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Sunday, January 05, 2025
Babbling Brook Podcast Ep. 5. My Dating Struggles, Lessons in Love, Self-Worth, and Turning the Tables
BABBLING BROOK podcast EP. 4. Unsolicited Sexual DMs. Processing Disregard of Boundaries
In this episode, I talk about a raw experience with an online predator disguised as a friend—someone who consistently crosses the line. This happens just as much in real life as it does online, and it’s crucial to remember that we should never sacrifice our comfort and safety for the sake of a relationship. No means no.
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Sunday, December 29, 2024
BABBLING BROOK Podcast EP. 3. How I Navigated a Deeply Emotional Moment Alone
Crying it out. Talking through and perhaps around my pain! An emotional episode, dealing with unresolved feelings of losing a loved one.
Contact numbers for mental health helplines: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 (Call or Text) Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741 SAMHSA’s National Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (1-800-662-4357)
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Wednesday, December 25, 2024
BABBLING BROOK podcast. EP 2. Losing My Sh*t, Customer Service Nightmares and other Pet Peeves
Some of My customer service horror stories. Trucker life; Small town living and more pet peeves. I also talk about my Facebook Marketplace and eBay selling experiences.
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Friday, December 20, 2024
BABBLING BROOK EP. 1. Getting Fired, Trucking Malpractices & Going Vegan
Podcast transcript: EP. 1. Getting FIRED, TRUCKING malpractices & going VEGAN
Hello there. How are you doing? I'm doing very well. Been a while since I've sat here and done a podcast recording. Still haven't decided when I'm going to start putting them up officially. My name is Babalwa Brook. I don't know why I'm singing it, but it's Babalwa Brook. And I am a stay-at-home mom, housewife. No, that I am not. I am a... I don't want to say I'm a truck driver, because right now I don't know what I am. I'm staying at home. By home, I mean renting a little bit of a corner in a nice big house. And I think last time I did a recording was, oh my gosh, I have it here. It was February 26th. Wow. And today is April 30th, 2021. The reason I'm like, wow, is because so much has happened ever since. In March, my relationship ended with the previous and only trucking company I had worked for and had worked with. I went to school through that trucking company, and it was the only trucking experience I had. It was enough, though, because it was almost two months, two years. That didn't end beautifully. If it were up to me, completely, I would have rather had things gone differently than they did. But is it all up to you? No. And of course, when you're the one that's paying somebody money, you kind of have the upper hand, in my opinion. Whoever has more money has the upper hand, in my humble opinion. I then moved out of the truck, because that's where I was living, 24-7, 365.
I moved out of there into an Airbnb-type situation. I don't think I want to talk about that right now, but I just grabbed my phone and started recording, so I don't really have a plan. But for as long as we're talking, let me just give you a rough update on my life, I guess. So I went to Airbnb, stayed a couple days, went to another Airbnb, stayed a little bit, and then I asked them if I could rent a room. Not the Airbnb, but just rent it. That way, hopefully, it would be cheaper, and worked out a deal, and the deal was incredible. It was better than I thought, because I over-negotiated, thinking we were going to settle somewhere else. But they agreed, so that was nice. Then I kind of felt bad, and I wanted to pay them more. What? I'd bite my tongue, and bite my wallet, and not take up more money, because what was the point, then, of negotiating? If you're going to give somebody a bonus.
