<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Wisdomoftheheart.info]]></title><description><![CDATA[Wisdom Of The Heart]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Fri, 31 Jul 2026 10:59:38 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Before I Knew]]></title><description><![CDATA[Some of our earliest stories are not memories at all. They are gifts carried to us by the people who loved us before we knew their names or our own. This is one of mine. Perhaps, in some small way, it is one of yours too.]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/post/before-i-knew</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a635ddd50d242d1c8901e6f</guid><category><![CDATA[UN-Spoken Word]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 24 Jul 2026 12:54:01 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4d3a2a_4f0a7e1913db46bea80a81cc555645c5~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Hakim Hilliard</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Deliverance ]]></title><description><![CDATA[o The moment had finally arrived.  My first day of law school was one week away, and the next morning I would be driving to Washington, D.C., to move into my new apartment.  I had been to D.C. many times before, but this trip was different. This time, I wasn’t just visiting. I was moving toward a new chapter.  I was excited about what was ahead, but it was a bittersweet excitement. I was leaving so much life behind, my family, my city, and especially my brother Ace.  Ace was in his fifth year...]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/post/the-deliverance</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a55c2a5870c7bdb8f422468</guid><category><![CDATA[Letters to Asa]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 14 Jul 2026 05:55:48 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4d3a2a_06d68ea3f44c47fe8f9b4262e439386b~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Hakim Hilliard</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Now We Can Begin]]></title><description><![CDATA[I’d only been in DC for five months, still learning the city, still feeling like a visitor in my own life. The Hilton ballroom was a place I’d only entered a handful of times, always when Pop was in town, always for one of his talks. I was a first-year law student at Georgetown, and every chance to see him felt like a lifeline. That night, I drove over from campus, parked on the street, and hurried through the Hilton lobby. The ceiling seemed impossibly high, chandeliers casting a warm glow...]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/post/now-we-can-begin</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a487a1cf7b480551f0e26f9</guid><category><![CDATA[Letters to Asa]]></category><pubDate>Sat, 04 Jul 2026 04:57:28 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4d3a2a_472074221510496d951547af7da1ce01~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_814,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Hakim Hilliard</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[PAY ATTENTION]]></title><description><![CDATA[Through a lifetime of simple lessons and quiet example, a father teaches his child that true wisdom is not knowledge, success, or status—it is humility, character, attentiveness, and the courage to remain teachable. Years later, those lessons still serve as a compass through life's most difficult roads.]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/post/pay-attention</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a317b71a3667807a657b6f8</guid><category><![CDATA[UN-Spoken Word]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 2026 16:39:42 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/0f090d_a574a0e8caf54375b9e51a4f567d0166~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Hakim Hilliard</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Empty Place On the Wall]]></title><description><![CDATA[There is one letter I would give almost anything to find. It was not written to me. It was written about me, by my father. If I still had it, I would frame it and hang it on the wall for my daughter, Asa Pearl. Instead, all I have is the story. I was a junior at Morehouse College when my friend Michael first got me interested in becoming a member of Omega Psi Phi. Michael knew more about the fraternity than I did and was already interested in it. When he asked whether I had ever considered...]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/post/the-empty-place-on-the-wall</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a6acf2a5329f38dcec8d6f8</guid><category><![CDATA[Letters to Asa]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2026 04:39:43 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4d3a2a_33065e182aa2488e89eb717ab656f305~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Hakim Hilliard</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Elmer and The Lion]]></title><description><![CDATA[“Did you say there is a lion back there, Grandpa?” One of my fondest memories of my grandfather, Elmer D. Morrison II, took place when I was about eight years old. My sister Trish and I had been sent from our home in San Francisco to spend a few weeks of our summer with our maternal grandparents, Elmer and Jessica Morrison, in Denver, Colorado. We had visited Grandpa and Nana before, but this was the first time Trish and I had stayed with them without our parents. Grandpa had spent most of...]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/post/elmer-and-the-lion</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a6624b0b59210289e91852f</guid><category><![CDATA[Letters to Asa]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 28 Jul 2026 01:29:56 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4d3a2a_90a347278dc04ed3a711f0e67e332041~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Hakim Hilliard</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA["People, let me tell you 'bout my best friend!"]]></title><description><![CDATA[Elmer Dudley Morrison II was my grandfather. Grandpa lived in Denver, Colorado, with my grandmother, Nana, for his entire life, but he was able to see most of America through his work on the railroad as a chair car attendant on the railroad, albeit through the lens of the racial discrimination he was regularly subjected to in his work. Although he was decades my senior at the time of his sudden death from a heart attack, which happened two months before I was scheduled to begin law school, I...]