Breaking habits is one of the most difficult things in life; it takes a lot of effort, energy, time and determination to break a habit you have. Habits become a second nature to us when we do them all the time and when one breaks them, there are withdrawal issues to deal with.

Sometimes; we are forced into adopting new habits and by default the old ones get out of the way given some time to pass. Other times; we are forced to stop doing something we are used to do because of circumstances and events of life. What is really interesting though; is the fact that when these circumstances are passed and over and you want to get back to your old routine, it is as difficult to get into a habit as it is to break one.

I haven’t been functional in the blogosphere for the past couple of weeks because of my surgery. It is really funny how the human body is weak enough to make everything ache when one organ is hurt or wounded; as if this organ is getting all the support from other body parts to help it cope with the pain and heal faster. This is exactly what was happening to me the past couple of weeks; it seemed as if everything was put on hold till my wound is healed and here I am; although I am not 100% functional yet but I am at work and doing my best to get back into my real life one more time and I am telling you; this is not easy!

I thought I should start by writing a post on my blog to get things going again and maybe induce some refreshment in my daily routine. Needless to say; I would like to thank everyone that contacted me during my illness and wished me good health; thank you everyone!

I am almost back!

To read old comments on this post; please click here

I have been away from the blogosphere and my favorite hobby for a whole week. The reason is that I have undergone a surgery on Saturday and I am home now; recovering!

Did I ever mention to you that I really do not like hospitals? I don’t like their smell, the staffs, the procedures, the medication, the needles … etc. But again; who does? But what I really don’t like the most is the obnoxious staffs and their mediocre or even below mediocre service, but I survived!

I will be back to my blog and readers soon; I just need some time to come back to life again. Right now; I am literally living on pain killers and sleeping most of the time, so ladies and gentlemen; hang on and wait for more posts about this experience.

To read old comments on this post; please click here

How many times we heard or said that little things do matter and do make a big difference? How many times we saw big changes happen from small twists of faith? How many movies did Hollywood produce to prove that if you can go back in time and change a tiny detail in events, the whole future will alter and turns of events would differ?

Such concepts really fascinate me, because there is nothing absolute in this live. Nothing is 100% right as well as nothing is 100% wrong. Something might be so insignificant to you but could change someone else’s life altogether. What you consider to be a big problem and a tragedy in your life might be an everyday event in another part of the world.

Look around the world and look around you, we can say that we are luckier than a large span of the whole wide world. It is true that others’ misfortunes make you count your own blessings and look at your life from a different perspective.

From the blessings that I have counted in my life; I can see, hear, talk, smell and touch. I have two loving parents and a great family; blessed with a brother, four sisters and seven nieces and nephews. I have a roof over my head; I have clean clothes to wear and a nice comfortable bed to sleep on. I had the opportunity to get the best education and I did get great education. I have food on my table every day and hunger was never a part of my life. I have a car and I get to drive freely. I have a job in a great company and I enjoy the company of wonderful colleagues. I get to live in my home country, enjoy my freedom and live in dignity. My country is safe to live and is governed by laws to protect citizens. I have a great faith and I get to thank God for all these blessings and more.

Somewhere around the world; there are a lot of people living in misery, war and hunger. They don’t have a constant supply of food; they live day to day. Lots of children do not have mothers or fathers or neither; they don’t get to experience the love of the family and are deprived the opportunity to get education and live in dignity. A lot of people are in a continuous fight for their own lives and their children’s. A lot of women get raped and their privacies are invaded in the cruelest way; their lives get shattered in minutes and they are killed afterwards or left scarred with so many physical and mental wounds that will never heal. Some people’s biggest worry is how to provide food on the table for the next meal. A lot of people fight death, hunger, occupation, sickness … etc.

Two completely different pictures; two worlds under the same sky sharing the same air; same people here and there; they all cry when sad and smile when happy, they all worry for their kids and the future, they all sleep and wake the same, they all feel fear and pain, they all fall in love the same and most importantly; when they die they die the same as their souls leave their bodies for the last time!

All religions; all prophets taught us that the fortunate must share some of his fortune with the unlucky or less blessed. To acquire a balance in this life; we must learn how to give as much as we learn how to take. God has blessed us with so many things but what are we doing to show our gratitude for all these blessings? Is it enough to pray and say thank you God for everything that you have given me? Is this what God wants us to do? Isn’t it a valid point that God has given us so much to pass the blessings to others?

