الأم الثانية

 


الوطن ، الوطن كلمة تصف نفسها ، تبرز قيمتها دون كلام ٠فما كنا لنسمي الوطن وطنا لو لم نكن نستوطنه،وما سميناه الوطن الأم لو لم نكن نأمنه٠ فالأم هي التي تجمع أبناءها وتحضنهم ٠ فأنت أنجبت بأرضه وترعرعت فوق ترابها وأكلت من ثمارها. أليس الوطن من تحتضن أراضيه الحي والميت ،السعيد والحزين، الغني والفقير٠أليس هكذا هي الأم٠

إني لأعجب ممن يقول إن المغرب وطنه الثاني أو أنه فقط أنجب به ولا يبث له بصلة ،أو من يستحي من جنسيته المغربية لا وألف لا بل كان ،لازال، وسيظل الوطن الأم لكل احد أنجب فوق ترابه وكل احد يسري في عروقه دم هذا الوطن وكل أحد يسعى لأن يزيد به إلى الأمام . ما فني أجدادنا وسقى دمهم أرضنا ودافعو عن كل قطعة من هذه الأرض ، عن أصلنا ، ديننا وهويتنا حتى نأتي نحن في الأخير وننكر هذه الهوية . حملوا السلاح حتى نرفع نحن القلم سلموا أرواحهم في سبيل حب الوطن،نعم الوطن .فنحن مغاربة الأصل ،نفتخر بتاريخنا ونقتدي بأجدادنا . سلمونا مشعل هذا البلد لنسير به إلى الأمام لا إلى الوراء . اقرؤوا عما فعل عبد الكريم الخطابي وعسوا أو بسلام لتعلموا كيف يكون حب الوطن .وقبل هذا انظروا ماذا فعل الرسول عليه الصلاة والسلام قبل ألف وأربع مئة وبضع أعوام عندما هاجر من مكة وقد خرج منها مضطهدا لكنه أخبرنا انه لو ما أخرجوه منها ما كان ليتركها أليس هذا درس بليغ في حب الوطن والحنين له . فالمحب يصول ويجول ولا يجد لحبيبه مثيل .

ولا كن متى ؟…. متى نصبح مواطنين بحق. متى ننتقل من الكلام إلى القيام .متى ننتقل من الأقوال إلى الأفعال .متى …..؟

فالمواطنة ليست مجرد كلمة ولا مجرد صفه، ولا تبادل في الحقوق و الواجبات بل أعمق من ذلك بكثير’ فهي مصدر فخر لنا ،شرف فوق صدورنا وعبئ فوق ظهورنا ، وها نحن يا وطننا ،نسعى لتتقدم إلى الأمام ، لنرفع رأسك بين الأمم ،لنسير على خطى أجدادنا ،ولا تضيع جهودهم هباء.ها نحن نسعى لنرفع علمك عاليا .فأنت وطننا الغالي الذي لا يباع ونحن أبناؤك الذين سيضمدوا الجراح.

ولكل مواطن أراد الالتحاق بركبنا والإنضمام إلى هذا الجيل ، غير نفسك إلى الأفضل أولا وكن صالحا ،فالوطن يتكون مني ،منك ومنهم .و إن أردت الإصلاح لا تسأل كيف و لماذا ومتى ولا تنسى إماطة الأذى عن الطريق صدقة.

قبل الختام دعني أخبرك سرا صغيرا المواطنة لا تعني بدل جهود كبيرة. أفعال صغيرة وسلوكيات بسيطة يمكنها أن تساعدنا في تحسين حياتنا للأفضل .

المواطنة مصدر للشرف.
لا تحاول إخفاء أصلك نحن مغاربة ونفتخر كوننا كذالك.
.
The second mother
(by asmae ez-zarhouny)

Country, is a clear word, which describe its self, and shows its value without speaking, if we don’t feel safe in there, we didn’t call it mother country, yes, mother country not second country. Because the mother gives birth to her children, who educate them and gives them tenderness. Isn’t the country which covers the baby and the dead, the happy and the sad, the poor and the rich.

