The Story of Life
Every one of us has a story. Everyone will stumble upon an experience that will result in perceiving life differently. However, not everyone will realize or be open to the change. Some of us will be aware of it, others will move on with the flow of life without realizing the impact of their life experiences. Those of you that grasp the change will have gone through a process of awareness. Allow yourself to accept and appreciate the experience first, and then find the courage to admit how life experiences influence and condition you to be who you are.
About me
I happen to be female, a wife to a loving husband,
a mother to two beautiful girls and a heavenly soul.
I’m also a Muslim born into a middle eastern background.
Being female in my culture comes with its façade.
Nevertheless, I could not be prouder of being part of it.
Many of you have lost someone you dearly loved. I also come with that baggage. I lost my parents less than a year apart, so I know how painful losing someone dear feels like. Like that was not enough, I was diagnosed with cancer while dealing with grief and a terminally-ill mom.
The series of life events after that led me to this space. A space where I can reflect and share my experiences.
I will be navigating through many uncertainties, having numerous questions on life, existence, spirituality, culture, religion, and how to be a plain human being amidst all the plummets that life springs to you.
About this blog
This blog will explore questions that I face living in a middle-eastern culture that are not easily spoken of and may need to be open to.
It will be my space to share some of the confined thoughts hanging in my mind for many years. It will be my outlet to allow my ideas and thoughts to be shared with you.
As I write, I try to find better answers about life, religion and culture. Maybe your contributions will guide to some answers towards finding the truth about what it means to be human and what God intends for us in this life.
Suppose you opt to continue to read my blogs, grant yourself the willingness to let go of some of the opinions that ground you (especially if you are from a middle-eastern or Islamic background) and allow yourself to enter a world of questioning, reasoning, and reflection without necessarily expecting answers. Consider how you could rewire your thinking from all the traditional beliefs that come from living in a middle eastern Islamic background through eliciting questions.
The culture I come from is more interested in information rather than questions and noise rather than silence. I hope this blog will find its way to your mind and allows you to pause for a second or two, to question our existence and take a step in to the uncertainty.
A step into the unknown
Taking a step into the uncertainty will feel lonely. You will find resistance from the people you are surrounded with. They will hold you to keep you from stepping outside the boundaries that society created for you. If you let them, you will not reach the wilderness, the place you need to be to cultivate an ‘authentic you’. How can you fulfill the highest and most truthful expression of yourself as a human being if you don’t allow yourself to explore the wilderness of your thoughts?
You never know the moment that will change everything you once deemed to be the truth. Leave yourself open to experience; then only will you learn, grow and find better answers.
Life will test you and may take everything you once had. Being born in a Muslim faith, I believe that God will take you to places you don’t understand to bring you to where you are meant to be. (When I refer to God, I refer to the one and only God (Allah) I believe in, but you may believe in a different version of God, or energy, or spirit). To arrive at the place of ultimate expression of your humanity, you need to hold on to the thought that your journey of pain and struggles is there to teach life lessons. The challenge is to find a way to turn your pain from your worse enemy to an ally, to be able to use pain rather than let pain use you.
When you try to heal from pain, society will undermine your healing as it tricks you into meeting other people’s expectations, and you will try hard to fit in. It’s known as ‘cultural programming’.
How can you heal if you can’t be authentic to yourself?
Share your stories
I want to share my stories in the hope that, as a collective human society, we can relate to them and learn from each other. I would have never thought stories would be a powerful tool to learn from. Interestingly, the Quran uses stories to teach us lessons.
“We do relate unto thee The most beautiful of stories, In that We reveal to thee This (portion of the) Quran: Before this, thou too Was among those Who knew it not.”
(Surat Yusuf, or Joseph, verse 3)
*نَحْنُ نَقُصُّ عَلَيْكَ أَحْسَنَ الْقَصَصِ بِمَا أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ هَـٰذَا الْقُرْآنَ وَإِن كُنتَ مِن قَبْلِهِ لَمِنَ الْغَافِلِين* (سورة يوسف، الآية ٣)
“There is, in their stories, Instruction for men endued With understanding. It is not A tale invented, but a confirmation Of what went before it,— A detailed exposition Of all things,
and a Guide And a Mercy to any such As believe.”
(Surat Yusuf, or Joseph, verse 3)
*لَقَدْ كَانَ فِي قَصَصِهِمْ عِبْرَةٌ لِّأُولِي الْأَلْبَابِ ۗ مَا كَانَ حَدِيثًا يُفْتَرَىٰ وَلَـٰكِن تَصْدِيقَ الَّذِي بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ وَتَفْصِيلَ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ وَهُدًى وَرَحْمَةً لِّقَوْمٍ يُؤْمِنُونَ*
(سورة يوسف، الآية ١١١)
I write my story as I experience life.
I have some good chapters, and some bad chapters.
I write hoping that my life story of ‘being human’ ends well.
I just need to find the strength
to keep turning the pages to the next chapters.