"Calm"

If you ask anyone close to me, they will tell you I can be a very stressed out person. And they wouldn’t be wrong I thrive on stress, I thrive when my mind works a hundred miles per hour. But some would say that I can’t be calm, and here they’re wrong. I can be calm. I cannot calm down when I am stressed, but I can be calm, and content.
Photo: Maha Ali
Like this very moment, I am calm. The breeze of Lake Michigan blowing my hair, random songs playing through my headphones blocking out the hustle of the world, and it’s just me, my laptop, and the lake. (And Sarah) For me, at this moment, it’s just my thoughts, the words that I’m typing.



This isn’t the only moment that calms me though, it’s one of many. The world calms me. Large buildings (even the ones that are architecturally uninspiring), Masjids and temples with large domes, a bus ride home-things that remind me that there is more to the world. Large, empowering things, that remind me that the world is not just you, and not just me, but you and me, and together we can create something greater. 
Photo: Maha Ali

Lately, my newsfeed has been inundated with news: France, Turkey, Pakistan, Syria, America, Refugees, Olympics, shootings, bombings, Islamophobia, and the list goes on. Some of this news positive, some negative. Some that reminds me that there is good in the world, and some that scares me. But what a lot of this information is just me vs. you.

You with an opinion. Me with my own opinion. You with a problem. Me with my problem. You in pain. And me. Me who has been seeing pain and blood for the last few years. Me who has become numb to any news. You who is still shocked and outraged by the world. And me, who is no longer shocked by the world. Me who takes the information and files it away in my brain so that maybe later I can use this news as an icebreaker later, or just push it in the back of my brain so I don’t have to think about it. But can you blame me? (yes, probably, I might just be a horrible person) I have been seeing the same news, the same arguments, the same problems for years, and little to no solutions. Why? Because you are doing something, you are doing something, or you’re not doing something, but someone else is doing it. Not us.


Photo: Maha Ali
When we see a large beautiful building, we attribute it to the architect. He had a beautiful vision. But it wasn’t just the architect there were hundreds of people who worked on that building that you’re staring at in awe.

When we read something inspiring, a poem, a song, a quote, there were hundreds of influences for the author, there were hundreds of people who liked it, there were hundreds of events to take place before it reached us.
Photo: Sarah Hassan

I think what I’m trying to say is that to reach a calm, to end the turmoil, we need to do something large, but not just you and not just me, but we. Together.


Or I could be completely wrong, and I’m just another girl with a laptop and a mind sitting by a lake looking for calm.
Photo: Maha Ali

Feelings came first then the words, and lastly I found pictures that just fit. (Chicago 2016)

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