Even so, some people say that Morocco is their second country, and they’re ashamed of their Moroccan nationality, no and a thousand no, Morocco was, and still the mother country for everyone was born on its soil, for everyone has a drop of Moroccan blood in his veins, for everyone aspires to raise his flag. Our grandparents lifted arms in order to we can raise the pen, they defended our religion, our identity and our origins they sacrificed with their lives to we can live…why? Because they love, admire their country, yes our country, our second mom, we are Moroccans and we are proud of our history, our country, our religion and our grandparents our heroes. You can read about El-khatabi or Asou oubeslam, to know how do you can love your country.

But, when…..when we become true citizens, when we go from speaking to doing, when we see acts……?

Because the citizenship, isn’t just a word or adjective, it doesn’t stop at the exchange of rights and duties, it’s a sacred honor a plaque we carry proudly on our chests and a burden pressing hard on our backs. Our Morocco, here we are working to raise your flag highly to complete what our grandparents started. You are our country, our expensive country, who not sold and we are your chidren who heal your wounds.

For every citizen want to rejoin our generation, change yourself for the better firstly, then you can change others, because the country consisting of me, you and they. If you want to reform, don’t ask why, when, and how but don’t forget that removing a rock from the path is a charity.

Before ending let me tell you a small secret “to be a good citizen, doesn’t mean giving a hug efforts, simple acts and easy behavior can help us to ameliorate our level of live”

Don’t try to ignore your origins, we are Moroccans, muslims and we are proud.
We are hand in hand.
We are a generation of gold.

Child Labor

I am a child, but I am forced to think as a youth.
I have a small body, but I have a big responsibility.

When kids my age are thinking about which game they want,
I am thinking about how I can find work in my small planet.

I didn’t go to school, but….but, believe me I’m not a coddled child, I can’t. I know that school is important and I dream to go to college.
Maybe I am a special case. But it seems to me that those kids are the special case in my village.

If only I could go to school, hold a small bag, sit at the table, get out my books, say hi to my teacher, and draw a wonderful picture. Unfortunately it’s just dream, just innocent dreams
But the truth is……….
I should work on sunny days, rainy days, snowy days, everyday every single day, work, work and work. Hard work for little salary. No excuses. No holidays.

Don’t mock me if I’m ignorant of what you are studying in the school. I can’t speak more than my native language, but I’m not guilty.
I’m fond of colors, books, soft papers. Even so, I should work for a living, to buy medication for my mother, and food for my sister and my brother. This is my responsibility.

In the morning, when I wake up to go to work, I see kids my age going to school, I remember my dreams… I’m imagining myself in their place…… Oh it’s a beautiful dream… But when I look at my small hands which become dirty and rough, I know that they’re just dreams, day dreams.
To be honest I want to be a kid. I want to play with small kids not work with old men. I want to buy games, books, colors, bags, and go to school. I want to be a kid by all means.

Do you think that you can help me when you prevent child labor? No. But if you really want to help me, build a public school in my village… give work to my father and medication for my mother .
I want to be like other kids. I’m a kid, too.
I’m in pain but hopeful. I’m waiting for you!

Books, not bricks . They are meant to learn, not earn.

LET’S EDUCATE & BUILD A BETTER WORLD FOR THEM.

The Professor that Has Influenced Me!

I met professor Festa Monica in summer 2019 as a professor of English Composition 1. When she first showed up in the classroom, I felt good because something went inside my heart telling me that I was going to have a good semester. The fact that I took this course with her made me advance my level in English even more, especially after leaving the language center that I had for one year. I liked the fact that she was emphasizing using sophisticated vocabulary when it came to writing essays. Therefore, I seized this opportunity to memorize and pick up many difficult and advanced words in English. My writing skills have developed since then. She gave me so much inspiration and motivation to keep writing, to love writing with my inner soul. She made me challenge myself to take risks and draw my path to success thanks to her nonstop encouragement. When I sought advice I found her by my side, which extenuated the fear and isolation I had for speaking English in front of my friends. I aced her class with a happy A that made me realize how my writing skills have improved beyond all expectations. When I found out that she is teaching a creative writing class, I tended to take this class for spring 2020 to even more enhance and fulfill my desire for writing. I really enjoyed her class back then. I fell in love with her writing, with her teaching, and with her behavior. I was enthralled with how she made me be inspired by writing poems, short stories, my own memoir, and this free writing creative journal. Professor Festa Monica has a heart of gold, a perfect personality that does understand her students very well. She never made things complicated, and yet, this pushed me to adore both classes because they were made for learning but not for testing our abilities as many professors do. She made me love being a professor, someone who teaches creative writing by heart as she completely did. I wish other professors could be like her, just like her. She is wisdom, love, and passion.

