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Category Archives: Mindful Living

The Wedding

Paris • 8 August, 2020 Jennifer and Guillaume. But really. This is Jennifer. During my sabbatical, Jennifer’s home was my first non-blood-family home to which I went. When I was…

The Ramadan Challenge

Ramadan is (likely set) to start on Thursday, inshAllah. These past few weeks have taught us that nothing is in our control but our intentions (not outcomes), and our actions…

Day 34 of Staying the Fuck Home

I actually really dig it. I hope that you’re all staying safe and sound, inshAllah, and gearing up for Ramadan ♥️ Comments closed.

The 21st Day of The Covid Chronicles

It’s day 21 of physical distancing for me. I have only been out to collect groceries, pharmaceuticals, and to tend to my mother’s home. Like on Tuesday, the electrician arrived…

The List-Maker

A friend sent me the most poignant quote (thank you, J): “…everything we do before a pandemic seems like an overreaction, and everything after seems like drastic under reaction.” What…

The Hand Washing

I’m trying to write a long-form piece a month, either at the beginning of or end of said month. I think that because I’m having enough fun with Instagram stories,…

The Hard Monogamist

The following short reflection came up because recently, someone (I absolutely adore) asked if they had a right to articulate a need to their lover of early days. I realized…

The New

I even wore my fun lashes for the photograph. New Year, Old Me; may I never know where to look when trying to take a photo. It’s been a minute…

“Mistakes are the entrance of discovery”

As equally as I believe that we all need to be responsible for our bad behaviour, I too believe that almost everyone is deserving of the space to make mistakes, and…

From terrible, to v good poetry

It has been a minute since I wrote you, and for this I am sorry. I have read every single message you sent, and I thank you for your overwhelming…

Let them eat cake

He and I met for coffee at Elgin Street’s Bridgehead. It was a really lovely afternoon of caffeine and conversation, and I had been over the moon to see him….

Memories of Ago: To shatter, or not to shatter?

Very recently, I received some information about someone with whom I had once dealt. From a person unknowing about the involvement, so unadulterated, unfiltered details. The kind of information which…

Relationship Economics

“Economics is the social science that studies production, distribution, exchange and consumption of goods and services, and the […] choices concerning the allocation of scarce means and resources.” “Don’t make…

Waving goodbye, exiting stage left

A part of tomorrow’s MahaMonday column touches lightly on the subject of when we should cut a platonic or romantic relationship out of our lives. With my own Shut-Off Valve…

When I Self-Glamour

Ask my best friends – I have an uncanny ability to lie to myself and believe every single word of it. It’s how I delude myself into believing that someone…

10 year anniversary & Min Fami

Today is this home’s 10 year anniversary. Yeah, it’s as unbelievable to me as it is to you, my seven readers. Last night, I participated in my first ever panel…

December’s (not so gentle) lessons

December has proven an interesting and challenging month. From it, I am blessed to carry into the new year three life lessons. First. Trust only my gut instinct. Nothing, absolutely…

Allah does not discriminate (a.k.a. “On Bein’ Single”)

Editorial Note: Originally published on 2012/11/19. ——————– “Since masculinity is defined through separation while femininity is defined through attachment, male gender identity is threatened by intimacy while female gender identity…

The New Friend

I will write this in ten years from the date of its publication (14 October 2023). I’ve post-dated it because I wish to protect it. None can read this but…

Gentlewoman’s Rules (aka How Not to be a Cad – Female Styles)

.2.   Trust him. Unless he’s treated you in untrustworthy fashion, trust him. .3.   If you don’t like something, then tell him. Don’t expect him to figure it out on his…

31 Ways on How Not To Be A Cad (for David F.)

.1. Respect her. (Respect yourself.) .2. Don’t just text her. Start calling instead. Conversation is a lost art form; revive it. (Text only when others are around and you want…

Lesson #10: Balance is not just for Libras

“Once I have seen your face I shut my eyes to others.” – Rumi David last year told me that I, unlike any other individual she knows, has a sense…

Lesson #6 – #9: Don’t be a weirdo sovereign, and don’t confuse your bona fide with a therapist

Preamble: A has been in a healthy relationship for years. A loving, kind, generous, sexy, healthy relationship with an amazing man; if I am going to take advice from anyone,…

Lesson #1: Don’t stand next to their pile of sh/t unless…

Since a little girl, I have never been capable of looking at a situation and not trying to undo it, in order that I might understand its machinations. Unlike those…

Respecting one another, bridging the gap

There is a very strange inclination in the human situation; we default to exclusivity. Building bridges, mending gaps, shortening distances between ourselves is not an act most of us perform…

#366photos mission accomplished

370 days ago, I was sitting at Planet Coffee when I decided to start my little project. Randomly, I had heard of others starting such things but became anxious at…

Know-It-All: “She ripped my heart out of my nose”

Hey Prolific Immigrant, My best friend told me to write this because she reads you. She’s sitting next to me and wants me to start this by saying “she ripped…

Sustenance and the highest degrees of purification

Marasmus is a condition by which babies will die if they are not touched. If you feed them, and keep them clean and sheltered, and fill a bank account in…

On Suspicion

This article is being written on October 15, but I am scheduling it for publication post my return from California for two reasons: (1) I have a sense that I…

California, she reminded me

Already mentioned, this trip to California was planned some time back, but turned out, in the present, to be perfectly timed. At home, I have been challenged in the most…

Secret Loves

I remember being in University and keeping my then boyfriend a Secret Love. I now know that I was doing it because I wasn’t interested in him in the way…

Hartman’s on Bank Street in Ottawa is an asshole

Update July 2013: Please note a few days back, I found the girl and I gave her some peaches. Recently, I noticed that there are now (lovely and kind) homeless…

Balancing on Thor’s Hammer

Many of you have written in about Perspective is (almost) everything, sharing your stories about when you have been incapable of shifting to the left or to the right, backward…

Ya Fattah, Ya Salaam

For a variety of reasons, some rooted within my messy relationship with baba during my teenage years, others rooted in painfully challenging situations with men, I often struggled with trust….

On Regret

Short sundresses, broken straps, shit-kickers, unbuttoned shirts over moistened-with-humidity skin, and swamp lands. This is the imagery with which I am left every evening when I listen to the platinum…

“An Encounter With Simone Weil”

“Charity. To love human beings in so far as they are nothing. That is to love them as God does.” “A hurtful act is the transference to others of the…