Self Love Tag

Belief, Mindfulness, Religion / 06.11.2019

The duck food was passed out amongst the handful of us that showed up for the Tashlich service after Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. The ritual states Jews should go to a body of water and purge their sins from the previous year symbolically using stale bread, breadcrumbs, rose petals, fish food or other organic material that can easily be digested by the earth (if we don’t want to hold onto our sins, I doubt Mother Nature does as well). Our temple is down the street from a local park with a duck pond, so for the last several...

2 Likes
Belief, Humanity, Self Love / 24.01.2019

As far back as I can recall I wanted to be old. Daadi called me an “old soul”, someone who had been here before, experiencing life for a second time around. She was a devout Muslim, but growing up in India surrounded by Hindus and Sikhs, their cultural norms seeped into her Soul, widening her spiritual being to encompass more than one view of the Spirit. Even though she rarely discussed it, I sense she was a firm believer in reincarnation, the rebirth of the Soul into a new body. “Samita, we need another player for taash,” one of the elders...

2 Likes
Growing Up, Self Love, Women / 01.03.2018

Breasts. The word alone catches your eye (yes, pun intended). The love, hate, resentment, and finally finding peace for my breasts has been a tumultuous relationship. Daadi, Napo, Umme, Chotee, and Bhari huddled around me in the kitchen of our home in Chicago. Straight away, with bowed heads as if in mourning, someone handed me a stark white item, with what looked like straps on a harness. “It’s time…you’re showing yourself…we all wear one…modesty…decency,” all the voices intermixed, none above a whisper, using what my elementary teachers referred to at school as our “library voice”. Before I could ask any questions, I was...

3 Likes