Sarah Peck

“Except I know. I know this isn’t a real conversation. There are a few things I’ve learned in my two years here, and one of them is that decisions are never made in the room.”
― Austin Channing Brown, Full of Myself: Black Womanhood and the Journey to Self-possession

“For Equilibrium, a Blessing:
Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore,
May the relief of laughter rinse through your soul.

As the wind loves to call things to dance,
May your gravity by lightened by grace.

Like the dignity of moonlight restoring the earth,
May your thoughts incline with reverence and respect.

As water takes whatever shape it is in,
So free may you be about who you become.

As silence smiles on the other side of what's said,
May your sense of irony bring perspective.

As time remains free of all that it frames,
May your mind stay clear of all it names.

May your prayer of listening deepen enough
to hear in the depths the laughter of god.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“I am left wondering if what the world has wanted from us since we were young is to be dispossessed of ourselves—to need nothing, to want nothing, to be nothing, except malleable tools in an antiblack system of exploitation.”
― Austin Channing Brown, Full of Myself: Black Womanhood and the Journey to Self-possession

“This isn’t about my performance at all. This is about wanting me gone so they can hire a volunteer, family member, or friend. The newest darling they’ve fallen in love with. Someone who’s a better “culture fit.” They aren’t assessing my work, they’re building a case. And I know it because there are only two things in the world I’m good at, and one of them is speaking.”
― Austin Channing Brown, Full of Myself: Black Womanhood and the Journey to Self-possession