Ode to SenterME

I knew you would come. As a little girl, I would dream of you with all the little girls and boys who felt unloved, like I did, and you offered them solace. A safe space where they were free to be princes, princesses, animal whisperers, heroes, brothers, and sisters. A space to be themselves. A space to be free. A space to feel love. 

 

You were where I would go when my consent didn’t matter when my innocence didn’t matter when my life didn’t matter. I lost you for a while and I know it’s because I had lost myself. I began to believe them. I believed that my life didn’t matter. You knew better. It was the idea that I could bring you into this world that lead me down a path that no one would take intentionally. I experienced unspeakable pain and traumas but somehow I felt true love for the first time as well. I had no clue what to do with it. It was new. I tried my best to learn how to nurture it and help it grow but you have to be love to understand it. 

 

How did you know that I would eventually learn to love myself? How did you know that I would expand from the pain? How did you know that I would trust myself? How did you know that I would learn to set myself free? How did you know I would never give up? 

 

I was only 6 years old when I created an imaginary house where only love dwelled inside. That’s where I protected you. Now, I am the safe space. Free to be love, free to face fear, free to heal, free to create, free to be all things, free to be nothing, free to be the ripple, free to be the ocean, free to be the beginning, free to be the end, free to be here, and free to be now. 

 

As an expression of my love, SenterME, I offer you as the safe space that inspires Black women to find the safe space within themselves to be truly, abundantly, and effortlessly free.

​

-Suelou aka Charlotte C. Louis, owner & founder