Who Is Nicole Dyer?
…still a little girl who thinks she can fly
Photo by Emma Dyer
Actually it’s Tanisha Nicole Dyer. Well, actually, it was supposed to be Tatanisha Nicole Dyer but the hospital must have thought that the extra “Ta” was a mistake and so they dropped it. When my birth certificate arrived it said “Tanisha”.
I read an article by Rasheed Hooda published in Illumination on Medium yesterday and I thought to myself, “This is fantastic!” What a wonderful way to get to know some things about a person. The title of his article is, “Who is Rasheed Hooda?…A story within a story.” He talked some about his life and challenged us to introduce ourselves. Well, I’ve decided to give it a try.
NOMADIC — I was born with wings. My mother was an officer in the US Marine Corps…one of the few black women officers at the time (that’s her hat I’m wearing in the picture above)…and we moved constantly. I’ll throw out a rough estimate and say I went to about ten to fifteen different schools by the time I graduated from high school. I lived in Japan for about a year while I was eleven or so and quickly made friends with a Japanese girl that lived across the street from me. We lived in a Japanese community and I couldn’t speak Japanese and she couldn’t speak English, but somehow we managed to have a year long, happy friendship. When she would come over to play I would give her hotdogs and Sprite and she would give me pencils and scented erasers to add to my collection. I’m a writer, I wonder if she’s a chef. I have continued with the moving throughout my adult life, even if it’s only a move from one neighborhood to another — but NOMADIC for sure, and I love it.
CO-CREATOR OF THE DIVINE FEMININE — I have five daughters. Yes, all daughters…Yes, five — ONE TWO THREE FOUR and FIVE…Yes, I labored and delivered them all…Yes, they were all individual births, different years. Yes, I am African American and one of my daughters was born with blue eyes and blond hair. During a layover at an airport a curious, nosy lady asked if I had adopted her. They are all VERY much their own individual person. I suppose that’s enough said about that.
MY FAVORITE ORGAN OF THE BODY IS THE SKIN — I am a soap maker. I’ve been making all-natural soap for over ten years. I started making soap after my grandmother developed arthritis so badly in her knees until she became homebound. Her mental state quickly started deteriorating and I wanted to help her in any way that I could. I did a TON of research and created an all-natural ointment that she could apply topically along with heat therapy. I even grew the main ingredient in my back yard. She called me one day crying, “Nikki! I can walk!!!” I’m not claiming any cures for arthritis, but my grandmother has been walking ever since. What does this have to do with soap? I really don’t know other than after that experience with my grandmother I started making ALL of my own skincare products. Check out my soap shop on Etsy, it’s called Savon Solaire. Your skin will thank you!
I AM AN AVID LEARNER — I find MANY things fascinating and have focused on a few here and there. My appetite is pretty insatiable for not just knowledge, but wisdom. The blend of the two sings the most beautiful duets and performs the most captivating dances. I like to understand both sides of the story so that I am able to relate to others in a more fluid, nonjudgmental way. I’ve studied Christianity and I’ve studied Witchcraft. I’ve studied Accounting & Finance and I’ve studied Shamanism. Once I took a sabbatical from my Financial Controller position at a wealth management firm and wound up in the jungles of Peru purging from plant medicine. Sometimes I can’t wait to get up in the morning to continue reading some book that I can’t seem to get enough of. One of my daughters still has my favorite book from childhood, the original copy from forty years ago, Pig and the Blue Flag. Funny, I even signed the inside cover like I was the one that wrote it, hehehehe.
Photo by Nicole Dyer
Well, enough about me. What about YOU?