Somewhere in the world; $75 can put someone in a private school for a whole year. This amount of money can be only a lunch bill for a couple or a group of people. What are we doing to give back God and show gratitude? How are we helping to make the world a better place to live in? People die around the world as we indulge in big parties and pour so much in empty celebrations. While we worry what toys to get our kids in their birthdays; other kids do not get a warm loving hug because they don’t have parents; they only think of a loving tap on the shoulder and toys are an impossible dream.

Inspired by Sarah Mclachlan who changed the lives of one million people around the world in just three minutes; inspired by the touching song and video she made; my words come to you in hope they might touch your hearts as much as this work of art has touched me. Under the title “World on Fire“, Sarah shot the clip of this song in a $15 cost when a real clip would cost $150,000. Where did the rest of the money go? They changed the lives of one million people around the world.

Listen to the song here and check where the money went here.

The question is now; what can WE do to help and how? Why don’t we start something to help in our own community? There are so many people who could use our help and I am sure that we all can afford to spare something and help the poor and unlucky to get better chances in life and create better futures for them and their families.

قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: “مثل المؤمنين في توادهم وتراحمهم كمثل الجسد إذا اشتكى منه عضو تداعى له سائر الجسد بالسهر والحمى” (البخاري ومسلم)

Our Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) said:  “The similitude of the believers in regard to mutual love, affection and mutual-compassion is that of one body; when any limb of it aches, the whole body shares the agony, sleeplessness and fever that arises from it.” (Al-Bukhaari & Muslim).

To read old comments on this post; please click here

In case you are wondering what I am talking about; it is the mosquitoes!! Oh how I hate those creepy tiny things that keep roaming around you and never give up until they have sucked up your blood or died trying.

It seems to me that they hibernate right under your nose and at the first sign of warmth and heat, they go into feeding frenzy mode and they are all over you. No matter what you use from insecticides; they still find a way around it and get to your blood.

As mush as I hate these tiny pests; I am fascinated by their construction and persistence. As light and insignificant they are; they are more complicated than you think; just some of the strange facts about them; get this: mosquitoes are responsible for the most human deaths world-wide!

They prefer children to adults and blondes to brunettes; so the argument I used to get from my sisters was a valid one. You see, they have skin color that is way lighter than mine and you can say they tend to be blonde while I am a brunette, so it makes sense now.

Mosquitoes can detect a moving target that is 15 ft away! Can you imagine that? So if I was in a room and the mosquito was in the next room, it will detect my movement and come for my blood; talk about scary!

The average life span of the mosquito is 3 – 100 days and she is the blood sucker; on the other hand; her male peer has a life span of 10 – 20 days and does not suck blood; interesting, ha?

A mosquito can smell its live host (that is basically us humans or any live animals) from a distance of 20 – 35 m! Boy! We really don’t stand a chance with them.

Mosquitoes don’t see very well, but they zoom in like a heat-seeking missile. In the spherical arrangement of their compound eyes, blind spots separate each eye from the next one. As a result, they can’t see you until they are 30 feet (10 meters) away. Even then, they have trouble distinguishing you from any object of similar size and shape: tree stump, 55-gallon drum, etc. When they are 10 feet (3 meters) away they use extremely sensitive thermal receptors on the tip of their antennae to locate blood near the surface of the skin. The range of these receptors increases threefold when the humidity is high.

The most fascinating fact I learned about these creatures is that although they are into blood sucking; they do not transfer AIDS from someone infected to someone who is not. Studies with HIV clearly show that the virus responsible for the AIDS infection is regarded as food to the mosquito and is digested along with the blood meal.

Mosquitoes Do Not Ingest Enough HIV Particles to Transmit AIDS by Contamination.
An AIDS-free individual would have to be bitten by 10 million mosquitoes that had begun feeding on an AIDS carrier to receive a single unit of HIV from contaminated mosquito mouth parts. Most people have heard that mosquitoes regurgitate saliva before they feed, but are unaware that the food canal and salivary canal are separate passageways in the mosquito. The mosquito’s feeding apparatus is an extremely complicated structure that is totally unlike the crude single-bore syringe. Unlike a syringe, the mosquito delivers salivary fluid through one passage and draws blood up another. As a result, the food canal is not flushed out like a used needle, and blood flow is always unidirectional. The mechanics involved in mosquito feeding are totally unlike the mechanisms employed by the drug user’s needles. In short, mosquitoes are not flying hypodermic needles and a mosquito that disgorges saliva into your body is not flushing out the remnants of its last blood meal.