Then a couple weeks into that month, I got a job offer to go to Washington and do trucking. So, I took that job, because they were going to fly me there. I had never been flown anywhere by a job, or anybody. I've always paid for my own flights. No, I have had people pay for my flights before, but not a job. You know, I would put in a hotel for a month. I thought, why would these people pay for somebody to stay in a hotel for a month? I don't see, I just, I don't know. But I was like, okay, if you're going to do it, I'll take it. So, I wasn't really ready to truck at that point. But I took it, because it just seemed different. I had already done one day's job, which was like 14 and a half hours, and I didn't even take a break. It was a nightmare to attend the agency. I was supposed to drive to the middle of nowhere, on Route 66, as if you don't know Arizona from California. And just before the border between Arizona and California. And it was just like a nightmare, dude. You're supposed to drive an hour from here to where I'm going to pick up the truck, and then drive from there to where I'm going to pick up the trailer, and then drive from there to where I'm going to pick up the load, and then drive from there to where I'm going to pick up another load and drop my load. So swap loads, and then bring back what they had. Oh my God. And do the same dance again. Drop the load, drop the trailer, drop the truck, and then drop myself. And then, of course, when it was time to pay me, they short-paid me by six hours. Like, they literally short-paid me in America. And it was just like, nobody said anything. Like, it's normal. Like, somebody can just do that in America. In America, dude. First of all, country. I'm from South Africa, in case you're wondering the accent. I'm not from the Caribbean. I'm from South Africa. And I'm not from Kenya or Nigeria. You're not allowed to visit. And it was just like, you don't do this in South Africa. Definitely, you don't get away with it, if you decide maybe you want to do it. But it's not an experience I'm familiar with. And now, I've lived in a third world country, second world country, and now the first world. Yeah, talking about walking your way to the top. Or sitting your way to the top. Whichever comes first. So it was just like, are these people for real with this shit? So I messaged somebody, they were like, yeah, the customer says you got lost on your way to blah, blah, blah, blah. All of these things were in Los Angeles, until I had to drive towards the border. So, yes, I got lost, but the GPS was fucked. And when I called you about it, you were like, yeah, I don't use the GPS, it's fucked. I don't use it either. So, you know this, and you even admitted it. What the fuck is this? And I talked to the client, who was responsible for this whole deal. Throughout the day, texting him, he knew everything that was going on. Now, he authorized for somebody to pay me six hours of work, short. Are you fucking joking? It was beyond. I was like, I can't. What alternate universe is this? So that definitely left a weird taste in my mouth. And I'm like, oh my God, and I'm all the way in Washington State. What if these people should pay me again? Somebody recommended this temp agency to me.
So I went into it, not expecting them to be weird, because I trust the guy who recommended. I mean, yes, I trust him, even though he was like, oh my God, give me your number. He took my number. His hands were shaking when he was taking my number. I was like, oh my God. And he never called me. So I was like, well, should I still trust him? What are we doing? He was like, I don't know. I don't know. We were just like friends. We used to just bump into each other in the laundry room and talk for hours while we were there. We talked about all kinds of things. He showed me photos of his girlfriend of two years. And he went on vacation, whatever, and showed me all of those photos and videos and whatnot. So it was interesting that he didn't call. It was just weird. I still kind of like, I don't know why I'm going to bump into him again, because I'm no longer in that company. And it probably wouldn't be a good idea for me to go there and do laundry. Like, people don't know that I've been fired. So I can just go and do laundry, I guess. But I have a laundry room here where I live. Thank you very much. That's free. So I called the company, the temp agency, and I said, please, guys, can I have my money that I worked for? That's the contract I have with you. The contract is that, well, actually, I sent them an email. Because that's what you want to do. You want like a paper trail of some sort. So I said, you know, I understand that you say the customer is coming up with excuses as to why they don't want to pay me, which is really sad. But my contract with you is I'm going to provide services, and you're going to pay me. I've provided services for so many hours. And I would like you to compensate me. You have another contract with the customer. That's between the two of you. You guys can figure that out. But I would like you to pay me. And I’d just arrived in Washington State. And the customer there loved me, and I loved him. I love him. One of the best overall human beings I've met. And of course, I didn't want to stay too long and find out another side of him that I'm not going to like, like this guy that I thought was good but didn't call. So I guess the customer was constantly telling them how much they loved me. And the customer started me too. He'd be like, oh, I'm getting emotional now. I just haven't thought about him since I left. He's such a great guy, you know? You don't think people like that exist. And you feel like you've been sucker punched in the stomach when you meet one. And so I didn't realize this, but even though I was new with the Temp agency, the customer was new with the Temp agency too.
