Keila Tirado-Leist

Hola, y’all! It’s been a little while, and I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone that checked up on me!💗 After falling on ice in February, I really pushed my body when I needed rest, and that included sharing a dance video on my stories 😂 It turns out, I was recovering from a concussion and all of my shenanigans made things worse. Long story short, I was forced to slow down and re-evaluate everything on my plate. It became very clear that I needed to prioritize myself, my family, those closest to me and by extension support people and organizations doing social justice work on the ground. As time goes on, I will share one particular org that is doing incredible work in Puerto Rico post-Hurricane Maria recovery. I will also no longer be sharing and/or discussing antiracism online, however, my past work will still be available. I’ve also decided to postpone my book club newsletter until further notice. I realize that many folks have found my thoughts helpful in some way, and I feel truly humbled by it all, but *I* cannot do it all in one space. There are so many incredible folks explicitly doing antiracism work, and I will continue to support them on and offline. What I will be doing is existing in this space unapologetically. I will continue to share our journey to low waste; we have a ways to go but are slowly getting there 😬🙏🏽 My ethical/slower fashion choices, our fave recipes and parenting. This phase of motherhood with an almost 6, 4 and 2.5 yr old has challenged me in all of the ways! They need me to be present to the best of my ability, and it is my joy to do just that. Thank you for following along and making it this far and special shout out to those that have been with me since the early days of 2013 😜 I really appreciate your patience as I get back to posting regular content! 💗 More than one pic because I couldn’t decide on one 😍 #motherhood #spring #joy

There's really not much I want to add to this, except that I want to exist wholely for myself first, and then my family. I choose to share parts of our journey here, and the truth of what that looks like for us. I think in this day and age where online spaces occupy so much of our lives, we expect the internet to provide all the answers. We also look to the internet as a reflection of what we are doing in our offline life, or maybe that's just been my struggle?! Truthfully, whether I have been discussing clothes, family, anti-racism or my graduate programs, I have always struggled with this aspect of the internet, because I'm the type of person that gives all of herself to whatever I am doing, but that's not sustainable for me.

As a mother of three little's, I have learned to be flexible and open to change as time goes on, otherwise, I'd be eaten alive lol! Speaking of the internet, I saw this really cool meme the other day that read "You don't have to do everything at once. You don't have to do everything alone." And omg, did that hit the nail on the head for me when it comes to living more consciously on this earth. I feel so overwhelmed some days with all the steps we need to take as a family of five to live with less waste, and it's ridiculous to think that we have to do it all at once, because we do not.

These past couple of months, I have had the pleasure of teaching high school students in a historically underrepresented neighborhood of Milwaukee, and I cannot begin to share how much I have learned by witnessing their learning. One thing they have taught me is that, I get to define what sustainability looks like for me and my family based on the choices available to us. You will not find an all-or-nothing approach here, because that is not how we live our lives. We believe that if we know better, we can do better for ourselves and for others too.