E71 Honi: How to Receive Love Without Guilt — A 54th Birthday Reflection

S1 E71H: Give Yourself Permission To Be Celebrated — A Birthday Reflection | The Ascension Alchemists™ Podcast

When did you last truly allow yourself to be celebrated?

In this warm and personal solo episode, Rev. HoniB comes to you fresh from her birthday weekend — Persian saffron tea in hand, heart completely full — to share a genuine reflection on celebration, receiving and what it means to allow God Almighty to bless your life through the people who love you.

This is not a polished teaching. This is a real conversation from a real birthday — afternoon tea at the St. Regis with her sons, a cousins gathering with dancing until midnight, iFly with Michael, a Moroccan hammam, flowers everywhere and tears over refrigerator magnets. And underneath all of it, a deeper invitation for every soul listening.

In this episode:

• Why celebration is not ego — it is an act of receiving God Almighty's blessing
• The St. Regis afternoon tea with her sons — and why it was never really about the tea
• How Michael and her sons showed up differently this year — and what that meant
• Why Rev. HoniB has had to stretch her own muscle around receiving and celebration
• The shift from organizing everything yourself to allowing others to bless you
• Why not celebrating yourself blocks the blessings God Almighty has placed for you
• The guilt that comes after one day of celebration — and why she keeps going anyway
• What her 53rd year taught her and what she is declaring over her 54th
• The Persian meaning of her birthday month — Urdi Behesht — the month of heaven
• Why your birthday is a divine occasion worth honoring — regardless of who shows up
• What she is declaring for this year — books, stages, podcast growth and Michael's book

🌹 Your life is a celebration. Give yourself permission to experience it that way.

