This piece was co-created over the course of three days (14th – 16th July 2020) as the formal part of the project came to a conclusion. The piece was intended as a reflection on the nature of our collaboration and the ways in which our lives and ways of thinking are interwoven. One person provided the other with the last word of a sentence she had written and the other responded using the first word as the start of what she wanted to say. Neither of us had any idea of what had been written by the other until we read our words to one another. The synergies and connections between the lines reflect the synergies and connections that have developed between us as the project has evolved. It was a powerful and beautiful experience!

The space, the place, the time to reflect

Reflect on how our views interwove to do with mothering, childhood, resilience, categories, boxed, it was interesting and gave the themes depth

Depth, breadth, new perspectives, opportunities to grow

Grow, thrive, energising, exciting, a lot of excitement, strong, resonates with my favourite hashtag #strongertogether, that's what l can say about this project

Project into the future, reflect upon the past 

Past, does the past follow you or do you follow the past, is a question that often bounces in my head, during this project l paid attention to it and the result was interesting

Interesting. Resting. Rest. Rested

Rested sounds simple, however it’s a call to be present, to breathe, there has been a lot of that in my space, during quarantine 

Quarantine slows the pace. Roots us to the place. To each other

Other, otherness this word changed shape form, when l landed in the UK,otherness stretched further, in conversations with Heaven, her Otherness in her space of being white and privileged and somehow being black

Black/White. Woman/Wife. Mother. Migrant. HUMAN

HUMAN, humanity is my core focus in my approach to activism, George Floyd's death shook it to the bone, l questioned it for a split second

Second to no one, to nothing

Nothing will separate me from the love of God, Barbie has nothing on me 

Me, myself, my

My expectations and hidden limitations have been pushed and challenged via this space, we've pressed pause and intentionally looked at each other's lives through the zoom lenses, the Google suites, l call them keyhole moments

Moments to treasure, to hold tight, to remember

Remember, in life we have seasons, there are seasons to cry, laugh, figure out, this season in lockdown and this project has been all of the above wrapped up in one, the highlight for me has been the interweaving of Heavens life and my life, showing we are all humans with red blood running through our veins

Veins that pulsate with life, hope, energy

Energy to stop, energy to breathe, energy to be, to interweave, it takes energy to stop. 

Wordsmiths: Heaven Crawley/Laura Nyahuye