What Prayers Look Like During Ramadan

Posted on July 2, 2016 by Razan Masri

I found this beautiful photograph on Instagram yesterday that I could not take my eyes off. Beautiful. It sure is, as much as prayers in Ramadan is. Serene. Full of color. From the prayer mat to what people are covered up with; to perform their prayers. Their spirits rise above to meet in unity, diverting their hearts and thoughts towards a meditative state of mutual connection towards the Divine. A prayer performed to remember what we are grateful for, to remember there is something much bigger than all of us, all of this and all of that, to remember that we are not alone but gifted, given, surrounded by miracles. Prayers; no matter how they are performed, no matter by whom they are performed, where or when, resemble the same beautiful purpose to express ones presence, gratitude, a beautiful way to express mutual humility and to remember always to take part in the unity of humanity.

Ramadan is a holly month that unites Muslims all around the world to submit their souls in the name of spirituality. They fast, practice their prayers, contribute as much as they can to charity and to their communities, it is a month to unite the people together to remember that we are all here, alive, today, through a common source. To practice not only what is good, but what can be better, to spread love, and peace, to ask for forgiveness and new chances, to start over again, to help people start over again. It is a month of unity, and it is a month of remembrance, a month for-giving.

To a world of today that is thirsty for our unity and love.

Photograph by Yassine Ismail, Morroco, found on EmergEast Instagram account.

Also tagged onto the Pleasure Daily post by wordpress.

UP in the air.

Posted on July 1, 2016 by Razan Masri

It is like a routine, a daily reminder, to get up, and start something new, everyday.

It is like walking up a mountain, between the trees, and the wind, and the air, and the breeze, and to breathe, once again, to remember, that life, is still up and running.

It is like being on the plane, looking out the window, to remember, the advantages of today, the opportunities of tomorrow.

It is like looking into the clouds, so white and fluffy, so inseparable and invisible, looking different at every angle, you can never get it right, because there is no right.

It is about the horrific things, that take place, every day, in this world, that make us forget, about the little things, we are surrounded by… reasons to be grateful for, that we keep pushing aside.

Prompt by WordPress Daily Post: Clouds

This is a photo of Piazza Novona, blue skies beautiful architecture in rome italy

Visit Amsterdam

This is the scenery most of the time in Bali.

walking clear skies Tannenheim Oberbalmberg, Solothurn (Switzerland)

The first thing to do is run to beach, we stayed at the most fashionable area in Bali “Seminyak” – Flores Sea

About the coastline

6-Jerusalem-Palestine-Israel-القدس-فلسطين

Travel to Barcelona and visit land marks and tourist attractions

Wadi Rum WadiRum Jordan VisitJordan Camels Sand Bedouin Tea Camp Hike Mountain Blog TravelBlog

Tannenheim Oberbalmberg, Solothurn (Switzerland)

sunset Tannenheim Oberbalmberg, Solothurn (Switzerland)

18-zebra-tanzania-serengetti-safari-animal-jungle-12

29-zebra-tanzania-serengetti-safari-animal-jungle-50

Hiking through Wadi Rayan Yabis between Ajloun and Jordan ValleyHiking through Wadi Rayan Yabis between Ajloun and Jordan Valley

Hadathe destroyed Palestinian Village protest during Israeli independence day

safari, tanzania, jungle, serengeti, ngorongoro crater, lake manyara

37-zebra-tanzania-serengetti-safari-animal-jungle-54

48-zebra-tanzania-serengetti-safari-animal-jungle-52

Creative Space #2 – What are you doing with your life?

Posted on June 27, 2016 by Razan Masri

This is my second creative prompt in response to Elizabeth Gilbert Workshop on Hobbies, Job, Career and Vocation.

I am driven by passion everyday. I do things because I want to do them and I want to do them with love. My activities change and expand because I am driven by my passion. I wake up and I listen to my callings. Today, I feel like doing this, so I do it, and if I can’t do it today, I make sure I do it in the near future. I don’t wait on things to happen, I go and make them happen. I try, at least, I give it a chance, to understand, to listen, to feel, to experience, to elaborate on, to free myself from the curiosity that roams around inside my head.

