Sharing Our Whole Selves in Community: 3 Self-Love Practices I’m Embracing This Ramadan as a Queer Black American Muslim The Body Is Not An Apology
Ramadan began two weeks ago, and across the world, Muslims who are observing the month abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset for thirty days. For those of us who fast, readiness is a layered concept. For some of us, it’s the physical component that is difficult to prepare ourselves for. Denying yourself food and drink during the daytime hours is difficult. It’s particularly difficult for those of us who don’t live in a country or society that adapts its rhythm to the Ramadan rhythm. In the US, meetings happen over lunch; conditioning and training for sports happen during daylight hours; workday hours remain the same, regardless of how lethargic you are. Trust me, it can be a mess. I’ve been fasting for over three decades – the physical doesn’t bother me as much. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t days when I feel like I’m wading through gravy. I have many individual days where 2:30 PM hits and I can’t remember what I did two hours before. But, when I have a difficult da...