The Chloe Barksdale Diaries

Good Afternoon, Sistas!
Happy Sunday. I hope everyone has had a great and relaxing weekend.

I wanted to pop in and say THANK YOU THANK YOU....to all the Seasoned Sistas who showed up yesterday for our meet up. I cannot tell you how much of a high I am still floating on from seeing so many beautiful faces. Right before people began walking up, Tracie and I had said, "Ain't nobody going to show up. It's just going to be us." But God! He said, "HUSH YOUR MOUTH, CHILD." And boom, there you all were. All in your own beautiful, glorious selves.

It felt good to be able to put faces with names.

We walked. We talked. We made new connections and friends. And then we sat down and, as they say, broke bread together and laughed and talked some more.

All of you truly mean the world to me, and I'm not just saying it out of some old fluff. You really and truly do. Thank you for being you, and thank you for allowing me to just be me.

And on that note, Kymberly Bonet is popping in town on June 20, so she wants us to RUN IT BACK! Look for more information to come soon.

Also, for anyone who took pictures, can you please email them to me, or send them to me: 470-333-2270.

Thanks Bunches,

Chloe

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 361

The Chloe Barksdale Diaries

Happy Mother’s Day to every woman who has nurtured, sacrificed, prayed, poured, protected, carried, comforted, corrected, and loved… even when nobody clapped for it. 💐

Today, we celebrate the mothers raising babies, the women who became mothers to grown adults overnight, the aunties who stepped in, the grandmothers holding generations together with grace and grit, and the women who mother simply through love alone.

And today, I also want to hold space for the women whose hearts may feel a little heavier.

To those whose mothers are no longer here…
To the mothers who have experienced the unimaginable pain of losing a child…
To the women longing to be mothers…
To anyone navigating this day through tears instead of brunch reservations and flower deliveries…

I see you too. 🤍

May today meet you gently.
May memories bring more smiles than sorrow.
May love find you in the quiet moments.
And may you never forget that the care you gave, the love you shared, and the lives you touched still matter deeply.

From my heart to yours…
Happy Mother’s Day, ladies. 🌸

Love,
Chloe B.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 261

The Chloe Barksdale Diaries

🌸 SEASONED SISTAS ATL WALK MEETUP 🌸

ATL ladies… It’s time to lace up, step outside, and enjoy some fresh air, good conversation, and a little movement on the BeltLine! 👟💧

Join Being Chloe Barksdale (@beingchloebarksdale) and I Am Tracie Lynn (@iamtracielynn) for a fun and easy walk centered around connection, laughter, and building community.

📍 MEET UP:
Saturday, May 16, 2026
11:00 AM
Publix Lower Level Parking Lot
905 Memorial Dr SE
Atlanta, GA 30316

🚶🏽‍♀️ WALK:
Atlanta BeltLine

🍽 LUNCH (Walkers AND Lunch-Only Guests Welcome!):
12:00 PM
Muchacho
904 Memorial Drive SE
Atlanta, GA

Whether you’re coming to walk, talk, laugh, or just meet us for lunch, you are absolutely welcome. Come as you are and bring that good energy with you.

Don’t forget:
👟 Comfortable Walking Shoes
💧 Your Water Bottle

Let us know if you’re coming. We're looking forward to meeting our ATL Seasoned Sistas in real life! 💕

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 109

The Chloe Barksdale Diaries

Travel will humble you if you’re paying attention.

Now back at my room for the night, I was just talking to my sister about how emotional I was earlier as the realization hit me of just how blessed I — WE — truly are.

We, as in those of us who live in the United States. We don’t realize it most of the time because we are so accustomed to our way of life.

When I decided to book this trip last minute, in my mind I said I NEEDED a vacation. I NEEDED a getaway, believing that my life had started to become a little stressful and overwhelming.

Most days, I look around me at the chaos that is my home, and I just wander from room to room, doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that, not realizing that my actions are like peeling the bark off a huge pine tree that I want to cut down.

Of all the times that I have come to Mexico, I have always stayed at a resort. It’s safer, plus, it’s most convenient. You only need a few pesos to tip the servers — if you aren’t one of those entitled people who believe that all-inclusive means EVERYTHING.

