Talking to Shaz

I think that I’ve mentioned Nisaa a few times before; it’s a muslim women community that I started about a year ago. One of the most popular features of Nisaa has been the weekly articles, written by a few talented women, on a wide variety of topics.

We’re starting a new podcast segment on Nisaa, and we hope to give you a glimpse into our thoughts and lives. The host, whose blogging pseudo name is iMuslim, is wonderful to chat with and listen to, so I do hope that the series will be beneficial and enjoyable!

The first podcast features me, so umm, please be kind.

Read more and listen to the podcast on Nisaa.ca

On love, life, and friendship

More than a decade ago when I left the place of my birth, I left feeling confused and scared, but also somewhat excited at the possibilities, with hopes of amazing adventures and new experiences. What I didn’t expect was the sadness that didn’t seem to go away. I remember my first day at university, I was lost, overwhelmed slightly, and as I looked around at all the strangers that surrounded me, I felt completely alone.

Today I stumbled upon old, forgotten letters and cards from the friends that I left behind. I read them with a mixture of sadness and awe. I read them and knew that the the thoughts they held within got me past many of my fears and helped me find my smile on more than a few occasions. Sadly, I am certain that I have never thanked any one of them for thinking of me.

Eventually the letters stopped coming, we all moved on, we found friendship elsewhere, but I am sure the love and the memories will always remain.

My life in Canada has surely been awesome, I love almost everything about Canada, but there was never a time that I didn’t feel the emptiness. At 30, I am learning that friendships can last a lifetime, and no matter where we go and what we do and who we end up with, the people who grew up with us, shared our secrets, encouraged us, supported us, and truly loved us, will remain in our hearts forever.

(guess which one was me!)

Birthdays, iMacs, and the end of Ramadan

Hi!
No, I didn’t forget that I had a blog! I have just been so overcome with ‘real’ life, that I haven’t had the urge to blog, and also I was happy to keep the post about awareness always and the contest on the homepage for the week. I hope that everyone is being more aware!

My first born is now officially 5! Yay! I missed doing an officially 5 post for him, sadly. I guess that’s ok because he has become almost unbearably mean to his brothers, now that he has official “big boy” status!

In other, most joyous news, yes, almost more joyous that the momentous occasion of my first born turning 5, I finally got myself a Mac.

Now, I am a designer and as such, working on a “windose”, as the Macophiles like to call it, machine was my secret shame. So far the Mac has certainly lived up to it’s reputation!

What I did not realize was that it would be soooo cool, and fun! I would seriously recommend the switch to anyone! My kids had much fun using the built in camera and apple’s Photo Booth software.

It’s the last few days of Ramadan and we are trying to get in some extra prayer and meditation.

Eid is the celebration that comes at the end of the month of Ramadan and is celebrated much like Christmas, with family, friends, food and festivities, and this year I thought that I would share my celebrations with you. So, I am going to be video blogging our Eid live! Well, delayed live, at least. Look out for my updates throughout the day on either Friday or Saturday. See you then!

So, apparently Facebook ain’t all that magical

I had no idea that on the same day I posted about my love for Facebook, there was a Facebook sucks campaign in full swing! I knew that there was a petition on Facebook, and I saw a lot of breast-feeding photos, which were still there at the point in time that I checked it out, so I thought “yay, we won”, and moved on.

I breastfed all of my kids, and on occasion have even done it in public, once in Target even, and I completely support the cause, but I am a head-scarf-wearing, Muslim women living in North America, where Islamophobia is very real, where women like me are attacked everyday for our choice of clothing, where we are called terrorists for having a piece of cloth on our heads. Trust me when I say that there are no shortage of causes for me to support, and as much as I agree that what bill mahr said was idiotic, I cannot find it in me to become enraged about this, sorry.

In all honesty, I am emotionally exhausted, I cannot watch the news anymore, I cannot follow politics, I cannot even engage in conversation about the state of this world, it has become to much for me. It just boggles my mind that nuns are treated with such respect and admiration for covering their heads, but muslim women are ridiculed, called oppressed, told that they cannot vote, cannot attend school, cannot work, cannot call North America (where many of them were born) home… is this not unjust? I am moved by injustice like the Jena 6, the Darfur conflict, the freedom of the Burmese people, these are the things that stir so much emotion in me that I weep, that I gladly give of myself, that I pray for change. Of course, this does not mean that I think the right to breastfeed in public is not a worthy cause, because surely I do, and I am glad to see so many mothers and fathers make a stand.

So, back to Facebook and what I love about it, which is connecting with people, no, I don’t ‘poke’, or have a garden or a fish tank, or send gifts to anyone, but I do use it to connect with people that live all over the world, people that are not all mothers, people who are not on maya’s mom or clubmom, people that I cannot find on any other social network. You see, I live in Canada, and it is surely my home but a part of my heart will always belong to Trinidad, and I still want to hold on to those people who understand me, because it’s not easy to be understood.

I guess what I am trying to say is that in theory I am a “mommy blogger”, because I blog about being a mommy, but sadly, it’s not an easy group to be a part of, and in reality, I am just me, sharing my life with you.

Of bookstores & kids

As part of our adventures, we took a little trip to a bookstore (adventurous move for my husband and I!) and I just could not believe how much I really missed bookstores! The experience was almost surreal for me, I just wanted all my kids to disappear for a few hours so I could be alone!

I also found a wonderful brand of journals, read about it at the art journal blog.