 

A Change

Let your coffee get cold. Don’t answer your phone. Put both hands in your pockets, and just watch the opportunities pass you by. Let anxiety take what it is taking from you. Approach what you fear and accept the fact that things aren’t under any obligation to satisfy your unspoken thoughts or provide you with emotional peace. Don’t buy an umbrella for the sun or the rain. Don’t match your clothes with the weather. No Google Maps; no directions. Just walk among the folks in the streets where they buried you.

Nothing matters now. Just keep your words to yourself and avoid people. Muddy your causeless smile with silence to make it seem deeper. There is no doubt that everything is already spoiled. Everything is poisoned now.

Cursing the fates like a mad dog won’t make your dead flowers bloom again. Welcome disappointments and say “Hi” to defeats with a smiling face and squinty eyes. With a bruised face, I tasted for the first time real courage and freedom. Holy freedom.

What is Love?

Love is when I swore not to talk to you, and I did. Love is when I thought I forgot you, and your voice, pictures, and songs defeated me. Love is when windows and roads defeat me too. Every single detail you didn’t pay attention to was a stabbing knife stuck in my heart that I couldn’t take off. I moved on, trying to forget, but the me-time that I was spending made me realize that I’d forgotten everything but you. I told you that you would be by my side even if you weren’t; I wasn’t lying. I moved on, but it feels like a sad victory. You won too, but at what cost?

Big Loss

Death, losing someone close to you is the worst thing you can ever experience. It came with a huge painful moments, guilt, anger, depression. I was at the age of 10 years old when I lost my grandfather. He was the one who took care of me all my childhood. He was my second father. Since I was a little girl, he used to be nice to me, play with me, buying me gifts all the time, took me with him to work, enjoying time as father and daughter. He taught me how to be a good person and be nice to people. He taught me how to deal with every situation whether it was good or not, how to deal with problems. He used to tell me stories about him and about our family. How he grew up give me a full vision about how my grand grandparents and his brothers and sisters looked like. He was the one who took care of all of us, me and my cousins. He was so lovely and nice to us, and I loved him so much. I can’t even describe my love for him to anyone. When his day came, I was near to him, holding his hand and telling him everything is going to be okay. Even when he was dying, that smile stayed. He was telling me that, “I am going to a better place. I am going to meet my family, my father, my mother, my siblings. I am happy to go. I am not afraid. I was going insane at that moment. I couldn’t imagine living my life without him, without his support, without his smile and all those night talks, how life wouldn’t have a taste without him. All my family felt the same thing, especially my grandmother because she lived with him the most, since she was very young. He wasn’t only my grandfather. He was my father, my brother, my best friend. He really meant a lot to me. I cried almost every night. At that time, I wanted to give anything just for other minutes with him. Life stopped for a while. I couldn’t stop thinking, “What if another member of my family died, especially my parents?” At that moment, I realized that life is short. No one lasts. People should benefit from it and spend more time with their beloved ones. Make as many memories as they can. Only memories last, and that’s what I kept. Only memories. I wish he was here seeing his little girl growing up.

Movies, movies, & movies !

Movies, movies, & movies !

A list of movie I believe are worth watching !

