, I launched le coil, a curated collection of natural-hair web finds and original photography. The more I worked on it, the more I started to realize that it was helping me explore a facet of the black female experience that went beyond just hair. I noticed that I instinctively leaned more toward more joyful expressions and regal poses, faces basking in natural light, and an overall tone that was warm, relatable, and encouraging. There had been countless conversations with friends where I lamented something along the lines of “I just want to see brown ladies having a delightful time and riding bicycles — and maybe having some brunch.”

Right now with the advent of the internet culture there are new range of ideas and concepts and archetypes. As of now the new archetype I am completely enamored with is the carefree Black girl.
A carefree Black girl is aware of the political and social climate but does not let the negativity consume her or let negative stereotypes define her. So she goes about her day to day being fantastically brown and glowing, enthusiastically happy, wearing her hair proud and crowned in floral headbands, and of course dressed in bright stylish clothing. However for me what tops off the look of a carefree Black girl is the all in the spirit of an authentic smile! When another Black woman smiles all the Brown angels harmonize in union ship. Okay, okay I know I'm being just a tad bit silly or a bit fanatical about smiling but...it's true :) If I was a person to constantly be a consumer of mainstream culture and entertainment you would swear Black women almost never smiled, because according to them Black women mean mug, smirk, nod and salute fists in anger but almost never smile. With the current political and social climate Black women have every right to display a current range of unhappy emotions. But to see Black women still smile through it all day by day and to not constantly wear emotions on our sleeves is a truly wonderful thing. Seeing another smiling carefree Black girl is a like sign your allowed to be stylish and whimsical and just plain awesome basking in your own brown beauty!

The smile of a carefree Black girl will always warm my heart and in turn make me smile :)

 

Black Girl Gardening

When I was a little girl I had a bright green thumb. I followed after my grandmother in her lovely garden extracting pesky weeds in the grass, picking and shelling gongo peas, plucking ripe ackee off the tree, and watering all the blooming plants like white orchids, french thyme.

Well many many years go by and my green thumb has shrunk, withered, and almost died. How that happened, well I'm not too sure? I just basically stopped helping in the garden. However as I mentioned in the previous post I alot of the books I have been reading has me interested in gardening again.  Well here's to a new start in living well and here to a start in my own little garden.




Gardening is a marvelous thing in of itself. Gardening allows me to be one with nature and help bring about life. From the seeds I am planting, watering, and nurturing a new life forms. Or I can look at it in another perspective; I save money by producing your own food :)  The wonderful world of gardening allows me to grow my own expensive fruits like mango, pineapples, and avacados. Compared to the stores prices the mango tree we have is better, sweeter, and having matured a long while back its priceless. Depending on what foods tolerate and thrive in the South Florida climate I can grow tomatoes, lettuce, kale, blueberries and more.

My lovely grandmother has been wonderful in the assistance of the start of my own little garden. I began with the cuttings of a french thyme plant and golden pathos plant, the baby pulp of aloe vera, and the roots of an orchid. I am recoloring my green thumb by starting out with plants, herbs, and flowers rather than cultivating food. I say this because I really want a few plants in my bedroom. In the meantime I'll help with my grandmothers garden which is mainly food produce and eventually branch off on my own later :)

Roots of the French Thyme

French Thyme by the Windowsill

French Thyme by the Windowsill

Aloe Vera Plant

Aloe Vera Plant