But this time, there were two things I wanted to do.
I wanted to find the cheapest stay possible, and I wanted to experience REAL street tacos and immerse myself in the culture.

When I chose where I would stay, I first checked with Earl Simmons, my homie, who has been here for three years. I remember when I first spoke to him about expats living in Mexico. We were in Tampa for the Falcons game. He was in awe. He said he was going to look into it. Then said he was going to move here.

I said, “Yeah, right!”

Then I looked up, and in less than six months, he was actually living in Mexico.

Every time I come down, he’s like, “We need to hang out!” But it just hadn’t happened. I never wanted to leave the resort.

But this time, between calculating my money and also wanting to experience the culture, I chose to stay in the middle of the action. And I am more than happy that I did.

Last night I said I wanted true, authentic Mexican food, and that is what I got. I also got a glimpse of where I was in proximity to the hub of the city — dead smack in the middle.

Today, I chose to venture out and, as we say in Decatur, BEND A FEW CORNERS (or TURN, however you choose to say it).

What was supposed to be a half-mile walk to Walmart turned into nearly four hours of exploration.

Let me say this — GPS, Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Waze are the best inventions since they stopped charging for long-distance calls.

Now I understand how so many young people are quick to up and move to a new city — a new country even.

But these last 24 hours have also made me understand how easy it is to move to Mexico. The people here are so kind. And I can tell it’s not because of being a tourist. You can look in their eyes and see they are simply genuine people.

They don’t take things for granted the way that we do. The way they thank you over and over again when you tip them shows just how appreciative they are.

I came back to the room, rested, and then decided I would run back out to grab some street tacos before winding down for the evening.

I found myself again in the hub of the city, and it is mind-blowing just how busy it is on a Tuesday evening.

I grabbed a smoothie and was on my way back, saying I’d grab two street tacos from the guy I passed on my way out.

Earlier today, I stopped and got my first henna tattoo. I didn’t realize that I had left the bracelet that was given to me for my birthday.

I was just walking through the crowd on my way back when the lady who had done my tattoo spotted me, apparently, and suddenly I heard:

“Señorita! Señorita! Bracelet! Bracelet! Left bracelet!”

I didn’t even know she was talking to me until she ran up to me with her hand outstretched — holding my purple bracelet with the scorpion charm.

She had spotted me out of the crowd and taken the time to make sure I got my bracelet back.

Then, as I stood waiting for my street tacos, watching how the man — who had been out there all day long — was so kind and working so hard on the side street away from the hub, asking everyone who walked by if they wanted to buy a taco…

It hit me.

Just how hard these people work, sometimes for so little.

But it really hit me what is going on in the United States.

I thought about how many of them truly do work the jobs that we often feel too entitled to do, just to support their families back home.

America IS the American Dream that we take for granted.

Then I thought about how emotionally removed I have been about the ones being rounded up like cattle and thrown into — truthfully — concentration camps. Treated as less than human. Separated from their families. Kids not knowing where their parents are, and vice versa.

I thought about how they are looking to build another place to house these people in Flowery Branch, treating them like they are not even human.

And it really bothered me that I take so much for granted.

The things I complain about really are minute in comparison.

I just…
I just…
I just truly understand just how blessed I really am.

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1 month ago | [YT] | 116

The Chloe Barksdale Diaries

Hey Ladies!
I wanted to pop on here really quick because I see that a lot of you are repeating the same thing, and I'm now having to copy and paste my response. :)

I've had AAA for years. More years than I can remember. It has been a requirement for me, my sister, my mom, and my daughter since my daddy passed. It auto-renews every year. You can also get the same kind of coverage through your insurance carrier.

Your AAA insurance covers towing - free for the first 100 miles (I have Plus), and then a certain amount thereafter. It covers jumping, starting your car. It covers providing enough gas to get you to the nearest gas station if you run out. It covers changing your flat tire.

However, what it does not cover is bringing you a whole new tire, nor does it cover plugging or patching a tire. My truck, like many newer automobiles, especially luxury vehicles, does not come with a spare tire. It only comes with an air pump that has a can of Fix-A-Flat temporary sealer in it. Many of these cars now have run-flat tires, which means the tread is thick enough that, should you get a flat, you have a certain amount of driving you can do before it damages your rim.