My job was my career, and it was a choice I made and I went after it. It combined all what Elizabeth talks about; from hobbies, job, career and vocation. I used to enjoy holding photo shoots even if we didn’t make money out of them, I used to enjoy watching live shows that can support us be more productive and creative at work with the team, I used to enjoy creating fashion shows and events, even if it was at a small-scale, but of course the bigger they were the more enjoyment I felt. It was also my job, my money-making, my 9 to 5, my challenges and it sure did included many situations, moments and days were I wished I could disappear from existence. It was my career, nine years, building a small name into a brand, into a trend, into a tree with branches. And it used to be my vocation, for I felt fashion was what I was here for, what I was here to create, to expand in, and to share.

Two years ago, I decided to quit it all. All of it. I reached a point where I felt I wanted none of this and more of everything else, and as much time as I made for myself to do new things, I still did not have enough time. I was frustrated, because I wanted to follow my passion again.

I discovered, that it is okay for your passion to change. For your callings to change. What is not okay, is for you not to answer the change. Today I wake up every morning, and I write, I work on my book, on the blog, or on my note books. I read, online or offline (books). I exercise, I do yoga, cross fit, I run or swim. I enjoy the kitchen, I bake, make salads or cook. I travel when I can, I love exploring, discovering and meeting new people and new stories. I photograph during my travels, I love to document what I find beautiful and I love sharing them. But today, I do not have a job. I have few small little things on the side, but I do not have a full-time or a part-time job. I can afford it for a little bit, but I sure will need to find myself a source of income.

Nonetheless, I believe life is too short. Your vocation is your calling and your calling can change, and if it doesn’t then you are lucky. But I still consider myself lucky. I believe my vocation changes because it is changeable, it can never be the same. I feel I am here to find new findings, to learn new things and maybe change is my vocation, I am here to always find the new, and the very old can be the very new. I love researching, discovering, exploring, understanding, connecting the dots, I love staying alive, my Vocation is learning and trying something new everyday, and my favorite part is sharing it all.

About the Maasai Tribe

Posted on June 19, 2016 by Razan Masri

A day to remember,

Days to remember,

Meeting beautiful faces and beautiful people,

Who only like to meet new faces and different people,

Who only invite you to sing and dance with them and cherish the very moment,

Tribes, from all over, any tribe, a tribe,

Just some people who believe strongly in their own values and do not impose them on the other,

A tribe, that holds on close tight into their circle and feel happy to share their wisdom with the other,

Tribes, that surrender in circles, to form beautiful colors of ethnicity and earth figures,

Tribes, that build upon each other and on top of one another, in continuation forming a strong system that connects them together in union,

Tribes, they last long but they stay isolated from everything else in the name of their circle,

That circle, that bonds them and never leaves them alone no matter what,

That circle, that is like light bulbs and no light can turn on without turning the next one on and the next one on and the next one on,

And if one bulb doesn’t turn on, then the whole system mourn together in loss.

What to expect when going on a Safari trip

Posted on June 18, 2016 by Razan Masri

We planned to try all the camping options during out trip. We booked a night in a Semi-Luxury camp, a night in a regular camp and a night in a luxury camp. The semi-luxury camp was great, we had our private bathroom inside the tent, and we had a separate beautiful tent for breakfast and dinner. We hear the roar of lions at night and the sound of other wild animals. The regular camp was the most adventurous, as we literally have seen a hyena before going to bed, they offered a shared bathroom hall that were located a minute walking distance but was still unfavored and not recommended to be used during the night time, and a cafeteria serving both breakfast and dinner, the food was poorly done, but the experience was incredible. Our luxury camp which I was truly looking forward to was a total rip off. It was located outside of Serengeti, yet outside the wild, it was just like any hotel. It was a beautiful hotel, but luxury camps inside Serengeti offer an unforgettable experience which i totally recommend, even if you have to put a few hundred bucks on top of your budget, do it, you will never regret it, just make sure you see photos of what it will look like and compare it with other luxury camps available.

Creative Writing on my Safari Experience:

When love is nature,

And nature is love,

When looking at earth as a one big piece of art,

When nothing makes sense because everything makes pure sense,

When life taps you on the shoulder to tell you one word, Love.

Because without love, nothing is nourished,

Because without love, everything is dead.

Because to love we belong,

And without love we can never belong.

