My sentiments exactly…

Thanks to Baraka

Eid Greetings!

I hope everyone had a beautiful Eid!

We had a good day. Usually I have everyone over at my place, but I decided to change it up a bit this year as everyone seems sort of tired from the month (well, that and the fact that last week we discovered MICE!!!! It looks like they came in from the garage now we have no idea what to do, and here’s is where the lack of a man in the house is extremely inconvenient! Ahem). Anyway.

My mom cooked curry duck and, I guess what you could call breadfruit oil-down except clearly without any pig products… she made it with dasheen leaves and salt fish… It tastes amazingly good, but I understand if your response to this is “WTH?!”

The kids spent part of the day with us and part with their dad and from the sounds of it, they had an awesome day!

I feel a bit paralyzed right about now, mostly because I don’t know what to do about the problems with this house. But, anyway, yesterday was good, and I am just a little tired of facing new challenges everyday, but at least life is interesting right?! Sigh.

Have a great day!

As it’s ramadan…

It’s not often that I post conversion stories, but do look at them. There is something very different about converts to Islam, and I am usually very awed by them because when they speak of Islam they have such love, and enthusiasm, and it’s like they’ve been given this precious gift… then I think about myself, being muslim all my life – most of that time taking it for granted… and I feel completely inadequate. But their stories, as with stories of anyone who’s been looking, or not looking, for spirituality or a sense of purpose and found it in a most unlikely place, are extremely moving and inspirational.

This was a particularly entertaining story, as was the speaker. His aussie accent was a bit challenging at times for me to decipher, but I totally, totally loved the story – and even if Islam is not your thing… as it’s Ramadan and everything, maybe you can spend the 10 minutes to learn about it.

Happy Friday!

Props to Maryam for the video link.

The great big end of summer and “dream-come-true” bbq

So, remember when I said that I didn’t have bbq all summer? (hey fasting ppl, avert your eyes now! lol)

Well, Rating/Shoveling guy read it and was very dismayed and said “don’t worry shaz, we’ll have bbq!” He’s like a thoughtful younger brother, you know, he’ll be all “ok, we’ll do all this cool stuff, for sure, yes, we’ll go here and there…” then in the next 5 seconds he’ll get totally caught up in his own life!

But, props to him, he came through – brought up his own little charcoal grill-thingy and everything. The chicken was good, but we made bbq fish, and that was OMG-totally-yummy!!

In other news, I am really sick of hijab/veil talk, but Willow wrote an article worth reading.

Happy first day of school Canadians!

“OMG, I’ll die if I had to fast everyday for a month!”

Oh, if I had a dollar for every time I heard that…

So, no, I am pretty sure that, unless you have a medical condition that prevents you from fasting, you wouldn’t die if you had to fast for a month. There are millions of people in the world today for whom one meal a day is a norm, and millions more for whom one meal a day is a luxury. Most of us who’ve had the privilege of growing up having all our needs, and most of our wants, met, really cannot even imagine how life is everyday of the year for those less fortunate than us. I’ll say that having to go through the experience of not giving into every little desire will change you as a person, give you new perspective, and most importantly, empathy.

There are over 1.5 billion muslims in the world, a number which has been growing exponentially in recent years, and a great number of us fast everyday for a month without dying. Some even able to do what most might consider impossible, for example soccer player Kanoute (link thanks to Leila), who is a really great role-model for muslim youth.

The fact is, fasting is part of most religions, it helps us to deal better with worldly losses, and makes us inwardly stronger. Ramadan is something we love to hold on to because we are taught of it’s blessings, but more than that, we hold on because of our previous experiences, because of how we know it changes us, because of the fullness and contentment we feel in our hearts. It’s not just “something we have to do“, it’s so much more, but again, can only be understood when it is experienced.

I’ll leave you with some stunning Ramadan photography (props to hijabman).