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Category Archives: Mindful Living

The Soul-Sick

This little friend greets me daily on my walks to/from home. I think he stays inside mostly to avoid the roosters that run these streets. “And I will tell you…

The Street Tacos

Today, after watching the day break over the ocean, I’ve spent it going from cart to cart to confirm the best beef tacos. I found the stand – 20 pesos…

The Clear Heart

You’re getting all of the selfies because I rarely post them and I’ve hardly taken any since the hellscape of G@za began. I am at peace here, which is my…

The Dawn

What’s your favourite time of day? It’s dawn for me; watching the sun rise, more than seeing it sleep. Everything is quiet, and potential at acme. The sky is so…

The Island Girl

Even when landlocked, I have always been an Island Girl. The ocean makes everything make sense. Salt-water is a natural state for me, and it is to such shores that…

The Star Wish

I haven’t seen skies like this since California. This city forces you to look up, so you naturally slow. It’s an exercise in mindfulness whether you want it or not….

The Revolutionaries

This is the first sunburn I’ve had since at least eight years. I love it, and I can’t wait to turn toasted almond in a couple of days. A lot…

The Groove

Khruangbin was recommended to me and I haven’t shut them off since.  What is music to you? How does it shape your life, or does your life shape the music…

The Libra Tiger

I think very few people know of the metaphysical side of Islam. It’s where Sufiis are rooted, and one of the most important parts of my deen, for me. I…

The Kiss

Season 2, episode 15. New Girl still holds as one of the best shows on television, with Nick Miller as my favourite character. Jake Johnson’s willingness to make a complete…

The Necessary Play

I play a lot. All of the time. Do you? It’s my gateway drug. I find it weird when people don’t play. My cousin’s husband got shot yesterday while he…

The Three-Eyed Dog

I dreamt that I was becoming involved with some man who had a three-eyed dog. I believe it was a Shiba Inu (which I had to look up as soon…

The Dance

When was the last time you slow-danced with someone? It has been nearly 17 years since a full-song slow-dance for me, when we were engaged. More recently, this past summer,…

The Table

Remember this piece, which I wrote at the beginning of my new job with a crew of primarily men? It still holds, but let me tell you that too much…

The Home

I’ve never wanted an actual physical house, but I’ve always known that if I were to live in anything, I’d want a small little cottage like the one above. (1)…

The Tenderness

Isn’t this absolutely it? Made better still by the promise of what’s to come for them. This is by artist Nana Bruce, whose work I return to regularly. After the…

The Grief Exhaustion

Update: After publishing this, two Uni people on their first date came and sat next to me. Their hope in one another restored my faith in everything. Keeping this published…

The Heart-Full

I usually do this on my birthday, but missed that this year for an intersection of good reasons. This is my 49 year old face plus four months. This morning,…

The Lover’s Fetish

“Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absentminded. Someone sober will worry about things going badly. Let the lover be.” -Rumi Editorial Note: Originally published in 2012, I revisit this every…

The Vivid Dreamer Oracle

(Reposted from 2012.) “Oracle” is what another calls me, while Blue calls me “Vivid Dreamer.” Let me start with the women in my mum’s family; we dream. I learnt very…

The Love of An Open Hand

I promised to write this piece last time, and it’s been coming to me in waves – what it means to love with an open hand. It means to love…

The Love Revolutionary

Solidarity work is directly linked and reflected in our most intimate relationships. This world can be a devastatingly awful place, even though it is a privilege to live in it…

The 2023 Evolution

I’ve always been the black sheep – in my community, and certainly my family. I was the first to move out of the family home not so that I might…

The Middle of the Night Wake-up Call

There is an entire world of metaphysical magic within the realm of Islam, and it is where the hearts of Sufiis rest. We believe that energy between people links and…

The Lion or The Lamb?

Speaking with R (permission granted to publish this) the other day, we were discussing her presently extremely unbalanced relationship with her man. She, like me, since two months now, has…

The Witchy Senses

It’s Puma! Peter, to some. He was my male counsel in University, and we had some wild and hilarious times. Saturday was his 50th, and his wife (on the right)…

The Big Dick Energy

“Are you high maintenance?,” she asked over lunch through a relatively rowdy group. It’s a question that’s sat with me for the last three weeks. I answered as honestly as…

The Baby Cousin

Reemo Bobeemo. Nineteen years between us. On my way home from Uni, I’d go to my uncle’s to see her, walk in and singsong Hiii-iiii. It became her first word….

The Love Language

I’m on holidays as of Monday COB so hopeful I have more time to write over the coming two weeks, inshAllah. We went for a hike and a picnic, then…

The Deserving

He had a natural green thumb, and then worked hard to enrich his knowledge. He’s the one who was the first to learn that I thought Mr. Peanut made peanuts…

The Male Energy

She asked me if I’d ignored it. I responded honestly that that wasn’t it. But because I hadn’t considered the question before she posed it, I couldn’t quite put my…

The Leadership

The primary difference is that we respond to managers, but we follow leaders. A leader is someone we like, and trust, because whose following someone they’re not down with, or…

The New Year’s Du3aas

I got lucky enough to spend some of yesterday with two of my favourite girls ❤️ Heading into this new year, some du3aas for us all – Allahuma inni astakheeruka…

The Friendship Season

The past year has been full of beginnings for me, after a decade of challenge; this photo was taken on my birthday when I was surrounded by my family, and…

Guerrilla Giving: How not to be a self-involved asshole

I first wrote and published this piece in 2011, and it is my favourite one to recycle annually, so welcome this 2022 edition. The driver behind this piece is simply…

The Questions

Why did You allow famine? Why did You permit the rape and abuse of innocents? Why did You build rooms inside of which creation might plan and later execute genocide?…

The Being Better, But How?

She’s really a sight during Autumn, isn’t she? For some time, I’ve been trying to figure out how to be a better Muslim. What more can I do, in which…

The Friendships

My baby sister is in town, but I dislike all of the photos we took together, so instead you’re getting a photo she took of me, in my usual state…

The Loss

Two great losses in the span of six days. Neither expected. One with whom I grew up, and the other whom I had hoped to watch grow into an extraordinary…

The Caretakers

You can’t love a friend enough to do their work for them. You can’t love a friend enough to heal them on their behalf. And you most certainly can’t care…