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/post/people-let-me-tell-you-bout-my-best-friend</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a66586110a4941c072b2a59</guid><category><![CDATA[Letters to Asa]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:50:42 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4d3a2a_da11b5c62aa1489b94aa483121b9eebc~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Hakim Hilliard</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Peach Cobbler and the Genius at Our Table]]></title><description><![CDATA[My freshman year at the University of Maryland was interrupted by something no one expected. My Uncle Thomas died suddenly. He was not simply my uncle. He had lived near us when our family was in South San Francisco, and he was one of those people whose presence made the family feel whole. His death brought everyone to Texas, where for several days we grieved, remembered, and laughed through tears in the way families sometimes do when someone they love leaves too soon. Before everyone...]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/post/peach-cobbler-and-the-genius-at-our-table</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a6475d610a4941c0726111c</guid><category><![CDATA[Letters to Asa]]></category><pubDate>Sat, 25 Jul 2026 09:10:56 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4d3a2a_441f6e2e083e4d6bb52ac047f3c249c2~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Hakim Hilliard</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[You Want to Save a Child? Learn Not to Rush the Brisket]]></title><description><![CDATA[What does smoking a brisket have to do with teaching a child? More than I ever imagined. This story captures a quiet Saturday morning with my father, Dr. Asa G. Hilliard III, whose lesson beside a backyard grill became a lifelong guide to learning, teaching, and believing in the extraordinary potential of every child.]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/post/you-want-to-save-a-child-learn-not-to-rush-the-brisket</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a5f06cbbd30a9e3e57ca203</guid><category><![CDATA[Letters to Asa]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 21 Jul 2026 06:28:48 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4d3a2a_d89be31416584260aefa122bac1a18e0~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Hakim Hilliard</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[You Are Not Late]]></title><description><![CDATA[You Are Not Late is a father’s promise to love his daughter without rushing her becoming. As Asa Pearl approaches sixteen, he begins to understand that parenting is not the work of shaping a child into his dreams, but of standing close enough to protect her and far enough away for her to discover herself. It is a poem about purposeful transformation, trust, and the courage to give a child room to arrive in her own time.]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/post/you-are-not-late</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a5d8524769cc21e56f22ce9</guid><category><![CDATA[UN-Spoken Word]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 20 Jul 2026 02:39:34 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4d3a2a_aa4d4090426540a0954bba66d43ed4bf~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Hakim Hilliard</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Some Messages Wait for Faraway Places: How Memory Delivers the Messages Love Leaves Behind]]></title><description><![CDATA[A memory I thought was about my own life followed me for nearly twenty years. It crossed cities, oceans, and two funerals before I finally understood it was never meant for me at all. It was a message from a father who had already died, waiting in my mind until the night I stood in a small Brazilian city, in sweatpants, in front of his son who had just finished Georgetown Law.]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/post/some-messages-wait-for-faraway-places-how-memory-delivers-the-messages-love-leaves-behind</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a5d7a75769cc21e56f21792</guid><category><![CDATA[Letters to Asa]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 20 Jul 2026 02:06:35 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4d3a2a_20125aa010d54757b71126287f833876~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Hakim Hilliard</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[My Grandmother Called Me A Fool in Egypt]]></title><description><![CDATA[What happens when your unforgettable grandmother, a black bra, and a trip to Kemet collide in one story? In this hilarious and heartfelt memory, Jess once again proves she could turn the most ordinary moment into family legend. Beneath the laughter is a deeper story about love, identity, and the fearless woman who helped shape the man I became. You'll laugh out loud, shake your head, and wish you had known Jess.]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/post/my-grandmother-called-me-a-fool-in-egypt</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a59bbf7d03244312ce61471</guid><category><![CDATA[Letters to Asa]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 17 Jul 2026 07:05:02 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4d3a2a_a5f29f56b909429684a2374458a83b63~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Hakim Hilliard</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[What It Do! What It Do! ]]></title><description><![CDATA[A young Black man walks into a courtroom carrying nothing but his truth, and the language that raised him. When his everyday greeting, "What it do?", collides with the rigid expectations of the justice system, humor, tension, and humanity unfold together. A story about identity, code-switching, dignity, and the quiet courage of refusing to leave yourself at the courtroom door.]