Still Struggling

2 Ramadhan 1430

15.10

I'm battling through some marking and wondering whether this is a good way to be spending the first days of fasting. In truth I have little or no choice in the matter so it's something of a moot point. But there have been fasting months in the past in which I didn't face the demands of work (when Ramadhan fell in December, around 2000 and 2001) and I suppose it was easier to focus on the demands of the fast itself rather than extraneous matters. However, part of the point of all this is making it part of one's ordinary life and rising to other demands at the same time. This is not an experience meant to be undertaken in some distant, special place. This is in the mundane here and now of necessity.

16.20

Heavy rain. Always good for the fast. Prevents shriveling.

21.10

Fuad, Rozita, Fifi and Fafa came around to break their fast with us. A sense of solidarity is a fundamental part of the experience of the fast. You are palpably not alone. Unshriveled.