So, ladies who feel that you can rely on AAA should you have a flat or blow out, please know that unless your car comes with a spare - and sadly, I have learned in the past that a lot of you have no idea that your car does not have a spare because you never lifted the covering to see or read your manuals - you will find yourself in a pickle if your should cut your tire, hit a curb and pop the seal or have a blow out. AAA or whoever you have for roadside assistance will not be able to help you. If you have a Porsche, a newer model Mercedes, BMW, or Lexus, I know for sure that most do not come with a spare. Please take the time to Google: "Does the (insert your car make, model, and year) come with a spare. Because I would hate for any of you to be caught out somewhere with a flat, with the expectations you can just call AAA to come change your tire.

Love ya,
Bye

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1 month ago | [YT] | 103

The Chloe Barksdale Diaries

A New Dawn Begins

Today, I closed one chapter and stepped into another.

I moved back into my family home.

The very home my parents worked tirelessly to obtain as a young African American couple raised in the small county towns of Warrenton and Sparta, Georgia. In the 1950s, they came to Atlanta chasing opportunity, stepping out on faith and eventually leaving Wheat Street Gardens, government-run housing, in 1975 to purchase a home in Decatur, Georgia, a suburb just outside the city.

At the time, Atlanta was changing. White flight was underway as Black families quietly began transitioning from the city spaces they had long been confined to into suburban neighborhoods that once felt out of reach. My parents bought their home during an era when the words colored and Black were spoken far more commonly than the now politically accepted term African American. They purchased dignity, stability, and possibility in a time when access itself was resistance.

As a child, I didn’t understand the magnitude of what they had accomplished. I moved into that house at five years old. To me, living in a house instead of an apartment felt normal. I did not realize then that for many families who looked like mine, it still wasn’t.

It wasn’t until adulthood that I understood just how blessed I had been.

That understanding deepened as my mother aged and became unwavering about one thing she repeated often:

“Do not sell this house.”

Her words grew firmer as gentrification began reshaping the neighborhood. The same areas people once fled were suddenly desirable again. The calls started first. Investors asking if she wanted to sell. When she stopped answering unfamiliar numbers, the letters followed.

WE WANT TO BUY YOUR HOME.

Envelopes arrived with example checks, promises of quick cash, and offers designed to look irresistible. Investors eager to purchase the home my parents had sacrificed for, the home built through decades of work, discipline, and faith so my sister and I could have opportunities they never did. The same home where, in many ways, my own daughter also grew up.

My mother’s response never changed.

She would slam the phone down and say, “Don’t call my damn phone anymore. I am NOT selling my house.”

When they could not reach her, they found me. Then my sister.

And before my mother passed away in 2024, she made her wishes unmistakably clear:

“Do not sell our family home.”

The anger my sister and I felt came swiftly when, less than a week after her passing, handwritten notes arrived at our separate homes. The writers acknowledged they knew our mother had just died and added, almost casually, that they understood it might not be the best time… but would we consider selling the property?

That moment planted my feet deeper into the same Georgia red clay my father worked from 1975 until his passing in 1989.

My answer was simple:

Absolutely not.

For decades, our communities have been targeted, especially since the 1996 Olympics placed Atlanta on a global stage. What many of us see as life-changing money, investors see as an opportunity multiplied. The quick payout becomes fool’s gold, dangled in front of families whose homes sit on land that has quietly appreciated for generations.

Too often, we are convinced that these houses are “just old homes” that need repairs. We sell, believing we are moving toward something better, still chasing the old lie that proximity to whiteness equals progress.

Yes, I said it. And I say it plainly.

Our parents and grandparents endured segregation, discrimination, and limited opportunity. Many achieved homeownership with little formal education but extraordinary determination. Yet today, some of that legacy is exchanged for short-term gain, only for families to later find themselves burdened by larger mortgages, fragile new builds, and communities that do not always offer the safety or belonging they imagined.

And then we look back and ask why gentrification happened.

Sometimes the truth is uncomfortable:

It wasn’t taken.
It was sold.

A year ago, moving back into my family home might have felt bittersweet.

