โI hope the work of your day passes through your hands with ease, such that you do not run from the grief.โ holding this, over and over, in continued collective prayers๐ค
Your words on fasting have changed my perspective on it, and inspires me to consider it further when Iโve always said itโs something Iโd โneverโ do. Realising my discomfort can be a gentle reminder of how others suffer around the world was a beautiful sentiment. Thank you for all your work ๐
I started my fast today. I am chronically ill, so I will do it until my body tells me to stop. I am going to include you in my prayers as a thank you for all the time and energy you give us. As soon as I start making income I will pay for a subscription as well. ๐ฅฐ
I also started fasting today (no food, but water and tea is okay). I also am chronically ill but am planning to do it through Friday (and longer if my body allows). I wish you good luck and good health in your journey ๐
That line honestly made me cry as I read this. Thank you so much for doing your part to hold space and to help others make space for people suffering from oppression.
this past Ramadan really helped to heal my relationship with sleep, because you have to observe the natural cycles of the light of the sun, it really helped to feel apart from the made up this that is colonial clocktime we're compelled to observe. another way to be in solidarity for me is to hold on to the practices that are universal like observing the rising and setting of the sun. may it be born anew every morning. and these things reach far far back in time and far forward after colonization ends to connect us to all of humanity.
reading this at 6:51 by the pitch dark of my window in the UK and wondering what that would mean for the practice of wintering in cold places. it sounds so good.
Powerful. This piece really makes me question what solidarity is, and the power of prayer when weโve done all we can. Or as part of what it means to do all we can. Thank you.
Thank you, Ismatu. I am..completely and absolutely humbled by the needless suffering in Palestine, Sudan, Haiti...I am humbled by your resolve as a sign to do more for our world. I am part Chinese living in Ireland, and hearing you speak called me back to when I first heard of the Uyghur genocide, and how helpless I felt that I couldnโt send work or money to the concentration camps, and that one of my homelands could create such a hell. I didnโt think I could do anything so I focused on school and shared posts, signed petitions, put their plight to the back of my mind. Now, I feel spurred on to, at the very least, keep the suffering of Uyghurs, of Palestinians, of the people barely surviving outside my very own student apartment, in my everyday consciousness, in some way, so that each action I take may acknowledge them in any way. I had no idea of the weight of praxes like fasting for a cause; thank you for writing, Ismatu. I pray that I may be become more like you; build my own resolve daily, and act on it. Isang Bagsak (with one fall, we all fall) โฅ๏ธโฅ๏ธ
i am seriously considering fasting now as well because it feels like one of the only things i can do right now to be present and intentional with my actions in honor of Palestine and all of the other griefs of the world. the part about prayer is what stops me though, it was such a good point to bring up that prayer is a cornerstone of fasting because i agree, but religion and my relationship with theism is complicated and i wonder if the fasting would only be self-serving for my ego rather than truly selfless and intentional. thanks for sharing this anyhow and i am wishing you and all who need it the energy and hope to carry through.
Thank you. I was wondering if anyone knows of an alternative to fasting for someone who has an eating disorder. I would love to join you but fasting would not do me or anyone any good because of the trauma I have and my spontaneous tendency to just not eat, at all.
You donโt have to fast from food and water. You can pick one of your comforts and take time away from that. Like sugar or caffeine or excessive screen time.
thank you, thank you, thank you for helping us come together and find some understanding, some validation for the fear and grief and exhaustion. your words help give me words when i feel speechless and disempowered
as I am too sick to fast, ( I have tried though, ) your words remind me that prayer can also help me in my grief for Palestine. you are the first woman I have heard pray passionately with a poetry of words for God. it has , YOU have by praying this way awakened in me a way to pray that is finally gnostic. I don't want to waste your precious time but I want you to know my thanks, and I also want peace for you. (I grew up without religion except the parts I stole for myself from the monks singing down the dusty road when a child and the parts I have grasped as an adult)
This is beautiful! Last fall I spent a weekend at a buddhist monastery in the Catskills. It was introduction zen, but I wasnโt new to meditation and some buddhist concepts. Without going on about that, your writing helped me connect more understanding with the rituals we did that weekend. Iโm 20 and want to become my best self not only to heal but to help my community. Spiritual practices really get through to me and I wish I had that sooner. Thank you Ismatu for sharing
i am glad you've found and are celebrating the beautiful parts of our religion. islam is something worth complicating and critically loving and im glad to have been raised in it!
