My Ode to Self-Care 45: “Here I Come”

In the spirit of vulnerability, I’m not editing this piece at all… There is always a girl story. Amongst my friends and I, the previous sentence is a common expression because in all honesty, there is always a story about some girl and me. It never fails and has become a running joke. If you […]

My Ode to Self-Care 44: “You Make Me Feel”

I listened to gospel music every morning on my commute to Manhattan for work. From the moment I walked out of my car to get on a 5:29am train until around 7am, my soundtrack was a playlist I called Gluten Free Body of Christ. Although I often napped through my 42 minutes on the Long […]

My Ode to Self-Care 44: “Hold Tight”

I hit a wall today. If I were to include this essay, I have eight more prompts and an epilogue before this four-month excursion is completed. Towards the end of all projects, the creative mind feels depleted; the easy solution is to stop and begin the next one because it is already on your mind. […]

An Ode to Self-Care 43: “Ribbon in the Sky”

In the summer of 1991, my aunt told her five-year old niece and nephew she would be away until they were in fifth grade. My sister and I did not quite comprehend what she meant about college or time apart for a period equivalent to our lifetime. Without allusion to anyone’s age, my aunt was […]

My Ode to Self-Care 42: Right On Time

Dozens of essays ago, I wrote about my college roommates, Devin and Walter. In 2005, Walter was a recent seminary school graduate, was 11 years our senior, and worked as an administrator at Morehouse College. Despite our difference in age, the three of us got along. One night, the three of us sat in our […]

My Fall Rewind: An Ode to Self-Care 41-“Sugar”

This is one of-if not-my favorite essays I have written, ever. By far, the stories with the greatest entertainment value over the past nine years have been the ones I have accrued as a widowed man, back into the dating world. As I have stated earlier in this series, somehow, when I came up with […]

My Fall Rewind: An Ode to Self-Care 40-“Pups”

For a solid year, I have watched my nephew tilt his head and stretch his neck, to measure how much more he had to go before he stood taller than me. At the start of the summer, I still had him by a half inch. By the time July came around, the roles had reversed, […]

My Fall Rewind: An Ode to Self-Care 39-“Definition”

In the past three months, I have written more on this site than I have in three years: sixteen posts in 2017, one in 2018, nine in 2019, and twice in 2020 before I started my ode to self-care. I may not have shared much; however, I have written a solid 200,000 words in my […]

My Fall Rewind: An Ode to Self-Care 38-“The Feel”

Solo with the braids used to get busy…with all the humility in the world, I can assure those who knew Chad Milner throughout the first decade of the aughts would tell you the previous statement is a fact. This is the name I am referred to with affection by those who were well acquainted with […]

My Fall Rewind: An Ode to Self-Care 37-“Kush:

It’s been long-forgotten and oft-considered forgettable; but I love the first single from the oft-rumored, oft-delayed, and never to see the light of day, Detox. “Kush” came and went because it was formulaic: Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg tag team for another big record, with piano keys on fortissimo; but the 2010 version, so we’re […]