So they paired me up with this new customer, new driver, new customer. And they said all the way to Washington, there's a new deal altogether. So they didn't know how it was going to work or whatever. And I got there and I impressed everybody of the agency and the customer. And the customer is the customer. The people I was delivering for, which is a government agency. All the different branches that I went to, I hate to say it myself, but they loved me and I loved them. And it was just, so they were telling him they liked me and he was telling them. It was just so great in that regard. The job was back-breaking. I'm telling you. So I guess the Tampa agency, when they heard those things, that also created, like, because they didn't know me. So this just created like a nice impression on my behalf. And my team called me and said, you know what? I'm going to take care of this for you. You will get paid. We'll figure it out. We'll talk to the customer. So just like you said, you're welcome. True. I said, by the way, you are doing us such a favor by being out there for us. And this customer is very happy with you. And I thought, oh, that's so nice that not only the customer told them, but that they're telling me that the customer told them. You know, I was there for a month. I'll tell you more about it some other time. Maybe I'll put more details on the blog. It's mobileupbrook.com. I also have a YouTube channel, which is just, you know, mobileupbrook. And social media, blah, blah, blah. After a month, I came back. And my room was still available. I was in touch with my land Lord, who is incredibly incredible. I don't think everybody's incredible, but I've just been so blessed to come across some of the greatest people I've ever come across. I am very humbled by these meetings with these people. I don't know if I'm worth all of this favor, but I'm grateful. My land Lord said, I'll keep the room for you until you come back, as long as you need me to, and I won't charge you. Like, what the fuck? Then I come here, and he said, I'll just start charging you when you check back in. I checked fucking back in last week, 21st or 22nd of February. I gave him money. He says, no. I talked to my wife. My wife said, let's not charge you for the rest of April. Like, dude, these people only know me for a couple of weeks. What is happening? Like, so I was so touched. I still am. And now I'm like, oh, my God, what can I do for them? Like, do they like flowers? Like, what are we doing? What do we do? I thought, you know what, just continue to be the person that you were consistently, maybe something that left a mark with them. They did tell me even then, like, we like that you respect other tenants, and you just clean up after yourself. You're very respectful. So, like, for me, that's normal. You treat people how you want to be treated. Like, when somebody really appreciates it, it's really, really encouraging. So basically, I'm staying here for free right now. Like, what is life?
I just came from an Asian store from stocking up for the first week of May. I do grocery shopping for a week. I mean, I keep going back and buying, like, nuts and snacks and random shit. But I buy groceries for, like, a week, do meal prepping for that week. I've been eating vegetarian when I was in Washington State. I ate vegetarian strictly for the whole month. My birthday, I was there for my birthday. Even then, I still didn't, like, eat that much. And so, all of April, and most of March, I was eating. In March, I was eating, like, maybe chicken or turkey or whatever. Yeah, only chicken or turkey. One meal per day, I would eat meat. So I was transitioning. And now I just, I think it's probably too much fiber, roughage, stuff like that for my stomach. I have, like, I'm sure I have, like, some kind of conditions that are maybe IBS-relative, stuff like that. IBS standing for Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Because a lot of, like, roughage-y things, like fruit, a lot of fruit, it goes ruff ruff ruff ruff ruff in my stomach. Like, it gets, like, acidic. And then, literally, you can feel the ruff ruff ruff ruff. The stomach is swelling up. There's nothing worse than that feeling of bloatedness. You're walking around feeling and looking pregnant, but you're trying to be skinny. You feel skinny when you're bloated. Um, so, not only am I, like, trying to remember what other vegetable eating to eat, okay, can I eat pasta, is it good for, do I have a gluten problem? Why do I eat certain things and feel certain ways? It's just like, oh my gosh, I'm trying to figure out all of that. I probably could just go to the doctor, or the nutritionist or dietitian or whatever, and do all those tests. But I, not first to doctors out there. I trust myself more than I trust, like, a doctor. How does, like, how's he going to know what's going on in your stomach? He's not, I've been living in the stomach longer than him. Why don't I just figure it out? I'm sure he can. You know, they have science behind them. But, to back them up. So, that's why, um, I've been doing lots of vegetables here. And, like, plant-based milk, like almond milk. And stuff like that. I have been doing, when I was high-proteining, I would do vegetarian weeks, maybe even months. But I was doing high-protein vegetables, vegetarian. And, like, low-carb. Now, I'm not counting my carbs. I just, I'm eating potatoes and stuff like that. But now, I'm having, like, I don't know, I'm going to eat something. And I won't