Because seeing this world can change like every climate,

We choose to see things the way we wish to see them,

We can always look on the other side, but there is always someone looking into our side,

Because no one knows how long we will stay where we are,

And how far we can go to where we want to go,

Life can be a puzzle or a simple passage,

A passage that we can curate or walk through accepting all possible changes,

Life is nothing but a piece of big art,

Big huge painting that can never be framed because it is always changing,

Free of one criteria and free of one identity,

It is open, and spacious, it is multinational and diverse,

It is made for everyone and yet made to no one,

It is so random, yet it so miraculous,

It is always a reflection of what we seek to see,

So seek for good, seek for love, and be that love you wish to see.

My Creative Space

Posted on June 10, 2016 by Razan Masri

I am taking a Creative Workshop by Elizabeth Gilbert, and the below is a piece of writing in response to the following questions:

What was the last thing you really wondered about? When was the last time you experienced creative flow? What was the last passage of book, piece of music, or work or art that really inspired you? What drew you in? What are you doing when you feel most beautiful? What are your super powers? What would you do for a living if you were not afraid of anything?

I wonder about so many things; how we live, how we perceive things, where life takes us, what makes us believe in one way or another. How can things be reformed, reintroduced. I wonder about the way we perceive things, the way we go on, how we find knots and then we make them bigger by attaching them to more knots, by not realising that we are creating a huge big complicated knot. How some people can see those people who see those knots and wonder how it is that they choose to just use the knots to make them bigger, instead of simply unknot them?

I wonder about the reasons why some of us perceive things negatively when we know others perceive them positively, wouldn’t we all want to live in a one happy bubble?

I receive creative flow while researching and finding beautiful things, work, art, stories of people that make me spark, and all I want to do is dig in more, learn more, ask more, I want to dive in more, I just want to leave everything and run towards deepening, and understanding, then sharing and communicating, I love to find the passion in things that look beautiful. I find flow in connecting, in finding answers to questions, when finding dots and connecting them together, when finding stories, quotes, sayings, definitions of ideas, solutions, realities, that have been created because of those connected dots. I find flow, in finding, in feeling, and in bringing them to light.

I feel most beautiful, when I speak, not thinking about what am saying, but I am certain it makes complete sense, when I know it is motivating, when I know my words are un-knotting the knots that were created and knotted together, complicating every single open passage in front of us. I feel most beautiful, when I can see through the eyes of the listeners a light, a light of clarity, a light of door ways, passage, air, flow, light, life again.

Photos below are selection of my instagram favorites by: Kamo Hmaid, Sarakanov, Sunday Suppers, One Young Boy, What for Breakfast, Alix Cherry, Local Milk, A Minute Away From Snowing, A Guy Named Patrick, Lace Events, Nicole Franzen, Local Milk, Table on Ten, Table on Ten, The Trotter Girl, Cara_Melized, Local Milk, Revistannow, Teyxavier, Sezgi Olgac, Reza Photography

Birds Represent Freedom

Posted on June 5, 2016 by Razan Masri

We think being in a cage keeps us protected, keeps them protected, we think we are doing our selves and one another a favor when we put a cage around us. But birds were born free, we were born free, we learn things as we grow, we are who we are when we are set free. Yes, we can trip, and fall, we can do mistakes, and the chances of making mistakes are high, but without them, how do we know what life is? Who we truly are? Stop putting a cage around us, around each other, accept your children as they come, as they grow, as they rebel, just be there, watch them, protect them, listen to them, speak to them, but don’t put a cage around them. Don’t prevent your children from exploring life and the colors it is painted with, let them fly as far as they want and where ever their instincts take them. Don’t try to change the way they speak or dress or sing, don’t force them to make you proud just to make you feel better about yourself. The best feelings ever is seeing your loved ones spread their wings on their own and fly, the best feeling is to see that their wings are different from any other, and that they are still as beautiful or even more beautiful. Allow them to settle, allow them to be, independent or dependent, allow them to be silent, or speak their brains out, allow them to perform, or to be isolated, allow them to try. But be there to listen, to watch, to care, to love, to praise, to reflect, to smile, to hug, be there to make them feel they are not alone. Set them free.

Click here for the full Safari experience.