โI hope the work of your day passes through your hands with ease, such that you do not run from the grief.โ holding this, over and over, in continued collective prayers๐ค
Your words on fasting have changed my perspective on it, and inspires me to consider it further when Iโve always said itโs something Iโd โneverโ do. Realising my discomfort can be a gentle reminder of how others suffer around the world was a beautiful sentiment. Thank you for all your work ๐
I started my fast today. I am chronically ill, so I will do it until my body tells me to stop. I am going to include you in my prayers as a thank you for all the time and energy you give us. As soon as I start making income I will pay for a subscription as well. ๐ฅฐ
I also started fasting today (no food, but water and tea is okay). I also am chronically ill but am planning to do it through Friday (and longer if my body allows). I wish you good luck and good health in your journey ๐
Thank you for the encouragement! I wish you good luck and good health as well. โค๏ธ
be easy on your bodies! thank you for joining me <3
"There is no sovereignty when people starve"
That line honestly made me cry as I read this. Thank you so much for doing your part to hold space and to help others make space for people suffering from oppression.
this past Ramadan really helped to heal my relationship with sleep, because you have to observe the natural cycles of the light of the sun, it really helped to feel apart from the made up this that is colonial clocktime we're compelled to observe. another way to be in solidarity for me is to hold on to the practices that are universal like observing the rising and setting of the sun. may it be born anew every morning. and these things reach far far back in time and far forward after colonization ends to connect us to all of humanity.
WORD! to the rising sun!!
reading this at 6:51 by the pitch dark of my window in the UK and wondering what that would mean for the practice of wintering in cold places. it sounds so good.
Powerful. This piece really makes me question what solidarity is, and the power of prayer when weโve done all we can. Or as part of what it means to do all we can. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Ismatu. I am..completely and absolutely humbled by the needless suffering in Palestine, Sudan, Haiti...I am humbled by your resolve as a sign to do more for our world. I am part Chinese living in Ireland, and hearing you speak called me back to when I first heard of the Uyghur genocide, and how helpless I felt that I couldnโt send work or money to the concentration camps, and that one of my homelands could create such a hell. I didnโt think I could do anything so I focused on school and shared posts, signed petitions, put their plight to the back of my mind. Now, I feel spurred on to, at the very least, keep the suffering of Uyghurs, of Palestinians, of the people barely surviving outside my very own student apartment, in my everyday consciousness, in some way, so that each action I take may acknowledge them in any way. I had no idea of the weight of praxes like fasting for a cause; thank you for writing, Ismatu. I pray that I may be become more like you; build my own resolve daily, and act on it. Isang Bagsak (with one fall, we all fall) โฅ๏ธโฅ๏ธ
i am seriously considering fasting now as well because it feels like one of the only things i can do right now to be present and intentional with my actions in honor of Palestine and all of the other griefs of the world. the part about prayer is what stops me though, it was such a good point to bring up that prayer is a cornerstone of fasting because i agree, but religion and my relationship with theism is complicated and i wonder if the fasting would only be self-serving for my ego rather than truly selfless and intentional. thanks for sharing this anyhow and i am wishing you and all who need it the energy and hope to carry through.
Thank you. I was wondering if anyone knows of an alternative to fasting for someone who has an eating disorder. I would love to join you but fasting would not do me or anyone any good because of the trauma I have and my spontaneous tendency to just not eat, at all.
You donโt have to fast from food and water. You can pick one of your comforts and take time away from that. Like sugar or caffeine or excessive screen time.
thank you, thank you, thank you for helping us come together and find some understanding, some validation for the fear and grief and exhaustion. your words help give me words when i feel speechless and disempowered
as I am too sick to fast, ( I have tried though, ) your words remind me that prayer can also help me in my grief for Palestine. you are the first woman I have heard pray passionately with a poetry of words for God. it has , YOU have by praying this way awakened in me a way to pray that is finally gnostic. I don't want to waste your precious time but I want you to know my thanks, and I also want peace for you. (I grew up without religion except the parts I stole for myself from the monks singing down the dusty road when a child and the parts I have grasped as an adult)
โค๏ธโค๏ธโค๏ธ
This is beautiful! Last fall I spent a weekend at a buddhist monastery in the Catskills. It was introduction zen, but I wasnโt new to meditation and some buddhist concepts. Without going on about that, your writing helped me connect more understanding with the rituals we did that weekend. Iโm 20 and want to become my best self not only to heal but to help my community. Spiritual practices really get through to me and I wish I had that sooner. Thank you Ismatu for sharing
i am glad you've found and are celebrating the beautiful parts of our religion. islam is something worth complicating and critically loving and im glad to have been raised in it!
Shukran for sharing ๐คฒ๐ฟ๐๐ธ๐ฑ