Care

Every year in Ramadan I like to focus on something.  It's a great opportunity to think clearly about something every single day for a month.  I love this month.  Not taking advantage of this opportunity is a waste.

This year I want to think about caring every day.  Recently, I stopped caring about work.  It's not that I stopped doing work, just my attitude shifted.  I guess I've put more faith into things happening the way they should and probably worrying less about the details.  It has made work so much better.  I'm happier. I work less and produce higher quality work.  I'm less busy though.

I've put my energy into caring more about the things I rationally know to be worth caring about.  This reallocation of my energy has been amazing.  I want to think about this every day in Ramadan and solidify this thinking.

Taher, everything will happen as it should.  Accept the things you cannot change and change the things you can.  Try to have the wisdom to know the difference.  There's not much you can change.

Socks

I have this picture from early 2021 as my screensaver.  I don't think I'm ever going to change it.  Mom is in it🩷  It's a great picture and a professional portrait.  I love this picture.  Everyone is smiling and looking at the camera. I remember being very happy this February night.  It was frigid outside and we were nice and warm and together inside.

Everyone is matching in blue thanks to Zahra.  Even the buttons Yusuf and I are wearing coordinate.  All Zahra 👍💓  Every detail was considered.

Seeing Mom and Dad make me happy every time.  They are smiling genuine smiles.  Dad wore what he was told down to the coordinating mahki on his kurta saya.  His socks don't match though.  In his defense, no one told him to have matching socks😁.

This reminds me to focus on what's important.  He is genuinely happy to be there.  It shows and his socks don't matter.

I see this picture almost every day.  I can't not see the socks and I have to think about what's important.

Kintsugi

This is beautiful and deep. When something isn’t right we often have the instinct to excise or eliminate or do away with the broken and bad. Kintsugi is the art of repairing broken pottery. Art is very deliberately used it seems. 

The broken and the bad is what makes it beautiful. This is what makes it deep. The pottery gets more valuable. It’s like wisdom. It’s earned. 

It’s part of a larger and really cool philosophy.  I’m just scratching the surface. It’s called wabi sabi. It’s about finding beauty in the impermanent and the imperfect. So simple, yet so difficult and wise. 

There’s so much here to think about and take away.  The bad stuff leads to good stuff eventually. The difficult and beautiful part is accepting it. 

Taher, bad shit is going to happen. Not only bad stuff, but also not ideal stuff. Think astagfirullah and think of Kintsugi. Bad stuff will eventually lead to good stuff.