As we are collecting the memories of 2014, bidding it with a bittersweet goodbye. This year is one of the most impersonal years that will definitely mark memories for a long time.
As Facebook is promoting “it’s been an excellent year” I think…
Was it?
It doesn’t matter how personal victories or defeats may have taken place.
How many people close or far we have missed …
It doesn’t matter if a daughter graduated or a son succeeded.
It doesn’t matter if a great love story was lost or a new love life has just started …
It has been a year where I felt Nakba has been revisited.
The oppression that has befallen on Palestinians has only been lived in the same manner in what my mother would remember from the fears of her mother during the Nakba.
Seeing occupation for what it is …
is what marks 2014.
With all that, this year has carried with strange bewilderment.
Took away people that I dearly called friends.
Many real people I knew were also deceased.
I finally buried a vampire this year.
Met great people from so many different places, that I am proud I can call friends.
Added tens of books to my collection.
And managed to read maybe half.
Love has shown me its face in so many ways.
But Occupation remained what marked this year with a yearning for freedom and liberation like never before .
We can only pray that next year Peace, Justice, and Truth will rise like a tsunami over the lies, violence, and ignorance. And may your family stay protected and safe.