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Condolences to Oman

“Good men must die, but death cannot kill their names”- Danish proverb

The leader of all Omanis have passed on to a better place, leaving behind broken hearts and a legacy that can only be called exceptional. The time, effort, love, and care that Sultan Qaboos gave his country took it to great levels, maintaining the softness of the Omani heart and kindness of their souls.

A leader who worked wonders, built, educated, designed, and overlooked every single matter of a country will be missed dearly. Standing proud in the face of enemies, holding the hands of his people, and listening to their every need, the Sultan ruled for half a decade through thick and thin and left with footsteps hard to fill in.

Throughout history, we hear stories of rulers and kings who let their selfishness take hold of the reign and who, years later, are always remembered with disgust. It is not only what the poor can give, but what the rich can. This man gave everything and asked for nothing in return. A great man on all levels.

My deepest condolences to all Omani people for the loss of their father, may he rest in peace knowing that he is loved and was able to establish a strong foundation for his country.

January 11, 2020 0

The Worldly Man

Atlas worldly

What defines a worldly man in a world where everything is a easily found at the tip of your fingers? When a worldly man decides he needs some information about a certain country or what is the best route to get to the theater (within context), he can very easily lift his phone and find out. However, does this make him any more precious or special than a man living his life experiences without using much of technology? How much knowledge should a man have in his mind to be deemed “a renaissance man.” Respectively, should we be respecting a “renaissance man,” or should we be looking for a man of one specialty?

Many people nowadays are boasting about knowing the world and venturing out to new activities but how much work does a man have to put in his days to know, really know, cultures?

I had these questions in my mind because I have concentrated on a great reading project in 2019 whereby we, as a group of readers, read books set in different countries around the world. Most of the books we read represented heartache, pain, and suffering of people but at the end of the year, all I knew was that I knew too little about each country. How can I expect to understand the ins and outs of lives when I am not with them? How much understanding can I have to the Afghans or the Iranians without being submerged in the subjectivity of the author. And then, aren’t all books flawed anyway?

Then I come back to my country, and how much do I know of it? How much history is enough to be considered a subject matter expert, when does learning end? Does it ever end?

Let’s take, for example, an average 18 year old high school student from anywhere around the world, how much does he know? Is he going to find himself in his first job, first divorce, or first traumatic experience?

We humans are merely a set of experiences conditioning our minds to cope.

Are we not?

Would we rather be generalists, having some knowledge from many different areas, or would we rather be specialists in our subjects of interests? Weren’t the geniuses of the past specialists, and therefore admired for their specialty? How much of an individual are you and why are we all trying to fit in the mold represented to us by the social media.

When it comes to me, and I represent a large number of people, I know that I am very comfortable in my place. I am comfortable with my routine, with taking the same route to work, seeing the same people, buying grocery from the same places, and traveling every once in a while just to come back home enriched with a few pictures and a few new words that I will probably forget in a couple of weeks. To me, I am worldly enough for my liking because in the end, I am content with my choices.

Let the nomads roam, I prefer to read my way into knowing people’s lives.

January 7, 2020 0

Mnemonic- The Remembrall

remembrall

Mnemonic

When Neville Longbottom’s remembrall turned red, he couldn’t for the life of him remember what it was he was forgetting. After extensive research in this matter (thank you, google and Harry Potter fans), apparently he wasn’t wearing his robes. We all suffer with our memories and try to find ways to remember important matters in our lives. People write notes in their planners, save voice notes in their smart phones, or ask someone to remind them.

Back in the old days, when we weren’t glued to our phones and weren’t able to access the internet all the time, school teachers needed to make things interesting for us to remember things so they introduced us to mnemonics. One of the most memorable one for me is related to the order of planets: My very easy method just set up nine planets. How applicable.

Along with some ridiculous song lyrics I can’t forget, the planet mnemonic was placed comfortably in the middle of my memory. Whenever I hear about a planet, I remember my very easy method and feel so smart, thinking that I got my money’s worth of education.

Then someone decided Pluto isn’t a planet. WHAT??? What do you mean Pluto isn’t a planet? All of a sudden Pluto’s just not good enough to be part of the planets? What is it, then, a tree? I thought it was a joke, something I overheard and wasn’t certain of its source. Then I thought it must be someone scientists were still debating about, that they will come around and consider it a planet again. Lo and behold, they didn’t. Poor Pluto.

A rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet.

Well, I guess my very easy method just set up nine... nothings.

pluto

February 11, 2018 5

Simplify Life

Simplify

images

Humans tend to over-complicate matters. We don’t usually give the issue we are dealing with its correct size and thus, in our minds, we are dealing with catastrophes all the time. Are you really dealing with catastrophes all the time?

A friend of mine once told me that our day to day issues are just that: day to day issues. We shouldn’t make a big deal out them, the real issues are those of sickness, loss of loved ones, war, betrayal, abduction, and all the bad words we think will never happen to us.

So firstly, be grateful that you have a place to sleep, food on your table, don’t have to deal with war, and have a healthy family.

Secondly, breathe. Spilled milk is just spilled milk. Losing a job is not the end of the world, you have your life ahead of you. Children fighting, shouting, having to get vaccinated is just a normal day in a normal life. When they send a picture of two kids in a car, both holding Ipads and still crying with a sentence on top saying, “still can’t get them quiet, first world problems!” is for you to take a step back and put everything into perspective. You have running water, some people can’t find water to drink and die of thirst.

Third, simplify your problem. After minimizing them in your mind, your son’s bad grades are simple. Smile and hug him, there’s not much you can do but fix the upcoming semester. Simplify his life to simplify yours.

We are all humans in this world and the extra baggage we place on our backs will not be with us in the end. It will not matter what your income was, only the smiles and laughter matter.

February 10, 2018 0

The First Week on the Job- Bewildered

Bewildered

deer

Congratulations on your first job! You are fresh in the workplace with many many many assumptions about what goes on. You’ve been chosen from a list of candidates and impressed the bosses. You’ve jumped through this hoops and finally got initiated into this wonderful place. Do you think it’s going to get better? Well, it can’t possibly get worse, right?

Wrong.

Because now the real work starts, and I’m not talking about the tasks on your job description (if you’ve been given one), I’m talking about the merging of yourself with your social surroundings: your colleagues.

Similar to your first day in school, there are people who will accept you and people who wish you never set foot in the company. There are people who will help you and people who will try to make your life a living hell. Well, welcome to the real world, it’s a thousand times worse than school, you can’t take a sick day just to run away from a test, and above all that you’ve got your career at stake.

You will feel bewildered, lost, clueless, and will wonder what you are doing there. You will question yourself, your knowledge and skills, your upbringing, and you will definitely have a little bit of inferiority complex to top it off. In the end, you can use the “smile and nod” technique, play the “strong and silent” role, or chew gum.

Smile, this too shall pass.

February 8, 2018 0

The Curse

via Image Writing Prompt #71

‘You have to get control of your curse before it destroys all of us.’

‘But I don’t want to.’

‘You don’t want to, but why?’

‘I want it to destroy everyone in this world.’

‘You scare me sometimes. Take the curse back.’

‘NO!’

‘Emma, this is not a joke, this has nothing to do with who you are. There are many innocent people out there.’

‘Are they really innocent? Once they realize who I am, what I am, they will all turn against me.’

‘I never turned against you.’

‘You’re different. You were with me since forever. You knew me before this all started. You knew me before I turned all weird.’

‘You’re not weird, you’re special.’

‘Scoff! That’s an understatement. Special are people who add value, all I do is destroy.’

‘Yes, but you are good for us humans. You destroy the extras’

‘On what basis? Just because the government tells me where to go and who to curse doesn’t mean it’s right. They choose people who are bad in their point of view, but aren’t we all human?’

‘Not this again, Emma. This is your duty.’

‘I don’t like it. I never wanted to be a killer. Do you think anyone dreams of being a killer when they’re young? I wanted to be an accountant. Just a boring accountant like my parents but this.. this change happened in me and there’s no way back. So if there’s no way back there’s only the way forward. Let me channel this curse and rest my mind, let me rest my conscience and rid myself of the source of all evil.’

‘Who’s the source of all evil?’

‘All humans. Thank you for being a great friend but it’s time to say goodbye to the world as we know it. Sometimes the earth has to be burnt to rise again and I believe I was sent to burn.’

