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This year, 2026, my birthday fell on a Tuesday again—the seventh time it has aligned this way since my birth. It won’t align this way again until 2037!

There’s something about that number that makes me pause. Seven often marks completion, a cycle coming full circle. For this reason this year’s birthday feels like alignment.

And, this year’s birthday finds me in Kenya! This marks my seventh rotation for work—my seventh time stepping into a new place and being asked to build a life from the ground up. That process has taught me that there’s a difference between simply living somewhere and actually building a sense of belonging. Living is transient. Building requires intention.

At the center of that intention is community.

With each move I challenge myself to stretch beyond my instinct to stay inward and ask: who will I gather, and who will gather me? Over time, I’ve come to see that community isn’t something you passively find. It’s something you actively create. It takes openness, presence, and a willingness to invest in people before anything feels settled.

This year, that realization came into focus in a simple but meaningful way—my birthday dinner at DAWN. The name alone didn’t escape me. A new place, a new chapter, and a gathering under a name that echoes my own.

Around the table, under the canopy of an array of monochrome-shades of red faux flowers, were a mix of people who, not long ago, were strangers—Kenyan, Jamaican, Canadian, American, Italian, Ghanaian, Indian, Korean. Different backgrounds, different stories, all brought together in one space.

What stood out and warmed my heart most wasn’t just the diversity, but the presence. Everyone invited said yes. In a world where schedules are full and connections can be fleeting, that kind of response spoke volumes.

The evening was both a celebration and a quiet confirmation that something had taken root. I was finding my place in Kenya. Starting to feel settled. Not because everything is familiar, but because I am no longer navigating it alone. There is a flow beginning to form, shaped by shared moments, conversations, and the early foundations of trust.

Seven alignments. Seven new beginnings. Seven reminders that while place may change, the need for community does not.

And maybe that’s the real alignment—not just the calendar returning to a familiar position, but the steady realization that wherever I go, I have the capacity to build, to connect, and to belong.

Happy birthMONTH to me!!

2026 All Rights Reserved

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In creative solidarity, Dee