Category Archives: Life

Meet Katniss – No, Not From The Hunger Games

Katniss is my cat. Yes, I got a pet.

A few months back, I was taking a break from the morbidity of an anatomy lab session and a friend and I were discussing pets. He told me he had two persian cats with the female being pregnant. He offered to give me one of the kittens in due time. I gladly accepted.

So until I actually got the kitten, I had to mentally prepare my mother to the idea that we will be having a cat wandering around the house and sleeping in. You see, the major reason why we didn’t have a pet growing up is because my mom, like many other Lebanese moms out there, is a germaphobe. And for years, that reflected on me. I wouldn’t get anywhere near animals.

However, when I went to AUB and got inundated with a torrent of cats everywhere I went, I started to get used to the idea of animals being around. Then my little brother found a white blue-eyed Turkish angora cat, which we named Minet. Minet was deaf. It did nothing but sleep and eat all day. Around february 2008, however, Minet disappears. It transpires that someone had poisoned her. A sad day, indeed.

This is Minet. RIP.

This time, however, I cached in the “little brother abroad” card with my mom to let me keep Katniss, the cat my friend gave me, inside. I actually went for the first time ever to buy cat food and litter. The little fur ball didn’t like tuna and sardines. Even the cat is worried about rotten food, apparently.

I’ve spent the last few days training Katniss to use the litter box and get acquainted with her food.  It’s a work in progress. But Katniss is now following me wherever I go, so that must mean I’m doing something right. Right?

And over the course of these past 4 days, guess who’s the person that has gotten the most entertained by Katniss? Yes, you guessed it. My mom. She called me the other day to let me know Katniss used the litter box all by herself. A proud moment, apparently.

So since I don’t want to keep you waiting any longer, here’s Katniss.

My brother chose the name and I found it appropriate. Sorry to disappoint you Hunger Games fans.

 

 

Lebanon 3rd on Best Places to Celebrate Easter List

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A recent list published by Reuters features Lebanon as the third best place in the world to celebrate Easter. The list was compiled by “Cheapflights” and says Lebanese streets, shops and restaurants are decorated for Easter with chocolate eggs and bunnies. Selling chicks in many shops is common.
Good Friday celebrations where the Stations of the Cross enactment is spoken about. Easter Sunday is described as a big celebration and the “maamoul” sweets are also highlighted.

Easter is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the spirit of it and I’m glad that Easter in my country is apparently distinctive enough. Way to go Lebanon!

The full rankings are as follows:
1 – Argentina
2 – Greece
3 – Lebanon
4 – Scotland
5 – Spain
6 – Sweden
7 – France
8 – Germany
9 – United States
10 – Canada

Cheers to Our Mothers

“Do you remember when you and your brothers were kids?” My mom asked me today as she was cooking meghle. “You used to hover around me, waiting for me to finish pouring it so you can eat whatever remained in the pot. It was so much nicer when you were kids…”

Behold my mom's meghle. There's also 3adas b7amod in the background.

Mothers have this thing to them. They can nag your head off and they can worry until you start worrying about yourself. Some people are said to be motherly. Some see that as a pejorative connotation. Perhaps they are right. But the way I see it, being motherly is what this world might just be lacking for us to have more compassion towards each other.

When it comes to moms, we all think ours is the best. And the truth is ours is the best. Somehow superlative comparisons between mothers fall short of truly grasping the magnitude these creatures have on your life. Their care  towards you as a baby can change the wiring of your brain. Their love makes you who you are as a person. Even the most “unfit” of mothers, as we tend to judge them, try with all their power to care for their offspring – even above their own health and sanity sometimes.

Their nagging and worrying becomes obsolete. They are doing this because it is unnatural for them not to be caring about their sons and daughters. It is unnatural for them not to feel protective. It may be debilitating sometimes but think where you would have been if they hadn’t stayed up nights and worked through days to care for you? Have you ever thought where you would be if you hadn’t deposited your fears, hurts and worries all your life in your mother?