know, like, if it's a mixture of vegetables, which vegetable is in there. It's making my back hurt. I have this pain, like, in the back of my back. What? In the back of my, I guess the back of my stomach, I don't know. It appears through from my lower, my lower rib to, in the front to the back. It's, there's a lot of it on Google. But you, I don't know what it is and what causes it. Because I used to get it a lot when I eat boiled eggs. As soon as I finish eating up all the eggs, I have to take a pain pill. I don't live like that anymore. So, that's what I did today. But mainly, the main thing that I left the house for, because since I came back last week, I have been pretty much sleeping all day and night for seven days straight. I was so happy when I found out the other day that it was the 29th. So, that was yesterday when I found out it's only the 29th. And I've been back for a week, not two weeks, because I thought, like, for Monday, I thought it was a new week. It was, but not for me, like that. So, I'm like, oh my gosh, thank God. I haven't been unproductive for two weeks, only for one week. The temp agency is like, are you available? We have a company, they want you to work tomorrow morning. I'm like, just a second. Like, don't be trying to manage me like the people that owned my soul. The reason I'm with the temp agency is because I don't want someone to own my soul like that right now. Like, I'm still recovering from that experience. And now they're trying to act exactly like that. I'm like, oh, these people are going to get blocked just like the other guys. Like, I don't want to feel constrained, constricted, restrained, whatever those words are. I don't feel like somebody put me in a trunk of a vehicle and locked and threw away the key. That's how I felt when I was in that one relationship that I talk about a lot on my blog. I don't want to feel that way. So, they'll be like, I'm like, I'm not available this week. What's your availability this week? I'm not available this week. Somebody else will text me on the same phone number. Like, they're all texting me from the same phone number. So, that's interesting. What's your availability? I'm not available this week. I'm like, oh, my God. I appreciate that. They're not doing this because they're trying to get me money and make me money and get me jobs. They're doing this because they have customers who have maybe their drivers, stand them up, and now they're contacting the temp agency to find somebody to fill in for that day or whatever. It's not for me. So, they gave phone numbers to customers, but I told them I'm not available this week. And I'm having people call me left, right, and center. So, nobody's phones get picked up, of course, because, like I said, I'm not available this week. Right? Isn't that the beauty of working for a temp agency? You work a part-time job when you want to temporarily. You're not in a full-time contract where you owe anybody anything. I had somebody leave me a message at like after 10 p.m. Hey, can you send, send, send, send, send, send, send, send, send, send, send, send, send, send. And it's just 6 a.m. tomorrow. They want me to show up at a job. It's 6 a.m. They're calling me around 10 at night. We were joking. So, that didn't happen because, first of all, I'm not available this week. So, and secondly, please, people, don't call me at fucking 10 p.m. Maybe it's only behind me, but I've just got a lot of issues with the whole trucking industry and how truckers are being treated. In my experience, at least how I have been treated since becoming a truck driver, by people in managerial positions, supervisors and whatnot, I think that's it for now. I took my car to the mechanic and costed this amount of money, three zeros. And there's a lot of other things that need to be taken care of with the car. I had a check engine light for months, maybe longer. And yesterday, two days ago, it went away. After I made an appointment with the mechanic, it went away. So, of course, the problem is still there because it was there for a long time. And now the thing that they fixed is to remove the check engine. But I can't tell because the light was not there when I got there. So, that was fun. So, I'm going to add a fun cherry on top to add to my situation.
I'm going to go ahead and put the food away now. It was just nice to sit here and look away. Maybe I'll post this eventually. Maybe I won't. But it's always good to have material. So, yeah, I'm going to put my groceries away. I'm going to do my grocery journal. Maybe I'll listen to a podcast. Maybe I'll listen to a podcast, but I definitely will watch a current documentary if I can find a new episode. I've been watching First Dates and First Dates Hotel. Check that show out. If you like to watch some kind of reality TV, if you fall in love, they have Ireland version. They have London. They do New Zealand. I know London is not a country. They do New Zealand and stuff like that. So, it's a nice show. People write to the show and then the show finds the most perfect people for each other. I don't know how they do it. They should hire the same people who set up people on First Dates to set up people on Married or First Date. So, yeah. Something I wanted to say about Married or First Date, but we won't open that kind of forums. Thank you very much for hanging out with me. I will talk to you some other time. Again, it's @BabalwaBrook on all social media, Babalwabrook.com on my blog. I will talk to you next time. Thanks. Bye.
