in may i thought this summer would be time to review sham notes, spend time under the sun, read the things i have been wanting to read, ground myself in tradition. and so on.
ha, naivity.
i was at home through may. june plunged into extremes - outside physical work, i would get up before anyone else and work until i was exhausted, to avoid the deadening, circular, numbing inertia which still crept into my shadow. at night i would write far into the night, again wake up early and tired, the days played themselves out until i eventually crashed, apathetic and sick. ran a low fever for about a week, before canoe trip which truly was relief: i cut myself from 'normalcy', mentally and emotionally, did not touch pen to paper at all.
"nomads of the heart", i think i once told zacharia. and so i am rarely home anymore - first milk river, then calgary, saskatoon, home to print the journal/ stain fingers with ink, two book sales at masajid, and now to philadelphia for two weeks. as soon as i get home, early august, i am to saskatoon again...back to wuddistan for a few days, then to toronto, and then off inshaAllah on the shababcanada 'umrah trip, to return just before school starts up again.
but i think i have surfaced.
heading to amreeka soon. i wonder what it is like, if the legends are true. are there more fat people? does everyone whisper sweet words of solace to the gun they carry in their huge gas-guzzling fume-emitting vehicle? do red-faced white men walk down the street thumping bibles, screaming about devils and brimstone? is mcdonalds a temple where the masses go to pray?
..answers to these and other juicy questions in this space as i essay south.
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darvish and a mother from gaza added to side-links.
israel in lebanon. make du'a.
flickr updated, more to come in a few days.
