Celebrate

Golden: A Celebration of Life: A Note from one SisterFriend to Another

This month calls for a celebration. We are celebrating you! Your life, your joy, your progress, your power, and that laughter from deep inside. The real kind. The laugh until you cry kind. The kind some people might call “too much,” but it is actually the sound of you being alive. We’ve earned the right to enjoy life on our terms. We are here—still here—thriving. Why not celebrate the joy of life?

We’re honoring Black, Brown, and Indigenous women through shared stories of unadulterated joy. Joy you may not have felt in a long time. But just like riding a bike, you never forget just how to feel it. We want to tap into that feeling once again. Take it by the hand. Nurture it once again.

Come, pull up a chair, Sister Friend. Let’s live bold lives—together.

SisterFriend Reflection: Sometimes You Have to Celebrate Yourself
Living my life like it’s golden—Jill Scott, “Golden.”

My daughter has this loud, full-bodied laugh. The kind that doesn’t tiptoe into a room—it arrives. Her laugh is contagious. Sometimes I don’t even know what she’s laughing at…I just started laughing with her.

The funny thing is, she doesn’t need anyone to join in. She’ll laugh all by herself and be perfectly satisfied. At any moment, I can hear her laughing somewhere in the apartment, and every time it makes me smile. Her laugh takes me back to a time when my life felt less complicated—when joy came easier. Before responsibilities. Before bills. Before relationships that ended badly. Before disappointment had a chance to settle in. Her laugh reminds me that laughter isn’t only a reaction—it’s a return.

For Black, Brown, and Indigenous women, reclaiming laughter is more than a mood—it’s a return to ourselves. It is resisting the single story of trauma and pain associated with so much of our lives. Laughter is a form of resisting the so-called “normative” stories told of our lives by folks who know nothing about us.

Laughter is good for the soul. Laugh until you cry. Reclaim your good tears. Remember and celebrate the good old times with the girls—no matter how fleeting.

Celebrate who you were then. Celebrate who you are now.

And most of all, live your life out loud. Live your life like it’s golden!

Purpose Meets Strategy (Take 10 Minutes)

Choose one deeply rooted joy and practice it on purpose this week.

Play the song all the way through.
Make the recipe slowly.
Call the woman who reminds you of who you are.
Dance like know one is watching (even if they are).

May you laugh from deep inside and let it be medicine for your soul. 
May you remember the joy that made you. 
May you live your life out loud—like it’s golden. 

If this reflection resonated with you, share it with a SisterFriend.