Mothering with mercy : The acknowledgement process

Assalamualakum Warahmatullah

Beloved Sisters, Alhamdulillah my excitement for the month of September knows no end as I am carefully watching my plants and waiting for my buds to spring to life! We have started this month with a little bit of a pause. A time to breathe and reflect. A time to still even as we might be frantically blooming. Sitting in my favorite spot in my home on the Arab couches overlooking the garden as I watch the little birds fly around and listen to my students recite their hifz. I was enjoying this moment when my mind suddenly latched on to the millions of things that I had to do for the day. I felt myself slowly begin to rob myself of the beauty of that moment as my busy day ahead and all the little tabs began to open in my mind.

A tab for the food for that day: breakfast preparation with a sub-tab for each person’s choice, a tab for the fridge, and the milk and eggs that need to be refilled. A little sticky note for the ghee bucket that needed to be refilled. And then my mind skipped to lunch – quickly doing a mental rundown: “Did I have polony for Abbad ?” “Arwa needs avocados-did I remember to add them to the list?”, Were the lunch boxes clean?” Did I remember to get fruit and a snack for tea?”

My tabs went on and on, my brain had documents and planners and reminders and notifications and I hadn’t even moved to my actual work for the day. All these sub-categories flooded my mind as I quickly began the breakfast process: making fresh puri and yummy chana whilst I quickly set the table and went back to the hot oil. I fried and rolled and had three stoves on at one time.

And in that moment I just stopped and laughed.

Laughed at the crazy juggling.

Laughed at the immense amount of work we do as women.

Laughed because, if we don’t laugh we can drown in these loads.

As women and mothers, we have to stop.

We have to pause.

We have to breathe.

We have to acknowledge.

My laughter made me stop and acknowledge that I was in essence a CEO of a huge corporation. There were many variables and systems that I was running. As women, we do not take the time to acknowledge the tabs. To recognize the immense amount of work it takes to be able to run every part of our homes and lives.

It is the reason that we often come to Salaah depleted.

We come to zikr with no connection.

We find ourselves shocked at our fatigue when the reality is that we don’t take the time to process the many processes that we run and the enormity of the responsibility that lies on our shoulders.

As the CEO of your company, take time to acknowledge your open tabs and your to-do lists and take this to Allah Ta’ala. Your strength and ability to do it all can only occur when you acknowledge it and take your strength from AL – QAWIYY- the one of TOTAL STRENGTH.