Flourishing!

Meet EMAN's new Board President Rev. Aisha Brooks-Lytle — NewsWorks

Since I’ve been a full-time Pastor, I have not had enough opportunities to sing my original tunes with my band as much as I had dreamed. I watch folks in the public eye like Smokey Norful, Bishop Paul Morton, and even my girl Kim Burrell (a friend in my head) maintain the phenomenal balance of being pastors and musicians. While my Presbyterian Pastoral reality would not allow me to move and shake in the way these folk do, I have watched from a distance with the hopes that ONE DAY I can flow with ease as a singing sistah of the cloth who can swing with the best of them. As I try to find the balance between being a musician and a full-time pastor, I realize the real struggle is being a freak of nature who is equally administrative as I am creative. When life is calm and balanced (yes, I am trying to see how many times can I use a variation of the word ‘balance’ in this blog...), I seem to be able to fully attend to my creative outlets like singing, composing, writing, and yes, knitting...

Let me say this first, I am raising a male version of myself. I cannot believe how strong and powerful genes are in the business of family lineage. I know that nature and nurture run neck-in-neck in their ability to shape and mold a child. But this boy is undeniably mine. At first glance, its obvious that Ellington looks a lot like me. We have the same chocolate drop skin, big brown eyes (with long lashes), a laugh that can cause a troll-who-lives-under-the-bridge to smile, compassion for others, and charisma for days. On a much deeper level, Ellington carries my trait of appearing like a fearless extrovert to the masses but holding close to his chest introvert-like tendencies. So it is wild to watch and a roller-coaster ride to parent a smaller, male version of myself. This past week my overly-articulate, eager, polite, nerdy, and high energy kid made the transition from his small group Pre-K class to the daycare’s Summer Camp program. Summer Camp is great in theory....trips to par...

This is the summer of way too much. But like always, I love it! I usually get excited and nervous when I have to do something new, or some variation of a new thing. In my typical Type-A fashion, let’s make a list of all the ways in which this is the summer-of-way-too-much”...(1) I have my first college intern (who’s given ghetto fabulous nickname is “Jo-Jo”), (2) we have five summer interns serving The Philadelphia Project and being a support to MAPC, (3) my male diva BFF/seminarian (who’s given ghetto fabulous nickname is “S-1” for literally being my first seminarian) is moving onto another internship as we are incorporating our fall seminarian into the mix, (4) we are embarking on a joint venture for an 8-week summer children’s ministry program, (5) we are having an changeover in our tenants and (6) I said, YES, to being President of a great civic association in our church’s neighborhood. Wheeeew!!!! This is why I hate seeing my reality in print. Making this list freaks me out eve...