Happy Birthday Tarek

What a coincidence two dear friends’ birthdays in one month.

Happy Birthday Tarek and here is your gift … a special calendar for you where the 29th of Feb does exist this year.

Wala yehemak, celebrate tomorrow and whoever says it’s the first of March show him the calendar.

Also a due thanks for the EG-Bloggers group ya moderator 🙂

Read Full Post »

Happy Birthday Ahmad

To my dear friend Ahmad, Happy Birthday…, my best wishes and regards.

My real gift is a prayer to keep Lebanon safe.

And my virtual one is below (remember this ), I adopted it for you 😀

Update: Wolverine has moved to Ahmad’s page.

Hope all your dreams come true.

Read Full Post »

Insignificant Thoughts

1. Hiding isn’t easy, where would you find a shelter to keep you from those whom you have let down when you disappeared.
2. Separation is when you know you are very near but you can’t be together.
3. Eyes have their way of saying goodbye, and their voice is clearly loud.
4. Though choice is abandoning an option that might have changed your life, this change was never meant to be. All the roads lead to only one way … Destiny.
5. Differences aren’t there to create disputes; they enrich one’s soul, make us in a way complete each other and add a flavor to life.
6. I am very content with the second chances I had as well the ones that I haven’t.
7. Why would we regret losing something we have never celebrated having in the first place?
8. Being solid isn’t being strong; Ice is solid, but hold a cube for a minute in your hand and see what would be left.
9. Solidness isn’t a trait it’s a state.
10. In my country, there are no wars, and yet its people don’t live in peace.

Previous thoughts

Read Full Post »

Once upon a time

She was a character in a big book that was kept closed, untouched for years. Till one day she decided to become a real girl and get out of this book, like Pinocchio, she heard about him as one of the characters told her about him when she was just some words in the book. She didn’t think she was real enough being locked in the book.

She remained for years thinking and collecting her inner strength till one day she made it. She came out, looked around and found herself in a house just similar to the one in she used to live in the book.

Everything was exactly the same except that they were just black letters typed on white pages, that her imagination has colored the way they were in reality.
While surfing the room with her eyes, she found a mirror, she ran to see her reflected picture and that was the only thing that she has never visualized.
She didn’t have a clear perception of what is beautiful and what isn’t.
Words were different, there were long or short, difficult or easy, correct or wrongly typed…

She used to see colors within the black and white world she used to live in, so colors were not a new concept to her heart as it has been to her sight sense.
She was also able to see shapes and to feel everything, the seasons, the light and love.

She noticed a big library in the room with a considerable number of nicely organized set of books; she looked at them with sympathy rather than pity and imagined the imprisoned characters inside them, wondered if she can liberate them.

She grabbed a book opened the first page to see how the story starts and to her surprise, it didn’t begin with “once upon a time”.
She thought all the books are stories and all the stories are fairy tales.

She continued flipping the pages, reading a page after another, peeked at the end and didn’t find “lived happily ever after”.
It was a whole new meaning to her to realize that not all books are about prince and princesses, to find deeper and diversified meanings and learn them.
She checked another book and another book and another till she fell asleep.

The next morning, she got this idea of reading the book she came from, the other characters as well as hers, she was so curious to know whether she was a leading character, or just a secondary role with a marginal significance.

She started reading again, holding her breath, and got extremely thrilled when she found it was a story, and it began with “Once upon a time”. She also discovered that she was among the main characters. She had a great deal of love in her heart to the others and was loved and appreciated in return.

She continued reading very hastly as if her eyes were racing the words and the lines. She was anxious to see if there were princes and princesses like the classic stories. There were shadows of the noble, genuine knights but were all just illusions.

She was looking for a man of her dreams and he was never a prince nor a shepherd, he was a courageous loving knight.
The day flew with no trace of such a knight and almost half the book was over.
She put the book aside and wondered how the rest of the story would be.
Will she find him or won’t she.

Deep down, she so wanted to find him. Wanted the story to be a fairy tale and the end would be “they lived happily ever after.