She channeled the fire upwards, it cascaded a shadow over the horizon and turned day into night. People all around were scared, they didn’t know what to do nor what was going on. It was a normal day for everyone and then suddenly, this happens. An eclipse of some sort, a damnation. And then suddenly, fire.

January 31, 2018 3

Lasso

Cowboy silhouette

Silhouette

Every once in a while, he rides towards the sun. He rides to make sure that there are no missing sun rays left on the grass and no star switched off for the night. He checks that the clouds are tucked in tight and sings a lullaby for the earth to sleep.

He rides to smooth heartbreaks and delivers dreams of a better tomorrow. He slides them ever so gently under their pillows and plants two gentle kisses on their eyes while they sleep, the taste of their tears forever salty lingers on his lips as he caresses their souls into peace. He rides until the hooves of his horse become one with the wind. The view of man and horse turns slowly into a silhouette yearned to be seen yet unlikely to be caught.

And as the horse neighs towards the fireflies, he lassos the moon into heaven and blesses the coming day.

January 27, 2018 2

Back To Basics

Dominant

peaceful-warrior

In the midst of the craziness, we lose ourselves. We get caught up in the urban life and the shine of everything new that we forget who we are, we forget what we are. We forget our origins: where we started and what we’re doing in this life and once we forget our origins we no longer know where we’re going.

Seriously, who cares what designer bag you hold and what jewels you wear.

Everything builds up on top of ourselves, hiding our true soul away from the mirror. When you look in the mirror, is it you who looks back? Is that the same person you remember? Is this who you wanted to become?

Remove the layers hiding your true identity and focus on your core. understand that the craziness is entering from every sense in you and take it away. Remove the excess baggage that hunches your back and release your tension. Savor your life and utilize your senses the way they were meant to be used.

Taste. Go back to basics and taste the givings from mother earth. Look at the colors, reach a point where you can differentiate the shades of the sky and the subtle greenness of the trees. Listen to “white noise” you so readily purchase off stores and find its source from around you. Listen to the drops of the water, the laughter of children, and the buzzing of the bees. Touch everything with the tips of your fingers, sense the difference in texture and imaging yourself blind. Speak no more, reduce your speech to utter silence and balance your words on your tongue before addressing anyone. And finally, be here. Focus your mind into being where you are and breathe. Breathe out the clutter, breathe the mess, and breathe out the numerous ridiculous choices you have to make and just be.

Reset your senses back to basics, let your soul dominate your body.

January 24, 2018 0

Blink- A Mother’s Fear

Blink

blink

Don’t blink or you’ll miss it. It seems like it was yesterday that I gave birth to my first born and just delivered my second this morning. It seems like I was holding onto them in the hospital wondering how I can do this, how and when did I become a mom. Cradling them in my arms and holding on tight in fear that I miss a blink. Watching their face and lips and fingers and promising that I will always be there.

Then I blinked.

And here I am planning my first boy’s birthday party. You see, he wants a pirate themed party because at four years of age he can talk and decide. He comes to me with feelings and ideas and jokes and pranks. Wasn’t he just my newborn? Wasn’t I rocking him to sleep and trying to figure out how to put his diaper on? Wasn’t I scared to give him a bath all by myself and felt that great achievement when I finally summed up the courage? Where did that baby go?

Then I blinked.

And my second boy was walking and talking. He’s a funny fellow who imitates everything he sees and loves to dance. He too has things he likes and he too can decide whether he wants to go out or stay in (he always decides to go out of course.) Where did my baby go? Wasn’t I crying for fear of not being there for him, for fear of not giving him the care I gave his brother, the undivided attention and the hours spent alone? When did he grow up and what did he eat?

And now I am too afraid to blink.

Too afraid to miss a milestone, too afraid to miss out on a smile or a tear. I am too afraid to be unavailable, to not know what they feel or what they like. I am too afraid to miss out on the hours of the days that make them happy, too afraid to have someone else influence them. There’s so much to do and so little time.

How can I schedule music classes, self defense classes, homework, and fun time when they’re older? It’s all fun time and I barely seem to be holding on to my sanity. It’s all fun time and I miss them at the end of every single tiring day.

Oh yes, the days are long… sometimes much too long… much too tiresome but in the end they are limited. Create memories one day at a time and honestly, try not to blink.

January 20, 2018 2

Bedoor Bluemoon

Everyday writing to expose the soul

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