Teenage Lela embracing her father beside books, music, and a Greyhound ticket representing the soundtrack that shaped her life.
Posted inChristian Living Faith Family

The Soundtrack Between the Miles | How Music, Faith & Travel Shaped My Story

Some people remember their lives through photographs. Others remember them through places. I’ve discovered that I remember mine through music. One familiar song recently carried me back to bus rides through Brooklyn, stacks of books, worship playlists, and a father who unknowingly taught me that curiosity could become a lifelong inheritance. That realization became Part 12 of Found in the Margins.
Featured image for Found in the Margins: Part Six showing the wedding hands of Lela and Oji Fagan resting on a bouquet of yellow gerbera daisies, pink carnations, white baby’s breath, and red roses. The editorial design includes the title “I Didn’t Know He Was Courting Me” with the subtitle “How Friendship, Faith, and Consistency Became the Foundation for Something More,” along with memoirsofablackgirl.com and lelajfagan.substack.com.
Posted inChristian Living Faith Latest News

I Didn’t Know He Was Courting Me | Found in the Margins: Part Six

What if the strongest relationships don’t begin with romance—but with friendship, faith, and consistency? When Oji and I reconnected after more than a decade, neither of us was looking for a relationship. We were simply two adults growing in our faith, healing from past seasons, and learning who we had become. Looking back, I now realize he wasn’t just staying in touch. He was courting me. Part Six of Found in the Margins reflects on lunch-break conversations, leadership lessons, shared faith, and how God quietly built the foundation for a covenant long before either of us recognized it.
Found in the Margins. The design resembles a scrapbook or memoir journal spread with warm burgundy, gold, cream, and parchment tones
Posted inBible Study Latest News Life Lessons

The Woman Who Wrote the Prayer Didn’t Know the Ending Yet

While cleaning out a box of old papers, I stumbled across a stack of Bible study notes from 2009. At first, I thought I had found old sermon notes. Instead, I found a conversation with my younger self. Hidden in the margins were prayers for a future spouse, future children, and a future family. There were goals, declarations, and reminders about faith, identity, and healing written during one of the most transitional seasons of my life. Seventeen years later, I can see something that thirty-year-old Lela could not: God was already rebuilding a life I couldn't yet imagine. Read more on Memoirs of a Black Girl.