Writer's photography

"it's only by zooming out that you get the full picture." - Gloria M. God works in mysterious ways. Two weeks into my sobriety journey, I was still torn between quitting and just taking a break from drinking. During that time, I kept asking God to give me an answer. I remember being at Costco and stopping on the condiment isle when a woman came up to me and said : " omg I love your boots! those kinds of Uggs aren't sold anymore. Where did you get yours? " ; I was caught off guard but flattered so I said : " I know right! I'm not quite sure where my mother found these but, they really come in handy when there's too much slush on the ground. " We both laughed. Then, she asked me a very interesting question. She said :" What is your goal this year? "  Imagine a stranger asking you this very personal question. My face tends to speak before my mouth does so I kind of gave her an apprehensive look like: " you're in my business...

" No, it's really that deep!" - Gloria M. I love that everything is a lesson and I'm excited to share this one with you. I was left stunned when it all came together for me. That " AH HA !" moment made me giggle and shake my head. How could I have missed it?. I'm going to try my best and make it make sense to you as well. Hear me out. A woman was sharing a story about her journey to a market that's about 3hrs from where she lives. She has crippling anxiety that makes it hard for her to leave her house. For the last 3 years, she has been challenging herself to drive to this market. When she'd drive and she's hit with anxiety, she'd turn around and go back home BUT, this particular day, she finally made it to the market and she couldn't stop crying. She kept saying : " I know it's just a market but it took me 3years to get here. this is a surreal feeling "  This video made me see God in the details. I saw God through a d...

"when you don't hear, you wait!" - Anonymous When you speak to anyone, you listen to them. You pay attention. You give them time to respond. Why don't you do that with God?  At the beginning of the month of April, I said that it would be the month of execution and my prayers were centered around it. All I kept doing was asking and talking and asking for more not taking the time to listen. I just kept making requests and not sitting with whether or not what I was asking for was available to me. I had a conversation with a beautiful lady who confirmed it. She verbatim said : " You have been talking to God and that's a really good thing but you haven't been listening to Him ". Hearing her say that, almost took the wind out of me. In that moment, I realized, the reason why I couldn't hear God's voice was because I WASN'T EVEN LISTENING TO BEGIN WITH! I just kept doing the talking. That changed how my month went. To execute my plans, I had to ...

 " When God tells you what to do, you do not hesitate "  3 years ago, IT'S TIME EVENT launched the BLACK BUSINESS EXPO in Ottawa, Canada. The concept is to have a day dedicated to all the black businesses to showcase their work, network and sell their products. This year, the expo was at the Shaw Centre. I've participated, bought things and enjoyed my time. But this year though, was different. Walk with me ... I got to see the work that goes into what makes the expo what it is. I had the privilege of helping my friend launch her long time dream at the expo. The older I get, the more I learn, you have to love the process. The sleepless nights, the anxiety, the breakdowns etc... are all a part of the process. if you don't tell yourself you're gonna quit at least 50 times, are you really dedicated to your goals? It's easy to have an idea and watch it come to life. The hard part, is maintaining it. The hard part is pushing through the ups and downs and comi...

"Utilize your entourage, people are way more opened than you think" - Jessie Simmons I remember saying that I wanted to have a baby. Not a human baby but a project. Something that I can start and finish. Something to be proud of and my prayers were answered. Lately though, my biggest challenge has been my ego. I have been battling between listening to God's voice and listening to my own voice. My own voice is filled with so much fear, doubts, and confusion and yet I keep wanting to give into it. I met up with a great friend last week and we were catching up on all things life. I love that life has been good for the both of us and it was a breath of fresh air seeing her. As I was updating her about what life has been like lately and what I'm looking forward to, I mentioned that I liked doing things on my own and that I don't really like asking for help and burdening others because it always comes with strings attached and that's not something I subscribe to and...

" you heal every time you break out of a cycle of letting hurt versions of your inner child make decisions for you as an adult" - Billy Chapata Offense is a very bizarre emotion. Walk with me... I sometimes spend my days watching and listening to tik tok live. They're usually Congolese. It's a way for me to keep up with what's happening within my culture and they usually have subject of conversations where people chime in, share their stories and talk about the lessons they learned. I'm sure you know me by now, I love a good lesson!  One day, they were covering a story about the death of a father and his son. They were brutally murdered in Toronto, Canada; which brought about the conversation that " parents who live abroad do not care too much about their children's whereabouts and well being. All they mostly care about is their money. " Congolese parents who raise their kids abroad are considered lazy and incompetent. That made me feel a way. Al...

 I remember scrolling on twitter one day and seeing a quote that said : " healing can be so hard when your inner child wants love, your teenage self wants revenge and your current self wants peace". This past week, this quote rang truer than I could of ever imagined. Life today is very different than a few months ago. I don't see grey anymore. The color is coming back and with that, comes a deep need to heal my inner child. This week was particularly hard because I've been asking God for clarity on a connection I desperately wanted to keep. A connection I knew deep down was not good for me. I talked myself into keeping the connection out of fear of abandonment. My reasons for keeping them around sounded logical but they weren't. I convinced myself that the discomfort will eventually go away. " We'll be good again " I said. Boy was I wrong! it was the complete opposite. I was triggered often. I was angry and I was uncomfortable the more they stuck ar...