The future is full of surprises. I think no-one can ignore this fact. You have your own plans, dreams, hopes, and expectations but then the future surprises you with either less or more than what you have been contemplating over the years. Am I right?
The future is a mystery and only God knows about it, and I believe that’s the best for us, humans.
Imagine how we will live if we knew what’s been stored for us in the future. Whether things go better or worse, we would live a restless life. We won’t be well prepared but awfully worried because life is temporary with its ups and downs. Even those born with a silver spoon in their mouths will curse their fate if they take a glance at their future. As for those seeking soothsayers and horoscopists to know some bits about their hidden future, they will be sacrificing both their peace of mind and money. And, finally, those who stive to live a steady balanced life will turn ashen white when they know that their life will never be stable.
What can be more excited than receiving more than what you expect? And what a relief it is to hand your worries and fears, about what’s coming, over to the One who knows your needs and plans what’s best for your life?
Isn’t this mystery such a wonderful gift to have dreams and pray for better days ahead?
What can be better than acknowledge the help, the support, the kindness, the time, the care, the advice, the lesson, the comlement, and the so many other things that we receive from others and that make a change in our life.
Isn’t it a wonderful gesture of gratitute to add some extra few lines acknowledging others’ contributions, moral or theoretical, to the completion of your thesis, book, research paper, or even to your life in general.
Isn’t the simple, genuine, ‘Thank you’, whether spoken or written convey much about your being grateful.
Things don’t have to be fancy or expensive, and words don’t have to be two page speech to express our gratitude. It’s our genuine acknowledgement of the part that others played in your life that matters, that can really express your gratitute.
Sometimes, I wonder how some people could be so cruel, so ungrateful to ignore and forget how much others have done and given to them.
Kind words are free, so why be so thrifty to utter any?
Knowledge, creativity, honesty, dedication, and talent, I was thinking of as the main qualities that would make a great teacher. Still, there was something missing, I thought, as an old memory of my school days crossed my mind.
One day in the last month before final exams at my high school in Egypt, it was also the last year, a group of my class, including myself, headed to the agricultural class. By the way, it was one of optional subjects that students had to choose and attend but was not graded. Wouldn’t it be boring to learn about flowers and plants only theoretically without outdoor practical lessons? Of course it would be, but what else could we do? We attended and to make things worse, our teacher was as dull as the lesson. Nothing in her features, her style, and her voice was relating to nature and its beautiful creation.
On that day and before starting the lesson, our teacher assigned some students to do some cleaning in the class while others were instructed to make some readings in the textbook. My friend and I were choosen to wash some plastic plant pots and as I headed to do my job, my friend volunteered to wash them all. It was so kind of my friend, I thanked her and went to the table to start my reading.
A few seconds later, like a captive lion that had just escaped from its cage, our teacher was roaming all over the class searching for her prey – me. Deaf and blind , she kept asking others about me as her bloodshot eyes searching all the faces in the class though I was sitting right before her. Then, the veil on her eyes was lifted and they fixed on me as she ordered me to stand up. I did, feeling my heart would stop beating. I had no idea why she was mad at me.
‘Why didn’t you do the job I assigned you? She yelled and I told her about my friend’s offer, and even my friend, drying her hands with a towel, indicated that she was the one who wanted to do them all. But our teacher was not listening to reason or truth. She screamed while explaining how I was careless, disrespectful, and lazy student. I burst into tears for I had never been any. It wasn’t my earnest tears that had thrown cold water on our teacher’s blazing anger but a sentence uttered by one of the students.
‘You’ve gone so far, miss. You know you shouldn’t behave like that’, said one of the students. The teacher turned to the girl and looked so ashamed. She didn’t approach her because she understood well what the girl meant. Both the teacher and the student were christians, and the first impression the teacher’s behaviour has on a class of both Christian and Muslim girls was her prejudice against me as a Muslim. A few minutes later, she calmed down and asked me with a broad smile to join her and study my lesson at her own desk as if that was a great privilege.
Could her new attempt overcome my shock and my hurtful feelings toward her irrational conduct. Never.
Wisdom that’s the missing quality I was looking for and I believe a great teacher should have it.
Which food, when you eat it, instantly transports you to childhood?
Have you ever tasted Egyptian mango? It’s special, so sweet, so juciy, and so refreshing. It always brings back some of my childhood’s messy and joyful memories.
I would never forget how my mother used to teach us a how to eat properly and stay clean when eating mangoes. Mango etiquette! That’s the rule:
First hold it tightly in your plate. Second, cut it into two halves. Third, carefylly separate the two halves. Fourth, put the one with the seed aside in your plate and hold the second half. Fifth, use your dessert spoon carefully, don”t dig into the mango as if you’ve never seen any. Sixth, spoon it’s juicy flesh bit by bit. Seventh, After you’re done with the first half, put it aside in your plate and repeat the same process with the second. Don’t ever pull the seed with your hand, just spoon out it’s flesh.
