real, raw motherhood
Last night, half asleep, I heard our dog pacing in her crate. Unusual behavior for her. I got up and opened her door. She bolted out and circled around me in a frenzy, making it difficult to slip her collar on and clip her leash. Finally, we hurried down the stairs. As soon as we…
We’ve been together more years than I had been alive when we first met. 25 years since I met my American star! A quarter of a century. Two and half decades. 300 months. By any time measuring standards, it’s been a while! I was 21 on that fateful June, 11th, 1997 and still 21 when…
This anniversary morning came and we took no notice. The iphone reminded us: three years ago today, I dropped him off at Cedar Sinai hospital in Beverly Hills, California, where a surgeon would remove all 5 feet of his large intestine. Life without a colon is not something you can imagine or prepare for. Forget…
I remember when we celebrated our 10th anniversary. We rented a house on the beach for three days and had a blast. I felt ecstatic. We had made it: a decade had gone by and we still loved each other. We had sailed the rough oceans of the first years and we now enjoyed calm…
I’m going on a date tonight. He’s handsome. 6 foot 1. Lean. Muscular. Jet black hair and hazel eyes. He has full pink lips, and great big hands. It was almost love at first sight and 19 years of marriage have not curbed the appeal. Lucky me. We haven’t been out, just the two of…
I was sitting on the couch. Content. Happy. It was such a good feeling. I am not the naturally bubbly and cheerful type: my nickname in High School was Grouchy Smurph so I pondered the cause of this sudden upturn in my disposition. My circumstances had not changed. Could it simply the “right time” of…
My friend had insisted so much, I finally agreed to drive an hour from my hometown and meet the American martial artist who was visiting Reunion Island for a week. I stepped out of the car and had my first glance of his 6 foot 1 frame. “Not bad” I thought to myself. Five minutes…
“I see no better option than surgery“, the gastro-enterologist said as we reviewed my husband’s colonoscopy results. It’s been a year. A year since that appointment. A year since the first surgery. We flew to Los Angeles in October 2015 and one of us came back home without a colon. Just like that. So easy…
I want you to be happy. I want you to be happy now. I want you to be happy tomorrow. And more than anything, I want you to be happy when you’re all grown up. I love you. I love you as best I can. Someday, it will be time for someone else to love…
When I was a teenager, I longed to be a boy. I longed for their carefree ways. I longed for their strength. Above all, I longed for the freedom and numerous privileges boys seemed entitled to. It sure looked easier to go through life as a boy. Of course, growing up in a Muslim family…