Tea_Time

sunday disasters at my kitchen

2012-01-29T07:26:00.001+04:00

TEA TIME!!!

**Tea** I'm now indulging in: earl gray with condensed milk, saffron, rose water, & cinnamon powder (a.k.a: AMAZING! If you've never had anything like this before, you better try it or else I'll serve you plain black coffee instead of **tea** in my future posts!). What **tea** do you want me to serve you today?

Speaking of **tea**, I bumped into a recipe today from The Daily Meal which involves cooking shrimps with jasmine green tea. I had never in my life heard about the concept of using tea leaves for cooking lol but I'd love to experiment with making this! Have any of you ever cooked with **tea**? If so, what kinds of **tea** have you used and with what dishes? If not, is it something you'd like to try out?

I know I have promised to post reflections about Zeenat's article in my last blog post, but I decided to instead tell you about a recent idea I began implementing last week (in fact, it is a more suitable topic to transition to from the previous paragraph).

As some of you may know, I have been putting off teaching myself to cook proper dishes for quite a while and every time I make a commitment to cook at home more often, I just do it for a week or two and then stop. Aside from the few friends who are great cooks (in fact, one of them tends to post pictures of her, her friends, and/or her brother's cooking on Facebook that make me fume with envy and hunger! >,< (You know who you are!!)) or those who cook occasionally, many of my friends face similar dilemmas...that is why I decided to create a weekly event called "Sunday Disasters @ Reema's Kitchen" in which I invite my friends to cook at my place every Sunday.

Why are such days called "disasters"? That is because the challenge for those who come over to cook is to make something they've never done in their lives (that was the reason why I was browsing The Daily Meal to begin with...). In this way, not only are we each motivated to cook by doing it in a fun environment together, but we'll each learn something new in the process. Neither me nor the guests need to plan what we want to make beforehand; we could browse the online magazines and podcasts I have here from my laptop on the day of each event and whatever we don't have we can get from a large supermarket right across the street from my building. Furthermore, whatever tools I'm lacking to make a particular dish, we can get from another store that is also right across the street from my building (this was all meant to be! :-D).

Why Sundays? I thought that since Mondays are the first day of school and work in America, whatever food that doesn't get eaten from our event we can have for lunch on either Monday or Tuesday (it's typically best not to keep leftover meals for longer than 2 or 3 days) instead of eating out (most of my friends don't live on campus so they don't use the dining hall too often). Also, since I have told too many people (as in 23...my brother who lives with me freaked out when I told him!) about this weekly event and I don't want too many to come over in each day (*Sigh* the cost of having many friends...) I thought that making this happen on Sundays, the day when college students get homework and studies done or rest up before beginning work/school on Mondays (and even if they do go out, they don't typically do so to party and get drunk...), is a good solution.

Last week, while I was looking for recipes for the First Disaster, I bumped into an article in Endless Simmer about progressive dinners. As great an idea this sounds, most of my friends don't live near me and even if they did, it gets very cold in Boston's winters (though this winter had its unusually warm days). I shared this here as I thought that perhaps one of you **tea mates** and **tea guests** may consider doing something like this if you haven't ;-) .

Below are pictures of what we ended up making for the 1st Disaster last week in which only 3 people showed up although on Facebook 7 claimed to be attending and 4 more said that they may attend (see? Inviting 23 college students to my place on Sundays wasn't too bad an idea!). Regardless of the limited amount of people who made it, it was still so much fun! It was so fun that I even enjoyed washing the dishes (one of my most detested household chores) and cleaning the kitchen counter afterwards both of which made me reflect on all the effort we exerted and joy we shared to make and consume each dish!

Before sharing the pictures, I forgot to mention that two of my friends who made the appetizers broke the rule and made dishes they were familiar with. It was me and the third guest who made dishes completely foreign to us, both of which were part of the main course (as you will see, her dish ended in a slight "disaster" but we still enjoyed the end result!). For dessert, we just had tea and cookies. Oh and by the way, the picture at the top of this blog post is us 4 cooking together (I'm the one with the blue jallabiyya!). My brother took the pictures (with his new Canon EOS Rebel T3i) and helped a little.

Appetizers

Bruschetta

French Onion Soup

Main Course

My mussels! This was the first time I've ever cooked any form of shellfish in my life! It was surprisingly easy. I'm very proud of how this one turned out though I wish I added less water while steaming the mussels and allowed the chickpeas to soak and boil longer. Here is the recipe I used (the cook in the video claims this is a Moroccan dish...can anyone confirm?). Instead of white wine, I used water, freshly squeezed lemon juice, & olive oil. For spices, I used thyme, garlic, oregano, coriander, cinnamon, chilli powder, & saffron. In boiling the chickpeas, I did it alongside two or three of the spices mentioned. Afterwards, when I mixed it with the mussels, I added more of the same along with the rest of the other spices. Here is an article and a video about cooking and storing mussels in general.

Now this was meant to be an onion and spinach quiche....unfortunately though, my friend spilled the egg and cream mix on the counter and floor...so she ended up making what is more like a spinach and onion pizza!

