From My Coffee Table to My Carry-On: Milk and Honey in Cancun

TRAVEL

Sep 21

RUPI IN CANCUN

i have wanted for quite some time, to start a little secret section in the blog devoted to some good reads. instead of creating a full page, i’d much rather weave my thoughts throughout my site when i find a good book and share it that way. for this post in particular, i decided to give a recommendation on a very lovely read. it’s great for travel and something that you can finish in one trip (or even one plane ride).

i received milk and honey about a year ago from my friend mica, and let it sit in my room promising myself that i’d read it one day. it was on a recent trip to mexico i decided to bring it along and i thought it was such a healing piece, perfect for where i am at in life.

milk and honey is about the female experience. it’s separated into four parts, like seasons, with short and long poems. the parts are called the hurting, the loving, the breaking, and the healing. each section is relatable and has many parallels to our own ups and downs in regards to our relationships with others and ourselves. i can relate to all of the book! she takes you through the cycles of how our past affects our decision-making but also how to break out of this terrible habit. its a depiction of our relationship with men as well.

milk and honey is biblical in a sense. it represents how women are our own plentiful resource, how we embody richness, fertility, blessings, and abundance. the imagery is compared to that of a woman, a wonderful euphemism made by rupi. she teaches us to hold onto our power and to begin valuing ourselves.

ezekiel 20:6 // on that day i swore to them, to bring them out from the land of egypt into a land that i had selected for them, flowing with milk and honey, whcih is the glory of all lands.

to the women who
want to see you down

this book also hit home to me that so often we as women do not help each other when given the chance. sometimes when we’re down, we must reach out and rupi consistently speaks of this sisterhood. in the end of her book, she stresses the importance of recognizes how resilient we are and that we must stay grounded for one another. it gave me strength to understand the kind of woman i want to be, and the kind that i don’t. if your sister falls, you help her up.

”we all move forward when we recognize how resilient and striking them women around us are.” - rupi kaur

when i was moving into my space i promised myself that each part of my home would be something like a sanctuary. just the process alone was a healing experience for me, getting to create and design something that i could love. i put milk and honey on my table as a way to always come back to love and to embody the person that i want to be. i love the values that her poems instill and the truth that she speaks.