Sundaze: writing in community
why I do it
I’ve never gone to Hajj but one experience did feel closest to it - being surrounded by a community of people that were brought together by their deep love for God. By their devotion to finding joy in the little things. A holy pilgrimage to the heart.
With the ongoing escalation of the student movement in my birthland, I have started to feel powerless from sitting miles away. I can do my bit online and off, but then I sink back into my seat just a little deeper. I recognize the privilege that comes with the following statement as I say it: I am trying to reach the places in my mind that I can derive hope from. And the biggest thing I have learned through the July protests in Bangladesh is we can’t effect change alone.
The roar of a 100,000 people broke my heart into a hundred thousand pieces and in the same breath, brought it back together again.
“এমন দেশটি কোথাও খুঁজে পাবে নাকো তুমি”
Emon deshti kothao khuje pabe nago tumi
You won’t find a land like ours anywhere else.
I didn’t always understand the power of numbers. Or that I could lean on someone else for support. Or that every relationship with a stranger did not need to be transactional. In April of 2022, I found community, or rather - community found me. I spent 10 days in the Andalusia mountains with a spiritual retreat called Azahara. Here was a community of people that was ready to forego the material world and work as artisans, teachers, carpenters, cartoonists, and beekeepers. People that grew their own food and called everyone to the table for dinner. A community that prayed together and celebrated milestones together. This community taught me there was more to life than chasing the next paycheck. I don’t believe in coincidences. I was meant to learn something there and apply it to my life over the last two years. The perfect tee up to my adult gap (half-)year.
The company we keep
At one of the sermons, a Sufi teacher told us “The way you preserve your heart is by the company you keep. The wrong people will add layers over your heart and harden it. The right people will nourish and expand it.”
How are you preserving your heart?
I look back at my time there and I think it’s the happiest I had been in a while. There was a noor, a glow, that seemed to emanate from everyone. And I came back to New York with a renewed sense of purpose. I was living in Gramercy at the time, I remember trying to find more local businesses to support, getting coffee from the local cafe versus the corporate chains. It was the little things. My trip to Azahara instilled the importance of community in my day to day. And it taught me a few key lessons. I’ll share them in the coming weeks.
Love,
Aaisha, cup half full
P.S. Here’s a video of me shooting a poorly aimed arrow and missing completely, still met with “Yay! You did it! That’s pretty good actually.” And I realize now, that’s the company you want to keep.
P.P.S: I have two last writing workshops coming up in the city before I go on my sabattical.
My Alter Ego, register here
August 18, Drawing Room, Chelsea, 9:30-11:30am
Letter Writing Soiree w/ Chef Tova, register here
August 30, Bedford Studio, West Village, 7-9pm