What a time it’s been!

Part of me just wants to curl up into a ball and cry over what’s happening in Gaza!

And yet with the end of Ramadan, and the beginning of Eid, and the big party I had planned, and all the presents and the food and the celebrating, that just wasn’t possible.

Just doing something simple, like when I was filling up the gas tank, and the thought occurred to me about how simple a task this is, how easy, and although, yes, gas is expensive, I don’t have to worry about being bombed while I’m doing such a simple task!

And just washing the dishes, and having the hot water running, and knowing it’s so clean and I could drink it straight from the tap without worry of being poisoned, and knowing that the people in Gaza don’t even have access to clean water! And there are so many of them and they’re suffering so badly!!!!

Oh…the things we take for granted!

May God have mercy on them! And may He have mercy on all those being oppressed in Gaza, in Israel and the West Bank, in Egypt and Syria and Iraq and Myanmar and China! And may He punish all the horrible oppressors! Including the Syrian government of Assad, including the Egyptian government of Sisi, and including the group ISIS who are doing their own oppression in the name of Islam in Iraq!!!

Oh it breaks my heart!

And as if that were the only oppression in the world!!!

No, my prayers go out to all those who are being oppressed!

And a curse on all the oppressors and aggressors!!!

We hosted our big Eid party just this last Saturday and I had all my kids and all their kids and my niece and my parents over, and there was LOTS of food!

And LOTS of presents!

And my niece made these loot bags that totally upstaged the presents we had bought for the kids!

Oh it was fun!

And then yesterday was Muslimfest, a big festival held at Mississauga City Hall, where I was invited to do some storytelling.

I was on one of those BIG stages! And it’s a little daunting, I must say.

And Muslim audiences are notoriously undemonstrative!

It is so hard to tell stories to a group that gives you little to no feedback.

I knew I hadn’t offended them. They didn’t leave or anything, but they give very little feedback and as a result you have to expend more and more energy…

It’s hard.

I was absolutely exhausted by the end of it.

And now today, I can focus on laundry and cleaning up. I can wash all the toddler finger prints off the patio door.

It feels good to be getting back to normal.

Alhamdu lillah, I feel settled.

The storytelling went very well, despite the lack of reaction.

And I will keep on praying for the victims of Gaza, Syria, Myanmar, etc.