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
BABBLING BROOK PODCAST trailer!
A passion project I’ve been contemplating for years has been born! Come on in!
Here’s the trailer transcription : hey everyone, my name is Babalwa Brook. Welcome!
I'd like to talk to you and you talk to me about things that we may have in common. Some of my interests include money, making it, saving it, stretching the dollar; I'm very frugal. I'm very careful with money.
I like to travel. I'm self-employed as an eBay seller. So I work from home. I live off the grid and have lived full-time and worked as a truck driver, traveling to more than 40 states, solo. And also speaking of which, I'm a very loner type person, reclusive in a way. I'm friendly and make friends, but I don't really, like, maintain friendships. We'll talk more about those things. I like to talk about the dynamics of relationships, leaning more towards the dysfunctionality. I don't know if it's just me or it's the time or place or what… Hey, narcissists!
What else do you want to talk about? One of the things that define me, and I hate that for myself, is that half of the month I'm PMSing, but I have the more severe symptoms, which are PMDD, if you don't know about that, or if you do know about it. I'd like to talk about that because I don't know if it's covered enough, or maybe even diagnosed correctly… or … what if I don't have it, but I know I have it because I've had it for decades and I track everything. I'm very interested in self-discovery slash self-development. I like to read and; back to the journaling, I'll journal certain things about myself, which then makes me be able to put two and two together. What else can we talk about? Now I'm doing this off cuff. I tried to memorize this before and tried to be those people, but it's not my personality. You will find that I'm doing the best that I can to cover things in a way that's palatable, but I'm someone who believes we have to own who we are, not in an aggressive F-you type of way. Also, maybe I cuss a lot, hey truckers! , et cetera, but I'd like you to just relax a little bit with it. Don't be too judgmental. See what you can gain from episode to episode without being like, oh my God, you used an F-bomb. Oh my God, you did this. Oh my God, you did that. Like, oh my God, you used an F-bomb. Oh my God, you did this. I'm not saying don't criticize where you feel justified to and set aside your boundaries, but I'm sure you get what I'm saying. Thank you so much. See you soon. Let's talk. I have a Facebook group and other platforms under Babbling Brook Podcast. So join us there, whichever platform works for you. And let's get this show on the road. Get it? Talk to you soon!
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Tuesday, December 17, 2024
A Dream, A Walk and That Dog Again!
First of all, sorry if you get notified and read the blog on your email. I'm using multiple devices and having technical issues.I had to delete and redo this a few times.
I haven't used this laptop in months! (Hey, Santa! How 'bout a laptop for Christmas?) I must've never logged out properly because the tabs that were still open, which are so me, were: Zillow, Vegas Hotels, Air BnB and google flights. Happy holidays, everyone! I just got back from a walk and I'd like to tell you about that experience.
A Dream, A Walk, and the Unexpected Connections We Make
A few days ago, I had a dream that has stuck with me ever since. Dreams are funny things—they seem to come out of nowhere, yet sometimes they feel like they’re trying to tell you something. In this dream, I saw two men who had once been close to me in different parts of my life. One of them had been a constant presence; the other, only briefly. They never knew each other, but both have since passed away. While I occasionally dream about one of them, dreaming about the other was rare, almost unheard of.
Friday, October 11, 2024
Theft on a bus in Costa Rica
Hello from Costa Rica! I hope writing about this will get it out my system. It’s traumatized me more than I thought it would. I also hope it will reach a lot of eyes and serve as a warning to other travelers and such out there in the world.
