Should I just start this blog post off with a mini title called, “I’m not crying, YOU’RE Crying?!” because that is how my conversations with Emely Rumble feel.
Whether I am catching her up on an IG voice notes while frying a tortilla, or reading her posts in her Fable book club, being in Emely’s presence feels familiar and comforting. I often tell her I like to imagine her in sweet little scenarios and landscapes.
I will leave her a voice note describing where I would drop her off in a whimsical land with a cute cottage just for her and her family, surrounded by a lush garden with a desk on the patio where she can write her book while the children play outside with lots of room to explore and expand.
It makes me feel a friendly goodness inside to spend a moment of my intention to visualize my friend in a peaceful environment and seeing her in abundance and flow, all her needs met and an afternoon for her to meander through her book altars, er, book shelves, researching her new book with ease and nostalgia. That’s how much I believe in Emely’s work and purpose.
When you have a friend who is living in their purpose and you believe in them, sometimes these little beams of love is what I can offer. Luckily for me, Emely Rumble, LCSW, THE Bibliotherapist in the Bronx and Little Emely are suckers for a guided visualization voice note and receives it with gratitude. That’s so Emely. She will always take a moment for gratitude.
So you can see why I started this off with “I’m not crying, You’re crying” because that’s just how me and Em get down. We let our inner children be and we give them what they need, no judgement.
It was an honor to record with my friend and every new goal she smashes just has me beaming because her heart is pure and her words are truth. She can see books in her head like AI. I jokingly called her LiterAIpy_NYC because she can remember book chapters, footnotes and trilogies. She is into teenlit, fiction, memiors, thrillers, etc. She highlights Black and Brown authors and makes reading accessible and excitable. She speaks to our inner child and transforms our inner critic, into an inner author.
Check out some highlights from our episode of Confetti All Around, “Book Divinations and Inner Child Altars” season 1 episode 21.
Cynthia (00:30.77) Everyone’s favorite. I just saw a comment and I will claim this today I saw a comment today that said “EM is that girl” and I was like she sure is that girl So EM is that girl that bibliotherapist of the Bronx? So without further ado, Emily rumble. Happy birthday and welcome girl
Emely Rumble, LCSW (00:47.585) Thank you so much, Cyn. I have been looking forward to this for quite some time. And I love that you wanted to record it in time for my birthday. Thank you for just being a great comadre and amiga and one of my biggest cheerleaders. You’re that girl. You are.
Cynthia (01:00.458) Of course. Well, okay, we are those little girls together and that’s really why I wanted you here. First of all, for those that don’t know, disclosure, I’m under the influence of cacao, hot chocolate before this because I really, I love Em and I, we have gone through so much just to get to this recording. We have canceled because we have a lot busy lives and families and I just really adore you Em. So I want it to be intentional. So I… Emely Rumble, LCSW (01:12.829) Mmm.
Cynthia (01:28.81) made my little cacao, I stood in front of my altar, and then we had some time. So I’m feeling really warm. We don’t know what will come of this conversation, but one thing I gotta share flowers for you, Em. I just wanna remind people that I was thinking of this, how offerings as written in indigenous times are words. Offerings are flowers from your garden. Offerings are your truth on your heart. And so… You give offerings every day. Bibliotherapy is an offering, you know, that we would give to our family and to our ancestors. And you do it all the day. Spoken word is like wind, right? So I wanna give you flowers, an offering at your bibliotherapy altar behind you. But I wrote down what I think of you, Em, and I wrote, wise beyond measure, grace without effort. Maybe it’s effort to you, but we don’t see it.
Emely Rumble, LCSW (02:11.56) Mmm, mmm.
Cynthia (02:28.862)
A love that is warm and has reach. A medicine woman with traditional offerings in a modern approach.
And I put, the last one, and this one always, this is why I wanna do my podcast. This is the like, pop-off side is, I put Oprah-like brilliance.
Emely Rumble, LCSW (02:50.317) Oh man, goodness, how could I stop that?
Cynthia (02:54.026) I was like, one day maybe I could be her Gale.