I shared all these pictures in my Facebook and those who couldn't attend were envious and asked if I was doing another disaster the upcoming week or the week after! In this week (as in tomorrow), only two or three people responded to the Facebook invite as most of them are having very busy semesters or have had other plans in place before....so I'm not sure how many of them will truly attend! Regardless of whether anyone ends up actually coming or not, I will still cook tomorrow. In fact, I plan to make this except with walnuts instead of pumpkin seeds. To conclude, I hope that this entry will inspire those of you who, like me, are either too lazy to cook or just have no time to do so but plenty of time to hang out with friends to do weekly disasters in your kitchens!

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

happy new year!

2012-01-02T03:14:00.000+04:00

From dreamstime.com

TEA TIME!!!

Tea I'm sipping now: chai karak (yup, I am currently at home for my winter vacation for those who are wondering!). What **tea** would you like to be served?

I'd like to wish all you **tea mates** and **guests** a very happy new year! In the spirit of this special day, I'd like to share with you one of my favorite motivational articles titled Refresh Renew Rebirth from the Positive Provocations blog authored by a lovely **tea mate** and a beautiful soul called Zeenat <3 Hopefully, reading it will make you feel rejuvenated and ready to tackle this year head on! In my next post, which I may post either this week or the next, I plan to share my reflections on the ideas discussed in Zeenat's article and how it has been inspiring and motivating me since the time it was first posted.

As you may have noticed, I completely changed the **Tea House**'s playlist whereby each song represents a distinct region around the world (namely: Middle East, South Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas). I have also shifted the ipod gadget to the very top so that you may more easily change the music and/or mute it.

Anyway...what have you all done to celebrate new years? Last night, I had dinner with my cousin and parents at a Lebanese restaurant (aside from the joy of eating home made Khaleeji food everyday, I'm so happy to be having authentic Lebanese food compared to what I get in Boston!). After dinner, we headed to a beach where we had a great view of the fireworks from Burj Khalifa, Burj al Arab, and Atlantis the Palm and munched on pistachios and chocolate.

All I had last night was my phone so I couldn't take good pictures worth posting here, so if you're interested, here are the links to videos of those fireworks (really sorry that I couldn't find a good video for Atlantis the Palm...if you know of any yourself, please do share!):

1) Burj Khalifa (though I still think the Opening of the Burj was WAY more impressive; I was personally at the VIP seating that night!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9CfvGu8sjU&feature=related

2) Burj Al Arab (certainly not as exciting as Burj Khalifa. On a random note, this video will give you a taste for Khaleeji music ;-) ): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB4dV48XhUU

Hopefully you enjoy the refreshing article and the videos as you await a more reflective post :-)

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

on vulnerability

2011-08-24T09:43:00.000+04:00

TEA TIME!!

**Tea** for this post: pineapple and papaya herbal tea from Tealuxe. This is my first time visiting Tealuxe thanks to a good friend of mine (and a **tea mate**) who got me a gift card from there for my 21st birthday. Some of you may already know that I do not drink alcohol, so, for those of you who come from cultures in which 21 is a big deal (it honestly doesn't mean much to me), you may be wondering what did I do to celebrate? Don't be silly, I did NOT binge on **tea** at a tea house/bar/cafe (seriously, your guesses need to be a bit more creative than that!)...

...but I did binge on chocolate on the day of my birthday and on ice cream and home-made desserts 9 days later! :-P

Clubbing isn't really my thing though I used to go to a lot of parties in my Freshman and Sophomore years just to socialize. My new off-campus apartment is a bit small to have a decent dance party or at least it is small to me...I mean I prefer to have ample space when I dance which is one reason why I don't like clubs! I also don't like the idea of anyone getting drunk at my place especially if they're not familiar with the area. My birthday was on a weekday anyway, who would've come?

For these reasons, we had quite a cooking spree during the weekend that passed (or rather my mom, who's visiting us from Dubai, did...) and we had more sweets than actual food...shame on you for missing it all! Not receiving an invitation is no excuse, you could've just walked in! Ugh...why do we need to be so formal and uptight??!!

Alright, I'll stop with this nonsense now and serve you all **tea**, so choose your **tea** or I will not be happy! >,<

Anyway...below are some updates and thoughts with a slightly more serious tone compared to the absurdity above...

From Gregory Colbert's Ashes & Snow

Aside from finally (I mean FINALLY) getting an off-campus apartment (i.e. no more nomadic living for me), I have recently started my second internship which involves two unpaid positions (unfortunately for psychology majors, it is difficult to find a paid internship). One of these positions is a women's residential substance abuse rehab center that follows the therapeutic community (TC) model of intervention. This is in great contrast to my first internship which was in a research setting.

It is a very stressful job to the extent that there are times when I worry of burning out especially as my other job involves dealing with families of hospitalized children plus I am still currently volunteering at a rape crisis center hotline. On top of all that, I'm looking up graduate schools as my university doesn't offer degrees in clinical psychology, preparing for my GRE which I'll be taking at the end of September, and working on my undergraduate research study (I've honestly been slacking on this one the most, so I'm not sure if I'm even qualified to say that I'm actually "working" on it lol).