She got scared, managed to read some more pages till she could no longer see the words, as if they have converted into another language or other symbols with no meaning the lines started to collapse and what was left … just white pages with black spots all over.

She tried to find an explanation but was finally convinced that it’s good once in a while to sit, review, and analyze one’s life, see the big picture from a distance.

At this very moment she could see that this book is life, she took a deep breath, jumped and sank into the book once again to be able to live it and no matter what the end will be, she will be happy and content that she has lived it.

Read Full Post »

What time is it? Me time

Even if it will last for minutes. I have to start practicing this new approach. Some selfishness might help I believe.

 I want to put myself first and show it.
 I want to talk and say “I” a lot, not the egoistic way but to create a place for myself in the front lines.
 I won’t be the one who is left behind.
 I want to make it a clear statement that I do EXIST.
 I won’t be a victim, won’t sacrifice even the slightest things, my time and my life will have to be respected.
 I am responsible enough and I know what are my duties as well as my rights.

From experience If I won’t do that, no one will.

Rights have to be earned and never granted.

So here I am having my breakfast oats meal, working, and writing.
Preparing a claim for the stationary that I have been purchasing on my expense.
Preparing the other request to have a mobile line as I am entitled to and collect my allowance that I never received.

Money has been a sensitive issue to me even when I was young, didn’t like to ask mom or dad for money. My mom used to go and leave me my allowance in my room or in my hand bag to save me the embarrassment. Still she does that when she feels I am running out of money. She is a wonderful mom, she still treats us as her baby girls.

Anyways, I believe that modesty is key. meaning that there is always a mid way between the two extremes.

Here is a secret: after writing this post, I don’t feel comfortable seeing the “I” commencing the six bullet points.

Read Full Post »

Undo

Why do you suddenly jump off your chair and click undo?
It’s simply because you realized you made a mistake or something that you would regret and wish it has never been done.
So that’s what I did …
I was just the cursor that went, pointed at undo …and instead of waiting to be clicked, I did the job myself as that was about to be done anyways.
I did it to make someone much more comfortable, out of care and purely good intensions.
I wanted to leave him the space he wanted with sincerely no hard feelings.
To this person, believe me it’s fine, people are different and I accept and respect differences, thanks for making things clear.
And sorry I couldn’t keep my promise, felt there will be a message for me and I was right.
Wishing you all the best in what you are doing.

Read Full Post »

The real me

You look at me and see the girl
Who lives inside the golden world
But don’t believe
That’s all there is to see
You’ll never know the real me

She smiles through a thousand tears
And harbours adolescent fears
She dreams of all
That she can never be
She wades in insecurity
And hides herself inside of me

Don’t say she takes it all for granted
I’m well aware of all I have
Don’t think that I am disenchanted
Please understand

It seems as though I’ve always been

Somebody outside looking in
Well, here I am for all of them to bleed
But they can’t take my heart from me
And they can’t bring me to my knees
They’ll never know the real me

Lyrics of Looking in song: I love it.

Read Full Post »

What a week!

It was a draining week, despite the fact that it was peaceful at work since my boss is traveling. But on the personal front it wasn’t.
I wasn’t feeling well since Monday, just ignored it and carried on.
On Tuesday something really made me sad, but this is life and everything should be expected.
Anyhow, yesterday was valentine’s, got up to find a message from Engy saying “single bells, single bells … ” hilarious, isn’t it.
Still being single on valentine’s can be fun too, have you heard about “singles parties” it was this year’s trend. Seems there were a lot of singles who decided to revolt and enjoy.
I was invited to another kind of party; it was my cousin’s katb ketab celebration (she got married yesterday). I missed the official part at the mosque, but went to the party at her place, it was so much fun although I was too exhausted, I tried my best just to look ok, and still my grand mother kept telling me that I lost so much weight, I got used to hearing that, I believe I can weigh like 50 kilos now. Don’t care…
Apart from that we laughed and danced, it was so beautiful.
Went home and decided to turn my mobile off and sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
Got up today at 11:30, stayed home and surrendered finally to the flu.
I am so tired, cold with a headache and a running nose, kept resisting but then totally collapsed.

Note: this word does hurt please be wise using it “REGRET”.

