The Journal
The Journal
Essays and commentary on society, leadership, culture, relationships, womanhood and human dignity, drawing on Zimbabwean and African realities and the wider world.
This Is 40, Season 4: The Adventure I Choose
A new continent, slow mornings, and peace that stays. Forty, free, full, and finally walking in purpose.
Read the piece →This Is 40, Season 3: The Turning Point, Where I Learned to Break Beautifully
Love, a move across countries, a real relationship with God, and the season that didn’t just change me. It revealed me.
Read the piece →This Is 40, Season 2: The YOLO Era (And I Mean That Wholeheartedly)
Two degrees, a first car, a marriage, a baby, a divorce, and a life lived like a book someone would one day read.
Read the piece →This Is 40, Season 1: The Little Girl Who Had Everything That Mattered
Barefoot football in Marondera, bread and Lacto from the tuck shop, and the two women who made a poor childhood rich.
Read the piece →When God Says No: Looking for the Hidden Yes
A gentle word for anyone still sitting with an unanswered prayer, from the Rooted & Blooming community.
Read the piece →Before Anyone Is a Spouse, There Is a Human Being
On building a life together, the sacrifices nobody frames and hangs on the wall, and the first duty of love.
Read the piece →Dear Bloomer: Growth Is Not Betrayal
On outgrowing the woman who kept you safe, and thanking her on your way out.
Read the piece →Our Grandmothers Taught Us to Survive. Now We Must Learn to Build.
The women who carried our families on their backs often reach old age with nothing to lean on. What would it take to change that?
Read the piece →Dear Reader: Keep Building Yourself Too
Why every woman deserves some form of financial independence, even when she has chosen someone wonderful to stand beside her.
Read the piece →My Grandmother Was a Cross-Border Trader. Today, I Wonder Where She Would Earn Her Living.
When I read about vendors being moved on and migrants being targeted, I don’t just see headlines. I see the woman who raised me.
Read the piece →My Heart Smiled in Chinhoyi. My Eyes Remain Wide Open.
On General Chiwenga’s address, uncomfortable truths from inside the corridors of power, and why credit is not the same as trust.
Read the piece →Zimbabweans, We Are on Our Own. But Is That Necessarily a Bad Thing?
Have we become so good at surviving that we’ve forgotten how to demand better?
Read the piece →Rooted Before Blooming: Why Growth Starts Underground
We want to bloom quickly. God often starts somewhere less visible.
Read the piece →The Quiet Strength of Women Who Hold Everything Together
Some of the strongest women I know are also the most tired. It is time we talked honestly about the cost of always coping.
Read the piece →What Home Means When You Live Between Two Countries
On belonging, distance and the strange grief of feeling like a visitor in both places you call home.
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The Pat Ricia Letter
Letters for the woman who is still growing
A thoughtful letter from Pat, new Bloom Notes and first access to publications and programmes. No noise, and you can unsubscribe at any time.