 | We did it, Beautiful! Our podcast, Feminine & Fulfilled, was named in the top 12 Muslim podcasts in the world!!! Listened to across 6 continents (apparently penguins don't listen in Antarctica, lol!) and thousands of downloads monthly... I never would've imagined we'd be here now. Just 1 year ago, I was sitting on my dark grey, velvet sectional with my head back on the fluffy pillows, wondering... "What am I doing with my life?" |
|
0 Comments
I believe EVERY woman is capable and has a strength and power to make a positive difference in the world. That your soul is here for something greater and you feel the deep calling to follow it.
You get to feel fulfilled, beautiful and whole. Seeing the beauty everywhere INCLUDING yourself. You get to live your purpose...and feel joy, happiness, contentment and impact. The best question to ask yourself when you're making a decision.
'Do I love it?' The best question standing in the fitting room and wondering whether to buy that shirt that kinda looks good...but fits weird...and is somehow hugging the love handles you wish weren't so loved in this moment. LOL! And an especially useful question when 3 years later... Remember that time in your life where you powerful? SO powerful? In a leadership role or running a huge project or getting beast mode and acing all your classes? Knowing you...it was probably all of the above.
Today marks the 10th birthday of my late son, Muhammad Abdur-Rahman Akhtar...or Chotu Sonu as I lovingly call him.
Chotu Sonu, meaning little love -- that's how I remember him. It was this same day one decade ago that he came into this world and left it just a few hours later. How he came into our world with his tiny fingers, tiny toes, and perfect little nose. What it was like to hold him and watch him breathe and stare into this being that I loved so dearly with all my heart. Feeling that first moment a mom gets with her child and feeling an infinite amount of love and motherness that is indescribable. What I can say is that I knew in that moment... all doubts I had on whether I was a good mom went out the door. Do wishes ACTUALLY come true? This question is often asked, although not in those exact words. It's usually couched in other phrases I hear...
My cousin asked me this and I blurted out...
Because it's relieved it let all the $h!t out! Hilarious, I thought but...truer words were never spoken. (you know how I love to make all things deep, and to make a poo analogy deep is a dream come true so here goes...) Imagine...all the poo you're holding... Today's my birthdayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!! And if you've been with me for a while, you know I always do a special post on this day. And it typically asks for a gift from you, beautiful!
Last year it was sharing your birthday wish so I could make it with you. I lovedddd all the birthday wishes that came in! For this year, I thought long and hard about what I wanted to ask...  It happened, beautiful.
My Podcast, Feminine & Fulfilled, is officially out in the world. Our voices are out there and ready to be heard. AND IT'S SO SO SO GOOD. The first guest is... Two incredible things happened this weekend. One awesome and one horrible. And they both lead to the same thing.
Wanna know what happened? Of course you do! Who doesn't want to hear juicy gossip, lol?! Fair warning, this is long but it's worth it! Ok, so let's start with the bad so we can get it out of the way...  The other day in Physical Therapy, I saw this frail, older woman sitting in a wheelchair. I ended up next to her during my squatting exercise on a Pogo-Ball kind of thing (remember these?!).
She was doing an exercise where she was just lifting each leg up to a step. Slowly and surely, meticulously, lifting one leg up at a time...that was her exercise. I looked like American Gladiator next to her and she turned to me and said, you're lucky to be able to do that. How right she was. I told her how grateful I am for my health and imagine she did a lot when she was younger. She smiled and started telling me about her life. Joan was her name. It was 2012 and I had the turkey brining (yes, the Alton Brown method of putting your turkey in a 5 gallon Home Depot bucket filled with salt water) and sides prepping and I decided to do something new this go round besides focusing only on food.
In a moment of inspiration, I took some branches off my tree, grabbed some spray paint and sprayed them a beautiful metallic gold. Tree branches never looked so pretty and with a tall, skinny, glass vase I had at home, I stuck those branches in it with some rocks and voila! I had created a grand centerpiece for $6. I then took my papercutter and cut out cardstock squares for every single one of my guests, with their name on it, and hung those with ribbon off of the branches. I was so proud of my display right when you entered the party. But, this isn't a note about how to make beautiful centerpieces. What happened from there is what made it the most memorable Thanksgiving... Well what happened was seriously AH-mazing and liberating!
For those of you who have been following, I went on a reading deprivation, or fast let's call it, for 1 week. That meant no reading of books, no watching TV, and NO social media (yes, that means no Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and I threw in no WhatsApp for good measure). You can read why I did it at my post here: Distraction, Deprivation, or Dream-cation? The week was SO much better than expected and I felt... Hey beautiful, I wanted to let you know that I'm going off of social media completely.
Not forever... You know those times when you feel like you're in a good groove with something and then you miss one time and then another and then another?
Like a great workout routine you start, and you're consistent and motivated and the momentum is building and you're like I CAN DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!! And then one day you have to miss a workout...you're tired, your head hurts, you had a bad day, you ate chik-fil-a, or you just don't feel like it. Whatever it is, you say... |