Read Full Post »

The last and never found piece

The last and never found piece

Puzzle is one of my favorite games, I see some similarity putting the pieces together to form one picture and getting to know someone.

In the sense that some people are easy to comprehend and have a full picture of who they are and others who have like thousand pieces that you might not have neither the time nor the effort to see what they will turn out to be in the end.

The most difficult kinds of that human puzzles are those ones in disguise, yes, they look and act something that they are not. So whenever you grab a piece and put it where it should belong, you surprisingly see that it fits but the picture doesn’t match.., it gets more and more distorted and you get confused with it.

It’s very common to know someone only from the phone or emails, at work for instance when dealing with some other branches in may be other countries.

Or knowing people from their writings; reading their thoughts and ideas in their blogs, still it’s just one side, the other sides will always remain unknown.
Even more the revealed side might be hidden in reality and that’s why the only place for it to get liberated is expressing it in writing.

The common mistakes usually are, forgetting the main objective of collecting the pieces… that is to see the picture, just to know what it’s like not to assess or judge it. We all overlook that fact to the extent that we often try to interfere with the picture and try to change it.
Another thing, there will always be missing pieces, no one knows the whole truth but Allah.

In the end, life is a place where we are supposed to work to earn, plant to eat, and think to understand.

Read Full Post »

Coincidence

“Message in a bottle”, the original name of my blog, my first post and that intriguing idea of an old sad but full of hope practice I am totally fascinated with.
Today I coincidently found this bog and read that post “Blog Remembered”
Didn’t know the someone else has thrown his thoughts and hoped to be discovered and read.

The interesting thing in that particular blog that the comments are not activated, so I wondered… how would he know if someone has seen his message ? … may be the counter, may be he doesn’t want them to be discovered, or he doesn’t believe they will be discovered…

Walked out this morning
Dont believe what I saw
A hundred billion bottles
Washed up on the shoreSeems
Im not alone in being alone
A hundred billion castaways
Looking for a home

Now these words are making sense, seems there are a lot of messages waiting to be discovered.

Note: I don’t know the writer or the owner of that blog, but I am aplologizing if I am

Read Full Post »

Valentine’s day: 10 days away :)

One of the undeniable features of February, it’s nice I can’t argue… to see the store displays elegantly covered with red, it radiates warmth over the grey cold winter.
Tulips , roses… . , surprises, bears and gift boxes.

Despite the fact that this particular day has no significant to me, but it’s an opportunity to see something special.

Last year, I got the weirdest present … I received a phone call from “A” urging to leave me something at the company’s security office, I said sure you can. Couldn’t stop thinking and imagining.
Till he showed up and gave me “Dark City” movie on DVD, unwrapped and in a broken case… ?!!! (It didn’t upset me, in fact I found it funny… but sure we no longer talk :D)

Note to the guys: please wrap the gifts nicely… it’s as much important as the gift itself, get something simple, elegant and symbolic. (don’t spend a lot, think a lot).

Wonderful wishes to you all 😀

Read Full Post »

War Ethics in Islam

When `Umar, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the second Caliph, drove the Roman legions out of Jerusalem, the Muslims were welcomed as liberators.

Even though the Muslims had conquered the land, they were not allowed to look upon the inhabitants of the land as their enemies. Their enemies were only the Romans who had aggressed against them.

When `Umar entered Jerusalem as a conqueror, he came humbly and instead of dictating harsh terms to the people, brought a treaty that guaranteed the people of Jerusalem, who were predominantly Christian, their safety and freedom from all persecution.

The following is from the treaty that he drafted for them:

“This is what `Umar, the Commander of the Faithful, grants to the people in peace. He grants them the safety of their persons, their churches, and their crosses… their churches will not be shut down nor destroyed. Nothing will be taken from them or from their crosses. They will not be compelled to abandon their faith nor shall any one of them be abused.”

Continue reading:
http://www.islamonline.com/cgi-bin/news_service/spot_full_story.asp?service_id=631

http://www.islamonline.com/cgi-bin/news_service/spot_full_story.asp?service_id=786

Read Full Post »