Inspired
Sleep escapes my eyes
And I listen to my inner voice
Stories unfold in my mind
characters emerge before me
as I write.
inspired
The plot thickens
pages roll and pencils break
with each thought and action
Things I could never do
My character undertakes.
Inspired
with hopes of what if
And what could have been
Inspired to be
to live in a dream
where things you see
Aren’t what they seem.
There are many occasions in our lives when we need to purchase a gift for someone. Some people are happy to buy gifts and find it easy, whereas others have a really hard time choosing something suitable. Over the course of my life, I realized that gifts are very personal and heart warming items that shine some happiness into a person’s day. So the question is, how do you buy the perfect gift?
Well, the first thing you need to do is to think. Think about the person you’re buying the gift for. Who is it? What’s the occasion? What does that person need. The best gifts are well thought of. They are gifts which are meaningful and which say, “I got you something you will really appreciate.”
Of course, you need to consider your budget but you can always find something right at any price.
You need to be creative.
These days, people are happy to give out gift vouchers. It’s the lazy way out. Once you’ve reached that point in your decision making, stop. You are not giving it enough thought or effort. Yes, it’s great when you’re gifting a colleague at work or someone who’s not important in your life, but best gifts are personal. You can save time with gift vouchers but they will be forgotten as soon as they are used. Why? Because you didn’t choose that gift.
Think of the children in your life. Would they appreciate gift vouchers? Probably. But you’ll end up driving them over to the shop and waiting for only God knows how long for them to make a decision. Whereas you could have saved yourself all this wasted time if you just listened. Also, you know all those toys they saw? They wouldn’t miss them if they never saw them.
Listening to a person and knowing what they want and need is the key to a great present. The best gifts are those which cover a person’s needs. Now if your husband/wife needs socks, by all means, buy them some just don’t consider socks to be their birthday present. This type of gift says, “I thought of you and went out of my way to get you this because I know you need it.” Still valid and sweet.
Knowing a person’s passion and hobbies help a lot. When a colleague at work comes with a new set of earrings every week, you pick up on their passion (or at least liking of) earrings. Now would it be redundant to get her some earrings. It depends. That’s when you should investigate a bit further.
With birthdays, people usually start to look for hints a month in advance. Wrong. It’s too late and the person will know you’re investigating. You should be thinking of the present in advance. An element of surprise is a great addition to the gift.
Conventional or traditional gifts are sometimes accepted and at other times they are not. In the beginning of your relationship, a box of chocolates and a dozen roses are a great gift. Years into your marriage, your wife probably expects more because you know her and this is also the lazy way out. Deeper relationships require deeper thought.
So let’s recap and continue.
1- Gifts should be personal, well thought of, creative, and satisfies a need or want.
2- Stay away from gift certificates to sustain a more personalized touch to your gift
3- Investigate in advance. Do your homework when looking for ideas and don’t blow your cover.
4- Hobbies and passions are a great place to consider when thinking of gifts
5- An element of surprise is a great addition to the gift
6- More serious relationships require deeper thought. Traditional gifts are alright for a certain time only.
When they say it’s the thought that counts when it comes to gifts, it really is the THOUGHT that counts. When a person knows you well enough to buy you a present that blows you away, hold onto that person. People who don’t put an effort need to be reminded that gifts rekindle relationships and shine through our days.
Don’t forget to have the gift wrapped and don’t forget to write something meaningful in a card.
Memories stay true when accompanied by words.
Surprise someone you love, buy them something thoughtful.
He stood by his desk thinking of the decision he just made and finally followed through after being so reluctant for the past 15 years. It took him 15 years to take this step and when he finally did, it didn’t feel the way it should. He wasn’t happy, he was ecstatic.
He looked at the picture of his wife and two boys and wondered how they would take the news. He didn’t know that today was the day. He didn’t know that today he would set himself free to pursue his dreams. He didn’t know that on his way to the water cooler he would deviate and pass by his boss’s office to inform him.
He stood by the glass door of the office knowing exactly what he wanted. Everything was clear to him. Everything he did up to this point in his life was clear in his head and he saw exactly where he needs to be next. He wasn’t emotional and he didn’t have a plan. Nothing specific happened to trigger the decision, it was just time.
Time. Oh how much time he wasted doing something he didn’t enjoy.
He had enough. He had enough with putting on his suit every morning and driving the same route. He had enough of thinking “what if” and “when will I?’ It was enough procrastination. He procrastinated his life for the past 15 years and it was time for it to end.
