Although I claimed that I'm back to blogging it didn't happen so far, but I came across this article this morning. This article was written by late Magdi Mehanna in February of 2007, it talks about happiness and specifically in Egypt. I enjoyed reading it and I hope you enjoy it too.
Note: I apologize that the article is in Arabic and my blog is mostly written in English, I wish someday, I can translate it in a good way.

فى الممنوع

عندما أخبرني الزميل مجدي الجلاد رئيس تحرير «المصري اليوم» بفكرة هذا العدد، وخيرني بين أن أكتب بما يخدم الفكرة، وبين أن أكتب في أي فكرة أخري بعيدة عنها، أعترف بأنني وقعت في «حيص بيص»،

وحيرتي بلغت مداها عندما طرحت علي نفسي السؤال: في أي الموضوعات سأكتب، إذا لم أكتب - كما تعودت - عن مشاكل الناس وهمومهم، والقضايا التي تشغلهم، وتلك المطروحة علي الرأي العام، فهل سأكتب عن طريقة عمل المحشي؟

ثم أقنعت نفسي بأن بين مشاكل الناس وبين المحشي، مئات وآلاف الموضوعات والأفكار التي يمكن تناولها بالكتابة.

مثلاً.. كم واحداً منا سأل نفسه: هل أنا سعيد بحياتي؟ وإذا كانت إجابته القاطعة هي أنه غير سعيد، فهل سأل نفسه: وكيف أغيرها؟ ثم هل حاول تغييرها بالفعل، أم أنه أراد مواصلة الحياة بالطريقة التي اعتاد عليها، وهي التي يعرفها معظم المصريين، طريقة «قصف العمر»، أي أنك عايش، ومش عايش! أو عايش كده وكده!

أكاد أجزم بأن الغالبية العظمي من المصريين، وبنسبة تقترب من نسب الاستفتاءات الرئاسية ٩.٩٩% لا تعرف السعادة، ولم تتذوق طعمها، فهي سلعة غريبة عليهم، وبعيدة عن متناول أيديهم.

كم واحداً سأل نفسه: إذا لم أكن سعيداً، فلماذا أعيش؟ وما فائدة الحياة بدون سعادة؟ وحتي الذين عاشوا السعادة وتذوقوا طعمها، فقد عاشوها لدقائق أو بضع ساعات قليلة طوال حياتهم وعمرهم المديد، فالسعادة تقاس بالثواني وباللحظات وليس بالأيام والأسابيع، وهؤلاء وضعهم أفضل كثيراً من الذين يسمعون عن السعادة، لكنهم لم يعيشوها.

والسعادة لا يشترط أن تكون في الحب فقط، فهي يمكن أن تكون في العمل وفي الصداقة، وفي القدرة علي العطاء، وفي أشياء أخري كثيرة.

المهم هو أن نعرف كيف نصل إليها، وأن نجعل منها هدفاً لا يغيب لحظة عن مرمي عيوننا، وأن نعرف كيف نسعد أنفسنا، حتي ولو بالمحايلة وبالضحك عليها وبخداعها إن أمكن.

وقد يقول قائل: يا أخي.. كيف تطالبنا بأن نكون سعداء، وكل ما حولنا لا يدعو إلي السعادة، انظر إلي ارتفاع الأسعار وغلاء المعيشة، وإلي الطريقة التي يحكمنا بها الحزب الوطني، وإلي.. وإلي.

وهذا الكلام حقيقي وغير حقيقي، فهو حقيقي لأن هناك واقعاً نعيشه ونلمسه كل يوم، ولا نستطيع أن نتهرب منه، وأصبح بالنسبة لنا كالقضاء والقدر، لأننا استسلمنا له، ولا نرغب في تغييره، أو أننا نرغب في تغييره، لكن لا نملك القدرة علي ذلك.

وهو غير حقيقي، لأن السعادة شيء داخلي، داخل نفوسنا، فإذا أردنا أو قررنا أن نكون سعداء فلا توجد قوة علي وجه الأرض ستمنعنا من الوصول إلي هذا الهدف.

تماماً مثل الإنسان الذي يفشل في وظيفة ما، فلا يقرر تغيير هذه الوظيفة، إنما يقرر السفر إلي الخارج ليعمل في نفس الوظيفة، فتكون النتيجة هي الفشل الذريع، لأن الفشل بداخله ولا يعرف طريقاً غيره، فهو يحمل الفشل معه أينما ذهب، وما الظروف المحيطة به سوي الشماعة التي يريد أن يعلق عليها فشله.

السعادة كذلك، إذا قررنا أن نكون سعداء فلن يمنعنا شيء من بلوغها، فهي قرار داخلي لا تشارك في صنعه الحكومات.

السعادة هي أغلي قيمة في الحياة، ومن لم يعشها فلم يعش الحياة، وحكم علي نفسه بالموت وهو حي.

أرجوكم - في عيد الحب - ابحثوا عن السعادة بداخلكم، وعندما تعثرون عليها لا تجعلوها تغيب لحظة عن عيونكم.

14-2-2007
عدد مصر الحلوه

back to blogging

so after almost a year, exactly a long 11 months, of not blogging, I decided to go back.
I don't think that I have any regular readers, upon checking my status reports it always shows people coming to my blog to look up one thing or another.
Anyhow, since I started blogging in July of 2005, I have always wrote just in case someone passing by might read it. Plus, it is such a relief to write about what is on your mind, it easies your mind and heart.
I am going to go ahead and publish some posts I was writing earlier and never got around to finishing them and publishing them, these I will publish as soon as possible ASAP :)))
ASAP is a funny story in the lab I work in, where my boss starts and finishes every email or talk on the phone says ASAP, which reminded me when I was on a road trip a few months ago between Memphis and Cincinnati I saw in Jackson, TN a place with aprons saying ASAP: as Southern as possible and a mug that you can give to your boss saying I will get it done ASAP (as slow as possible).