Ok! It is cool to learn more facts about these creatures that disrupt your sleep almost every night in the summer. They suck your blood and feed on it leaving you with a mark that can easily turn into a scar if you mess with it. To me; I would rather that the mosquito sucks my blood and leave me alone to go back to sleep than roam around my ear with this annoying wizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz sound; what is it with mosquitoes and ears? Isn’t it enough that they are feeding on us that they have to always rub it in? why do we have to be awake for them to get the job done? Damn! I really hate mosquitoes!!!

To read more about them; please click here  and here.

To read old comments on this post; please click here

My least favorite season of the year is here and I am sweating already. I have always been a winter person; I love the rain and the cold weather. I have always said to myself that if you ever get cold, you can put on some warm clothes, you can sit near the heating source or you can tuck yourself under covers, but what can you do when you get hot? You cannot remove your own skin, now can you?

If my memory serves me; the weather was not always this hot! The summer was somewhat tolerable, but now it seems that noon is the minute we open our eyes in the morning and I am always inclined to say that I go out of the house at 7:30 noon time and not morning time because this is how it feels.

The moment I enter my car in the morning; it is boiling inside and I really need a few minutes to get used to the heated seat and steering wheel; sometimes I cannot even touch it because it is too hot. Thank God I have a conditioned car.

When I was a little girl; my dad used to take us to picnics in the summer. We used to choose spots under trees and spend the day playing games, singing and of course BBQ’ing. Sometimes we went to the sea or the hot springs where we swam almost all day long; what a refreshing feeling.

As grown ups now; we spend our weekdays behind desks in closed office rooms, some of which are not air conditioned and you are stuck with heat coming from the outside and the inside because of breath and heat generated by machines; not attractive.

What I like about summer though is the many fruits that fill the shelves of supermarkets. Summer fruits are juicy, sweet and full of useful fibers. Nothing compares to a slice of cold watermelon in a hot day, or a plate full of different kinds of fruits to allow you to pick and choose.

Cold drinks and juices are another great option to help you deal with the hot weather. Imagine yourself walking down the street in a very hot day; what is the first thing that comes to your mind? A glass of icy water or cold juice? Maybe a slush is the best choice here!

What about ice cream? I really love ice cream in all shapes, flavors and colors. I am prepared to have it any time, summer or winter. Whoever invented ice cream was a genius and applaud him for this great product. I am sad that we cannot get to Jerard’s that easy these days, don’t you love their ice cream?

Swimming is another option but only when you have the time. Unfortunately; we don’t have a beach in Amman; I really wish we had because swimming would be a lot better than closed swimming pools scattered here and there. Not all of these pools are clean, not all of them are suitable and we don’t even have enough time in the day to have this luxury. That’s why when I was in Aqaba last August; I really did not want to get out of the water!

Thankfully; I have air conditioning in my car and in my office, yet I am ranting about the heat because I really can’t take it. I really feel for people who are forced to conduct their work out in the open under the angry sun; these people really suffer from the heat and sometimes do not even have the time to do something about it; for example stop for a cold drink or sit in the shade.

The minute I saw Hajaj’s caricature in the newspaper today; it inspired me to post about the heat and here I am sharing it with everyone. This guy really expresses my thoughts!

To read old comments on this post; please click here

As everyone knows; my name is Arabic but not widely used in the Arab World; it is more used in Iran, Pakistan and Bangladesh. I really do not know what made my parents choose this name for me; maybe because my elder sister’s name is Kholoud and they wanted something close.

Growing up; I did not really like my name that much especially that almost all my teachers made a funny face when I said what my name was. At university; my name was always spelled in a wrong way and I was therefore mistaken for a guy.

When I wanted to issue my passport; it was after I finished high school and my father wanted to send me to France to live with my uncle in Nantes and study at its university, so I had to translate my birth certificate to French; hence write my name in French. My name officially became “Khalidah” with an “h” at the end.