Emely Rumble, LCSW (02:58.025) You are my Gail. Thank you so much for those flowers, because first of all, you’ve been in practice longer than I have, and you’ve been a model for me in terms of doing this work, doing it vulnerably, doing it bravely, doing it rooted in reflection, right? Doing it in a way that honors my inner child and her voice and letting her come out to play. I’m a Virgo, so in true Virgo fashion, I can get very…
Emely Rumble, LCSW (03:22.813) specific about wanting things to be a certain way and look a certain way. And I think entrepreneurship is stressful enough, especially when you’re a woman of color, doing something that is maybe like lesser known in the clinical sphere. So having you as a supporter, as a friend, as somebody that I can just call and be like, girl, can we talk? Like I need your advice has been a true blessing and nobody does it like you in terms of. really seeing people for who they are, for who our inner children are. You just have this gift. And I love the way that you show up. So you’ve been a model for me in terms of culturally responsive practice, in terms of play, right?
Like we’re clinicians and we do the work of helping others heal and it can get really serious. It is really serious. Trauma recovery and healing is no joke, but you managed to also remind us that. We need to center play and pleasure and connection and compassion. It’s not just about like the work, the work, the work that in order to heal, we need these moments, you know, of respite. We need these moments of just being with ourselves. And so I think that’s really at the heart of all creative arts therapies is like, how can I find the space to express myself? How can I find the time to be still enough to be self-aware and to really like look at all that I’m holding? because we live in a society that’s so productivity driven, you know, the world isn’t gonna tell us to stop and take care of ourselves. We have to be really intentional about how we do that, about building these rituals and practices in our lives, about cultivating relationships, like friendships with like-minded people. So I’m just really, really grateful for you and, you know, for all of the support that you’ve given me along the way.
Cynthia
I wanna picture you, Em, what is kind of like your daily ritual for yourself when you wanna center yourself? How do you get to be this present? I’m sure it’s hard to find.
the time, but tell us a little bit about a bibliotherapy infused ritual and like what you really do.
Emely Rumble, LCSW (08:07.613)
I love that question because one of the things I’ve taken away from you is this concept of inner child altars. And I had never thought of my bookshelf that way before, but in many ways my bookshelf
is my altar and it’s for my inner child because it’s all of you know I have access to all of the stories all of the things that I want to read and learn and I always joke with my clients that our tbrs are to be read stacks that we just keep stacking up our self-care stacks you know because people always joke for book lovers you know you guys are always buying so many books you haven’t read the ones you have quote from my husband uh so I love this idea of like
My bookshelf is my altar, you know? And so my practice is to get up really early in the morning before my husband, before my two children. I have two, five, and under. So, you know, because you also have little ones, how that can be. And being a wife and being a homemaker and being a clinician, right? Like you’re just constantly giving up yourself, lending your ego strengths, and meeting everyone else’s needs. And so I found that getting up early in the morning before the house is up.
It’s really a time just for me to be my own. And I love that time because it’s time for me to spend time at my altar. It’s time for me to pray, to reflect, to journal. Sometimes I’ll just sit in silence and drink my cafecito hot because I can only drink it hot when they can’t go to sleep. And so I think it’s just that quiet time before the sun rises where I get to just be my own that feels like.
super regulating for me before the day gets started. And I always have to intentionally remind myself to engage in this practice because I’m the kind of person I wear so many hats and I sometimes find that I’m not as present as I wanna be. Because I’m always thinking about my to-do list or there’s constantly like that psychological labor, right? That invisible labor that we have as women, as mothers.
Emely Rumble, LCSW (10:09.389)
There’s just always something in the back of my head of like, what needs to get done. And if I don’t do it, it’s not going to get done or the ball gets dropped. And so there’s this intensity that I feel like I’m always living with. So that time in the morning is like super key to my practice. And my mental health as well.
Cynthia (10:27.406)
Okay, and I love picturing you with that, Em, but I also, right now, was like, that sounds so delicious, and I was like, that’s also a little bit of señora era. Did you have to really come with yourself and go, listen, it’s okay, this is where you’re at, this is what grounds you? Is it different than what you used to do, like, in your 20s?
Emely Rumble, LCSW (10:36.734)
Yes it is.
Yes.
Oh my goodness, it’s so different. It’s so different. And I think part of the Señora era is just owning that. This is what it is, right? This is my life right now. It may not be this way forever. Maybe when the kids get older and they go away, but the reality of it is in my life, if I don’t get up before my family does, I’m not gonna have time until the kids go to sleep.
Check out more of our conversation on Confetti All Around season 1.
Check out Emely’s work on IG: Literapy_NYC
