You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April, 2008.
I had two bad bouts with the flu within the past three weeks and am still trying to catch up on my life.
In the meantime, more delectable reads:
just another angry black muslim woman? shares the story of Aqaba village, students imaging “whirled peace” and her thoughts on Palestine while living in the Middle East.
Goatmilk lands an exclusive with journalist Robert Fisk.
The Pakistani Spectator interviews our very own dear brother Irving of Darvish.
Mind.Body.Soul motivates our spiritual ambition.
No Impact Man thinks about living in gratitude instead of desire.
Newsweek’s Christopher Dickey on Christian rage and Muslim moderation.
And, Avari recommends The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization, and says that the NYT, not Daniel Pipes, is the problem.
My post Magic Khalas is up at o|m.
After 8 difficult days, the flu is on its way out, alhamdolillah!
Education, entertainment and a way to save the world. What’s not to like, especially in light of recent food shortages and riots?
Slate asks “Does going to Mecca make Muslims more moderate?“
Hop over to Islamosphere and add yourself to the cool new directory of Muslim/Islam-friendly bloggers.
Awesome guerrilla gardeners raid unused urban landscapes and till it with their imagination and seed bombs. May 1st marks their 2nd International Sunflower Guerrilla Day, they have a a training manual, and run-ins with the law in SF.
Grab a cup of coffee – and a purring feline – in Tokyo’s cat cafes. (Please let this catch on in SF!)
The Squaw Valley Writers’ Workshop deadline is coming up on May 10th.
The San Francisco International Film Festival is in full flow – locals take the festival very seriously so show up well ahead of time or risk your seats being resold. We saw the French film Two Ladies yesterday – a lovely film about Kosher-cooking Muslims and Koran-reading Jews.
And, hear Maithri, writer of the one of my all-time favorite blogs, the inspirational Soaring Impulse, reveal yet another amazing talent at Don’t Die with Your Music in You.
Oceanography
Do some kinds of shellfish
live past the outgrowing of their shells?
Is there the possibility for them
Of easing out slowly
from the constraining tightness?
Such a beautiful shell
spiral bound, glistening with stars.
Is there a shellfish
that releases its hold
and slides free
into the weightless wonder
of the moving tides,
Homeless in the immensity?
What wonder
To feel this easing in the human experience.
The unhooking from the moorings
The smooth glide out into the total vulnerability
with the willingness to be another’s dinner
no more protection is needed
There is nothing to do
But find the current
And go.
- Alice Gardner
Note: Alice Gardner is the author of Life Beyond Belief: Everyday Living as Spiritual Practice. You can read more of her poems, here.
[HT: Darvish]
The forms Muslim cultures take across the world are fascinating:
Swindle Magazine has two articles on British Muslims, who make up almost 10% of London’s population. Half of the city’s Muslim population is under 24—the youngest age profile in the capital.
In the article London’s Muslim Girl Power, interviewee Kalisha Hyatt says, “There are definitely people out there who are picking up on Islam just because it’s fashionable. There are a lot of people generally interested in Islam now.”
Swindle’s second article is on British Muslim artist Sarah Maple whose career took off with a series of campaign posters culminating in “Vote for Me or You’re an IslamaphobaSexistRacialist” and who continues to confront religious identity in unique ways. [Swindle HT to Ilmgirl]
Tabsir profiles Iranian photographer Shadi Ghadirian (Iran, b. 1974). She is well-known for her Qajar Series of portraits and has said of her work, “My pictures became a mirror reflecting how I felt: we are stuck between tradition and modernity.”
The World profiles The Kominas, an American Muslim punk band from Boston.
And, Lahore Nama celebrates the grand traditions and the current forms of one of my favorite cities in the world.
And, if you haven’t yet, hop over to TalkIslam and join the conversation.
Tangent: The final seasons of Lost and Battlestar Galactica are both back on the air (and available free, on-line) – yay!
My post Circles of Women is up at other|matters.
Umm Layth on Earth Day 2008.
No Impact Man discusses 42 Ways to Not Make Trash and asks, Is it in your nature to try?
Environmental protection in Islamic tradition and practice in God is Green.
Meghan Rose shares her moving thoughts on disabled parenting. [HT: Aaminah]
And the SF Chron’s weekly feature Finding My Religion speaks to Shakina Reinhertz, 62, author of “Women Called to the Path of Rumi.”
Happy Earth Day!
Along with today’s powerful poem by Sojourner Truth, I encourage you to read Breaking into the Spell, an interview with the marvelous writer Ursula K. LeGuin. Her book The Left Hand of Darkness is an old favorite which led me to reconsider gender roles, and her interview touches upon learning to write as a woman and breaking out of the “genre ghetto” of science fiction.
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