sincerely angie m

Nouns of the Week

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In honor of “Love Day”, here are a few nouns that I’m loving. My current favorite person(s), place and thing.

Person(s)

Toya and Yannie

I met them a little over 20 years ago and my life hasn’t been the same since. Last October, I mentioned to them that I hadn’t truly celebrated turning 40 and they said, say less! Yannie and I flew to Georgia and Toya had an amazing weekend planned for us. I truly celebrated turning forty six months after my actual birthday. I love them too much! We’ve traveled together, partied together and shared our hearts with one another. We are family now so they are stuck with me for life!

Place

Me with a Zulu group that performed a proposal reenactment, in South Africa.

South Africa. I visited Jamaica in 2015 and I had always labeled it as my favorite trip. South Africa 2025 has entered the chat. This trip came out of no where for me. I got a message November 14th, 2024 asking if I wanted to go. I said yes but I was in the midst of traveling and as soon as I got back home and settled, I checked-in about 10 days later to see if the spot was still available. It was nothing but God that saw fit for me to be included. A month and a half later, I was on a 17 hour flight to South Africa. There are no words to describe the feeling but Africa honestly felt like home. It wasn’t any one person, place or thing that made me feel this. It was just the aura, spirit or ambiance of Africa.

Thing

I saw Nina Pool on TIkTok do a dooperoonie for this shower oil. I had never seen or heard of it before so I was going to dupe it. I few days later while in Africa, I saw the L’Occitane store in the mall. I remembered the name from the video but I didn’t stop in the store because I was headed somewhere else. I go into another store (a department type of store) and I see this bottle, it was one of three different bottle sizes and there wasn’t a price on it. I found a sales agent and asked for the price and purchased it. I never even smelled it. Once I got back home, I recorded a video to showcase what I purchased in Africa (video here) and I smelled it and was blown away. I showered with it and I’m pretty sure I will never not use this stuff. It will be a part of my shower routine for ever. Even at the price point it’s at (and y’all know I’m cheap.)

Sincerely,

Angie

Seek Peace and Pursue it

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I saw a post a few years ago that really made me pursue and understand peace.

My pursuit of peace started during an almost month long fast and a quest to grow closer to God. Peace was found in that journey, I just didn’t know it at the time. And when I saw the quote, it really helped things to click in my head. I had been told by a stranger that God wanted to speak to me and that I only needed to open my Bible and He did just that. I heard his voice clearly but it was only because I had placed myself in a position to be still, be at peace and listen for His voice.

“Know God, know peace. Know God, know love. No God, no love.”

Getting to a place of peace is a journey and it’s also very personal. The route to peace is for sure a journey but the destination is beautiful. I’m not even going to front like it was or is an easy trip to take. It’s a unique journey that we all should eventually take. It’s also different for everyone. Peace is also something that has to be maintained. You don’t just arrive there and that’s it. It’s an ongoing process because peace may not be 100% feasible in all situations for everyone and for many reasons. But once you reach it, at any level, your only goal will be to maintain it and never losing your place in it.

Finding out what peace is, will require research. Not just the dictionary version of it, but your own personal definition of peace. Google defines peace as:

Peace:

noun

  1. Freedom from disturbance; tranquility.
  2. A state or period in which there is no war or a war has ended.

Based on this definition, two words stick out to me, “freedom” and “period”. Really though, what more needs to be said?! Freedom. (You have to say “period” after freedom to really feel it in your bones. But seriously, at some point, freedom has to come (period!!!) because whatever the opposite of freedom is, can only last for a period. Freedom from self destruction, self hate, self harm, people pleasing, attention seeking, outside validation, boundary-less life style, etc. Your peace, peace of mind, quality of life and well being are all in your hands. No one else should have the power to control your peace. That’s your job and it’s a life long one.

The best part is that once you reach a certain level in your peace journey, maintaining peace is easy work. You will have learned your triggers and you’ll understand when it’s time to set a boundary and bow out gracefully in situations that may threaten your peace. Lets ask for peace, seek peace, find peace and maintain peace in 2024 and beyond. ✌☮

I Love That for Me

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Growing up, I never heard the words “I love you” in my household unless a few cases of beer were consumed and even that was usually followed by a laugh or it was said in a joking manner. I knew from watching movies and hearing stories from my peers, that I love you’s, should have been normal and shown with the actual words and actions. I don’t fault my mother for not saying it or showing it in a way that I deemed fit. I just made a choice at a young age to make sure that my future was filled with saying and showing those near and dear to me, that I loved them.

I know it may seem strange or odd for someone who didn’t grow up around love or hadn’t experienced love, to know how to give and receive it but anything is possible. I am not perfect but I learned as life went on, how to love and decided early on that I was open to receiving love. The true credit goes to God. At seventeen, I began going to church on my own to get to know God. In my getting to know God, I got an understanding of unconditional love. God is love. So essentially, know God, know love. That was the key that helped me to get to where I am today.

One of my exes told me that I had a creative love and many people have said that they felt comfort with me. While comfort doesn’t equate to love, there has to be a level of love and softness available for someone else nearby to feel comfort in your presence. I’ve made it a priority to tell those around me I love you on a consistent basis, especially my nieces. I’m still growing and learning but I am grateful daily for God and life lessons that make me greater in love.

I will forever remain open, hopeful and intentional when it comes to the matters of love. My heart will remain full of love. So much so, that there will always be an abundance or overflow of love around me. The love that I am giving myself today will be the same love that comes back to me 100 fold tomorrow and always. Just knowing that God’s love is ever present and unconditional, will fuel my heart for a lifetime and forever after that. I am so glad that I didn’t allow what I didn’t receive as a child dictate negatively how I operated in the future and I love that for me!

Sincerely,