My love affair with Shiro

Shiro crept up on me.

I always knew OF her.

I felt her presence everyday.

Smelt her presence everyday.

She greeted me at every Ethiopian home I was invited to. Everyone who knew her talked about her with so much love, fondness and familiarly. I guess she earnt it, she is always there, her loyalty unquestionable.

An affordable, healthy and fasting staple in the daily diet of millions of Ethiopians.

Then came the day, I remember so vividly, when she really made an impression on me. It was a most unsuspecting moment.

Back story.. Shiro is made mostly from chickpea powder cooked with minced onions, garlic and sometimes tomatoes, to form a stew thats normally eaten with injera. Injera is a spongy-like pancake made from the super grain teff, which forms the base of most meals in Ethiopia and food is placed on top. Using one’s hands (usually the right) injera is used to scoop up the food. Injera and Shiro are the daily mainstays in the majority of Ethiopians’ every day dietary life (especially during fasting times) and the nutritional value is very high. Injera, made from teff is high in iron and minerals and other phytonutrients and Shiro made from chickpeas is very high in protein. One can sustain themselves on this diet quite happily not to mention eating with the hands is deeply satisfying.

Back to the story.. It happened in Nazret, a city 100km south of the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. I was visiting a friend back in 2012, her name is Seble.

Seble was a fellow colleague / children's teacher at a school called English Alive and her meagre/insufficient salary allowed her to rent a tiny one room mud hut, in a compound residing with many others, as is very common all over Ethiopia. It was very basic with shared facilities. A long drop and dirt outside to construct a fire to cook your meals.

This day Seble cooked Shiro for us (myself and her) inside her tiny 3m by 3m hut which contained a single bed and her humble belongings. I could feel the honour she felt in inviting me and providing me with a meal she cooked right before me, followed by performing a coffee ceremony. I too felt honoured. The love she showed through her hospitality was beautiful.

We ate the Shiro and it was delicious!

I had eaten Shiro many times previous to Seble's one, but I just remember tasting it with the fresh injera she bought from her local suk/shop and thinking how delicious it was. Or maybe the love and honour behind it made it even more tasty/yitafital!

Shiro is soooo good with fresh injera. They really make the perfect marriage.

Ambessa's sign

As a young adult who grew up watching 'The Oprah Show' on a daily basis, I was an impressionable tender woman who looked up to Oprah as a positive female role model.  My sister would laugh at me on how I would hang on every word Mama O would say.  Just as a hummingbird drinks the nectar from a flower which acts as vital, high-energy fuel for her fast-paced lifestyle, I would savor Oprah's words like they were sweet nectar for my fastly-growing inquisitive soul.  To say she had an empowering and nurturing effect on my heart and psyche is an understatement, and to this day I continue to hold her dearly.

Oprah now releases a weekly podcast every Tuesday and in recent months, there was a particular show on 'signs from the universe, angels, and loved ones who’ve passed'.  I love this subject so much, it’s my vibration right now.

It made me remember this crazy sign from the universe and in hindsight it has become a sign I have come to be comforted with, to mean that I’m on the right path, and my spirit guides are with me.

So, let me share a couple of pictures.  This passport picture of me was taken on the date of 18.06.2012, as you can see I wrote the date on the back.

This is Ambessa’s birthday.  

He was born exactly one year later in 2013.  

His birthday 18.06.2013

A few years ago when I was clearing through things, I looked at the date on the back of the photo in a way that I had never done before, like something was pulling me there - and then I noticed - and it stopped me in my tracks.

Who knew that exactly one year from taking that passport photo in a photo shop in Megenanya, Addis Ababa, I remember vividly feeling so alive and full of contentment this day, that Ambessa’s spirit would choose me as the vessel to be born into this world. 

Writing this is blowing my mind and flooding my heart with so much love, trust and awe in the universe.

It’s almost to say, Ambessa's spirit guided Yonas (my husband) to me.  

1 became 2, and then 3.

I just wanted to share this with those of you who have been following my story over the years, as watching Oprah’s podcast, reminded me of how this big sign showed up for me.  

May reading this serve as your reminder to invite wonder and magic in your lives and keep watching out for your signs.

I believe it's the universe/gods way of leaving breadcrumbs for each of us, but it's up to us to see them.

Stay open ✨ 

Meeting my son - at opposite hormonal life spectrums

I'm meeting my son at a time when:

He’s 12 and trying to break free from 'sweet son' who loves his mama cuddles, into individuation.

Im 44, am tired and gently retreating to cocoon into my sacred feminine. 

He’s in a season of non-stop chatter.

I long for peace and solitude.

Our hormones are both in big life transitions, yet at opposite life spectrums.

His are increasing in pre-puberty and mine are decreasing in peri-menopause.

What an interesting time to mother.

What a difficult time to mother.

I'm his safe person.

I'm also the person he sometimes can not stand the most.  

(Dare I say, and vice-versa)

Alot of raised voices.  

Alot of tears.

Alot of apologies.

(From both sides, but mainly from me)

I’m his mother.

He’s my teacher.

We meet each other exactly where we are.

Sweet son at 2yrs old who loves his mama cuddles

10yrs later.. pre-teen and peri-menopause