Authors note: I had this idea of doing Ramadan journals, but I wanted to keep some thoughts to myself. However, I still wanted share a bit. Here’s the first of my “public” journal entries.

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There’s this garden of mine (I constantly talk about in my work), and this garden has taught me a lot about myself. I have planted so many seeds in this garden that I sometimes forget what each seed represents. I had to pause before watering each seed. I had to know why I planted each of those seeds in my garden. One of those seeds, I realized was patience. I always gave myself a pat on the back because I thought I was a patient person. However, that was not the case. I became of aware of when I wanted to be patient. Is selective patience a thing? No? Okay. I am patient when waiting in line at any store. I am patient when speaking with children. I am patient with my loved ones. I am patient when I want to. I am just not patient with myself.

The question now becomes how can one be patient with themselves? How do I give myself grace? To start off, I really needed to be patient with myself in regards to processing my emotions. I sometimes get frustrated when I do not meet this “deadline” of processing how I feel. There shouldn’t be a deadline of when to be patient with yourself. I should give myself the time needed to feel, to grow, and to move forward.

Diakha’s thoughts 🙂