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@tracyjo.ing

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kentucky woman, through n’ through 🌾 educator & wordsmith ✍️ dog mom @vivinthecity 🐾 justice justice you shall pursue ⚖️•📍nyc

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✨ by @tracyjo.ing

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2 years ago

All the elements you’d imagine would influence why I grew to feel more beautiful with long hair are correct: coming of age during the rise of social media where appearances were welcome subject for comment; devouring media and its objectifying obsession with femininity; growing up as a performer in a competitive dance culture wherein reductive gender norms are disturbingly reinforced; hearing from crushes that long hair was “hotter.” Plus, frankly, I was hashtag blessed with them hard-to-replicate beachy waves everyone aims to imitate. So ensues a lesson in vanity and aging, deprogramming and acceptance. I’ve struggled for decades with chronic, nebulous inflammatory auto-immune conditions… and for the second time in the last decade, I’ve lost nearly half of the hair on my head in a six-week period. We’re talking handfuls of hair falling out everyday. Out of the blue. All at the same time. It’s exacerbated by stress and, well, I honestly expected the “next” time to come sooner given the hurt of my last few years. It finally feels like I’ve started to turn the page and veer out of the grief I’ve felt since finishing graduate school. There have been high moments — joy in celebrating the milestones of my closest friends and time with beloved family — but this era of life has generally felt overshadowed. I’ve struggled to talk about… any of it, all of it, relaying only the bits and pieces I could myself digest in any given moment. And then in September, I felt myself parting ways with this sadness: I rented my very own studio apartment in Manhattan - the first place in my entire life that has ever belonged solely to me! I got a full-time salaried position as a visiting professor at NYU! I’ve begun to slowly feel my relationships come back to me! I’ve felt the ease of happiness a bit more consistently in the day-to-day! I’ve wanted to write again, wanted to share my feelings, wanted to reach out! (If I haven’t yet, I love you — I’m getting there.) And then a month later, my hair started falling out. [Continued in comments.] by @tracyjo.ing

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4 years ago

When you’ve been living in NYC for nearly six years and you finally make it to one of the gd beaches. ☀️Amen n’ hallelujah! 💃🏻🥹 by @tracyjo.ing

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4 years ago

Viv, I started calling you “my little angel sent from heaven” only days after I got you (which I admit is an extremely long and awkward nickname) because to this day I can’t imagine how I managed to stumble upon a Craigslist ad for a free “designer dog” during the beginning of a pandemic if it weren’t for the divine intervention of angels themselves… and, wow, you didn’t turn out to be just ANY free #schnoodle, you turned out to be a free YOU. (I do suspect my grandparents all put in a good word.) Six weeks after you were born, you found me heartbroken, listless, uncertain—and unknowingly forging into only darker waters with more crests of listlessness, uncertainty. On this day I reflect that you’ve weathered the two most unmooring and upending years I’ve ever known… and somehow, by your light alone, you have grounded me in your constancy. You’ve reminded me that I am worthy of unconditional love, that I am lovable, that I have love that can still yet be boundless. You have reminded me that I have qualities that I can appreciate and honor in myself: my pureness of heart, my resourceful hands, my playful energy, my awe of overlooked details and the great wonder of wandering. I had no idea that a 15lb muskrat with little button eyes could teach me so much, let alone would become the beacon that would allow me return to myself. My little flowersniffer, my slow poke, my communicative queen, my baby-lovin-never-met-a stranger puppy girl, you have given me the gift of remembering there is light and joy among the everydayness of life. I tell everyone who will listen: you are the best thing I’ve ever done and you make every single day better. Here’s to celebrating two years of you making everyone you’ve ever encountered happier than when you found them! Happy birthday to absolute apple of my eye 🍎(For those following along at home, here’s a celebratory photo dump of our last three months - two traveling across the South and, most recently, settling back into our Brooklynskin.) taken in ★ Happy Birthday to You ★ by @tracyjo.ing

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4 years ago

Every single day for the last 58 weeks, life has improved for the better because of Viv’s powerful, soulful presence. She is a constant companion, source of delight, vein of gentleness, and wellspring of unconditional love. @vivinthecity—the light of my life and the truest baby angel. 💞🐾 #servicedog #shesofficial #pupsofborisandhorton taken in Boris & Horton by @tracyjo.ing

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5 years ago

the lazy sway of whispering bluegrass, tulip poplars, sugar maples, and sweet tobacco. pirouettes of courting damselflies, wings fluttering like tiny tap shoes. overhead, a humming choir of electricity, thick with current and contrast - below, the trumpeting leaps of red belly sliders and bluegill and bullfrogs. this lullaby of hither and yonder side-by-side. this symphony of songbirds, chorus of crickets, melody of mellow water in motion. above, the great heron, a conductor — her wingspan opening and ushering, a hushed guide through each bend. the mirth of sisterhood, our marshal and anchor. the sounds of home. the ease of here. #myoldkentuckyhome taken in Elkhorn Creek by @tracyjo.ing

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5 years ago

🌸 spring photo dump 🌸brother! besties! silas! kitty! city! olive! crunk! bubbies! porch! [exclamations in 📸order!] taken in LookingUp by @tracyjo.ing

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5 years ago

A weekend in Hoboken had us all ready to throw in the towel on New York City 👀🌿☀️(@vivinthecity, especially!) Now back to our regularly scheduled programming in Brooklyn. Thanks for hosting us @stellathesnoozer 🐾🤟 taken in Hoboken, New Jersey by @tracyjo.ing

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6 years ago

A perfect blue sky, no-cloud-in-sight day with people I adore ☀️ Let’s keep up that energy, Universe • Love celebrating you, @takingwing. HBD, bestie. taken in Bushwick Inlet Park by @tracyjo.ing

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6 years ago

Took my dogter @vivinthecity on her very first upstate journey with her aunties ✨🐾🍃 Her interests included devouring sticks and trail ‘splorin. Ours included @officialopus40 and watermelon vodka smoothies 🍉🍸 taken in Upstate N.Y by @tracyjo.ing

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6 years ago

Today marks the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which is significant as we celebrate the revelation of the Torah and thus the vision of a new world. Guided by @jfrejnyc and @blackvisionscollective, I spent this evening leaning into the relationship between liberation, revelation, and reparations by protesting to honor the vision of black liberation. As far as the eye can see, Louisvillians by the thousands demanded #justiceforbreonnataylor. Seeing and hearing from so many former students were my proudest moments and my scariest. Breonna lived just 1.5 miles from me—here in the same zip code I grew up in and live in—when she was murdered mercilessly by the police. So, I’m writing in recognition that this fight is inseparable from my own and the work is mine to learn, unlearn, and show up for. For my babies (who I know are grown up now!), for my closest friends, for my community, I will honor our friendship, our neighborhood, and our trust by doing the work. Always. #blacklivesmatter #shavuot4blacklives taken in Downtown Louisville, Kentucky by @tracyjo.ing

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6 years ago

#quarantinemood has improved 150% thanks be to the latest, littlest addition — Meet Silas!!! 🐾 #8weeks #germanshepherdpuppy taken in Central Park, Louisville by @tracyjo.ing

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6 years ago