Today, it feels simply sweet.

As the day unfolded, I sat quietly reflecting and found myself asking a difficult question: Why do I sometimes struggle to feel worthy? Worthy of kindness. Worthy of love. Worthy of blessings. Worthy of inheriting the very legacy my parents worked so hard to create.

Every day I pray that God would reduce me and increase Himself within me. Yet today, through someone else’s words, I was reminded of something profound. They told me they could see God in me. His presence was evident all over my life.

And something shifted.

I am choosing to remind myself daily that I am worthy, not because I have done everything perfectly, but because of whose child I am. Not only the daughter of Clifford & Cloria Castleberry, Jr., but His child.

Today was not an ending filled with sorrow. It was a doorway.

I closed one chapter with peace and stepped into a new season. I believe it is ordered, protected, and covered not only by God but also by my parents. Their prayers, their sacrifices, and their love still live within these walls. The foundation they built was never just brick and mortar. It was faith, endurance, and vision carried forward through generations.

This moment feels like a rebirth. A new beginning. The continuation of a legacy inside the same home that once sheltered me and will one day be passed on to my daughter.

From this point forward, I choose patience with who I am becoming. I will not rush decisions that do not serve my life or my legacy. I will honor where I came from while embracing where I am going.

I am worthy.

And most importantly, I will begin giving myself the same grace I so freely give others.

March 1, 2026.
A new dawn begins.

As Jekalyn Carr sings in two of my favorite songs, It’s My Winning Season and You Will Win, I believe both are true.

2 months ago | [YT] | 183

The Chloe Barksdale Diaries

Seasoned Sistas… grab those passports and cue the celebration, because we’re taking over the ocean in 2027! 🧳✨🌴

The countdown has officially begun, and YOU are on the guest list.

🚢 Ship: Carnival Conquest
📍 Port: Miami
🏝 Destination: Celebration Key — Carnival’s private slice of paradise
📅 Sailing: February 26 – March 1, 2027 (Friday–Monday)

This isn’t just a cruise.
This is a full-on Seasoned Sistas takeover at sea. 💃🏾✨

Picture it now:
Ocean breeze flowing.
Laughter echoing across the deck.
Matching tees.
Late-night heart talks.
Sunrise selfies.
Wine glasses clinking.
New friendships forming and memories you’ll talk about for years. 🌊👑

Whether you’re rolling solo or pulling up with your favorite travel partner, this weekend is all about joy, connection, freedom, and celebrating this beautiful season of life together.

Cabins won’t last long, and neither will this deposit special… so don’t sit on this one!

📧 For booking details:
Theseasonedsistas@gmail.com

Pack your bags. Bring your energy.
We outside and we sailing, Sistas. 🚢✨👑

#TheSeasonedSistas #SeasonedSistasCruise #WomenWhoTravel #SistasAtSea #CruiseGetaway

3 months ago | [YT] | 64

The Chloe Barksdale Diaries

Hi everyone, welcome to my new YouTube Community! Now you can post on my channel, too. To get started, tell me in a post what you'd like to see next on my channel.
Visit my Community: youtube.com/@beingchloebarksdale/community

3 months ago | [YT] | 26

The Chloe Barksdale Diaries

Get ready for a real Galentine’s conversation you won’t hear anywhere else.
It’s a seasoned, soul-filled Galentine’s Live about love, standards, and everything in between.


Join the Seasoned Sistas LIVE
February 12, 2026 | 8:30 PM EST


We’re talking honestly about:


- Modern love and dating after 40
- Best and worst Valentine’s Day experiences
- Romance… is it still alive or on life support?
- Situationships and their impact on real relationships
- Standards vs Expectations


Nothing is off limits. Expect real talk on:


- Do flowers still hit the same or nah?
- Celibacy and personal choice
- Courting vs. dating… what’s the difference today?
- Would you approach a man first or wait to be approached?
- Have situationships contributed to the decline of true romance?
- Let’s be honest… have toys replaced the boys?


Plus the fun:


Rapid Fire “Smash or Pass” segment


Set the vibe:
Pour your wine, gather your girls, and come ready for real conversation and real laughs

3 months ago | [YT] | 56