You have to keep on living
My Dad was one of my biggest cheerleaders growing up. When I lost him to cancer, I was completely devastated.
Before that time, I had gone through a major heartbreak, so it felt like there was nothing to live for anymore.
I cried for days and lost so much weight. I recall walking through the funeral like a zombie, silently grieving, and thinking about all the plans we had that would never come to fruition.
A week after his passing, while I was doing the dishes with swollen, tear-stained eyes, my mom said, “Kechi, you have to get outside and keep living.”
But I didn’t want to keep living. There was just no reason to, or so it seemed at the time.
As I went outside that day, sitting on the steps of our verandah under the hot African sun, it hit me. I HAD TO GO ON LIVING. It was the best that I could do.
I had to tell stories, make art, write poetry, cook meals, travel to places, and make memories. That was how I would honor my Dad and all the people who came before me and serve the people who would follow me.
I had to keep living so I could honor all my ancestors and generations to come.
Perhaps you are going through a difficult time of grief, loss, or rejection. Remember, “You have to keep living”.
This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal. -Toni Morrison