He always knew what he wanted to be and do at an early age. His passion for the kitchen led him to come back from work everyday and cook, regardless of the workload he carried. He only felt alive with the chef’s knife in his hand, cutting vegetables and stirring pots on the stove. He had a calling yet ignored it for so long thinking that his pay was more important than his dream. He planned to start a small restaurant when he retires but couldn’t go on one more day. This was it. This was the day he chose to change his life. This was decision day.
He knocked on the door and waited for the answer. He walked in and very calmly explained his decision. The boss nodded, stood up, and gave him a hug. The boss knew him too well. He saw him in the company’s last barbecue dinner and how his eyes lit when he was grilling the burgers, how laid back and comfortable he looked in the apron. He knew he would be losing one of his best employees soon and he was right.
He walked back to his desk and saw he didn’t have many “personal belongings” to pack. He took the photo frame, his keys, and mobile phone and started walking. He was never one of the team, he was always a guest that never clicked in. One step, two steps, three steps, he smiled. Four steps, five steps, six steps, he turned and looked at the office, everyone was busy working on their computers or talking on their phones. He grinned. Seven steps, he started removing his tie thinking how cliche. Eight steps, nine steps, 10 steps, he throws the tie in the bin and reaches the elevator. He presses the down button and waits.
The elevator arrives, he walks in and turns. This would be the last time he walks into a corporate building and he gladly presses “G”. He knew that this was the best decision he ever made.
نعلّق آمالنا صباحا
عند طلوع الشمس
ونتأكد بأن أحلامنا
تبقى دافئة في أسرّتنا
لنبدأ يوم جميل جديد
نرى فيه أعين أحبتنا
نشتاق إلى مجالستهم ونحن معهم
نشتاق إلى محادثتهم ونحن نحادثهم
فلا نرتوي
وتمر الساعات كالدقائق
لنعود إلى أسرّتنا ليلا
ونلبس آمالنا المعلّقة
ونحتضن أحلامنا الدافئة.
It was evident that her weight wouldn’t help her merge with her school friends. During the summer vacation between the 9th and 10th grade, she started to skip meals, count calories, and live on the scale. Her attitude was the worst: she never listened, stopped having fun, and didn’t want to spend time with her family. She wanted to be like the models in magazines. She wanted to lose weight so that they would stop calling her ‘chubby Chloe’ in school. She knew that she only needed to lose five to ten kilos and she would be perfect.
What is perfection?
She exercised and reduced her food intake to the minimum but the results weren’t evident. Her weight loss wasn’t fast enough. She only had two months to get in shape so she obsessed and started to lock herself in the bathroom after every meal just to get rid of it. Her throat was sore but she didn’t care. All that mattered was her image, her career as a teenage model, and how well she fits in school. She lost weight but couldn’t see it; she only sees “chubby Chloe” looking back at her.
By mid summer she was taken to the hospital after her organs gave up. By the end of summer, she was able to sit up straight in the bed and take a few steps. By December, it was evident that she learned her lesson. In school, she wasn’t called ‘chubby Chloe’ anymore, she was ‘bulimic-Chloe’
For those of you who are still faithfully watching Grey’s Anatomy and caught last night’s episode I am as shocked as you are. How? Why? Who? Seriously?!?! 11 years of great episodes, ups and downs, airplane crashes, patients, Neuro-surgeries, debates, heartaches, and losses, we are faced with this? Sigh. The story goes as the story goes, do not question the author.
Although some things in Grey’s Anatomy are far-fetched and aren’t very realistic (such as the cloned cancer Meredith took home with her), it’s still a fairly reasonable series to follow. It seems like it won’t last much longer but we can always watch reruns. Come on, we had the same feeling of utter loss when Friends was over so we need to prepare ourselves. We can always live on reruns.
Meanwhile, keep Thursday nights for your TV shows and the rest of your week for reading. Grey’s Anatomy shook us for the past 11 years and another type of Grey shook the world: 50 Shades of Grey.
So here I am, a couple of years ago, walking naively in what I believe to be the Virgin Mega-stores in Dubai when I see piles of beautifully stacked books. I walk up to the pile and, out of curiosity, pick it up: 50 Shades of Grey. Hmmm… Interesting. I think I had a mental link to Grey’s Anatomy and assumed it was good. The way it was marketed around the bookstore was ridiculous! They must have had at least 20 piles of 30 books each AT LEAST! The author apparently signed a GREAT publishing deal and the marketing team did a great job to encourage people to buy it.