This is the name that I used from that day onward. Still; a lot of people remove this “h” when they write my name and this really annoys me and makes me sad at the same time. I do care how I spell everyone’s name and I appreciate it when someone brings it to my attention that I misspelled their names.

You might be asking yourself; why is she blogging about this? Well; the answer is very simple: there are a lot of people out there who misspell my name and remove the “h” so instead of sending them separate notes on this issue; I thought it is easier to write a note in my blog about it. I am expressing this freely because I follow this lovely quote by Theodore Seuss Geisel who said: “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind”

You all matter to me a great deal!

Since we are in the correction mode now; please note that the URL of my blog has a “/” at the end and it is extremely important because if you remove it from the URL, you will get an error of “The Page Cannot Be Displayed”, try it:

http://anolita.jeeran.com/mind

Now try:

http://anolita.jeeran.com/mind/

This is a call to anyone that by any chance misspelled my name by removing the “h” and removing the “/” from my blog URL. I thank you for linking to me if you are and I thank you to correct the above-mentioned so that all internet records are the same.

*Note: For non Arab readers; my name means Eternal or immortal

To read old comments on this post; please click here

It’s June, it’s summer time and from the early hours of the day, the sun is shining so hard and the heat is rising every minute. You get up in the morning after a long hot night full of battles with mosquitoes; you take a shower, get ready for the day and then head out in the overheated car to start your lovely summer day!

It is obvious that I am not that fond of summer; in fact; the heat kind of suffocates me and I think I become irrational when the atmosphere is overheated; I can’t help it; I just feel so edgy. However; what I am about to talk about here is not the heat and the elevated temperatures we are experiencing; this post is dedicated for summer sense of style!

The sun is high up in the sky and up goes with it sleeves and skirts and shirts; it seems that everything is shrinking up!

I am sure that each and every one of us takes a look around and sees how girls and elderly women just started to show up as much meat as possible in these sunny days that we are going through. I am sure that some of you might say: so what? What makes you talk about this? What annoys you in short skirts, sleeveless shirts, spaghetti tops … etc.? Well; I will tell you!

It is only logical that one should wear something that fits what he/she is doing. You just don’t see a guy wearing some shorts to a meeting, now do you? So why is it that we see girls wearing these revealing provocative clothes for such occasion? You just don’t see a guy’s underwear flashing you in the face while at a business conference, so why is it that whenever you turn your head here or there you get flashed with a bra strap or worse; a thong?? When did it become ok to see someone’s bellybutton or cleavage while you are attending a course or a lecture or simply having lunch in the middle of the day?

Sometimes it is not suitable and it even lacks taste to wear such things for formal occasions and it is distracting. You reveal more than you seal and then you curse these boys for sneaking looks you have already invited them to take. You do not put something out in the open and then feel upset and offended when someone looks at it; I mean was not that the point you put them on display in the first place??

I get it! Some girls have the assets that make them attractive and beautiful and some attention would not harm anyone, but what about those who do not have what it takes to make them pass as gorgeous and yet still flash the world with less than ugly scenes? Isn’t it enough that we have to deal with the good ones to have to deal with the bad ones? I mean; for God’s sake, wear something suitable for your size, age, status … etc.

If you are a large girl, please do not wear tight clothes; it hurts bad enough to see these tight clothes on skinny chicks and they do not look good. If you are old enough to be a mother and in your late thirties or forties, please wear your age because fitting yourself in these shiny small pieces is not flattering at all.

If you were not blessed with a shiny white skin, maybe orange or lime green is just not your color, so why insist on wearing it?

Who was the first one who came up with this style or lack of it for that matter? It is not ok or cool to wear beach clothes for work, it is not ok or cool to reveal more than you seal as you are walking down the streets and then cry out your frustration of these men who cannot control themselves, it is not ok or cool to wear clothes that are too tight or too small or do not fit your age. It is not ok or cool to make chiffon a part of your daily wardrobe because its suitable time and place is parties.

Please don’t tell me that this is the followed trend and that you just go for it without thinking. If one day you walk in the grocery store to find that the latest trend in the food market is to eat flavored poison, would you go for it just because it is the trend?

Summer girls; please have mercy on us because this is getting way out of hand!

To read old comments on this post; please click here