Tag: life

My Februllage 2026 Collage for Day 11: Plant

Posted by on in UncategorizedLeave a comment

PLANT is the prompt for #Februllage Day 11. My collage is entitled “Two Generations Planting Seeds of Black Girl Joy.” It explores two things that brought joy to my mother Theresa and I during our girlhoods: playing with our dolls and dogs. I included photos of us with our favorite dolls and dogs in the collage.

My mom grew up with a dog named Elmer in Indianapolis, Indiana. She loved him so much and made sure my brothers and I experienced the same love and joy.

I grew up with a dog named Clarence in Landover, Maryland. Due to my mom’s love, he became the fifth Leeke child. We all loved him too. He was one of my best friends. I spent lots of time playing with and talking to him. I still remember his smile and remember him on his birthday each year. I even keep a photograph of us on my refrigerator.

The collage includes graphics of a potted plant and woman gardening and photos of my mom and I when we were toddlers. The seeds in the potted plant represent our joy. Our toddler photos represent our pure joy as children. The woman gardening illustrates our adult responsibility to tend to our own garden of joy.

Several Ghanaian Adinkra Gye W’Ani symbols are featured. They represent joy and living fully with joy.

YOUR INVITATION


Click on the video below and listen to my song, “Ancestral Medicine” that is featured on my debut album, Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter as you reflect on the questions below.

1) What brought you joy as a child?

2) What brings you joy as an adult?

3) What are one to three steps you can take to experience more joy in your daily life (they don’t have to take a lot of time or cost you money; consider incorporating simple things you can do in your daily life)?

My Februllage 2026 Collage for Day 10: Oblivious

Posted by on in UncategorizedLeave a comment

Yesterday, I discovered that making digital collages dedicated to my loving + wise + well ancestors is a powerful way to care for myself when I experience grief that is born out of the loss of a loved one.

Making ancestral collages is a form of ancestral medicine because it helps you remember your ancestors and express love and gratitude for them.

I had a lot of fun thinking about OBLIVIOUS, today’s #Februllage prompt.

My creative process started with a visit to the internet’s dictionary universe.

After reading several definitions, I made a mental note of the synonyms that resonated. Two words claimed space in my mind: unaware and clueless.

I wondered about the times in my life when I have been unaware or clueless.

I also started looking at family photos and found one of my mom Theresa and three brothers, Mike, Mark, and Matt. It was taken by my father John in 1969.

As I looked at the photo, I realized my little girl self called Puf (“Puf the Magic Dragon” like the song by Peter, Paul & Mary) was experiencing joy sitting with her mom and brothers. She was also OBLIVIOUS to how spiritually and emotionally wealthy she was as a daughter who had an overflowing amount of love, guidance, protection, and provision from her mother and loving + wise + well ancestors.

I ended up using the photo as the base of today’s collage that is entitled “A Little Girl Is Oblivious.”

I added a photo of my current self. That photo represents me as a woman whonnow recognizes and claims her spiritual and emotional weath.

Several Bese Saka symbols were included in the collage. Bese Saka is a beautiful Adinkra symbol that represents abundance and wealth. They are placed in the right-hand corner of the collage.

One last thing! I wrote a statement in the upper left-hand side that expresses how I was OBLIVIOUS as a little girl about the spiritual and emotional weath I had as a result of my mom’s love, presence, wisdom, guidance, protection, creativity, joy, and adventure.

YOUR INVITATION


Click on the video below and listen to my song, “Ancestral Medicine” that is featured on my debut album, Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter as you reflect on the questions below.

1) Think back to your childhood and the connections you shared with loved ones like your parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Can you recall something you didn’t know about them and later learned when you were an adult?

2) Did the new information you learned about them impact you in any way?

My Februllage 2026 Collage for Day 9: Bottle

Posted by on in UncategorizedLeave a comment

Bottle is the prompt for #Februllage Day 9. My collage is entitled Mother + Daughter + Granddaughter Memory from 1986.

I thought about memories I wish I could have bottled. I decided to create a collage about my memory of standing next to my mother Theresa and grandmother Dorothy (known as Nanan) in a family photo that was taken during my parents’ 25th wedding anniversary celebration in 1986.

I remember my mom being so happy to renew her vows with my dad in the presence of her children, family, and friends. I was very happy to serve as her maid of honor and celebrate my parents. I think Nanan was happy to see her daughter so happy.

This photo is one of the only photos I have with all of us together. It’s hard to believe that it was taken 40 years ago. When I look at it now, I can truly appreciate the layers of mother-daughter love that existed between us as imperfect human beings.

