A few years ago I had the honor of attending a lecture by renowned journalist Soledad O'Brien. During the Q&A period of O’Brien’s talk an audience member asked her a question often asked of highly successful women who juggle busy careers with motherhood: How do you balance it all?

O'Brien's answer was quite simple. "I don't," she said.

Let us be writeous. 

Let us be writeous babes. 

Let us be women who write and live lives worth writing about. 

Let us be the authors of our own lives. Let us write well and edit often. 

Let us be writeous babes. 

Photos by Brendon Pinola via StyleBlueprint Birmingham

1. God is Love and Love is Life. When it comes to faith, I have more questions than answers. Though I identify as Christian because I love Jesus, organized religion confuses me to no end. It always has. It probably always will. But I am sure that God is Love and Love is Life. My life should center on loving others and loving myself. I believe this is how we worship. This is why I consider my marriage a ministry and my feminism a divine calling. When I serve my husband, when I join hands with the women of my tribe to help them make their dreams come true, these are holy acts. When I share pillow talk with my husband, when my friends and I share secrets over a bottle wine (or two), this is communion.

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Trust in God; She will provide. -- Emmeline Pankhurst

Dear God,

I wish you were a woman

Because since I was a girl

I’ve pictured you as a white man

With white hair

Dressed in a long white robe.

And I am not a man

And my skin is a shade of deep chocolate brown.

So how can I believe that I was created in your image?

Do you want to know the secret to getting a great beach body?

This month, in the brutality of Alabama summer heat, I am going to start training for a marathon, and it’s all Artney Walker’s fault. Walker is a Birmingham-based fitness blogger and last year, she ran four marathons.

This accomplishment has not only inspired me to start pounding the pavement again, but also got the attention of Weight Watchers magazine. Walker was profiled in the May/June issue as part of the magazine’s “I Love What My Body Can Do” feature. Walker has been a fan of the Weight Watchers diet plan for eight years, but she never thought she’d one day be on the pages of its magazine. “In the beginning, I was in shock,” Walker says of the day in January when the magazine first contacted her. “The day of my photo shoot, my dream became a reality. Being a Weight Watchers member, I knew my story would resonate with so many readers.”

Read my entire article on Artney in the here or in the June issue of B-Metro magazine. 

Summer is here.

Yes, I know it's not officially summer until June 20, but I'm a teacher, so for me summer began the moment I left work on the last day of school.

But I am also a small business owner.

For the teacherpreneur summer is a difficult dance.

We want to take a break. We need to take a break. We deserve to take a break.

But we also know that summers are for slaying. We know that with no papers to grade and no lectures to write, we have the opportunity to take our businesses to the the next level.

But we also know we can't pour from an empty cup. We know that we need to rest. We know self-care is a feminist act.

After the school year ended, my husband and I took a short trip to visit his hometown. I lounged around reading books. We went to the movies and to the beach. We ate way too much food and spent quality time with family and friends.

But now it's time to get back to work. Now it's time to slay.

So here I am greeting June 1, 2016 -- a day that last month the drama queen in me was convinced I wouldn't see.