Short life

3 months old girl passed away today....
she was the only daughter of my colleague,
she struggled with heart problems, among other problems, since her birth.

Today was the first time I see her, it was in pictures they took just a few days ago,

They finally took some pictures just on Sunday when she was doing better and all the tubes were taken out of her little body.
Her mum, my colleague's wife, said, through teary eyes , " she was doing so good in the last few days" ... " I was just holding her in my hands as she was crying from a diaper rash and I wanted to sooth her, she quietened a little, and then she........" the poor mother could not continue as she goes on crying her beloved little daughter, her first joy.

Such a short life,
the little poor girl was struggling from day one...
the doctors didn't want to perform on her from day one saying she was a hopeless case,
but her parents had hope she would survive,
and so she did,
it was amazing how she keeps on going every day,
every day the sun rose on that girl alive was a miracle,
we, all the lab, with multi nationalities and different beliefs, prayed for her to become better.

Her father's parents came all the way from India to help out with taking care of the little girl, she was on medications around the clock,
which was too much for her parents
both are researchers whose time is already limited.

I went to pay respects today to her parents,
I realized although we all express similarly our sadness,
our submission to God's will differs.
To endure and deal with the grief and overwhelming sadness of loss of the beloved ones, believing in God's will makes it a little easier to accept the fact that they are gone.

Yet my colleague and his wife and their parents were handling it very well for the first day.
This was a learning opportunity for me to understand more about reincarnation in Hindu belief.
I just wished they wouldn't be so sad about their loss being unfair for the little girl and unfair for them,
it is just God's will...those were my words, and that he gave you a gift or a trust and he took it back, and something good will come out of this.....
but I don't think my words were any condolence for them....

The sadness around me reminded me with a very old story in my culture and summarizes the Islamic belief about life and death. It is a story that always helped me through similar times when I lost my grandma, and my two beloved dear uncles.


It is told that one of the greatest believers in God, had a baby boy, who was very ill, her husband comes in every night from work and checks on the child and they try their best to sooth the baby's pain. One night, it was time, and the little boy passed away, the father came in, and asked about the child, the mother told him, he is resting, the father thought his baby must be doing better because he did not hear him cry, she told him just leave him tonight resting, he is fine now. The next morning she told her husband, if our neighbor gave you something precious to take care of it and keep it until he is back, he trusted you with this trust, now would not you do your best to take care of it, the husband answered, yes of course, and then she continued, and when he comes back and asks you for it, wouldn't you give it back.... then her husband nodded, as he understood that his child was gone. These two believers submitted to God's will and are still known up till now for their story, after the loss of their only child then, God granted them 11 (eleven) sons and daughters, all grew up to be strong believers and great men and women.....
submission is hard, but it helps.....

If we realize that we all belong to God*,
our life on this earth is a short journey,
we do our best to live every day to its fullness,
and to take care to spend it in usefulness of our minds, souls and bodies,
to have fun, to have rest, to work towards something that will benefit others as well as ourselves,
in brief.....to enjoy the "grant of life".

It is never easy to let go of the beloved ones,
especially when you realize that you are not meeting them again,
to ease it for myself when my uncle, who was so close to me, passed away,
I convinced myself that he was on a long trip,
and one day I will be with him again,
growing up, yes I believe I will, and hopefully it will be in heavens.

It is so difficult to deal with every day things after losing the beloved ones,
small things like calling after a football game to say hey, we won,
or picking up playing cards in a store to challenge him a cards game on Friday when we met weekly,
or to forget that he would not show up for your next birthday, neither when you are planning your wedding...

Submission to God's will is such a difficult exam that we all go through when we face death of a dear one.....

May God be with my colleague and his family through their difficult time.

May His words (Quran: sura 2, aya 152 to 157) bring comfort to those who lost the dear ones.

God says what means the following in English:

[152] Remember Me; I will remember you. Be grateful to Me and do not reject Faith in Me. [153] Seek help with patient Perseverance and Prayer: for Allah is with those who patiently persevere....[155] Be sure We shall test you with ......... loss in goods or lives ........ but We will give glad tidings to those who patiently persevere.
[156] Who say, when afflicted with calamity: *"To Allah we belong, and to Him is our return". [157] They are those on whom (descend) blessings from their Lord, and Mercy, and they are the ones that receive guidance.

Playing the Game

I used to be real good at playing the game:
you might wonder what game?
the game of life and success.
When I was in college, I was not the most successful of my group, yet I didn't have the connections that some of my group had with professors, i.e being close relatives of the professors, yet I managed to play it smart, and play by the game rules, as I didn't want to waste my time challenging the rules, instead, I played the game, and looking back now, I played it well, real well.
Ewh! that was my reaction when I look back and remember how I acted when I was working, when I first started work, I challenged ALL the rules of the game, as I didn't understand the game, and am still trying to,
now a new game that I am trying to understand its rule, once I get the rules right, and understand them completely then I can play the game and score real high, is it this how any game is played!

My dreams came true

My parents are now with me for a visit,

They would not believe how happy I am that they are here,

The other day, I was in one room and my parents were in another room, and I had a smile on my face, you know why?
because I could hear them talking in the other room, I don't know about what, but just hearing their voices gave me peace.
I love you my family, I don't think I knew that I loved you that much.

To all of you who are living with their families, and don't really appreciate it,
stop for a second and imagine living alone thousands of miles away,
with a busy schedule that doesn't allow you to talk to them on a good time because of time differences, and you can't see them except for one month a year.

When I was a young girl I used to hear the widowers say that they miss their husbands' voices or what they called "7ess",
I didn't understand them then,
............................................................ now I understand.