Transcript

Afternoon Tea With The Sons

Morning Prayer And Receiving Gifts

Family Gathering With Music And Gratitude

Why Celebration Is Spiritual

Stop Waiting And Celebrate Yourself

Gifts As Love In Action

Gratitude Shoutouts And Sweetness

Newsletter Gift And Mother’s Tribute

Events Updates And Closing Questions

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Blessings and welcome to the Ascension Alchemist Podcast, everyone. It's Reverend Honey Borden, your host, and I am so delighted to share this episode with you as it is all around my birthday weekend, and I am really looking forward to sharing a bit of my own personal journey in these past few days with you, and also talk about the importance of celebration when it is your birthday. So, welcome to this hour and thank you so much for being with me as this community that is all dedicated to live the truth and the best of your God Almighty presence as you align with it and you embody it in your walk of embodiment. So let's get into it. As I'm recording this podcast, I've just arrived back. It is the end of my birthday weekend. Today is actually the day of my birthday, the 3rd of May, which in Iran it would be considered the 13th day of Udi Behesht. Urdi Behesh is derives from two words, Urdi and Behesht. Behesht means heaven, and I've always really loved the month that I've been incarnated into. And I'll go backwards, I'll give you a little behind the scene about this birthday weekend and how my heart is so filled with so much gratitude. Just so much, so much gratitude. So as we arrived back, I'm drinking a Persian saffron tea because my tummy hurts from what we ate. Michael is in the other room. Michael is wiped out completely after three days of this celebration. I told Michael, I was like, oh my gosh, Michael, we love this, but let's just like, okay, let's just do one day. Like this was even though we didn't do that much, but we did have quite a bit of activity, it's been really fun. Yet there's like like he is absolutely wiped out. And I felt so joyous to celebrate. So I'm drinking my saffron tea with you and sharing where we just came from. So today I I want to I want to share this with you. I feel so grateful. The amount of flowers, I've never had this many flowers, flowers from my cousins, flowers from my coffevos, from my son's flowers from one of the ladies that my one of my son is dating. Like she sent balloon flowers over. Like it's just it's amazing. And I'm gonna show this to you. This is my son's card. It's really heartfelt. I just read it and just lots of tears with what they shared with me and all these cards. Now it's just just my heart is so filled. So let me tell you where we came from. I always wanted to go to the St. Regis Hotel for the afternoon tea. And this was something that I wanted to experience with my sons, but it's not an experience that my sons would typically want to go to. So I had to wait for a special occasion where I know, okay, it's because it's a special occasion, they're going to say yes. So this is my you know, wearing my special dress for it. And with Michael, we had planned. I told him to have to wear business casual and made reservations. And because I never experienced it, and neither had Michael, I I just wanted to be in the witness seat to witness their reaction. It was so precious. So our reservation was at four o'clock. We went there, and when they they came, when they entered the lobby, they just didn't know what to think of it. So our table was ready, and the gentleman pointed us, and we were sitting in these different kinds of seats where the table is lowered to the ground, and my sons are looking at me, and so doing the proper way. Okay, you sit properly, you put the napkin this way on your leg, and you hold the T like this. It was so I felt like I felt like I was back. My sons are like, Mom, do you remember you put us in etiquette quest etiquette class? And we hated it. I felt like they're adults here. We are in etiquette class again. It was so precious. And they didn't know what to think of it, of the sandwiches and all the different little scones and little pastries and desserts they brought. So that's how we spent my birthday. And I loved it, the conversations we had, the experience we had, and the shared experience, and the laughter, and uh again, them not being able to figure out what to do with uh just what to do with anything that was shared. So that was quite the journey. And from there, we went, Michael got some sandwich, and what I really loved was this moment where my sons showed up early, they brought flowers and they were dressed up, and it was like this moment where I didn't have to, I didn't have to like chase them. They they knew it's like all these years, like sharing the same thing, sharing the same thing, what I like. I didn't have to do that. And they really like showed up and and they wrote me the most beautiful card and they treated me and Michael to this beautiful afternoon tea. And and it was just so beautiful having experienced that from your own child. I don't know if you've ever experienced that, where like after all these years, your your children are stepping up to to really dedicate something that means a lot to you, not necessarily for them, and to share that experience with you. It was so, so beautiful. And for me, it wasn't the it wasn't really the afternoon routine, it was the experience I wanted them to have. And they're like, okay, like that just gave them a whole different experience, which I really loved. And earlier, earlier today, when I woke up this morning, I woke up late, I just wanted to be in prayer, I wanted to be with God Almighty, I wanted to declare my year, I wanted to put a strong prayers