happy mother's day

to all those moms out there, happy (belated) mother's day :) i am still bemused by the fact that so many of my friends are now mothers!! i hope you were all spoilt and surrounded by love.

for a pretty detailed history of the origins of mother's day, as well as the variations of the celebration in different countries, click here.

i liked the title and spirit of the article, 'Celebrate: Save a mother' and wanted to share:

"Happy Mother’s Day! And let me be clear: I’m in favor of flowers, lavish brunches, and every other token of gratitude for mothers and other goddesses.

And because so many people feel that way, some $14 billion will be spent in the United States for Mother’s Day this year...

To put that sum in context, it’s enough to pay for a primary school education for all 60 million girls around the world who aren’t attending school. That would pretty much end female illiteracy.

These numbers are fuzzy and uncertain, but it appears that there would be enough money left over for programs to reduce deaths in childbirth by about three-quarters, saving perhaps 260,000 women’s lives a year...

So let’s celebrate Mother’s Day with all the flowers and brunches we can muster: no reason to feel guilty about a dollop of hedonism to compensate for 365 days of maternal toil. But let’s also think about moving the apostrophe so that it becomes not just Mother’s Day, honoring a single mother, but Mothers’ Day — an occasion to try to help other mothers around the globe as well."

life's first drafts

i came across a post on rewriting draft manuscripts the other day, and the following in particular struck me:

"It is in the rewrites that a book gets beautiful and worthy of anyone else's eyes but yours.

In some ways life is like that. When we first began communicating we babbled. When we first walked we staggered. Most of us study for the grades we get, practice the cuisines we have now perfected. Life is rife with first drafts, opportunities we refine and from which we grow.

...as with all things in life, the beauty is in the refining, the polishing until it shines like gold".

how true. and timely; i hate to admit it, but in many ways, i am something of a perfectionist. to the extent that i am reluctant to try things i may not immediately excel at. i am about to begin several 'first drafts', (which will definitely not result in polished perfection) and it is reassuring to realize it is but natural that they will not be spectacular, but that eventually, with some work and practice, i will get there, inshallah.. i can even look forward to the journey!

haiku: thinking of you

if i could stop thoughts
of you, would i, or want to;
what else would i think

potential writing

related to writing more and using new vocab, a close friend last night was enthusiastic about the potential writing inspiration living in india would offer me. of all the comments people have made about my eventual relocation, this was one of the nicest, and most unique :)

it reminded me of conversations with fellow cairene residents, of how the multitude of our crazy and unusual experiences in eygpt would make for fascinating reads, were we to ever pen them down..

indeed, the prospect of so much food for thought and writing is quite exciting! (what actually happens then is irrelevant at the moment.. ;)

prayer (and faith)

prayer, for me, seems to resonate most when i am happy. when i am smiling and the sun is shining and i am thankful to be alive, to be part of this world, that is when i feel closest to allah. in fact, when i am thankful, period, is when i feel connected to a greater plan, and when i am spurred to engage more in dua and namaz and quran..

this engagement and connection seems to disappear when i am sad or in pain.. you would think that at these times i would rely more on prayer, but i do not. i tend to be so lost, so distracted, so focused on my physical discomfort, that any spiritual avenues seem non existent. i need to work on this, to cultivate more control and discipline, to focus less on worldly attributes.. perhaps, i also need more faith- it is easier after all, to believe when you are happy..

writing my life

a recent (virtual) conversation about blogging as a means of recording moments and experiences, particularly so we may come back and find ourselves, spurred me to increase my journal scribblings.

it also reminded me however, that what we write now, about a particular experience, is not necessarily how we may remember it. does that make sense? theoretically, i would think that the two would be the same. but when i recall certain past incidents or periods, and i read through my journal entries from that time, i find that many moments so clear in my mind, are not recorded within those pages. and the things written about, particularly with so much angst, i can barely remember!! it would be an oversimplification as well as too much of a generalization to say that i remember the happy stuff, whereas i wrote about the sad stuff, but that does seem to be one way to understand this.. another, perhaps more accurate explanation, is that i am not able to write about everything i am feeling, or everything i experience, and so only the most intensely felt stuff was recorded. also, while blogging for me is a more critical and reflective exercise (i.e. i am more conscious of an audience), journalling was far more about recording events and letting off steam..

despite the 'flaws' of such subjective recording, i am very glad that i have my journals (and now this blog) to go back to, that i may relive certain moments, remember certain places and persons :)

shakespeare's legacy

i came across this list of movie titles followed by the name of the shakespeare play that inspired them:

A Double Life (1947) Othello
A Thousand Acres (1997) King Lear
All Night Long (1962) Othello
Catch My Soul (1974) Othello
Forbidden Planet (1956) The Tempest
King of Texas (2002) King Lear
Kiss Me Kate (1948) The Taming of the Shrew
Let the Devil Wear Black (1999) Hamlet
Men of Respect (1991) Macbeth
My Own Private Idaho (1991) Henry IV and Henry V plays
Ran (1985) King Lear
Romeo Must Die (2000) Romeo and Juliet
Scotland, PA (2001) Macbeth
She’s the Man (2006) Twelfth Night
Strange Brew (1983) Hamlet
The Boys from Syracuse (1940) Comedy of Errors
Tower of London (1939) Richard III
Were the World Mine (2008) A Midsummer’s Night Dream
West Side Story (1961) Romeo and Juliet
Yellow Sky (1943) The Tempest

i haven't seen most of them, so now i have titles to look for! (reviews and recommendations are welcome.) the list was in commemoration of shakespeare's birth and death on the same day, april 23. the author also wrote a post titled 'everybody speaks hamlet', which has a list of popular expressions originating from the play. among them are:

To thine own self be true
Though this be madness, yet there is is method in ‘t.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks
In my mind’s eye
Neither a borrower nor a lender be
Conscience does make cowards of us all
in my heart of hearts