There I sat in a skyblue pencil skirt paired with a yellow top I once wore to dress up like that Arthur meme. Starry eyed. Enamored by the opportunity I have each time I visit my uncle and am able to witness what friendship looks like. In real time. A friend might be one of the rarest things to come across in earth. It requires an intentional effort. A real decision to be there for one another unbound by space and time. I sat there listening for hours to my uncle, one of the greatest storytellers I’ve ever known. And for hours my father laughed and corroborated these stories. We discussed many things and I continued to bounce my eyes from my uncle to my father and back again. Effortless. This relationship is deeply rooted. The synchronization of their spirits is one like I’ve never seen before. I can never help but to be in awe.

            The main topic of discussion was nutrients. Nutrients are needed in order to sustain growth and a good quality of life. They are natural and can be found in foods. Many foods of which seem hard to find at your local supermarket these days; nonetheless, necessary. My uncle showed us the early springing fruit in his garden that he has tendered and gardened with love over many seasons. He talked us through each fruit and it’s story. Alternating between Twi and English but we still all laughed in the same language. This conversation was vastly informative; I learned so much about how to improve my own health and make better healthy choices in order to live a happier and healthier lifestyle. The stories that were woven in to give context and background to nutrient rich fruits like the goji berry, allowed my imagination to soar. I was blown away by the amount of information that was transported to me with such ease and humor. This moment I began to hold onto like it was my birthday, hoping it’d never end.

We came back inside to talk more. And as I was sitting at my uncle’s table drinking coffee spiked with vanilla and caramel creamer, I began to wonder about life’s nutrients. The metaphorical value of nutrients. What aspects of this life are required to sustain growth and a good quality of life? What do we need? Who do we need? In my 24 years of life I’ve learned that I don’t need a lot to be happy. In fact I’m the unhealthiest when I use things in the exterior to fill my insides. To increase or enhance my mood. But as the naturalista that I truly am, I love and respect nature. I believe in nature. When I am out in nature for a walk or just to breathe in air, to greet the sunrise or admire the moon, I’ve found my spirits are higher. So now I’m determined to intake more of life’s nutrients in order to be happier. I’m elevating to a new level that does not require engaging in toxic relationships, or relying on drugs or alcohol as a requirement for happy. Happiness comes from within. And it comes from what you put in. I’m most happy when I’m doing things that I love, unworried about things that may be out of my control. Completely submerged in the present but still keeping my dreams surrounding a better future. I’ve learned that I tend to isolate but that in life we do need each other. We need people to laugh, cry, dance, play, sing, study, share and Be with. We do. No man is an island. There is a reason and a value for every person who enters and even exits your life. What makes the difference between the people who pass through and those who stay is the love. Love is a decision. A constant. And in any friendship you have to consistently make the decision to choose one another. Much like my father and my uncle. They have chosen to keep in contact. They know each other so well that they know what works for them. I want that. I have been wanting and working and building and failing and trying to rebuild again and again to eventually have friendships like that.

Which leads me to one of the most important relationships with the richest source of nutrients that I know: God. Aligning myself with God in a way that I spend time in an organic and genuine way with Him is crucial to my health. I feel better internally and externally. It is difficult to do almost anything without hope and having a relationship with God gives me that. My father and Uncle each have a strong faith and relationship with God. Independently and yet also together. They pray for one another and also with. They have devoted themselves to living the work of the Gospel and that is why it’s not surprising that they have been able to align themselves with one another in a way that is heartfelt and real. They are like-minded and like hearted individuals. Since I was a small child, I was exposed to a friendship between my uncle and father where they would do anything for each other. It engrained in me a true respect for a friend. And now I know friendship in all of its rarity is a requirement for happy in this life. This is why I am constantly striving to be a better friend and am able to recognize how blessed I am to be able to call even one person-Friend. We all need more of life’s nutrients and we may need more of some than others but constantly evaluate your level of happy. And be sure to recharge on all of the good things so that mind, body and spirit you are able to stay healthy and keep happy.

Bishop: Akosua Renee Bamfo, will you have, This Black Man, to be your wedded husband, to live together after God’s ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony; will you love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others, keep yourself only for him so long as you both shall live?

Akosua: I do.

I love you.

The moment I laid eyes on you I knew I wanted to know you. In fact the first person I told was a mutual friend of ours. I asked her “Who is that?!” and she said it’s just You. From the beginning, there was always a powerful energy. A feeling like we needed to speak. We needed to share vibes. We needed to share something. I found myself wanting to expose parts of myself to you without having known you in real life at all at that point.