If you’re waiting for Mother’s Day to let your mother know you love her, then you’re doing it wrong. If you’re waiting for Mother’s Day to call you mom and give her a sentimental talk, which you’ve been putting off for a long time, then you’re doing it wrong. If you’re waiting for Mother’s Day to bring your mom a gift and make her feel special, you’re doing it wrong. If you’re waiting on annual nudge for you to remember your mom, then you are doing it wrong too.

The greatest gift any mother can get is you being around, be it physically or spiritually. The greatest gift any mother would want on Mother’s Day is not an extravagant object which will make them happy for an hour or two. The most simplistic of approaches is, perhaps, the one mothers cherish most. Sometimes telling them the words “I love you” along with a hug to show them truly how much you appreciate them can be the cure they need to get through any day, making every day for them Mother’s Day.

And when I think that such ideas are, well, overly sentimental, I stop and ask my mom: “what do you want for Mother’s Day?” She looks at me, smiles warmly, then says: “Nothing. You being here is just enough.” And you know she’s being perfectly truthful.

The greatest things mothers have done are the ones even you don’t know. You owe them all that you are and hope to be. But they will never collect. They are kind, they are smart, they are beautiful, they are the most important. And even though my mother might probably never read this, I cannot but tell her on her day that I unconditionally and irrevocably love her – the kindest, most heart-warming and sincere person I’ve ever known.

“Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.” – William Makepeace Thackeray

Cheers to our mothers.

Rest in Peace Pope Shenouda

With Lent halfway through, one of the Christian sects that observe this time of year the most has lost its leader and mentor. The Copts have lost Pope Shenouda today, at an age of 89.

I have met many Copts throughout my life . And what I’ve touched from them all is their deep belonging to their church and their commitment to their faith. In a time when relinquishing such things for the pleasures of life has become a way of life, them clinging to their heritage has always been admirable to me.

Pope Shenouda has had a great deal with the Copts’ attachment to their faith. For a sect that is so heavily persecuted, they do not relent. They do not fear dying for their rights. They do not fear dying to keep their voices high and heard. In a way, the Copts are examplary for the Christians of the East. They are a minority that doesn’t act like one: it’s not subdued, it’s never rendered insignificant and over the past forty years of forced marginalization, they still exist.

They have been the central pillar in the foundation of the country whose name is as it is today because of them. The Copts were an essential part of Egyptian history and are considered by many as the founders of that country. Pope Shenouda was the 117th Pope to preside over them.

It may be because of their resiliency as people and their clinging to their heritage. But the leadership of Pope Shenouda had a great deal to do with the preservation of the Copts in such tumultuous times. Not only did he keep the Coptic church alive, he also expanded it in various countries around the world.

Pope Shenouda had been exiled for defending his people against Egyptian presidents who didn’t think those people deserved to be defended. He let his own health deteriorate to breathe life into his own congregation. He was an advocate for ecumenism (Christian unity) and showed strong commitment to the inter-dialogue of different Christian denominations.

I, as a Lebanese generally and Maronite precisely, am saddened by the passing of such a man. I truly hope his passing is one of the last days of sorrow for the Copts and Christians of Egypt. Pope Shenouda’s departure from this world couldn’t have fallen at a more appropriate time – if there’s ever such a time. Easter is one of the favorite periods of the year for Copts. Pope Shenouda must have been serene knowing he was moving on during his favorite time of the year, smiling, sure that the Church he worked forty years to protect is here to stay.

Rest in peace Pope Shenouda – and to all Copts in the world, may your struggles find their conclusion with the conclusion of his life.

This is Not A Movie – This is Syria

To affix to the previous post about a year in the life of a Syrian revolutionary, I found this video fitting to showcase the struggle of the Syrian people – politics aside.

Your stance regarding the Syrian matter cannot be how it reflects on your country. It should be a reflection of your humanity because you cannot see such a video and not be shaken to your core.

And if you still feel like nothing’s wrong in Syria, then you are simply blinded and lack basic human compassion.