This is probably going to be long winded because it’s been brewing. Prepping for this trip, I came across a lot of warnings about crime in Guatemala which was going to be my first leg. I found myself feeling super anxious. A lot of the experiences of Crimes from my life in South Africa, where I’m from, came to the forefront. I didn’t like that as this is supposed to be a happy time where. Thinking happy thoughts and jumping up and down for joy. Maybe I’ll tell you about Guatemala on a different blog. Last night, I flew from there to Costa Rica and landed at 11pm. There’s a story about being at the airport, Taxi drivers & Uber for another time.
I was up for another hour or so in bed going through posts about other travelers about their experience at Terminal 7-10, downtown San Jose, Costa Rica. They’re not good. Stories about how men dressed formally with name tags will approach you as you enter the bus terminus, ask where you’re going, then tell you you just missed the bus.
Sunday, March 24, 2024
Life Update from the California Desert
Hey, everybody! I hope you're great wherever you are! I believe it's Palm Sunday today, so Cheers to those who honor it!
I just wanted to touch base and give you a summary of what life's been like since you last heard from me. I'm going to be short because I logged on to plan a trip and give my eyes a break from the iphone screen. One of the reasons I don't post on the blog much is because my computer doesn't wanna coorperate and I haven't gotten around to replacing it or getting it fixed. There's a long list of things that I have been giving my attention to. The other reason is that, I do have other forms of journaling that are filling in the gap of blogging. It was, after all a thing that I was mainly doing for myself. One can't, however help but feel a way about how you're getting thousands of views and hardly any comments. Sidebar: I get more views when I don't blog than when I do. Imagine that! It's like with my eBay stores. If I'm out of town and not listing any fresh items, I make more sales than when I am slaving away.What's that word again? Algorithm? (My stores, if you care: MyBrook, TruckerBrook and TheLovelyBrook all on eBay)
I've been living in the same place for more than three years now. One of my longest runs (pardon the pun) in my life. I have to say, the stability feels great. Have I considered moving for one reason or another? You bet! Part of why I haven't is because I am challenging myself. LEt's see what'll happen if I apply my energy to other aspects of life other than packing a bag and change of address. I recently had to update my Driver license. Boy, did it feel nice to have my current address on there. I also just got my own AAA membership. Those of you who follow me on socials may have seen the post. What makes this such a big deal is that my wasband (get it?) had me on his for a while. Even after we split up, he still had me on, so that was some form of a benefit / hold on me. I remember him once telling me that he would always take care of me until the day he died, I am the love of his life, even his current girlfriend knows that. Before you get teary eyed and think that this is some twisted form of a romantic story, No, it's not! Pathological lies and other forms of manipulationship. I remember wanting to find out from AAA if I could use the old membership to start mine, and thus be able to upgrade to the premium. This is how it works: If you have never had AAA, you have to start from the bottom level, have it for a certain amount of time without making any tow claims and then can you upgrade. If you recently had a premium membership, you can start from that membership. When I called to enquire, I gave them my old membership number which now belongs to someone else, no prizes for guessing. All of these are things that keep one attached to the past, no matter how much you believe you have moved on. This is why it's such a big deal that I now have my own basic membership that I will work my way up all on my own, like the independent btch that I am. Where my badass btches at?
Another proud situation, is the fact that I earn my entire living from my eBay stores. I work everyday, even when I am on vacation. But I also give myself plenty of rest when I feel necessary, and vacation more often than I ever have. The fact that I have been able to lead a decent lifestyle, no roommates, no partner who walks around, swinging his manhood, implying that he's taking care of me, no boss, no unnecessary random drug tests (never done drugs all my life), no threats of getting kicked out, being fired, being dumped, deported, you name it, feels like a dream. So much to be thankful for! I hope that if you're in a situation where the above or any semblance thereof is taking place, know that there is life on the other side.Be gentle with yourself and grant yourself the grace you would offer anyone else in your shoes, but stay focused on the end goal: happiness / contentment. It comes in all shapes and forms. So, don't compare. Know what yours looks like and keep inching closer and closer to that. Compare and despair, as they say.