around. I wanted to also just be able to write in my journal what I what you know what was really sitting in my heart. So I got to do that and just have that time to myself the way I wanted it to be. And and I I kept my Michael's like Michael was waiting patiently and patiently to give me like these little precious gifts. And I was like, okay, just give me a little bit more time. And so when I was ready, we sat in front of the fireplace, and he brought these little gifts and like one little cute little penguin, which I I love, these little penguins, like a little stuffed animal, tiny one. And he also got this hair mask that we both really love. Of course, he's used a lot of it because we both have long hair. And then the other part was he had taken these pictures from our immediate family member that I love so much, these beautiful photos, and he he had them printed and put in these magnet frame for the refrigerator, and I just teared up so much seeing these photos, especially my brother in Germany. I haven't seen him, I miss him a lot. I was just in so much tears watching this. It was so beautiful, like it meant so much to me. Meanwhile, my phone keeps ringing, I keep getting text notification coming in. Like everybody's like my family keeps calling. I'm like, I just want to feel like it's I'm entering the day of my birthday. I just want to have just to set the tone myself. So it's so beautiful. And I don't know if you all ever feel that way. You're you're like you've entered your birthday. You're like, okay, let me just let me take a moment for myself, and then when you're getting, and it's so amazing, you're getting calls and texts, and of course, I wouldn't have it any other way. I felt so loved and so deeply appreciated, and and I honestly have not had a chance at all to look at any literally any texts or messages yet, because the day's been so full, and now I'm recording this video. And after this, I'm gonna go sit down and soak myself in it while Michael goes, passes up. And so that was so beautiful. And last night we were out late with my cousins. Michael was amazing, he had organized this cousins gathering, and it was the first time me and my first cousin Aida had our birthdays together because hers is on the first and mine is on the third. And and I always wondered like maybe we can share a birthday gathering. And Michael was so amazing to have my uncle and aunt come and my other cousins at Greenhouse restaurant in Virginia, where we were all there, and we just wanted to be around music and dance, and our dear friend Masud, who's the owner, he had organized it for us. It was so wonderful just to be around so much love and family. The love of family, even though my sons came late, and just be able to dance a little bit together and just share these moments. And what was so funny for those of you that know our family, especially me, I'm very sentimental. I when I put gatherings, I put a lot of thoughts and efforts into certain things. And and because my cousins know me, they decided to do a little appreciation circle in the middle of this restaurant lounge with loud music, and they all want to share something like gratitude. It was so precious, so just so classic. And that was of course also just melted my heart. And we stayed up, we stayed till 12, danced, and came back, and it was again so beautiful. And throughout the day, Michael was just busy trying to organize with my cousins. Meanwhile, I I wanted to just have some time again, just to be this last year of 54th. What was my reflections? What was the year for me? Not 54, 53 as I'm transitioning over to 54. What were the what were the areas that really I pushed myself to grow differently, to be a different person? Did I allow God Almighty come through me greater? Did I hold back? What were the areas? And am I satisfied? Is God Almighty satisfied, pleased with me? So these are the these are the areas that I was sitting in this weekend. And for those of you who watched the videos on Friday, Michael and I went to iFly. He had gotten these gift certificates from our dear Jeff for his birthday, but he had held it off until we we went together. And we had so much fun with that. Got a little dizzy, of course. We have jumped off from we have skydived both before, and this was a whole different experience. And we just really enjoyed having a new experience and enjoying life and seeing ourselves, whether we get sick or not, and just still be able to laugh around it. And taking off this whole weekend, not doing anything, just be very present for my birthday, three days in a row, celebration. It was so, so beautiful to allow the experience of celebration. And I want to talk about celebration because today, when I was sitting with God, I was saying, God Almighty, I mean I just felt so grateful and thankful that God Almighty has chosen me to be in this incarnation, just as God Almighty has chosen all of you to be in this incarnation. And what an honor that is. Truly, here we are as a soul, we've agreed, and here we have come into a body, we're spirit in a body, and we have to have a soul to operate, and then the soul has to go through certain things, and here we are, and we've gone through so much on our journey, and the journey continues, and then we have these moments like when we have been incarnated, and whether we're actually choosing to celebrate or not. And I come from a family that they really, even though I did have birthday party as a child, but they weren't really like my mom really wasn't into birthdays at all. And we had gone through so much loss and devastation and and loss during migration, during war, so we didn't really have much. And once we began, I was like, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna celebrate. So I made it for myself to celebrate, and also when my children were born to really celebrate their birthday, and that means a lot. But what I want to stand on to share with you is what I'm really celebrating is a reason to celebrate life greater, because being in a human, being in a four is such an honor to be here for this purpose that we're in. And if we're not celebrating ourselves, we're not allowing God Almighty that is celebrating us to be experienced on the inside. And when we celebrate, for example, one day and we go to another day, sometimes we feel guilty. If we go to a third day, we feel guilty. And this is something that as a Musul I've had to stretch myself. So the last few years, when it's my birthday for the month, I'm doing a lot of celebration. So I'm gonna have a party with my friends in Florida. We're gonna have another party here with our friends in in Maryland in a couple weeks. So it is all about this continuation celebration, not from a place of ego, but from a place that hears this blessing of God Almighty that wants to come in, that wants to bless life, that wants to celebrate life, and and how important it is to allow room for that celebration. And even I'm sitting here right now, I'm just like, oh my gosh, like three days of that's amazing, bunch of different blessings and celebration. And I'm aware there is a part of my human self is like, okay, you celebrate enough, go back to your like schedule, like don't do anymore. Yet I've learned, don't stop, keep going. Why? Because it's not about you, it's about you allowing God Almighty to celebrate your life, celebrate your existence. You were incarnated, you were chosen, you were chosen to be in a body, to be on life, in life, and walk this life, walk this earth on purpose. And if you're not celebrating, life won't celebrate you. And what I mean by celebration is to stand in that praise and thanksgiving, to allow yourself to receive, to give yourself permission to have the tears, to receive these flowers if you're getting it. And if somebody is not celebrating you, you have to go celebrate. This is so important. Like, for example, this dress that I'm wearing, I haven't picked up this dress, I went picked up a couple of dresses on purpose to show up in this celebration myself, even if the sleep was off, all of that, not from a place of material, from a place of the wow and ah of God Almighty that's blessing me, that is gifting me this life that I'm so honored to experience life, to be able to experience love with my children, love with my spouse, love with my cousins, love with family, be able to dance and to say yes to life, to enjoy life, to embrace life, because it is so easy. There is no art in us in putting our attention on all the issues of life, of all the problems of life, and there are tons of it, but we hardly put energy towards celebration. And when I learned this several years ago, I just knew I have to start making that switch on the inside. I want to experience more of life's blessing, but I'm not experiencing it because I'm actually not taking the first step myself, I'm not stretching myself to allow it, to receive it, to bless it, to celebrate it. So if I'm not doing it, then it's not happening on the outside. And this is how over the years I've shifted myself and my muscles in that way. And I'm sharing this with you. If you have your birthday coming up, you take the stand for yourself first. Don't wait for anybody else. Go get that dress, go have the best slice of cake for yourself. Don't wait for anybody. Go truly take yourself to dinner. I'm taking myself to dinner. God is celebrating me. Put it like that. Don't wait for anyone. And if you have others that want to celebrate with you, then celebrate. I always organize all my birthdays myself, except this year. I was like, you know what? I want to let myself receive. I'm gonna have my husband Michael and my sons organize it. And it was so sweet, it was very different, I have to say. Because I love organizing, but I was like, you know what? I want to receive this year. Let's just see how it is. And really, really precious and sweet. So the key is give yourself permission to be celebrated. Don't wait for others, do it yourself. And if others want to celebrate you, give them the opportunity. You know, keep away from judging and with your lightheartedness, with your love, let yourself have an experience. Live yourself however way it is, be showered and go with praise and thanksgiving, be open and allow if you're seeing the flowers, you're seeing the presence, these gifts, they're part of this material world. It's not that you're being materialistic, you're saying, yes, I embrace these materials. These are the materialized way as an actionable step of love. Love has to be expressed in action, some kind of action. And when it's expressed, it's so important to be on the receiving end of it, receptive. If you're not receptive, you can't experience it. And birthdays is one of the wonderful ways that you allow God Almighty to bless you through your family, through your loved ones. And if you're closed off, you're not going to be able to experience all the other blessings that God Almighty has placed for you. And I'm speaking from somebody that didn't really allow it, and I've had to have such a shift in understanding, in identity, and this person that's talking to you now is a very, very different person than many years ago. And I'm sitting here in uh joy, in this lightheartedness and just the preciousness that my heart feels, and the gratitude that I feel, the appreciation I feel from Michael, from my sons Keon and Nevon, from my former spouse Carl, from my brother that made me laugh so much