Phew, that needs Job’s patience, and of course most children don’t have any especially if their mouths are watering. Therefore, we understood the method, but never applied it. Once we got the fruit, we had a small bowl, we peeled it, and bit and licked. No cutlery, no etiquette. And, we ate the seed like a lollipop. Thank God, we had never made this- no etiquette mango scene at a stranger’s house. Mother always used to be in charge of the cutting process. Besides, we always were entertained by mango juice when visiting others- something like economically wise.
In my childhood, and as I was fond of this delicious fruit, and still am, I expected everyone else would be. I even wondered whether there was anyone who could destest this nourishing fruit. Many years later, I found one who finds mangoes disgusting both in taste and smell. ‘I don’t understand how and why you like it so much? It makes me feel sick.’ He’s always telling me and never eats any. Imagine, that’s my elder son.
Someone was commenting on the current events around the world saying ” Is it really logical that people nowadays are from the offspring of the righteous people who had embarked on Noah’s Ark. But then, what kind of morals did those who had drowned in the flood have?’
That’s funny but it also makes a good point.
But, perhaps, we should think more about Noah than his people or his offspring. How did he cope with mockery, hatred, and betrayal? How didn’t he give up building his Ark? Never. How strong was his faith? And how he made a new start and lived a better, longer life?
Noah was patient, faithful, and resilient. He had never lost hope, never abandoned his faith. In the end, he was saved while most of his people drowned.
Could we just embark on Noah’s Ark and do our best to live a good, healthy life on this earth?
Have you ever heard people say that your quotes is your second CV? Well, I have read about that recently. Does this make any sense? I think it does.
Our CVs are loaded with our qualifications, work experiences, hobbies could be added, and some personal details. Of course all information provided should be well crafted to support our applications either for work or studies. Besides, all information provided should be accurate and up to date. But, does that guarantee the acceptance, your being a successful applicant. Absolutely not. That could be for many reasons. The first might be because you’re unqualified. The last could be because you’re highly qualified. But then, the whole issue is mainly about qualifications – which, nowadays, are quite like a silver spoon in the mouth of the AI generation.
When you decide to include some of your favourite quotes, or even the most you like in any of your readings, do they give any idea about your personality, your life, your values, and even your sense of humour (if you have any)? I believe they do. And, that’ s how your quotes become your second CV.
That reminded me of the day I created a website and started blogging on WordPress under the title ‘Pure and Simple.’ I think it was around 2016. My plan was to write blogs that would have a simple style and a pure content. By simple, I meant brief and easy to read. By pure, I meant genuine – things that would be reflecting my thoughts, my voice, and my personality.
Now, thinking of my tagline I think it would be: Live a simple life and do your best to keep pure.
Is there any flavour, any type that one can wish for a chocolate bar and can’t find these days? Things have turned out just like Charlie’s and the chocolate factory.
Like everything, all commodities are available. All dreams are coming true these days. All the impossible is possible even in the chocolate industry.
But, isn’t that funny? We have varieties of chocolate types and flavours and still some dream of more. More to spoil children, more to show off, more to gain weight, more to lose weight, more to store, more to discard, etc. Have you ever thought that even the detained hippo in the zoo with his big full open mouth would never dream of being that spoiled, would never dream of a chocolate bar with a different flavour?
By the way, today I wished I have got a chocolate bar, a simple original one, to give to a cute school girl I’ve been seeing everyday as I walk with my daughter to her school in the morning. It was just today that she had the courage to exchange a few words with me before she hurried to go to her school. Her genuine smile and few words were enough to make my day without any fancy chocolate bar dreams.
Describe one simple thing you do that brings joy to your life.
Close to where I live, is a small shopping area. Sometimes when I go out, I see a man stretching his arm out, turing his open plam heavenward, and his hand full of birds’ seeds. A beautiful white pigeon is always the one that stands there to peck at the seeds from his hand. Other pigeons will be gathering and surroundintg them on the ground while pecking at some more seeds that, I am pretty sure, the same man scattered for them. It’s a serene scene that always brings a smile to my face and fills me with joy.
I usually scatter some seeds in my garden for the pigeons to visit and eat. Sometimes, I add some leftover rice or bread crumbs so they have a different treat. But, my little visitors are not as brave as the ones I see outside. I have to be very quiet as I peek from behind the window to watch them. Still, their sight makes me smile.
Do you know that the lenses of our digital cameras, phone cameras, can never give us the same joy as seeing and contemplating things or people with our own eyes. Most people take so many pictures these days, but none will make you feel as the actual moment they were taken.
Pure and Simple 