Musings w/Musings

Musings w/Mookie - reflections on life

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I’m a poet and the author of four books, exploring thoughts through both poetry and prose. Musings with Mookie is a solo podcast where I share reflections, writing practices, and observations on life - some direct, some layered, much like my poetry. mookiemadeit.substack.com

1d ago

Ep57 Musings w/Mookie

Free yourself from other people’s responsibilities or their irresponsibility. Sorry y’all - I’m back. For how long? I don’t know but I am here today. I have spent a good portion of my life “living the dream” and doing it successfully. I was doing it all - literally, because I was trained to do without exception. I was trained inadvertently to find a solution. I remember my mother leaving one day, I mean, she left often to be honest. I am a latchkey kid. Well one day she left and it was me, my brother, and my three younger siblings. We were watching tv and I specifically remember we were watching PBS and this show demonstrated how to make a pizza but for kids to do. Well I was hungry and I looked at my brother and said “Let’s make pizza.” My brother immediately chimed in and said you aren’t supposed to use the stove. Well my mother said she would be back - so I guess she wouldn’t know. I made the pizza — a slice of bread, some ketchup, and a slice of American cheese - it was good for what I needed at the time... it wasn’t exactly as tasty as described on tv. From there I moved up until I got to the noodle debacle - save that for another time. The thing is, I was learning to do things and come up with solutions before I was taught. Before life had called action on a scene, I had already started act two. Not intentionally, but automatically. Increasingly, and actively, I have learned to be more present and not move into fixing unless I am asked. Or to say no when I don’t want to or don’t have the bandwidth. What can you let go completely today? Mookie💜 Get full access to Mookie Toujour at mookiemadeit.substack.com/subscribe
Oct 4

Ep56 Musings m/Mookie

A new day… to do more - lol I don’t need anymore to do really and I am coming to the realization that I do not need more to do. I can be a little busy body. No I have been a little busy body for a long time. If I wasn’t doing something I would get into something. Learning to sit in peace without expected, or putting those expectations on myself to do more. It’s not like every move I make is not valid, I just don’t need give every idea validation then movement. I come up with a new idea and then I have new project all the while not finishing other 3. Now I am learning to not feel that I am not being useful because others are rushing. I have more creative time to relax and organize ideas. To be helpful when asked and not just to feel useful. It is freeing to move with intention. Mookie💜 Get full access to Mookie Toujour at mookiemadeit.substack.com/subscribe
Sep 25

Ep55 Musing m/Mookie

“… I’m a woman, but first I’m a person. And as a person, you do not outrank me.” It is now September and I recorded this in August. To be transparent, there were a few musings before this - about five- that had no audio because the mic malfunctioned. I think I had some good musings during that time too. I know how to talk, but I am also quiet. My musings usually happen during a quiet space of time that I have to myself and with kids, school, building and maintaining pages, a house, and my emotional instability, that space is hard to come by. Parenting is an active choice that is made every day... it’s not one that I take lightly. I make a concerted effort to put my children’s needs and desires before my own. I made this decision as a child myself - well, an older teen. We tend to look at the lives of great leaders through a narrow lens. For some, I didn’t even know they had children. Then to find out they weren’t an active presence in their lives either because of their work and because they had created split families... from coast to coast to continent to continent. Also, some do not inherit the stable home that so many of us take for granted. We may miss on vacationing because maintaining a home is costly, but our great leaders and speakers may only be able to sleep in a friend’s home or depend on hotel rooms as a permanent nomadic lifestyle. The question I have pondered for myself is what I must give up myself? Right now it is not being a friendly driver and an active social life. What have you given up to be your higher self? **you going to hear me misspeak in these musings, but this is off the dome. I speak as the thoughts come. - Mookie💜 Get full access to Mookie Toujour at mookiemadeit.substack.com/subscribe
Sep 4

Ep54 Musings m/Mookie

I have been wanting to dance for a while. Yes, I can dance in my house. I can dance freely in my backyard. I have access to music anywhere in my house. I have playlists for several genres and feelings. I don’t want to dance in my house, though. I want to dance in public, like in a club. It doesn’t have to be every weekend, but every so often I need that release. I feel like that is something I can allow myself. That is what I imagine when I think about Studio 54. I don’t think about the bad lore. I just remember the videos of people sparkling, looking free on the dance floor. I don’t really connect with the bad because what stays with me is the feeling I imagine was there in those moments: the carefree, intense joy of releasing whatever worry there was and replacing it with music and movement. What is your Studio 54? What brings you joy? I keep going back to music and dancing. - Mookie💜 Get full access to Mookie Toujour at mookiemadeit.substack.com/subscribe
Aug 11