I started the collage with a photo that my niece Jordan took of me during our 2021 visit to the KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature exhibition at the New York Botanical Garden that featured the work of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. She encouraged me to pose by the floral exhibit.

Side Note: We both love flowers.

I was so happy that day because I got to spend it with my niece who is the daughter I never had and one of my favorite people in the world.

I remember telling my mom how happy I was that Jordan and I got to share the joy of seeing one of our favorite artists together. I also texted this photo to my mom. She loved art and flowers just like Jordan and me.

Both photos are filled with moments I wish I could have bottled so I could open them on days when I need a quick reminder of how I blessed I am to be Theresa’s daughter, Dorothy’s granddaughter, and Jordan’s aunt.

YOUR INVITATION

Click on the video below and listen to my song, “Ancestral Medicine” that is featured on my debut album, Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter as you reflect on the question below.

If you could bottle moments spent with your loving + wise + well ancestors, what would they be?

Give Yourself the Gift of Self-Vulnerability This Holiday Season!

Posted by on in UncategorizedLeave a comment

Hey there!

What gifts are you giving yourself this holiday season?

I am giving myself the gift of several self-vulnerability dates where I carve out time to meditate, reflect, journal, write poetry, and create art (drawings and collages) about the ups, downs, and in-betweens of this year.

This morning, I reflected on my 61st birthday which is fast approaching (December 18th). My reflections took me back to my first trip to Negril, Jamaica with my Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Soror Karla Ray Thompson in December 1992. That trip was really special because I turned 28 on the beach and surrendered to my first Saturn Return (astrology lovers like myself can appreciate this experience).

That trip offered me sacred and safe space to embrace and express self-vulnerability. That experience of telling myself the TRUTH about what I felt, thought, believed, and what was and was not happening in my world was MESSY, SCARY, MAGICAL, OVERWHELMING, and LIBERATING all at the same time. It helped me speak to my heart, listen to myself without judgment, and come home to myself. It marked the beginning of a major shift in how I showed up in my life, relationships, and career. It also laid the foundation for my Thriving Mindfully heart-centered approach to being, living, and serving humanity with my gifts.

Click on the video and listen to the “Thriving Mindfully Theme,” one of the nine spoken word poems on my newly released debut album entitled Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter.

Click the button below to get more information about my album. Buy and download it from Bandcamp, YouTube Music, Apple Music, and other streaming platforms except Amazon and Spotify.

get more info & buy Thriving mindfully as theresa’s daughter album

It’s been 33 years since that trip and my heart remains filled with deep gratitude for the gift of self-vulnerability that I continue to give myself and my Thriving Mindfully approach to being, living, and serving humanity with my gifts.

Do you want to learn how to give yourself the gift of self-vulnerability?

Need my coaching support?

GO HERE to sign up to join me for Thriving Mindfully Sundays on December 14th and January 4th from 3:00 p.m. EST to 4:00 p.m. EST via Zoom

I look forward to seeing you at one or both of the Thriving Mindfully Sunday sessions.

Enjoy your holiday season!

Blessings,

Ananda Kiamsha Madelyn Leeke

P.S. SELF-VULNERABILITY TIPS

Navigating Vulnerability & Grief During the Holiday Season (Check-In Resources)

Posted by on in UncategorizedLeave a comment

How are you doing now that the holiday season has begun?

After my mother Theresa made her transition on July 9, 2023, the months of November and December became filled with tons of memories and reminders that she was no longer physically present on Mother Earth.

These months have become some of the most emotionally vulnerable times of the year for me because they are filled with a mix of emotions ranging from gratitude to grief. I am grateful for having my mother for 58 years of my life. I am grateful I feel her love, hear her wisdom, and experience her presence and protection as my loving + wise + well ancestor each day. I also grieve her physical absence and miss sharing the holidays with her.

Navigating my vulnerability and grief each year can be messy, hard, and scary, especially when I try to avoid feeling or hide from my emotions. Over the past three holiday seasons, I have learned to cope by embracing and practicing self-vulnerability.

For me, self-vulnerability is an INVITATION to open your heart to yourself.

Self-Vulnerability is also a CHOICE you can make to tell yourself the TRUTH about your emotions, thoughts, grief, beliefs, fears, doubts, weaknesses, imperfections, experiences, and relationships instead of hiding from them.

Self-Vulnerability is also healing and liberating because it creates space for you to embrace your birthrights of self-awareness, self-love, self-kindness, self-compassion, self-forgiveness, and self-acceptance.

RESOURCE #1

If you are feeling vulnerable and/or experiencing grief during the holidays, I invite you to use my holiday check-in list of questions to get in touch with yourself below.

