A new dawn and a new day does describe my morning. I do know that I have experienced this sense of elation before and written about it. I will not use the search engine of the blog to confirm this.
Much to my surprise there were 50 (fifty) entries. My goodness. I have been writing this blog for over seven years – there have been many dawns during that period of time. However, this does seem to be a large number of, shall we say, epiphanies.
There are several definitions of epiphany, this describes what I am talking about: a moment of sudden revelation or insight. This seems to happen with me again and again and again.
My life can turn upside down in a moment, then right itself, than turn upside down again. Turn upside down is an idiom, meaning to change completely, but in.a bad way. Very recently, for me, it has not been in a bad way. There is a Zen saying “the world is upside down.” It means the way we look at the world is actually the complete opposite of what it really is. Sometimes that can be true.
Yesterday morning began in the strangest way, today began in another very unusual fashion, switching back to the day before. I will go on to explain what I mean, illustrated by photos, and an Instagram reel.
My Intended went missing. Did not hear from him for some time. Yesterday morning, immediately following Fajr prayer I looked at my iPhone to find a message from him. The message was accompanied by four or five photographs. The message was that he was in wifi never-never land, with cement. The photographs were believable. One could not make that stuff up as you will see. So he said he would FaceTime me when he got to his ‘resting place’
.A ‘resting place’ is either a place you can stay and rest, usually for a short period of time OR a place where a dead person is buried, their final resting place. I guess it was the second definition because I never heard from him. Hahaha
Oh well. The next morning I woke up to a completely different picture. For some unknown, and unknowable, reason I went to Instagram immediately following Fajr prayer. I have been ignoring Instagram – took an Instagram recess during Ramadan. Loved the recess, it is no longer central of my existence. (By the way, that is the purpose of Ramadan – to make our Creator central to our lives and everything else peripheral.)
Here is a link to this inspiring message. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6MX6vggb9x/?igsh=MWtnMXNqZGhvcmF6dA==.
Yesterday morning, upon first listening, I sobbed.. This morning, no sobbing but rational thinking. Just like the Gaza psychologist I have lost my entire family, they are all gone – death or desertion. Allah (SWT) came to me, just as the Qatar authorities came to her – offering her a new role, giving her hope. She became a surrogate mother to the orphaned injured children. I have served in that capacity in Abu Dhabi, in Edmonton, here in Saudi Arabia. Lonely expats attach themselves to me – I bring them temporary comfort, sparks of joy and enthusiasm. It makes me happy and them happy. The blog is full of such comments. I move on, sometimes return. I shall never forget a comment made by an Bahrain Ritz employee in early January.
He: When you leave this hotel you will take the joy with you.
Truthfully, I was not happy to hear those words. However, tomorrow, I. like General McArthur, shall return. Spread the joy for some time – leave again. This time leaving Bahrain for Malaysia.
This morning I WhatsApped Noor.
Me: Will you teach me how to tie a hijab when I am with you? Yours look SO nice.
She sent a photo with a perfect pink hijab.
She: Like this?
Me: Yes! Exactly.
This morning I gazed at the sunrise, knowing I would soon be saying goodbye to Kohbar. I leave here without regret. I have milked Kohbar dry which means to to take or use up everything from. Obviously have not used up everything Kohbar has to offer, but I have used up everything that is useful in my life. If something is miked out then you get as much money or information out of someone or something as possible, often in an unfair or dishonest way.
I was neither unfair nor dishonest. I do not think I took advantage of Kohbar. When I first arrived thought that Ithra was the answer to all of my dreams. I spent many hours there, in different capacities. But found it was not the answer to my dreams, for various reasons. Not sure an analysis of the question of why is necessary at this time. Ithra is flawed, everything in life is flawed. That is the reason there is a Jannah. But at the time, in the beginning and in the middle, Ithra supplied hope, optimism, met SO many interesting people, saw so many interesting things, participated in great events.
I left my mark here in Kohbar – this will be discussed in a later blog when more information is obtained and things play themselves out.
Yesterday afternoon received more images from Praiseworthy. I have problems with the pronunciation of Arabic words and names, so have cleverly devised a new way to name and distinguish them – call them by the English meaning of their name. It is working for me, probably not for them, but who cares? Hahaha
Praiseworthy went from Cement Guy to this
He: I’m back. Back in Kano. The Prince of Kano is getting married. My best friend from high school and guess what!!!!
I guessed but got all the guesses wrong.
Me: Is going to be double wedding with you and me???
Me: You are going to be the wedding photographer???
The correct answer was.
He: This is me. Giving a speech.
Me: WOW! You look like a celebrity and look at the watch. It is perfect!!!
Then he disappeared, saying later telling me he was navigating though the palace.
Me: That is WOW. My grandparents lived in a tar paper shack when they first came to Saskatchewan.
He: What is a tar paper shack?
I endeavored to explain it him. I am sure he could not comprehend this level of poverty.
Our friendship is so extraordinary. Look some of its synonyms, take them in, amazing,, astounding, marvelous incredible, unbelievable, miraculous, spectacular; striking, outstanding, momentous, impressive, never to be forgotten eye-catching, out of the ordinary, unusual, rare, surprising, stupendous, awesome, amazeballs.
My favorites are awesome and amazeballs. Praiseworthy and Alexis McBride have an awesome and amazeballs friendship. That does say it all.
Need to get back to my ordinary life. How ordinary? This ordinary: get packed, get dressed, take wet clothes from last night’s laundry to dryer, go to breakfast, perhaps go to mall across the ring road, give away stuff I do not need to take with me, write farewell goodbyes to people, figure out what to wear, pay final bill at hotel
That is ordinary – not eye-catching, spectacular, never to be forgotten or impressive.
Photographs shall include the Good Morning Greeting sent by Noor. I passed it onto Praiseworthy with the following message. .
Me: You need training. Please send this to your mother from me. When you get around to it? No Immediately, nothing is more important than pleasing your mother and ME.
Of course no response as yet. That would be asking too much, too soon.
A photograph of extremely handsome African men, Praiseworthy is in the middle. The cement production, Praiseworthy giving a speech.