today, Reza, and Ordi and David Ali that I was on the phone with today, from my mom, from my uncle and my aunt, and my cousins Ida and Hiva, my cousin La Pedron, and my other cousin Tora, so precious, and our dear friend Masud that uh hosted the restaurant, and and also IFly, and all of you, all of you precious beings that have showered me so much love with all the messages that I'm about to read, all the text messages, and it's so much overflowing. And as I'm sharing this, it's it is so sweet to feel the sweetness, and it's and going into my 54th year with so much sweetness of gratitude and allowing. This sweetness to pour in me so it can pour out of me into my world, into my week, into my year, and to be able to share it with all of you. This is also the reason that you gotta celebrate. And if you have your birthday, I celebrate your birthday month with you in the month of May. Thank you so much. And please remember for those of you that were on our newsletter this past weekend, I had a gift that I'm giving out. So make sure you, if you didn't receive it, send the email to info at EssentialAlchemist.com or go to our website at EssentialAlchemist.com. We're right in the beginning there's a box. Put your name and address so you can you can join the newsletter so you can receive the email. I'm sorry, you can receive the gift. I'll be happy to send that to you. That's from my heart. It's one of the beautiful things that's going to make a difference in your life, as it certainly has made a difference in my life and my client's life. That's why I created it. And I also want to give so much gratitude this week for everyone that is a mother and mother. Whether your child is right here or your child is on spirit's side, that beautiful gift of a mother remains with you, being a grandmother. I want to celebrate you. Remember, this Friday, my special podcast with four female podcasters comes out. We have a lot of gifts that we're giving to mothers this Friday from that bonus episode podcast because it's dedicated to mothers. And I feel so grateful to share that with all of you. So be sure to catch that bonus episode this week. And also be sure to catch Michael and I on Thursday if you're in Washington, DC, as we go to the Emerging Scholars fundraiser event. We're very excited for this. Michael and I are part of the silent auction this year through Ascension Alchemist. We have each of us a service that we are offering as well as a combination service. And this is a really incredible opportunity to have direct experience with us, as well as if you're a couple experience it and you can get that through the silent auction, which we're very honored to take part. That goes to support these incredible children with their scholarly experience. So they have an amazing opportunity in life. So we have a lot of activity this week, and I'm so excited, and I'm looking forward to the joy that Mike and I are gonna share on our next episode with you that also will be released this week on Thursday. So this continuation takes on this whole week. I'm going to leave you with the experience of celebration. Where in your life are you celebrating? And where in your life are you not celebrating? Where in your life are you allowing, and where in your life are you not allowing? Is it hard for you to celebrate? If you say yes, why? Or do you easily allow it? Do you hit a limit then? Because there is no limit to the way God Almighty celebrates us. So, you know, allow that. Speaking of celebration, I'm gonna tell you one more thing I did this week. Michael booked me a Moroccan traditional bath, hamam, that was really great at a new place that had opened up at a really great experience. My skin feels amazing with this experience, and again, giving ourselves permission to be in these experiences because life is just a bad experience. If you don't take this step, you're always waiting for others, it's not gonna come to you. I would always take this step, and I feel like this weekend, because I take those steps, I choose to celebrate others and I really go out. This weekend, God Almighty really blessed me with others just wanting to celebrate me, and it feels amazing. It's it's really, really beautiful, and I'm excited to be on this side where I'm truly allowing it as well, and I'm gonna be taking all of this to my dream state tonight, and I'm so excited for this year for this 54. It feels amazing, and I know in presence of you, I declare that this is the year that these few things that I have put into motion really comes into past, and you get to witness it from the books, from the stage speaking, from the podcast taking off completely. Mia Michael's book coming out. All of these will take place this year. And hold me that vision in your amen, in your blessing, in your agreement, so we all get to witness it together. Because it's not about me, it's about being in this position where God Almighty can work through me and bring these out so it can help uplift others and create an impact of great influence in restoration of health, restoration of faith, restoration of that hope that many may have lost, and to show with God Almighty everything truly is possible. And I'm really here to hone in that message and remind you lean on God Almighty, let God Almighty guide you and walk you through every step of your way and experience the sweet nectar of God Almighty that pours onto you as a celebration in your life because you are a celebration and your life is a celebration. I share that from my heart as I'm experiencing in my heart with you on my birthday, and thank you for receiving it. I love you all so much. Have a beautiful rest of your day and your week, and I'll see you on the next episode. Much love.