{"id":640,"date":"2025-09-08T17:31:42","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T17:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/?p=640"},"modified":"2025-09-08T17:31:42","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T17:31:42","slug":"to-momma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/?p=640","title":{"rendered":"To Momma"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
This is my favorite picture of my mother, not sure of the date but guessing around ’59-60.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The last few days my head has been a little muzzy; I\u2019ve been in a weird place. At first, I thought it was just the constant barrage of ridiculous news cycles. I kept hearing a voice in my head, the way you hear a radio broadcast coming from another room in the house with a weak signal, the white noise and static making it inaudible but still familiar. I didn\u2019t take time to tune in, to adjust my internal antennae for clarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NFL season started on Thursday, and I admit I\u2019m still a loyal fan (maybe even a fanatic), even though I hear Chuck D in the background: \u201c\u2026a form of slavery, organized,\u201d predominantly Black bodies making the elite rich in stadiums filled with white folks for spectacle. My team, the Chiefs, lost\u2026 that also could have been part of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This morning when I grabbed my journal and favorite pen, usually having a few directions to start\u2014race, politics, Blackness\u2014this morning was different. Nothing came to mind; there was still that interference that demanded I clear it, so I tuned in. The noise of this world had been blocking the voice of my first true love, my mom. September 4th marked the 27th year since she transitioned to the ancestral plane. Caught up in everything else\u2014work, football, life\u2014I failed to spend a moment acknowledging her passing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes it\u2019s as simple as a moment of quiet reflection, listening to her voice telling me she\u2019s still watching. A lot of times it\u2019s writing about her, picking out a moment we shared or the gifts she blessed me with. Love. I apologized to her for forgetting. She smiled and said she forgave me, but don\u2019t let it happen again! I used the excuse that I\u2019m getting old, and she reminded me that no matter how old I get, she was always going to be 32 years older than me\u2014one of her favorite sayings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll always love my momma. She\u2019s my favorite girl!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last few days my head has been a little muzzy; I\u2019ve been in a weird place. At first, I thought it was just…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspirations","category-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":642,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640\/revisions\/642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}