This is how starting a podcast came to be in March.
Stories of refuge, healing, homecoming, and connection to inspire you, nurture you and boost you up, the way your grandmother (Tata, Sitty, Bubba, Abuela, Safta, Babushka, Oma) would.
I have been thinking about starting a podcast for a little over a year now, but I wasn’t sure what to name it. It seems that SEO (search engine optimization) words are destiny in the world of the internet. If you don’t know what SEO is, it is basically how a website can show up when someone searches using certain words. It also seems that the world of the internet wants the online item to be specific, targeting a certain audience, with a certain theme, thus helping the online item to show up when someone searches with certain keywords. At least, this is my limited understanding in this technical internet world. Keeping the SEO business in mind, the more I became specific with words to create the podcast, the more I lost the sense of the spirit of why I wanted to create it.
Longing for a sense of homecoming and comfort
Could I make a podcast about evidence based medicine, randomized controlled trials and the latest medical research findings? Sure. My nerdy and geeky brain would love that! But, this whole time I have been dreaming about this podcast while going on walks, it has been my heart that has been longing for it. My heart longed for the sense of refuge, comfort, nurturing and boost that I would feel when I would visit my grandmother as a child. During this past year with the pandemic that brought isolation and disconnection, I longed for a sense of homecoming and comfort, which I couldn’t find in being able to travel anymore, or being physically close with the people that I love.
On my long walks, stories of my grandmother, Tata Im Abdo, started to come to my memory, reminding me that I wasn’t forgotten, that I was still watched over and connected to. The memories came back in dreams, stories, smells, sounds, music, and tastes of food. Tata Im Abdo passed away when I was 9 years old. And during all these years since then, I didn’t realize how much of her grandmotherly love and blessings I carried with me, wrapped so deeply and woven into my own mind, body, spirit and soul.
Born of grandmother’s blessings
And so the podcast is born out of my grandmother’s blessings. Almost everyone, no matter in what part of the world or what language they speak, has that one special old (seasoned), kind and wise person that gifts them unconditionally with that soft gentle hammock to rock in, warm food for their belly, comforting touch and attentive receptive listening. And, if you don’t have such a person in your life, you are invited to receive my grandmother’s blessings through shared stories on this podcast.
And as you listen to the stories (my grandmother’s, other grandmother’s stories, my stories and many other’s stories, maybe even your story!), may you find a place of refuge, healing, nurturing, connection and homecoming.
My grandmother’s birthday was in March, and so of course why wouldn’t the birth of this podcast be in March also? There is no more opportune time than today to receive and share my grandmother’s blessings with you. Tata Im Abdo (my grandmother) wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
Looking forward to receiving and being blessings together!