The Letter B – حرف ال ب

Posted on May 24, 2016 by Razan Masri

Sufi mystics say the secret of the Qur’an lies in the verse Al-Fatiha.
And the secret of Al-Fatiha lies in Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

And the quintessence of Bismillah is the letter Ba,

And there is a dot below that letter…

The dot underneath the B embodies the entire universe…

From the book – Forty Rules of Love

– Kilimanjaro View

My Art, My Piece of Life – Tuesday Doodle

Posted on May 17, 2016 by Razan Masri

We don’t plan things to be the way they always end up to be. Life is just like an art piece. You never know until you try, and the image you have had in mind could happen to turn out identical or completely different. When its art it’s never restricted, its unpredictable, you need to stay open to receive and you need to be able to mend and blend, redo and replace, you can change the colors of the image, it can take you half a day to put things together or a lifetime. It does not matter. What matters at the end is the result. Some will turn out to satisfy you for mere a second and some will last an impression forever. How will you know? You never will, until you get there, you try, you give yourself the chance to explore, to express, to perceive, to be, to happen. Life is a piece of art, your piece of art, and everyday is a new white canvas that can be separated from the canvas of yesterday or can be a continuation, some canvases will be left somewhere unremembered and some will be framed forever.

Whatever it is. It is yours. Your art piece. Your work of art. Your only work of art. Are you enjoying it while you’re puting it together or are you agonizing your way through. Are you happy with the pieces at the end of your day or are your tears drying up? Look at each piece with love and fill it with laughter, with joy. Be the sailor of your own boat, put a ribbon on your hair and shirt, paint a heart everywhere you go, glitter your eyes with what you love to see, be a friend to those in need of a listening ear, color your diary with your thoughts and feelings, be grateful and count your blessings, sing to your world, and dance on your tip toes, don’t let anything stop you, from trying a new piece of art everyday.

Creative Writing on a Tuesday Morning Inspired by My Collection of Instagram’s favorite Pieces collected from 2015, Dar_Nur, Tilly2Milly, Kidvikk, HummingBirdHigh, Kitato, _Mamannyc_, Tilly2Milly, MawiOfficial, Wenlise_Fold, Candelanovembre, Kitat.

Milk my Shake – Tuesday Morning

Posted on May 10, 2016 by Razan Masri

A table wrapped in white cloth, hiding the antique old wooden wood beneath it that sits there with stains and knick knocks, It is furnished with red wine and green flowers, it is sprayed with jasmine water scent, and Brooklyn flavours, it has been stuffed with white plates and crystal glasses, butter knifes, and fresh-baked bread, the smell of the ovens bakery is so aromatically floating in the air, as each chair has a character of its own, ready to be seated by a man of his own vanities and flares, women in their shawls and tight skirts, life is like a shadow that moves in complete mystery and waste to what not no one knows, and what one thinks knows it all, blueberries and blackberries, mint leaves, and pearls, all enter the side room, as people begin to explain, their heart breaks and their flowers, that have been their mending to their love makings, the Irish, and the Danish, the Arabs, and the Germans, they all are greeted by lemons, and olives, greens and brows, hours of cheap talks, and hours of fake laughter, people continue to move into rooms, where cakes are served in butter, toasted in chocolate, and almond bites, the sugar is too sweet, the tea is too heavy, the party has only started it is three am, Breakfast is being baked, beds are unmend, helpless people toss themselves in jars, fight for a cookie with white pieces, over dark pieces so stained, fresh strawberries over left over cake, tickets to watch the next show have been sold out, and the people are only rushing outside their doors to make it in shapeless forms and fearful faces, they quickly but quietly brush their hairs and plug their eyebrows, they squeeze what is left over from their lip stick onto their lips, they tie their ties up tight into what they think is scheme, their shoe laces are left untied, but the clock is ticking, there is no time to look back, empty chairs, the sun is here, the people are gone, the house is clean, the paintings are hanging, the flowers continue living, and we sit and wait for the next round to… all over again…

Creative Writing on a Tuesday Morning Inspired by My Collection of Instagram’s favorite Pieces collected from 2015, The Dinner Club 57, _FoodStories_, Margaret__Zhang, Sunday Suppers, Food 51, Trotter Mag, Make My Lemonade, Food 52, Food 53, What For Breakfast