EILEEN ADLER

Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) wrote A Raisin in the Sun which opened on March 11, 1959, an honor for this was the first play written by an African American woman to open on Broadway in New York City. In sum, the story features an African American family struggling with their sense of “place” in society as the family contemplates the changes they will experience when their move becomes a reality. “Ah, I like the look of the packing crates! A household in preparation for a journey. . . Something full of the flow of life, do you understand? Movement, progress. . .”  but admonishes us to “never be afraid to sit a while and think.” Why did Ms. Hansberry liken the life of this family to a raisin in the sun? A raisin is a dried grape, in fact, it may be viewed as a dead grape for it is shriveled, dry, lined, and often dark but the raisin is sweeter for concentrating the sweetness and the color is so rich and vibrant, almost glistening. The grape vs the raisin compared to a dream vs reality is this: our lives are changed when we become care partners, but our lives are not dried up as wrinkled grapes but rather as a new richness and sweetness has entered our lives. Find the sweetness in your life and continue your self-care journey.

Self-care Ritual: Sit, Stay, Smile. Spend a few minutes on free-word association journaling.

One approach is to write down all the thoughts/words as they enter your mind – no judgment calls here because there isn’t a right or wrong word; they are random words or pictures. 

Another approach is to select a word with every following word or picture associated with that selected word making this approach more linear.