hotmail revisited

recently i switched email addresses, and in the last few days i have been going through my old account and reading old emails. the ones i really loved i have saved on my hard drive.

reading these old emails was a lovely experience- i normally only save the ones that mean something to me, and thus going through the folders i found one letter after another that made me realize, again, that i have some really wonderful people in my life. i had this previous email account for ten years and thus with certain people i could actually see an evolution in our relationship. i saw the difference between the first emails that flew between us and compared them to the ones that were just sent last week. i found a growing familiarity; it felt great to have proof that that does happen.

i found songs that taher had written for me. i found conversations that dipped deep and skimmed shallow. quick one-liners from various roommates. declarations of feelings. baby announcements.

i found an email from the day saifuddin first said "mama" to farida. that is an awesome email. i found emails from meryam and angie right after my wedding and the words they used brought me real, unadulterated joy. i found emails from my dad and my brother and my aunt telling me to keep writing about my experiences in egypt; in their own ways, they told me they loved to read what i wrote. what better motivation is there than knowing your family is proud of you?

i was in cairo when 9/11 happened and i received outpourings of concern from friends and family. was i okay? was i affected? what was going on where i was? i was in thailand when the tsunami hit and i received more outpourings of concern from friends and family. ok? affected? what was going on? i kept these emails; they are a reminder of how genuinely people reach out towards one another.

i learn yet again: i have what i need.

call for essays

A friend and i are putting together a collection of essays by Muslim American women to be published in a book. Each essay must be written by a practicing Muslim American woman, either born and/or predominantly raised in the U.S. We are looking for contributors between the ages of 22 and 35 who are born into a Muslim family and claim Islam as their faith.

Please write articulately about a personal aspect of your life with regards to being a Muslim American woman. The essay should express in some way how your Muslim-ness and American-ness affect your life. This need not be overt but the essay should come from that perspective.

Essays should be no longer than 1000 words and will be edited for clarity. All submissions may not be accepted, but every submission will be considered. Please include name, age, birthplace, sect of Islam, profession/field, and anything else about yourself that might be useful for us to know (short bios are fine).

This is a project that, Inshallah, will appear across a variety of platforms, both national and international.

Please send all entries via email to: muslimabook@gmail.com

part of the solution

we saw "an inconvenient truth" the other night. after watching it, i cannot get some of the images out of my head. i fully realize how much i am part of the problem, and i want to make some concrete changes to turn that around.

at the end of the movie they give you a website to check out, www.climatecrisis.org. i took a look at it and found a lot of small changes i can make that will allow me to tread more lightly on the earth.

apart from the Ten Things To Do list they have on the site, there are several tips for making your home more energy efficient and ways of getting involved in the fight against global warming. there are several links and directions regarding how to get involved on a local, national or international level.

check it out. watch the dvd. get scared and then get involved.