RESOURCE #2

Listen to my new spoken word song, “G.R.I.E.F.” that is included on my debut album, Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter (released on November 20). Go here to get more information about, buy, and download the album

RESOURCE #3

If you need more support, sign up to join me for Thriving Mindfully Sundays on December 14 and January 4 from 3 p.m. EST to 4 p.m. EST via Zoom. Get more information and RSVP here.

sign up to join me

RESOURCE #4: NEW SPOKEN WORD ALBUM

Go here to get more information and listen to and buy Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter album on Bandcamp, YouTube Music, Apple Music, and other streaming platforms except for Amazon Music and Spotify.

GET more information about, listen to, buy & download album

If you missed the virtual listening party that was held on the New Moon in Scorpio on November 20th, watch the recording.

Reflections on My Father

Posted by on in UncategorizedLeave a comment

In honor of Father’s Day (which is every day), I am sharing an excerpt from American Change Agent, the book my dad, Dr. John F. Leeke, wrote about his life and work in diversity, equality, and inclusion. This excerpt is from Chapter 21: Our Father’s Journey: How My Children See Me (pages 428-429).

Copyright 2025 by John F. Leeke and Madelyn C. Leeke


Before former Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant coined the phrase “girl dad” and it went viral as a hashtag on social media after ESPN anchor Elle Duncan shared a memory of her conversation with him during a tribute to his life in 2020, my father lived and breathed it. For those who don’t know, a girl dad is a father who wants his daughter to be treated equally. That means he wants her to have the same rights, opportunities, and privileges as any boy. For as long as I can remember, my father has shown me a fierce love wrapped in an endless bow of support and freedom of expression. His personal investment in my well-being as a child, teenager, young adult, and now as of this writing a 59-year-old woman is beyond words. He and my mother taught me I could be and do anything in the world because it was mine.

There are moments I can remember when he showed up in my defense as only as a girl dad could. Like the time, he met with the two nuns at my all-girls Catholic high school and told them in his loud Black man voice that they were racist due to their mistreatment of me and the other members of the Awareness Black Culture Club. He has believed in me when I couldn’t, especially during the eight times I took and failed the bar exam and each time I have written and published a book. He has even helped me write parts of my books over the telephone when I was running out of creative energy and patience. He has listened to me in my craziest moments and advised me before and after I have taken several risks in my career.

Ours is a rich, layered, and intense relationship that has allowed me to explore and express myself; experiment with my life, career, and creativity; and passionately pursue my healing and wholeness with confidence, freedom, and a safety net that he will always be in my corner no matter what. Being Dr. John F. Leeke’s daughter has given me the honor of sitting in the front row of his life as a digital senior citizen activist, blogger, podcaster, storyteller, and author. As time moves us forward, our relationship is blessing me and my brothers with perhaps the greatest honor: supporting my father as he walks the path of a wise person in his aging process. What a gift to behold!

WATCH ASK DR. JOHN, A FATHER-DAUGHTER CONVERSATION VIDEO SERIES

The video features a discussion my dad and I had about fatherhood.


ABOUT BOOK

American Change Agent: A Life & Legacy of Seeking Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion is a memoir written by Dr. John F. Leeke with his daughter Ananda Kiamsha Madelyn Leeke. It tells the rich, inspiring journey of Dr. Leeke, a descendant of the Akan people of Ghana, the Yoruba people of Nigeria, Indigenous Turtle Island nations, European settlers, and freedom seekers who escaped slavery in Hagerstown, Maryland. This collection of stories spans 85 years of his life, showcasing his family, career, and dedication to diversity, equality, and inclusion.

Explore Dr. Leeke’s early years in Indianapolis and Terre Haute, Indiana, his Catholic education in Washington, DC, and his academic pursuits at Indiana State Teachers College. Follow his career as a teacher and guidance counselor in Flint, Michigan, his graduate studies at the University of Michigan, and his impactful work in community organizing and organizational development.

Learn how Dr. Leeke’s leaps of faith in various roles, including his tenure at the National Education Association and his entrepreneurial ventures, solidified his commitment to diversity, equality, and inclusion. His reflections on six decades of diversity, equality, and inclusion work reveal the institutional changes he championed and his ongoing influence in retirement through church involvement, civic engagement, and online activism.

Dr. Leeke’s stories are an invitation to reflect on your own journey, embrace humanity’s diversity, and become a change agent in your community.

Buy Book & Get Copies for Family, Friends, Neighbors & Colleagues

When you purchase the book from IngramSpark, we earn more profit on each sale as self-published authors. Please support our effort!

BUY BOOK FROM INGRAMSPARK
BUY BOOK FROM BARNES & NOBLE
BUY BOOK FROM AMAZON