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/post/what-it-do-what-it-do</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a5866344ee79d90036f8c2a</guid><category><![CDATA[UN-Spoken Word]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 16 Jul 2026 06:10:53 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4d3a2a_48d9b5054c30492c919065de2c50ac71~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Hakim Hilliard</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Calamine, Curls &#38; Camaro Dreams]]></title><description><![CDATA[At thirteen, I thought the worst thing that could happen was surviving my grandmother's homemade California Curl. Burned necks a bottle of calamine lotion, my father's quiet humor, and a family that loved hard turned one disastrous haircut into a story I've laughed about for decades. Sometimes the memories that embarass us most become the ones we treasure most.]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/post/calamine-curls-camaro-dreams</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a54944552c8895348a13381</guid><category><![CDATA[Letters to Asa]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 13 Jul 2026 07:43:12 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4d3a2a_8fcf5b9f66e84a368a8a755b6c70444b~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Hakim Hilliard</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Uber to Eternity]]></title><description><![CDATA[An ordinary Uber ride home with my daughter became something I have never been able to explain. Sometimes the people we love seem to find us through unexpected hands, reminding us that love does not always end when a life does. This is a story of fatherhood, grief, and quiet moments when eternity feels closer than we dare believe.]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/post/uber-to-eterniy</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a5072695c421b820218ce60</guid><category><![CDATA[Letters to Asa]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 10 Jul 2026 04:19:24 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4d3a2a_5d0d45ac897e4e7c90fba6eb2e9a98ac~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Hakim Hilliard</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Long Way Home]]></title><description><![CDATA[While staring at the only photograph he has of his great-great-grandparents, Hakim imagines being granted five minutes with the people whose courage, faith, and choices made his life possible. What begins as a conversation about a family name becomes a meditation on legacy, fatherhood, and the quiet inheritance that passes from one generation to the next.]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/post/the-long-way-home</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a4dc66c24d6803bed6bcee3</guid><category><![CDATA[UN-Spoken Word]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2026 03:55:56 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4d3a2a_24d9e0605b294fe7bde7a64c16aae6c4~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_878,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Hakim Hilliard</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[My Brother's Greatest Gift Wasn't Advice]]></title><description><![CDATA[A memoir about brotherhood, mental illness, and the extraordinary lesson one older brother taught,not through advice, but by inviting his younger brother to see the humanity behind suffering.]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/post/my-brother-s-greatest-gift-wasn-t-advice</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a4986200e6d465694993ea3</guid><category><![CDATA[Letters to Asa]]></category><pubDate>Sat, 04 Jul 2026 22:43:16 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4d3a2a_b543c726ada54da78990c3119e4d8c1a~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Hakim Hilliard</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[You Are My Seeing]]></title><description><![CDATA[Ma, Today I have come to you because of a question. Not my question. Kelvin's. He came to me with the kind of question only a true friend with a healing spirit might comfortably pose. Not as a criticism, but as an invitation to discover something about myself that had been standing quietly beside me all along. He said "Hakim... I love your stories. I feel like I know your father better, your sisters and your your brother, even Asa Pearl.  But they keep asking..." "Why doesn't he write about...]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/post/you-are-my-seeing</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a4953120e6d46569498c8e1</guid><category><![CDATA[UN-Spoken Word]]></category><pubDate>Sat, 04 Jul 2026 19:16:17 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4d3a2a_7d10ac125bc045a080dc5333d5a39902~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Hakim Hilliard</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[323 Miles]]></title><description><![CDATA[Unable to sleep, I drove 323 miles looking for my sister. I thought grief had given me a destination. Instead, it gave me a conversation. Somewhere between memory and morning, I discovered that the deepest love is never left behind. It simply finds another way to walk beside us.]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/post/323-miles</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a3175b9655fbab867100e62</guid><category><![CDATA[Letters to Asa]]></category><pubDate>Sat, 04 Jul 2026 16:35:01 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/0f090d_22a33462214e49658ee8ecc6c8b06213~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_979,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Hakim Hilliard</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[“Until My Voice Becomes Yours”]]></title><description><![CDATA[Daddy..."  Yes, Baby Girl?  How do you know when you're doing it right?"  I don't.  Every morning, I wake up holding two fears.  One, that I will love you so fiercely I protect you from the very struggles that would have made you strong.  The other, that I mistake hardship for wisdom and forget that children grow best where they are deeply loved.  So I make myself one promise.  I will not raise you to need me.  I will raise you to recognize yourself.  I will teach you that kindness is not...]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomoftheheart.info/post/until-my-voice-becomes-yours</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a468cc0b176a354da80d303</guid><category><![CDATA[UN-Spoken Word]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 02 Jul 2026 16:17:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/fbe0f6_60d19e39fbba4421984ff513b8478cc1~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Hakim Hilliard</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>