This is how I know, I do.

I do for you, not because we have committed our hearts this far. But I do, because I did the moment I met you. The moment I blushed behind bronze cheeks to introduce myself and you forgot my name and we can’t even remember the event where we first met eyes. I knew this was something special. This is something worth fighting for. Love, sitting up for hours under the moon, watching nature unfold behind us as we shared our passions amidst a playlist I curated is my favorite memory. It’s the one I hold the closest to my heart because it is the rawest. Raw in the sense that we were both just two kids. Two kids eager to be around each other. For no other reason than that we were curious. I was curious about you for a while. Silently I grew closer to you and I looked forward to your simple yet profound messages.

What we have managed to create and somehow sustain is a love I never imagined could exists. There has never even been a movie made to depict a love this great. This is the love I was always unsure if I would ever experience. And I know it to be love because it feels as important as breathing but as complicated as being. It feels good to know I have someone in my life that gets my purpose, sense of humor and also my sense of sadness. We might be the most depressing people I have ever encountered and yet we’re full of joy. You spread it and I spread it and I know this because I see how people look at you. And I feel how people look at me. The vibrations are similar. And I’d just like to say I never anticipated it being this easy to look this good on the most beautiful day with animals running around outside. The sun’s setting. And I’m standing in front of my best friend who is looking ultra fly, I must say.

I couldn’t imagine what it’d feel like to say, let alone write, these words. Words are important to you too, so I wrote these for you. Because I know you know they are imagined for you. Love, it is always fleeting and yet we are always here. Near or far, I will be running with you. We will be running and sliding and dancing and cha-chaing or swag-surfing or doing whatever it is we need to do to survive here. And it will be beautiful. because we will be going through life together. We will be experiencing what it feels like to move with the wind and also get knocked down by it, together.

In typical Sua fashion, or should I say style, I’m having a hard time ending this. Not because I don’t have the words, but because there is no full stop at the end of one of my “I love you’s” so I guess I’ll leave it just like that; I love you

One of my soulmates posted this beautiful photo of herself today and it triggered me to have a jimmy neutron type brain blast! I even went to finally get my cracked phone screen fixed because of this.

I am constantly thinking of new ways to be creative and express the love that I have in my heart. I love Black History Month because it is the one time where blackness is celebrated outwardly. In what spaces…to what degree…and how genuine are all questionable. And the fact that we as a nation minimize the value of an entire people to a single month is unbelievable. I know.

However, my critique of Black History Month is different. I’m looking through a different lens this year. I feel that Black History Month is a lot of the times so depersonalized. It focuses completely on the outliers. There is a separation between who is chosen to represent an entire people and the everyday black person. The typically over-romanticized but incredibly important figures that we all know and respect so much for all they’ve done…the amount of change they provoked should not be minimized and they should be recognized for this regularly.

But I’m seeking a deeper level of representation. I’m seeking balance.

We all are valuable as black people. And we are magical. Everyday bruh. Our blackness stretches so far and wide. I believe that our family members. our friends. They have done for us internally, what grand historically black figures have done for the country and our race as a whole.

So like I said, I saw this photo of this black woman, my friend, and I decided to challenge myself to create this screen saver/haiku challenge. I’ve been working on disciplining myself and working on committing to things and being held accountable to complete what I say I want to achieve. So this will help with that (encouragement is welcome)! Also I truly believe that the essence and work and passions of all the people I will be posting daily will make a huge impact on the world.

In some shape or form these people will shake this earth. And of this I am certain. I do not know how they will, but they will. And my rationale behind this is not solely because they are friends and family of mine who I know and love personally. Or because they all have impacted my life.

But it feels pretty appropriate for a month dedicated to Black People and Love.

So I’m challenging myself to be as objective and succinct as possible in order to capture their importance in this world as black men and women. As leaders. And as change makers. I’m trying to describe them how I feel the world should remember them. And as much as I want people to just believe in them like I believe in them off the strength of the fact that I love them.

I want their being, to speak for itself.

And I will reflect on the entire series by the end of the month-ish on heavens hotlines (I know I pump faked on the last series but that one needs time to evolve so it’s on pause). Anyways, yeah it’s important for me to reflect because this is about them but it’s also specifically about me. It’s about me thinking about me through thinking about them. I know that might not seem to make sense. I know. Super meta.

Here goes.

(Follow series on IG: shetheroses)