Mental note to self: do not judge a book by its cover or by the way it’s being displayed.
Let me be clear about something, I don’t read the back cover unless it’s REALLY necessary but since it seemed like a great book, I decided the front cover was enough regardless of the fact that it was fairly ambiguous. The image of the tie was honestly very intriguing and it seemed like a nice little romance, it seemed to be the “it” book of the season. Therefore, being the very fashion forward person I am, I bought it.
Fast forward: a few months after being piled up in my “to read” pile, I talk about it to one of my friends who tells me that it’s basically a dirty little book. Everything she said was news to me. I was like a five year old being told that Santa didn’t exist and couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had flashbacks to the book store and how I looked to make sure people saw me buy the fashionable book, then I had a flashback to flipping the book over and thinking I won’t read it because it would ruin everything. Ah the many times I could have said NO. The many times I could have saved that money. And the way I felt about being a blind follower was just painful Then it hit me, what if I READ it!!! What if I started reading it and the confusion grew with every page? That would have been something!
So what did I learn from this incident?
1- Not every Grey is good, some Grey is bad
2- If you have a bad book, you’re stuck with it forever because you don’t want to seem tasteless for giving it to someone else. Hence, the book will stay in your shelf until one of your grandchildren finds it and will assume you had a weird life.
3- Spoilers are better than wasted time and money. Read the back cover of the book.
4- Don’t buy a book because it’s in fashion, but a book that you will enjoy and is worth buying even if you have to spend time choosing it.
5- Listen to your friends, they usually have something important to say.
Childhood is filled with great memories and hopes. The first time you slept over in your friend’s house, the first time you stayed up till midnight, the first time your teacher acknowledges your hard work and recognizes you in front of your classmates.
Hopes…dreams…aspirations.
Childhood is when everything was simple. When you don’t watch the news because, to you, the only news you need to know is what you see in your everyday life. When it was unforgivable if you talked back to your dad and hamburgers are not an option since your mom thinks chicken burgers are better for your health.
You hear glimpses of grim conversations about your far cousin who passed away from an overdose and you don’t dare ask because you know that you were eavesdropping. You hear about the married teacher who has an affair with the foreign administrator and know it’s a hush hush thing so you act all cool in front of her, not really knowing what “affair” is. You join the after school activities to fit in with your classmates and feel ecstatic when you get invited over to one of their homes.
Going to your friend’s house after school is a privilege. Having lunch that isn’t like the conventional one you have at home is an experience. And seeing their room for the first time is a discovery. You play “hair dresser” and actually cut one of your friend’s braids. Her mom’s not happy.
Then you hear of something grim like war and don’t realize what is really going on. You only think of the gas masks that your parents didn’t buy and worry. You don’t know why you are actually worrying but you do. You think of your cousins who have gas masks. You check on the safe room your parents designated and open the cupboards to check on the canned goods. Yum. It feels like a serious matter and you feel scared. You don’t know why but you pick up on the overall fear going on.
You fear monsters in your grandmother’s house. Your eldest cousin makes up stories and they haunt you when you go to bed at eight. You wrestle, you play, you get hurt, you buy a bike because everyone has one and you ride. You ride around the block and have the wind blow in your hair. You put up your hair in a high ponytail, go out to lunch with your family, and lock yourself in the bathroom when reading the I love you letter you got from the boy who sits next to you in class. And your heart skips a beat. Then your younger brother pukes and you go home thinking of how embarrassed you feel (totally not considering his feelings because, come on, everyone’s watching you!)
You run. You take tips from your brother who tells you to keep your hands open and push your head back so you run faster. So you do that without questioning his knowledge. You compare dolls with your friends and realize you don’t have the latest, so you ask your parents who buy it for your birthday. You cherish that doll for a year, and park it at the corner of your room with the other previously cherished dolls.
You listen to your parents shout behind closed doors and worry. It hurts to hear them shout. You don’t understand what’s going on but it just doesn’t feel good. To hear your mom’s voice change from relaxed to unhappy isn’t nice. But by morning, everything is fine. Your parents are fine as if nothing happened and you act like you never heard a thing.
You miss you father when he’s away on business. You enjoy vacations and going out with your siblings. You live your life without thinking of the future. All you care about is yourself. Your happiness, you simple requests, your toys, and whether or not you’re getting pizza today. And it’s usually not a worry.
