We’re celebrating the one year anniversary of the Infinite Constellations anthology. It wasn’t my idea. My co-editor told me she wanted to celebrate the anniversary, then unveiled her plan to get us to appear at the New Orleans Book Festival. Since it’s my hometown, we added another event at the Community Book Center.

Taking time to reflect on the anthology gave me the opportunity to feel the fullness of our accomplishment. It also made me think about how, as humans, we have a tendency to sweep things under the rug. We close the door on experiences and move on so completely that it’s almost as if they never happened at all.

We also didn’t do much formal promoting of the book, so the New Orleans Book Festival was our first in-person interview for the book. (We had done a written interview online.) Having two conversations back-to-back, gave us the opportunity to deepen our thinking on the value of the anthology. We made some profound connections that made me more aware of the broad scope of value that the project brings to the world.

In the middle of our first event, as I was enjoying sharing my thoughts and listening to Khadijah’s thoughts and hearing the interplay of our perspectives, I thought about some new ways we could engage with the anthology—new projects that could be born of this root idea. We came up with some ideas that would take us deeper into the concept of Infinite Constellations, and give us the opportunity to expand the encounter of identity and culture across more formats.

It’s exciting to contemplate how to build, deepen and expand, rather than simply shut the door and move on. Value can be sneaky. We think we know what’s valuable or we think we know the contours/breadth of the value of something, but value shifts with our own understanding.

I’m sitting with this thought and endeavoring to expand my understanding of the profound depth of my work and efforts. Rather than setting out to find the new, I’m working on settling in and deepening so that I can mine the value that’s right here—right under my nose.

May you discover new value in your talents and efforts. We are infinite—in possibility and value. And it’s always time to celebrate the beauty, wonder, and contributions we bring to the world!

Onward,

—K.