June 2011
4 posts
“Authentic prosperity isn’t about stockpiling chits and bits that you can — if...”
– The Best Investment You Can Make - Umair Haque - Harvard Business Review
Really hoping that this time, instead of just posting the quote as a faint recognition, I take it to heart.
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Week 25 and the End of a Phase
This past Monday was the 25th week of my daughter Sereen’s journey to recovery from her diagnosis in December with Wilms Tumor cancer. I still recall that day in December when the pathology and histology reports were presented to us, data that finalized the diagnosis as a stage III Wilms Tumor with favorable histology. The doctor presented us with a binder of information that included a...
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““Almighty God, even those who can hardly speak say his name with adoration!” the...”
– News Desk: Syria: Fear and Defiance in Homs : The New Yorker
If you wondered (like me) what drives the young people in the Arab world to protest despite the possibility of death, it is the idea that a life lived in fear is itself death.
May 2011
3 posts
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“Were any of you to encompass the Unseen in knowledge, he would not choose...”
– Shaykh Nuh Keller : Suffering and Divine Wisdom » BaAlawi.com
Ever since I read this I can’t get it out of my mind.
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“Yesterday, my uncle’s wife was found outside of her apartment, thrown out...”
– An email I received today from a Syrian American friend in Chicago. Horrified and speechless. I have purposely removed the names of the individuals from this to protect the living members of the family. This is the reality of Syria today.
If you are a US citizen, you can look up the contact info...
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Mother's Day Poem
As Mother’s Day 2011 descends upon us, I find myself more than any year prior with a desire to express to the two mothers in my life, the mother who gave birth to me and the mother of my children, my deep feelings of love, respect, honor, and indebtedness.
2011 has been the most challenging year of my life as my family has dealt with the challenge of my daughter’s cancer diagnosis....
April 2011
4 posts
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Civil Conversation
(Below is a message in response to various attacks that were thrown at my wife, the Admin of a Facebook group organizing national candlelight vigils for the victims of Syria. Certain members of this group have labeled those who support the initiative in cohorts with the regime, “confirmed to be working out of the Syrian embassy” simply because of the unwillingness of the organizers to...
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“For a capable autocrat like Mubarak, large protests are no cause for anxiety....”
– The Praxis of the Egyptian Revolution | Middle East Research and Information Project
Most detailed account and analysis of the #Jan25 revolution I have read to date.
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Week 16 Update - On Losing Hair Part 2
For those of you who have been following my blogging of Sereen’s chemotherapy, you have probably noticed the fact that the frequency of updates is tied directly to the frequency of the treatments. Now that we are in the period of the regiment where the treatments are every three weeks, it has been that long since I last updated.
This past Monday was week 16 of the treatment. Given that...
March 2011
12 posts
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Scan Results
I am glad to report that the mid-term x-ray and ultrasound scans came back clean. The chest x-ray showed no signs of cancer in the lungs. The ultrasound of her internal organs also came back with everything looking as it should. Her left kidney (right kidney was removed with the tumor) was a big focus of this round of scans and all indications are that it is doing everything it should be doing. ...
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“There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.”
– Christopher Morley
I pray for the courage to live by these words.
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Half Way Point
For those, like ourselves, who are keeping score, we are in week 12 of the 25 week chemotherapy regiment. As I write this, we are pretty much exactly at the half way point of this treatment measured in calendar time.
As I mentioned in my last post (week 10), we successfully passed through the week 10 mile marker and the completion of the weekly chemotherapies and have now moved into the second...
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Full audio of the speech I gave today at the MCC...