You hear of someone sick. You try to find out who but no adult gives you any attention. You don’t even ask. You hide behind the sofa and peek at the movie Jaws and have your heart race at the music… dan dan dan dan dan dan starting out slow and becoming faster. You can’t sleep that night, so you end up sleeping on your parent’s sofa. And it’s the best sleep ever.
Then you grow older.
You realize that you like beef burgers, you realize that mayonnaise isn’t so bad, and you realize that overdose means drugs. You grow older and realize that the war that was in your region wasn’t in your country, and many people died. You grow older and realize your classmates won’t care what you do in your life, they are too preoccupied with theirs. You grow older and realize couples have problems and it’s strength not to show kids they exist.
You grow older and realize that sick person had cancer and didn’t live. You grow older and commend movie producers for scaring us (then end up watching some action or chick-flick instead.).
You grow older and watch the news. Grim news all day, everyday. You hear of car accidents, and realize that the policeman who came over in the third grade and tried to teach you that seat belts are important was trying to save lives. You realize he probably came across some painfully realistic accidents. You realize your married teacher was cheating and got caught, her boyfriend got deported, her husband made a scene at school, and she got fired. And then you realize the meaning of affair.
You grow older and see things differently. The happy place we called life is now more realistic (and not so happy). A world where cancer kills, racism hurts, and war destroys homes. You realize that the stories you read every night are fairy-tales and you can never be a princess. You realize your father had to go away on business trips to afford that doll you ignored after a year. You realize your mom was tired.
You grow older and you lose the innocence you once had with every step towards adulthood. Your dreams, hopes, and aspirations remain your dreams, hopes, and aspirations. You realize the world isn’t as simple as you thought it was, and the glimpses of conversations you heard were the truths untold to children.
The little girl loves to skip, dance, and run. You hear her little feet tread so softly on the sand and her little steps are everywhere. She goes outside to hold her pet duck disregarding the fact that it’s double her size and smells so bad. She climbs on sofas and jumps from chair to chair just to hear everyone in the house shout “stop!”
She seeks attention all day, everyday. She holds onto her mother’s hand (and leg, and head, and shoulder) with her sweet soft hands. A butterfly. She holds onto her aunt’s hand (and leg, and head, and shoulder) with her sweet soft hands. She does the same to her grandmother, grandfather, and uncles. Her touch, so soft, so sweet, and so manipulative.
She shows compassion to others. Her love for her family shines through her big eyes… and she smiles. Beams and fills the house with warmth.
She giggles, laughs, and dances like a princess. She wears her long Elsa dress and knows very well the accessories that go with it. Knows that it’s supposed to have a long tail and her hair must be braided. She plays the role so well and takes the issue seriously. It’s Frozen! Her favorite!!
She wants to go outside. I tell her she needs to change and she does. Gets her thin legs into her leggings so quickly “Let’s go!” she says enthusiastically. And we leave.
Sheer innocence while she swings, “higher, higher!” And I push her higher. She drops her slippers into the sand “My slipper!” So she stops, gets the slipper, and gets back up.
She falls, and tears run down her cheeks.
“There’s blood!”
“It’s just a scrape”
“I need ice!”
Minutes later… “Is it gone?”
“No, it’ll be gone by Friday.”
A few more minutes later… “Is it gone?”
“No it’ll be gone by Friday”
So Thursday, she falls on her lip.
Don’t grow up too fast. Stop growing and just be. Be free to play, be free to run, be free to dance. Be free, little girl, to play with your duck and your toys. Be free, little girl, to watch TV and listen to stories. Be the little three year old we love and cherish and skip over into our heart and soul.
Dedicated to my little niece: Malak. You bring happiness wherever you go, sunshine.
كوني، يا سيدتي، سواد عينيّ
وكوني، يا سيدتي، نبضات قلبي
فلا عين لي ولا قلب دونكِ
ابتسمي
فأنا أرى الدنيا في وجنتيكِ
ابتسمي
وخذيني بيدي إلى قصركِ العالي
لنجلس تحت آمال النجوم
خذيني لنعيش حياتنا معاً
دون ازعاج الدنيا
دون ازعاج الناس
لنكون أنا وأنتِ لوحدنا
نرقص، ونغني، ونعيش
ابتسمي لأرى مستقبلي واضحاً
ابتسمي لأرى ضياع عمري معكِ
فلا حياة معكِ
ولا حياة دونكِ
Bedoor Bluemoon 