22 Ramadhan 1434
One of the reasons I seem to have a lot more time on my hands in this month is the very early start to the working day involved. Basically once the prayer is done, and this follows immediately upon the azan, there's not much else to do except go to work, adding a clear fifty minutes to the day. And it's odd how productive that time seems to be when there's hardly anyone else around in the staffroom.
Unfortunately there's also a downside to this. I've reached the point when I'm beginning to feel a kind of drudgery in the passing of days - and this has little to do with fasting, and much to do with the loss of sleeping time. In fact, I suspect this is the reason for those moments of intense yet brief weariness which are apt to assail me, usually when I'm climbing a flight of stairs.
Of course this is not a problem at the weekend when the prospect of going back to bed and enjoying a couple of hours of shut-eye after the dawn prayer is beguiling, indeed, a kind of delight in itself. And on the odd occasions when I get back from work early enough to indulge in a deep nap the drudgery magically evaporates.
The azan for the dawn prayer tells us that Prayer is better than sleep - and it is. But there's still a lot to be said for sleep as a wonderful gift in itself.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Looking Inwards
21 Ramadhan 1434
Due to a slight change in our recent routines we've not been buying newspapers with any regularity. And for the last couple of days we haven't been watching telly in the living room as Starhub's set-box has decided not to function. (It took half an hour to get through to customer service to try and sort this out yesterday evening.)
As a result of the above I really have no idea what's happening in the bigger world out there - though I rather suspect it's more of the same. And just at the moment I don't really care. (Though I was a little disappointed the other day in the name chosen for the latest of the royal progeny. I was hoping for Stanley or Wayne or Darren. But it was not to be.)
Due to a slight change in our recent routines we've not been buying newspapers with any regularity. And for the last couple of days we haven't been watching telly in the living room as Starhub's set-box has decided not to function. (It took half an hour to get through to customer service to try and sort this out yesterday evening.)
As a result of the above I really have no idea what's happening in the bigger world out there - though I rather suspect it's more of the same. And just at the moment I don't really care. (Though I was a little disappointed the other day in the name chosen for the latest of the royal progeny. I was hoping for Stanley or Wayne or Darren. But it was not to be.)
Monday, July 29, 2013
The Not Really Final Countdown
20 Ramadhan 1434
Now entering the final third of fasting. Maintaining the fast has now become habitual and hardly feels like any kind of imposition, so I'm not entirely sure why I'm counting down the days. But I am, and I always do. A part of me has never quite grown up.
Noi has started biscuiting and tells me we're putting up our twinkling lights tomorrow. Yay!
Now entering the final third of fasting. Maintaining the fast has now become habitual and hardly feels like any kind of imposition, so I'm not entirely sure why I'm counting down the days. But I am, and I always do. A part of me has never quite grown up.
Noi has started biscuiting and tells me we're putting up our twinkling lights tomorrow. Yay!
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Feasting
19 Ramadhan 1434
Evidence above of the deprivations of the month. Not exactly anything to complain about, eh?
Evidence above of the deprivations of the month. Not exactly anything to complain about, eh?
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Supersonic Youth
18 Ramadhan 1434
A packed day. Spent much of it with my drama guys, which is a good place to be - especially when they are given their heads and developing their own ideas. Over the years I've had to learn to relinquish my natural instinct to control almost everything going on on a stage. There remains a time when control is necessary, but today was not such an occasion, and I'm thankful for that.
And then it was home to a visit from Karen and Ian, accompanying us for the breaking of the fast. Ian is curious about everything, and rightly so, because everything is curious.
Time well spent.
A packed day. Spent much of it with my drama guys, which is a good place to be - especially when they are given their heads and developing their own ideas. Over the years I've had to learn to relinquish my natural instinct to control almost everything going on on a stage. There remains a time when control is necessary, but today was not such an occasion, and I'm thankful for that.
And then it was home to a visit from Karen and Ian, accompanying us for the breaking of the fast. Ian is curious about everything, and rightly so, because everything is curious.
Time well spent.
Friday, July 26, 2013
Called To Prayer
17 Ramadhan 1434
Enjoyed a communal iftar this evening with Muslim friends and colleagues from school just outside the Sultan Mosque - the oldest and, I suppose, grandest in this Far Place. This is one of the few areas here in which the sound of the azan - and the prayers themselves - are allowed to carry into the open.The effect is powerfully soothing, I find, especially when the muezzin has such a fine voice. It's as if a blessing descends, sacralizing perfectly ordinary chatter and the on-going business of living. Suddenly the world seems balanced.
Enjoyed a communal iftar this evening with Muslim friends and colleagues from school just outside the Sultan Mosque - the oldest and, I suppose, grandest in this Far Place. This is one of the few areas here in which the sound of the azan - and the prayers themselves - are allowed to carry into the open.The effect is powerfully soothing, I find, especially when the muezzin has such a fine voice. It's as if a blessing descends, sacralizing perfectly ordinary chatter and the on-going business of living. Suddenly the world seems balanced.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Delayed Gratification
16 Ramadhan 1434
In addition to my Islamic-themed reading I've been getting on with Old and New Poems, the Donald Hall collection I got around about this time last year. I was excited about reading it then, but at the same time I used the book tokens for my annual appearance at MOE's Literature Seminar to get quite a few poetry books and decided to move ahead with some of the others first. Finally arriving at the great American Poet Laureate I've been diligently reading the poems in the 'right' order.
