Mama Gena’s Stories
An On Our Knees Emergency
Sister, I just knew I had to go. It was a feeling I could not shake. So I called Maggie and said, “Yo. Can you take a day off from work and meet me in Paris? It’s an On Our Knees emergency.” “Sure,” she answered. For the past six years of my own on-my-knees struggle, […]
Read More about An On Our Knees EmergencyThe Girl With the Pussy Tattoo On Her Arm
Sister, Years ago, a young woman I had never met wrote to tell me she had just gotten a pussy tattooed on the inside of her forearm. And I thought — who is this gorgeous, glorious, outrageously spectacular creature who got the download of her own majesty and power so completely, from a book, that […]
Read More about The Girl With the Pussy Tattoo On Her ArmFour weeks ago, I read from On Our Knees out loud for the first time. Not from a stage. Not to a crowd who bought a ticket to be there. I read it to my Knee Squad — the volunteer team of women who are helping me bring this book into the world. A hundred faces […]
Read More about The first time I read the book out loud, I wept through the whole thingDarling Sister, I typed the last word of On Our Knees, sent the whole manuscript to my editor, and did not celebrate. No champagne. No dancing around the kitchen. Instead I got what Brené Brown calls a vulnerability hangover — the sick, shaky comedown that hits after you hand strangers the most naked parts of […]
Read More about I wrote a whole book about coming out of hiding. Then I turned it in and hid.Let me confess something to you, my love. Right now, as I write this, I am in the middle of a motherfucking sprint. Massive things are happening in my world, bigger than I can fully tell you yet. (One of the biggest lands on June 24, and you will be the very first to know. […]
Read More about Confession: I am in the middle of a sprint, and pleasure is how I am winning itSisters, Years ago, I was handed an assignment that sounded slightly absurd and more than slightly terrifying: prepare my home as if the most important person in the world were coming to visit. Clean it. Fill it with beauty. Choose the food, the candles, the music. And then realize that the guest was me. That […]
Read More about Turn yourself on, on purpose (pleasure is not a reward you earn)Sister, There was a year I came home from a book launch tour absolutely on fire with my own destiny. And then the IRS put a lien on everything I owned. I remember sitting on the floor of my apartment, back against the couch, staring at the letter. This was the life I had built. […]
Read More about This is for the women with desires for money AND a lifeI believe that everyone — every single person — has at least one really really good book inside of them. Not all of these great reads will get written. Some will get put off and put off and put off and … Writer’s block will claim others. Lack of confidence will stop millions. Or lack […]
Read More about Exactly how I wrote a bestseller (and achieve anything else I want to)I’m not that woman!
I ran into a girlhood friend, Nancy. We had not seen one another in more than 40 years. She has a quiet life in the country, married to her childhood sweetheart, and working as a high school guidance counselor, in Vermont. In the last year, she and her husband separated, she battled diabetes, lost a […]
Read More about I’m not that woman!Do you put yourself last?
Where do you fall on the scale of priorities in your life? Do you put yourself first? Or last? Would you cancel your plans with friends if your boss asked you to work late? Do you invest in yourself? Or give your all to others? Do you know how harmful that is? OK, I admit […]
Read More about Do you put yourself last?Love These?
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