No matter where anyone stands on the carnage in Syria, the refugee situation in the neighboring countries is desperate. Women and children who are innocent victims just trying to run from slaughter. I’ve been reticent to donate up till now because I wasn’t sure of the people working on the projects over there, but with [...]

That’s what one kid said to me yesterday. She was in the grade five class and they’d actually come into the library to return books, but when their teachers hadn’t opted in for the Roses in my Carpets presentation, I decided to do an impromptu presentation for as many grade fives as I could fit [...]

We went to see the Confuscious Temple. It was in a very touristy district, lots of foreigners and when I stepped off the bus I saw a Chinese woman who was wearing what could only be hijab! She was so cute! And I felt incredibly homesick. And despite all my qualms at being photographed by [...]

I was going to write a blog post about how as a Muslim, I try my best to counter all the negative images in the media by trying to uphold an example of what Islam really teaches us to be. I was going to talk about how hard it’s been growing up. How at first I [...]

The weight has been gained and regrets and recriminations are slowly making the rounds inside my skull. “If only you’d been less of a glutton! You could have kept the weight  you lost during Ramadan off!” They’re telling me. Having Ramadan in the middle of summer has left me feeling quite disoriented. Feels like I blinked [...]

and feeling rundown. Must be that I’m simply doing too much. On Saturday night I couldn’t sleep because I was running a list of all the things I needed to do in the morning in my head. Sunday was Eid and I was expecting up to a hundred guests. I guess that would freak anyone [...]

I saw the moon from one of the upstairs windows last night. It’s waning. Reached full last weekend I think, and now it’s getting smaller and smaller and soon it will disappear for a few nights to be reborn. Kind of like how life goes. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the month [...]

The Arabic word ‘barakat’ is loosely translated as ‘blessing’ in English, but unfortunately the word blessing does not connote all the intricacies of the meaning of barakat. I’m no Arabic scholar, but from my understanding the term barakat has to do with blessings of plenty, abundance, providence. And it comes down to whether or not [...]

I took a vacation! A real vacation! No work, no laptop, I didn’t even take my watch! Didn’t want to have to take a look at it–which meant I ended up asking hubby and son every few minutes, “What time is it?” In hind sight, I would have taken my watch, but still…point is I [...]

It’s been a little frustrating that now that I’m coming to the end of the week, and I only have about four more days in the U.K., only one of which is a school day (Monday the 28th), that some schools are suddenly scrambling to have me visit. I have some friends to thank for [...]