While on the subject of finances, I have made way more, spent way less, but haven't necessarily been happy. My priority right now, is peace. More money would be nice but I am doing the best I can to sustain myself within the confides of the peaceful bounds. There are a lot of things I could do to make way more but I love being able to book a hotel room in the wee hours of the morning, throw a couple of outfits into a suitcase, take a shower and drive to as Vegas (4 hours away) and stay there for a few nights, without feeling like I owe anybody an planation or excuse. This year alone, I went to Vegas and Laughlin, (both 4 hours away) in January, Vegas in February, and am planning my next trip now for probably April, unless, I feel super antsy during this last week of March, then I will head somewhere before April.
I take a lot of pictures still, but don't post half as many on social media. It's not a priority in my life right now. Being in the moment, taking it in, making mental memories with whoever I am wish are top priority. I still have pictures from my time in South Africa two trips ago that I never got around to posting. The memories are fresh on my mind. I was home, (South Africa) last November - December 2023 and took plenty of pictures then. All in my devices. So I didn't get 2 likes from those photos and hundreds of views in my stories with a couples of reactions? I'm thankful that my family was in a position to take time away from their busy schedules and host me, entertain me, cook for me, YUM! They're all great cooks. And LOL with me. Thankful for traveling mercies and for all the nice people I come across during all my trips.
I've been reading books and listening to audio versions as well. These are things I enjoy that I wasn't able to make room for in my life because of how much clutter was in my head before. As I have slowly but surely been decluttering, I am finding myself having space to enJOY being me! Do I have moments? Heck yeah! I am working on that aspect of my life as well. We'll talk more about that some other time, or not at all, who knows?
We did the gofundme fund raiser for buying electricity tokens for folks in my home town in south Africa for Christmas. The funds are still there! I moved them to South AFrica and my sister is helping me find recipients, I won't get into the details of why three months later, we're still on this, but the donors are kept up to date. Thanks to all of them.
I didn't plan what I wrote about and there may be other things I probably could've touched on, but I'm done for now. Let's see if AAA has any great deals for my next trip! Love and happiness to you all!
Tell me what's going on in your own life below, or whatever you feel like sharing. Cheers!
Thursday, September 07, 2023
The Great Manifestation story!
I just came back from an impromptu vacation to Vegas. While there, I promised everyone on my social @BabalwaBrook, a great manifestation story. It’s a bit long, so I thought it beat to post it here on the blog instead and just share the link.
Here goes it! People were fighting over items in a thrift store I was in. I went afterwards to see what, if anything, I could find. The cashiers half jokingly laughed at my “finds” and told me I got sht stuff; I need to get in there with everybody else when stuff first comes out. I told them that I don’t like to come from a place of desperation. “I really just wanna manifest things at this point in my life. I want them to come to me!”, I said (wow! That’s a lot of punctuation!”
Soon as I said that, a lady I’d interacted with earlier interrupted us to hand me a pair of shoes I really wanted. She had already picked them for herself but “didn’t like how they fit.” I thanked her so much in utter disbelieve, turned around and told one of the cashiers; “like this!” This is how I wanna get stuff! See? I just manifested this!” I explained to her how the lady knew to being the shoes to me. When it was time to go, the cashier and I thanked each other for the chat. She told me she learned something new, manifestation. That melted my heart.
I get back to where I was staying, here’s an excerpt to a text that gave me goosebumps and moist eyeballs: I have a ton of stuff I’m getting rid of from reselling that doesn’t fit my store aesthetic, do you want to go through everything before I donate it to the thrift store? Some things are new with tags! Let me know!” Come on! And this stuff is free! Spoiler alert! The person just left my place, they dropped off a gigantic box from Home Depot full of clothes and shoes!
Later that evening, my host knocks on my door. “Hey, Brook! I have this vintage dress that I wanted to give you for your online store!” It’s a gorgeous multilayer dress that she never wore. Honestly, I need to try to fit into it. I’d like to have something of hers, she’s older and it’s important to me.
Thank you for taking the time. I hope that you will find some inspiration to ask for what you want, “trust the process” and to believe, in any important area of your life.
I’d like to hear your stories our thoughts, leave me a comment or message me on socials @BabalwaBrook
I also have a YouTube under my name BabalwaBrook
My new store is https://www.ebay.com/usr/mybrook
Love and light!
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