Cleo Wade is a community builder, poet, and best-selling author. Her work is centered around hope, resilience, and the power of love. The books she has written include Heart Talk, Where to Begin, What the Road Said, Remember Love: Words for Tender Times, and her latest book, May You Love and Be Loved. Cleo is from New Orleans, Louisiana, and currently lives in California with her partner, Simon, and their two daughters, Memphis and Bayou. @cleowade

Jamia: How are you? How is everything in your life and your adventures?

Cleo: Beautiful. The pandemic was an adventure. So many people had to radically change their lives over the past four years that people are starting to stabilize a little.With my friends and myself, I feel that I’m swimming in different waters, but I am starting to learn the current.

Jamia: Learning the current is a beautiful way to say it. The metaphor of that sort of imagery feels aligned with what we’re talking about today. I love Human Shift and using the lens of the chakras to explore. Today we will talk about the themes of the sixth chakra, the third eye. So, when you were talking about the current, I was thinking about your insight about pandemic time and this shared experience as it relates to personal experience. How are you feeling about how you see the world and how the world is seeing you as you step into this phase, on the other side of the pandemic?