Juleeta C. Harvey

Empowering Women to Believe Body Truth

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How Does Beauty Feed Your Body? I’m thinking about what you might want for Christmas…

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Horns blare in symphonic cadence, but all I hear is Christmas music accompanying the light show at Saks Fifth Avenue.  The constant hum of people invites us to receive. New York City is the most glamorous city I’ve ever seen.

Late Saturday evening, my husband and I arrived in New York on the last flight into LaGuardia, tucked in at the nearby Holiday Inn for a few hours, and rose early the following morning to catch a cab into New York City. [Read more…] about How Does Beauty Feed Your Body? I’m thinking about what you might want for Christmas…

On Vogue and Sanctification

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My Vogue came in the mail on Tuesday.  It is a grandiose salute to all things style, and the fact that it’s the 125th Anniversary Collector’s Edition makes it special — heavy and thick, full of photos imbued with colors and patterns that capture the reader’s attention with every turn of the page.  I look at some of these models and think they are alluring, but mostly skinny.  Like scary skinny.

As the “Thou shalt not judge” voice confronts my thoughts, I realize why I battle with the images in my fashion magazine.  It is impossible to separate ourselves from our bodies?  [Read more…] about On Vogue and Sanctification

Dear Mrs. Swift,

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Dear Mrs. Swift,

I have been thinking a lot about you this last week.  I am one of many who have followed numerous updates detailing your daughter’s recent legal battle.  I am a mother of five young sons and do not have daughters of my own. And still I have pondered what it must be like for you, her mother, to hurt for her and empathize with her and stand strong behind her in the face of a very public court case detailing sexual assault.

As do many mothers who stand alongside me in this journey of raising children, I applaud you for being the kind of woman who has made herself available to walk intimately with her daughter.  [Read more…] about Dear Mrs. Swift,

My Girls Gonna Run This Town Tonight

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I was in need of jamming to a little Jay-Z in the middle of my tired hump day routine, so with the kids down for summer pseudo-quiet time, I reached for my headphones, stretched out on my side of the bed, and indulged.

I journaled this: “Do you feel the pulse of the sound? The rhythm that compels you to nod your head and maybe even tap your foot to the bass? “Who’s Gonna Run This Town Tonight?”  There are beats that literally force our bodies to do a little bounce, and the consistency of the vibrations move us.   We can stand two-legged, bone-tired, in front of an overflowing sink full of dishes, and the right song can prompt our bodies into motion.  Today, Beyoncé’s man has the power to change my disposition from powerless to powerful. Bored to interested. Awake to the world that is swirling around me.”

Awake. Alert. Ready for Action. [Read more…] about My Girls Gonna Run This Town Tonight

Rocky Roads

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This bus is very much like the one we loaded on our way to a remote Honduran village, the summer of 1994.  No wonder the ride was scary. 

The open air bus slung us left and right, and we pushed hard down on the flats of our feet to steady ourselves.  Gravel roads, rutted and bumpy, bounced us up and down.  As I gripped the nearest railing, we seemingly leaned out over the mountain’s edge, the bus careening around sharp corners. [Read more…] about Rocky Roads