MWA's Lonna Amira Bowen shares her collection of Ramadan journals

Day 1 Ramadan: Subhan Allah loved that crazy thunderstorm, took the temp down nearly 20 degrees…little thunder, power driving wind that literally moves you and the beautiful copious amounts of rain to soak you to your bones…thank you God! Later, I was out and saw all the damage from the possible jericho and praying for the family who lost their young son that was killed when a tree fell on him as he made his way home out of the sudden storm.

Day 2 of Ramadan: I walked out of the masjid to go home early (as I had to work early the next day). My husband was standing by my car with a teen boy from Burma. As I approached, I could see two beautiful children with smiles beaming at me from inside my car. They were not my children, but two Burmese refugee children. My husband told me to drop them off at their home. We drove off and they pointed at different things and tried out the English that they have learned since arriving only a few months ago. I listened to their giggles and Hindi in between their outbursts of English words to describe what they saw in the night life of the city. The smiles and joy on these kids faces although they are in a foreign land, trying to learn a new language, having survived a genocide in their homeland made me grateful and blissful. (Read More)

ABOUT MWA'S LONNA AMIRA BOWEN
Lonna describes herself as a light that encompasses being a Muslimah, wife and mama of five. Yet, light has many more dimensions than a prism. She was born and raised in Kentucky to a clan of hillbillies that she loves and adores. Lonna grew up listening, singing and dancing to Bluegrass music and old timey hits. Her papaw used to pay Lonna's twin sister a quarter each for every tune they could "sing" that sounded more like yellin'. Her grandfather and dad made sure Lonna knew how to shoot guns, swim in creeks and rivers, rappel off natural bridges and ride horses. All of these lessons taught Lonna more than just those actions, but more importantly how to be strong and use her voice. Over the years of living for everyone else and forgetting herself, Lonna lost her essence and so blogging became a way of letting herself resurface by belting out her "song" on the keyboard.