Hello Spring

Now is the right time for picnics. 

Now is the right time to run and jump in the park. 

Now is the perfect time for gardening.

Now is all that matters and let your worries disappear

All you need is a walk. 

All you need is to look at your blessings and be thankful

That's all for now and pray for more :)

Meditating on Words

It's been a while since I wrote something worthy of readying or sharing. My vocabulary seems to diminish and my thoughts seem to revolve around the same issues. And all I whine about is about my study and my atelier projects and artwork.
Thinking of vocabulary, I've always thought the set of words we use depends on the material we read. It's all about linguistic competency. And writing is just applying this competency and turning it into words. I've always blamed myself for not reading enough books but as I grew older I still face the same problem. I use very simple sentences with very simple adjectives and adverbs; only as needed that at times I don’t know how to describe things. I feel I'm just out of words, speechless as you may say.


Relatively I'm a fast reader but I tend to reading more than one book at a time because I get bored and move to another book but then I do go back to the old book and get interested in finishing it. Or I have a new book and I can't wait to start reading. Through the last couple of years I stopped reading novels. I think the last one was Alice Walker's Meridian. I used to read the book while waiting for the bus or when I'm on my way to the institute of Arts.

I started to read books more about self motivation, management and development in addition to biographies or autobiographies. Previously I liked books by Latin novelist like Isabel Allende and Gabriel García Márquez. There's something about reality and magical realism in their writings that captures me. I've always hated history books but when it comes to novels we read the real story behind a revolution or a war and how it affected people like ourselves. So after stumbling on a lot of useless books and stories I decided to be more careful in reading, not just because it's a bestseller or making a big fuzz. I don't want to waste time reading something useless.

One of the best books I read lately was Sharon and My Mother-in-law: Ramallah diaries by Suad Amiry. Such a book that makes you laugh and cry by reading the same sentence. Make you close the book and think of this world and where it's going. It draws such a real picture of headlines we saw on TV and read in the newspapers.
Looking at the shelves with tens of books, I decided to read Sons and Lovers. I don't know what got into my head but I was a couple of days before my travel to Amman to get officially engaged. I needed something that I can read without thinking. And that what happened; I read while thinking to myself "this is boring" "this is torture" "this is useless and not good for me to read at such times." I left to Amman and left the book in UAE. Coming back I thought I shouldn't be a quitter. Morbido was reading the book again to refresh so I thought it's a good motivation. Everybody was praising the book; mom, aunt and even my mother-in-law. I'm finishing this book. Well I haven't finish the book yet because I read like couple of pages per day but yesterday, only yesterday I got what this book is all about. Maybe that's because I don't have a brother or a son, nor the clash of two different classes. But it was an agony to read the first part.

Another book I'm currently reading (well, I was reading. Don't seem interested with the last twenty pages) is The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, a self help book by Eckhart Tolle which seeks to bring about a transformation of human consciousness. Andrea Sachs from Time Magazine has called the book "awash in spiritual mumbo jumbo" and "unhelpful for those looking for practical advice". With every line I read I think I have to edit this book or write a reply to the author. He should really consider Islam instead of the mumbo jumbo he's lecturing. (Don't steal my idea. I hope I'll be able to do this project some day).

What else?

*mind freezes for a second*

* Mouse curser flashes*

*The rest of the white page begs for more words*

Na'a … no one is fooling me. That's all for now

I think I wrote enough nonsense for one post

Interesting!

Saw this and kept thinking of the last question.

P.S Keep the volume low :)

Heal The World

Everybody was crazy about Michel Jackson and how he was phenomenally talented in whatever he did. I wasn't to know him if it's not for the big fuzz they made about his music and dancing.

The only album I had was HIStory. It wasn't really mine but my sister was a big fan that time. It was around 1996, I guess. I don't remember much of the songs and even though he made a good material for news, magazines and gossips but when I hear the name Michel Jackson I only remember the good things about him; Heal the world, We are the children, and the Earth song.

Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me


Maybe the world would stop talking about if he was white or black, good or bad, Muslim or not.

That's all for now
and... Let's heal the world

Names Are Nothing But Words

"Our names,
How tiring it was for our parents
to find our names?
How long they thought of us?
Names are words
What's with words?
Our eyes are our own names"

That what a Lebanese lyric says

What these words called "names" have to with our own lives. There are a lot of personality analysis which are based on names, letters and number of letters but I never really cared. I am against stereotyping and it's just silly to suggest another way of to stereotype people, and according to what? According to their names? Whether John or Salim, Jane or Salima, why do we categorize people according to their names?

Isn't it funny that some other than you decide to pick a name for you to be called for the rest of your life and on the other hand it is used by someone else other than you and still that name define you? I've always thought at certain age people should have the right to decide which name they should be called.

When I was in elementary school, one of my best friends was Osama*. He had health problems and used to be very tiny compared to other boys in our class. He used to be in my team in whatever game we used to play, even when we played "bet beyot" (a game we used to play that imitate real life, where kids pretend they are family, neighbors and friends) he used to be my son or my brother. Osama's family decided to leave Iraq during 1995 and that's when I discovered he was Palestinian. The class missed Osama and I remember when a boy was teasing any of the girls we would remind him how Osama was friendly with us. We used to write collective letters to him but they were never sent, for he left and we were never able to trace him. I liked the name Osama but lately people carrying this name are being discriminated.

It's such a shame when certain names carry the bad images of the figures who once carried them, and it's even worse when other people who have nothing to do with what this name carries are being treated accordingly.

Juliet:

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name

Speaking of names couple of days back, a friend told me about the name Osayd, which is a miniature of Asaid (cub & lion) and was joking if the kid can change his name once he's 18 into Asaid, since he'll be fully grown. It was a nice joke but later after a couple of hours it hit me! I'm supposed to be a grown up but my name is holding me back!

I referred earlier what was my real name and to sum up the story it means a baby gazelle that still can hardly stand, let alone walk. My mother wanted to call me Reem which means a fully grown up fast gazelle. I never wanted to be Reem but the idea of me running fast like a gazelle and free in the wild where beautiful nature exists is very exciting to me now.

Juliet:

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.
What if I had another name? What would you call me?

*Osama is a name for lion too.

That's all for now