MOOOOOOOOM!!!!

My mom and I stayed up all night stuffing ourselves with M&Ms and Kit Kat (She bought the family/party pack – y’know, the LARGE bag with lots of tiny M&Ms and Kit Kat mini bags inside?). Blissful hours of darkness. We watched Mona Liza Smile and a pleasant Bruce Willis movie. The thing is, both my mom and I are night owls. We do our best work when everyone else is asleep. And getting high on chocolates is our highest priority on our things- to- do list. We (mashAllah) are best friends, which is amazing considering the generation gap (although I have NO CLUE how old my mom is). To put it in her husband’s words “She is very child like.” That phrase depicts her completely. The only predicament is, besides being a night owl (and this could be hard to believe) my mom is also an early bird. She wakes up so early it’s not even funny. And today (out of all the days) I had a really bad night. And today (OUT OF ALL THE DAYS) my mom walks into my room, and switches on the light. Which –naturally- has me squirming in agony and reaching frantically for the covers. “Moooooom!” I scream. She’s walking around the room. I open one eye just enough to see what she’s doing yet allowing the bare minimum amount of light to get in. She’s putting her abaya on, getting dressed to go out. “MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!” I moan again, like a toddler. She giggles. Then she starts mimicking me. “Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeem” she says, making fun of me. “Mom!” I ignore her mimicking. My mom is the biggest teaser in the world. “Switch off the light!!!” “Nnaaa naaa na naa!” She mimicks my words. “MOOOOOM!!!” I yell, frustrated. She giggles again, and –realizing I was about to explode – she says: “Ok!! I had to find my abaya!” “Ok khalas you found it!!!!”I tell her, dying with irritation. “Na naanana na naaa na” She mimicks again. “MOOOOOOOOOOM!” I bawl. Sitting up on the bed, eyes wide open, I watch her roam around the room looking for God knows what. “NAAAAAAAAAAAA!” She mimicks again, really cracking herself up. Now I start laughing. She really is a kid. I was sooooo annoyed but she was making me laugh so much I couldn’t even get mad. My mom has this profound influence on me. And now I’m crazy. And I hope she never grows up.

We lose the ones we love

It will forever be difficult to come to terms with the going away of someone that means something to us. But you know what? We lose the ones we care for. Nobody can change that. All we can do is put it aside and move forward.

Once Lived A Remarkable Creature

I have a very egotistical yet universally shared desire: that in this lifetime, I might be so significant, so momentous, so valuable for someone, something, or some cause, that following my departure from this world, people will acknowledge my existence as that of immense magnitude: that they would declare: “Once upon a short time existed in the midst of us some exceptionally extraordinary being.”

Might of our souls

At the end of the day, this thought, this outcome that I’ve discovered, always manages to take the edge off my day. At the end of the day, when the pits of our lives threaten to overcome us, this single, particular and sometimes surprising fact comes to rescue us: at the end of the day, we can bear and tolerate much more than we believe we can.

I only want to obey you

Others say they love freedom
But I love obedience
Though I know freedom
I only want to obey you.
Willing obedience is
Sweeter than just freedom
That is my bliss.
But if you tell me to obey
Some other person,
That I can never do.
For if I obey another person
I cannot obey you.

Mother's day

Mother’s day. In just about every region of the world kids have been deluging their mothers with gifts – anything from classy jewelry, taking their mom out to a fancy dinner, or a great outdoor picnic, to little, red, heart-shaped gifts, candles or (in the case of cutie pie toddlers and 1st and 2nd graders who are forced in art class to fashion something creative for their mothers) cards and cardboard drawings with crayoned colorings and pictures of happy homes and “Happy Mother’s Day: for mommy.”
In Abu Dhabi, the UAE commemorated mother’s day by creating this amazing day dedicated to the mother of the UAE, and the wife of our late President Sheikh Zayed, Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak. I was told that there were fireworks all day long, grand celebrations and the longest drawing in the world painted by 600 school children as a tribute to Her Highness.
What did I do on mother’s day? I’m not even sure when it was. March something, I think.
Yes I am a terrible, awful daughter. My mom is either pretending not to remember that my brother and I have missed telling her we love her on Mother’s day, or she has actually forgotten (I bet she forgot). But here’s the thing (and yes I am probably saying this to cover up for missing mother’s day, but play along will ya?) WHY THE HELL DO WE HAVE MOTHER’S DAY? There have been plenty of days where I’ve shown my mom how much I love her without those days being anything special, but now I forget one day and I feel guilty as hell. We all show our mothers that we love them, dedicating one day a year is actually really selfish. Particularly when this day arrives in the middle of the week (not sure when exactly) when I was in uni all day, my brother in Abu Dhabi, and both of us virtually broke. Unknowingly as a child I did actually go along with this imprudent act of show your mom how much you love her (only) on mother’s day. But now I think: I love my mom everyday. I’ll show her everyday. And in my search for something to give to her (and explain to her that it is terrible for her to think that just because we’ve missed mother’s day then we don’t love her as much) this is what I found (maybe you’ll find something you can tell your mom – any day – that will cheer her up):
“A mother is a person who, seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.”
“I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.” ~Abraham Lincoln
"Some mothers are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together.”
"A mother is the one through whom God whispers love to His little children.”

RICHER THAN GOLD
You may have tangible wealth untold;

Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.

Richer than I you can never be -

I had a mother who read to me.

- Strickland Gillilan (1869-1954)

Mom, I love you more than you love me because you have only loved me for a part of your life and I have loved you for all of mine.