It's been a slow process as I've found it wise to restrict myself to groups of three or four at a time, and I'm only halfway through now. I've been enjoying the sense of the poet's development as time progresses since the collection is organised chronologically. In fact, I get a distinct sense of Hall just getting better and better. The early stuff, from the late forties to fifties, is worthy enough, but somewhat opaque - hard work to read at times. Now I've reached the seventies and the first poem in there Gold is just that - pure poetic gold, exploding off the page. Crystalline clarity, real shivers down the spine time and absolutely worth waiting for, rather than encountering directly, out of context, as it were.
It's akin to the rich enjoyment experienced of quite 'ordinary' food and drink in this month of fasting. This evening, for example, I had quite a bit to do directly after breaking the fast and couldn't really eat and drink properly until after ten. Far from being a bother this seemed somehow a worthwhile thing to do. Perhaps we are in danger of forgetting that anything worthwhile is not just worth waiting for but somehow gains in worth as a result of waiting?
In addition to my Islamic-themed reading I've been getting on with Old and New Poems, the Donald Hall collection I got around about this time last year. I was excited about reading it then, but at the same time I used the book tokens for my annual appearance at MOE's Literature Seminar to get quite a few poetry books and decided to move ahead with some of the others first. Finally arriving at the great American Poet Laureate I've been diligently reading the poems in the 'right' order.
It's been a slow process as I've found it wise to restrict myself to groups of three or four at a time, and I'm only halfway through now. I've been enjoying the sense of the poet's development as time progresses since the collection is organised chronologically. In fact, I get a distinct sense of Hall just getting better and better. The early stuff, from the late forties to fifties, is worthy enough, but somewhat opaque - hard work to read at times. Now I've reached the seventies and the first poem in there Gold is just that - pure poetic gold, exploding off the page. Crystalline clarity, real shivers down the spine time and absolutely worth waiting for, rather than encountering directly, out of context, as it were.
It's akin to the rich enjoyment experienced of quite 'ordinary' food and drink in this month of fasting. This evening, for example, I had quite a bit to do directly after breaking the fast and couldn't really eat and drink properly until after ten. Far from being a bother this seemed somehow a worthwhile thing to do. Perhaps we are in danger of forgetting that anything worthwhile is not just worth waiting for but somehow gains in worth as a result of waiting?
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Lay Down Your Weary Tune
15 Ramadhan 1434
There's a difference between being simply tired and being weary, and it isn't just one of degree. There's something oddly comforting in the extremity of weariness. Something natural, to be welcomed. As if you're on the verge of being able to lay a burden down.
Avoiding difficulties is no way to live.
There's a difference between being simply tired and being weary, and it isn't just one of degree. There's something oddly comforting in the extremity of weariness. Something natural, to be welcomed. As if you're on the verge of being able to lay a burden down.
Avoiding difficulties is no way to live.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
A Breath Of Fresh Air
14 Ramadhan 1434
We enjoyed the company of Paul & Joy's daughter Ella earlier today. She has just reached the end of a two month adventure in South East Asia and environs and is now on the way back to Manchester.
I envied her youth, her spirit, her sense of adventure - but most of all I envied the fact that she got to eat Noi's banana cake while I was still fasting.
We enjoyed the company of Paul & Joy's daughter Ella earlier today. She has just reached the end of a two month adventure in South East Asia and environs and is now on the way back to Manchester.
I envied her youth, her spirit, her sense of adventure - but most of all I envied the fact that she got to eat Noi's banana cake while I was still fasting.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Needful Things
13 Ramadhan 1434
At 10.30 I really, really, really needed a drink. Preferably a cup of tea, but a glass of water would suffice. I'd started the day with some heavy teaching and then had to sort out some urgent panicky admin stuff. A lot more heavy teaching, without respite until 3.00 in the afternoon was facing me. My throat was a mess. So if I didn't get that drink I needed I didn't know what would happen.
Of course, I didn't get the drink. Of course, nothing happened. The day went on and the crisis was soon forgotten.
And, in a way, I knew that would be the case at 10.30 because this wasn't a new experience. Just me, learning again, that there is very little that we truly need.
At 10.30 I really, really, really needed a drink. Preferably a cup of tea, but a glass of water would suffice. I'd started the day with some heavy teaching and then had to sort out some urgent panicky admin stuff. A lot more heavy teaching, without respite until 3.00 in the afternoon was facing me. My throat was a mess. So if I didn't get that drink I needed I didn't know what would happen.
Of course, I didn't get the drink. Of course, nothing happened. The day went on and the crisis was soon forgotten.
And, in a way, I knew that would be the case at 10.30 because this wasn't a new experience. Just me, learning again, that there is very little that we truly need.
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