Ep53 Musings w/Mookie

Life be lifing… I’m not really here to make you understand me. That would take too much time to connect all the dots to figure out the way I move. I involve myself in way too much to be over explain myself - or so I believe. Trust me I still believe this… With friends this type of moving still worked because we all had our own goals, dreams, and other personal obligations. With parenting not so much. Parenting requires an overexplaining of yourself that not many are appropriately prepared for. The early years it is understandable. As they get older you may become less compassionate for their ignorance based on your knowledge. And I had an overabundance of knowledge… I just needed them to do and they had questions. So many questions (insert that stressed emoji here). In some way I thought my kids would be like me but better at age 7 and 8 like I was. These kids were afraid to stay home by themselves. They wanted me to read to them and they are teenagers. They felt special with me cooking breakfast and they can cook themselves at 14. They enjoyed that love… That was the mismatch with my mental processing. I was looking to be the lone pilot that leaves the formation because I felt my job was done for the most part. As I couldn’t step out of the way something had to change - my plans had to. I couldn’t drop out of formation with them. I had to go all the way. I had to see this through and change my expectations of parenting three separate and distinct individuals. Mookie💜 Get full access to Mookie Toujour at mookiemadeit.substack.com/subscribe
Aug 7

Ep52 Musings w/Mookie

“Hey it’s Musings with Mookie".” That’s it that is the intro. I hardly ever ask how you are doing. That’s just how I roll in when talking to someone. I’m not sold on if I am wrong because it seems repetitive and others label it emotionally absent. A greeting isn’t an emotion though - it’s an inquiry. Then comes the personhood flow chart and how to show care… but you HAVE to do it everyday in the same way. At one point it was just a grunt for humans… I see nothing wrong with a simple “‘Hi or hello” because you may respond with something other than “good.” Or you may ask me how I am and I may be truthful with a follow-up to your “Do you want to talk about it,” with a “No', but thank you for asking.” And believe you me I want to fully engage but some times are just not the right time. Have we masked ourselves for the sake of palatable agreeance? If declining to explore your bad day is being construed as being rude, can we ever truly rest in honesty? I don’t even know what the musing is about…and by the time you read this after, you may not either. - Mookie💜 Get full access to Mookie Toujour at mookiemadeit.substack.com/subscribe
Aug 5

Ep51 Musings w/Mookie

You can’t miss what you never had is true and false - a false negative. You can’t miss a mother’s love if you never had it but you will chase a connection that seems fleeting. You might have never experience a roller coaster ride but that one time when you were on a swing and you got so high that you felt that weightlessness that you couldn’t describe and wanted that again. Early on, this phrase was weaponized against me in attaining what I wanted, in turn programmed me to expect less from others and even accept even less. Though I never accepted less from myself. Wanting something for myself; I was faster than superman, especially more nimble than jack. I didn’t tell myself no, maybe later, but no was not part of my internal processing. Once I left home and started really pulling in and having my own money - there was no such thing as a waiting. It’s not like I wanted much or couldn’t be satisfied. I carried this frame of mind, eventually being told that I was too independent. That I needed to not do everything myself. I didn’t see it that way. I no longer had to. It didn’t mean I didn’t need anyone, I just didn’t want to be told no. - Mookie💜 Get full access to Mookie Toujour at mookiemadeit.substack.com/subscribe
Jul 29

Ep50 Musings w/Mookie

The thing with be a writer is that you have to be clever. Life itself is about being clever and at times it is slow. In writing you have to keep the clever going either by explaining a thing in long flow where you don’t get lost in using so many words. I learned in my last job not to bore the audience. You are here to deliver information and you have to tailor the information to your crowd. Some people - civilians - would say I’m doing too much. Rather a retired civilian did say I was doing too much. I was but I was there to work then go home. I have fun at home. At work I had to bite my tongue a lot. So if I was doing a lot work, and providing requested results I was protected from having to be longwinded. I cold just be like, “well General so and so want it this way”, then everyone shuts up. I adored efficiency. With writing I have to be long winded and efficient in my storytelling. I had to learn to be comfortable telling it all but also skipping the slow parts in the story or what would slow the story. I don’t know - that’s all I got. I have been drinking and I’m starting to feel it in my toes. Mookie💜 Get full access to Mookie Toujour at mookiemadeit.substack.com/subscribe

I’m a poet and the author of four books, exploring thoughts through both poetry and prose. Musings with Mookie is a solo podcast where I share reflections, writing practices, and observations on life - some direct, some layered, much like my poetry. mookiemadeit.substack.com

Creator

Musings w/Mookie - reflections on life
Years Active

2025 - 2026
Episodes

58
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© Mookie Toujour
Show Website

Musings w/Musings