Y’all I’m blessed that one of my number one supporters and readers of my blog is my mommy. She reads daily and normally she don’t say much beyond a compliment. She loved the idea of an adulting cheat day, and has commented on the wisdom in other posts but y’all she called me fussing about thins listening thing lol.

I guess my hardheadedness ain’t nothing new after 37 years of raising me. I JUST WONT listen, especially not to her. I been a rebel all my life, marching to the best of my own drum. Hell my YouTube is called Raqi’s Way. I just wanna do everything on my own and follow my spirit, not people. But momma wasn’t having it!

Boy was I tickled when she called. She said “I have been telling you some of these things for years and as soon as somebody else say it you can hear huh? I been told you that you don’t listen, why didn’t you hear me?” I told her maybe i wasn’t listening 😅, maybe it’s because I’m her daughter and kids don’t listen to parents, and that’s just how it goes. Especially the more they look like you, at least that’s my theory. The one that looks like me don’t listen to me either lbs.

But seriously, why is that? Is it because we see our parents and always pick out what they do that we never doing with our kids? Hell I just knew I wasn’t whooping nobody, but mommas wisdom: spare the rod spoil the child is what helped me reel them in. I used to do attachment parenting with no structure, she warned me, I flowed…INTO CHAOS, then created a schedule. She told me about men, I ran headfirst into bullshit repeatedly, now I’m applying most the principles she gave.

I rarely took her advice, most times I gave push back and validated my choices and always hit her with “trust that you raised me right to make the right decisions but I get to decide”.

She may not know but a lot of me is her! My hustle, my drive and my ability to thrive on my own comes from my momma. My big personality, being the life of the party, comes from “Shindig”. I mean she was so much a party that they called her party, ok. Come on mama! My momma was a BEAST back in her day. I get that from her too.

What happens as we age is we revisit the wisdom that was shared from/by elders. Normally the word that sparks the revelation is confirmation of what mama said. After I post my blog in the mornings I call moms and we talk. I look forward to our conversations because it’s the one time she doesn’t rush me off the phone, but I be listening. I need her wisdom. She has faced and been through so much yet she smiles and shares her light with so many.

I’ll let her tell her own story but I will say to her: Momma I am proud of you! As parents we do the best we can with what we have and you did this! No dad in sight just you and your two girls and YOU DID THAT! The principles and moral code you raised us with is the code we live by. That’s why we now have the desire to care for you. Every time I face hardships and fall to my knees in prayer it’s because my momma taught me how to shift an atmosphere. The reason I get dressed daily and won’t step out the house any kinda way is because my momma made me a lady. Even the way I handle my man I got from my momma, she taught me how to have em captivated by simply doing my part.

My mom and I are very different in certain aspects but the best parts of me, I get em from my momma, I needed to make you y’all knew and more importantly she did!

I love you mommy! Thank you for supporting and fussing like you do! Don’t stop I need it! 😘