Me before you (2016)

The last word (2017)

The only living boy in New York (2017)

Tulip Fever (2017)

All I see is you (2016)

The mountain between us (2017)

The boss (2016)

Collateral Beauty (2016)

Her (2013)

Every Day (2018)

The Model (2016)

We’re the Millers (2013)

Comet (2014)

Between us (2016)

Little Children (2006)

Nocturnal Animals (2016)

Blue Jasmine (2013)

The Danish girl (2015)

Bad moms (2016)

Vipassana.. my new birth

Vipassana.. my new birth

Last August, I attended a 10 days Vipassana Meditation course that totally changed me, my perception of life and of reality. I consider this experience my second birth.

Vipassana means seeing things as they are (not as we want them to be). This meditation technique is not based on visualization nor imagination, but pure awareness of reality and the present moment. We observe our breath, our body, and its sensations. Then, we develop equanimity towards them. This means no reaction to pleasant sensations, as it will generate more craving, and no reaction to unpleasant ones, as it will generate aversion. Craving and aversion are the source and the root of our misery. We crave things we don’t have, and we are averse to things we don’t like yet exist in our lives.

During this 10 days course, we respected couple of rules that were in favor of our meditation and helped us concentrate and have a clear mind. The best rule for me was the Noble Silence ! SO yeah I didn’t speak for 10 days ! We only could talk to the teacher or the managers if we needed anything, in a very low voice and we keep it concise. This is something I wish I can do from time to time ! It’s super restful for the mind ! I had no access to my phone, so no connection with the external world; this gave me space and time to concentrate on myself.

I didn’t want to write about this experience right after it ended; I wanted to give it couple of days and see how it really affected me.. almost one week now after it ended, and the impact is incredible. This is a list of things that changed about me (I mean seriously changed!)

1- Mind control: My mind shifted from focusing on useless, unnecessary, and unreal thoughts to real ones ! I feel that I don’t give any attention to things that don’t matter, effortlessly. Hallelujah !! I really used to spend much time and energy on worrying and being angry on futility.

2- Anicca (Law of Change, Impermanence): Nothing lasts. Whatever we are going through at this present moment won’t last. Happy/sad feelings, good/ bad situations, all sensations in the world have the same characteristics, arise and passe away !

3- Acceptance: Anicca makes me accept unpleasant sensations and feelings by keeping a balanced mind and not reacting; because I simply say to myself, “this will also change.”

4- Self-Awareness: Before this course, I was very aware of the external world; however, I never paid attention to my body and the sensations happening constantly. These sensations are nothing but an expression of the constantly changing body… our body was the little laboratory we worked in/on during this meditation technique to understand the real meaning of Anicca. Our body is in a continuous change, just like the whole world outside, our conditions and our life …

5- Clear mind: The mind is always either thinking about the past- regretting or missing things/people; or thinking about the future – imagining stuff, worrying or getting too excited about what’s coming; but never/rarely in the present moment or at least blank mind ! The Noble Silence helped me clear my mind; I didn’t “feed” the mind with any conversations or socializing. In addition to that, the 10 hours per day of meditation and concentration on breath and body truly redressed my mind. Even after the course, I often find myself thinking about nothing ! Nada ! Clear blank mind or I would be thinking about the present moment and whatever I am doing; which means better concentration. I am really glad the monkey mind of mine is finally shut !

All theses 5 areas of change have impact on many other sides of one’s life. Keeping the awareness and equanimity of the mind are key to a happy life. This is easy for everyone to understand on the intellectual level, however; the experiential level remains the reality of it. One needs to experience and live the equanimity to actually take benefit from this technique.

The whole experience, from waking up everyday at 4 AM, only eating vegetarian food, having lunch as the last meal of the day (new students had some fruits and infusions at 5 PM), staying in total silence, doing our dishes, cleaning our own rooms, 10 hours of sitting and meditating everyday, no phones, no reading, no music, was an exquisite journey of learning, self-development, complete focus on oneself, mind purification and raising self-awareness. (and losing weight :D)

The final goal of Vipassana is to be happy, a happy being enjoying its life; eliminating misery by accepting our reality. Either we don’t have what we want, or we have things we don’t like; equanimity is a beautiful tool to remain balanced, in peace and happy with our lives.

May All Beings be Happy.

For more information about Vipassana history, the courses, and the locations around the world: https://www.dhamma.org/en/index