Despite whatever complaints I may have, my internship at the rehab center has still proven to be extremely rewarding from day one. The stress itself becomes part of the reward as I contemplate upon my experiences there combined with those at the other internship and the hotline and their implications for my professional, spiritual, and mental growth. I'm also careful about practicing self-care by going out often even if just to relax in the sun and grass, hanging out with my family and friends, watching movies, reading, knitting, writing, avoiding things that I know will trigger me...and, of course, sipping **tea** ;-)

*Sigh* I need to be having **tea time** a bit more often with you all :-(

Anyway...the work at the rehab center is challenging and many times I'm left with little to no guidance. Though it can get unnerving, it is understandable in an understaffed non-profit residential setting where staff need to constantly be on their feet and where conflict among both staff and clients commonly ensues.

God...you should all see me when conflict occurs there (I mean *conflict*)...I just stare silently, dumbfounded, as everyone is tearing each other's heads with their yelling...! From day one I had to sit through a heated clinical meeting among the counselors and staff. I find it miraculous how both the director of the center and a senior counselor, who typically moderate the clinical meetings, can remain so calm (almost zen like) and be able to ground the staff back to objectives of the meeting rather than getting too caught up in the arguments.

Then again, despite whatever fight that happens, whether between staff, clients, or clients and staff, what amazes me most is how eventually, whether during the fight itself or at the end of the day, they seek to explore the roots of the other person's outbursts rather than continue reacting to the outburst itself. They also try to support and validate one another's experiences, while acknowledging that though their actions may not have necessarily been the "right thing to do" but that was simply where they were at in that state.

This may not always go so smoothly, but the fact that an attempt is made makes a difference in enhancing self-knowledge and reflection and in striving to develop understanding, trust, and openness among the staff and residents of the house. These are especially needed in a therapeutic community (TC) approach where everyone is involved in the other's treatment (I hope you already reviewed the link about TC that I shared earlier to see what it's all about) and with clients of substance abuse treatment in general who tend to have issues with trusting others and lack a healthy way to channel their negative emotions.

I wish that society was more like that--I wish that we can find in every interaction, whether it be in a fight, a normal conversation, or while keeping each other company in silence, an opportunity to explore and understand ourselves and each other at a deep level. In this way we live more deeply by expanding ourselves and going beyond our ego that wants to bother with petty things like showing off "who's boss". I wish that people could more openly and honestly express themselves without allowing what is expressed to be the only thing that defines and controls them. I wish that this self-expression will encourage self-reflection and encourage deeper listening to other beings rather than emphasizing self-importance and ignoring others'.

All in all, I wish that being vulnerable to one another was more valued rather than submitting to our ego to cover up our insecurities by hurting and deceiving one another. We'll eventually hurt and deceive ourselves by submitting to only a part of us rather than being a whole observer of the phenomena of our inner world. Though this applies to everyone in our materialistic societies, I especially feel bad for men who are socialized to believe that masculinity is only about "being tough" and who devalue the worth of other men for being vulnerable.

To me, vulnerability is an act of courage and humility before the Divine that I and many people lack. I may be very sensitive, and I think that is a negative characteristic in making me easily bothered by every little thing but also a positive one in making me notice and learn from simple things that some people may not notice. However, I do not think that that means that I am vulnerable enough; I find that many times my ego does get defensive and wants to show the other person "who's boss" in conflicts and, in ordinary conversations, trying to present myself in a certain image to impress others. I find that the latter prevents me from serving others with all my heart by only having me submit to a part of me or an image of me rather than my wholeness.

I have only begun to explore these wishes of mine, and I wish that I can practice them more myself. I feel like now a days I've been more quick tempered, but perhaps this internship is the Divine's way to help me tone that down. I'm sure this is a lifelong process and with each time I learn and relearn I hope that I gain a fresh perspective and experience. In the end, it's the journey that matters, not the destination.

Some days the clients in the counseling groups I shadow express hopelessness and, to ground myself, I reflect upon the importance of vulnerability, see their strength in opening up and processing with each other and the counselor how they can respond to the uncontrollable, and try to see what I can learn about them and myself as a fellow human being. Each client and staff in this center seems to have gone through so much and have stories to tell and wisdom to share. I am honored to have them as my teachers no matter my complaints.

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

thoughts with an empty tummy

2011-08-08T14:42:00.001+04:00

Arabic calligraphy that reads "Ramadan Kareem" shaped into a woman in supplication. Image from the gallery of Khaleelullah Chemnad

TEA TIME!!!

**Tea** I'm sipping now: Chai from Twinings with Rainbow Evaporated Milk. So far, I couldn't find this milk in the States, so I had my family, who were visiting me this summer, get me some ;-)

What **tea** would you like to be served?

As some of you may know, the holy month of Ramadan started in the first of August this year and, as practicing Muslims, me and some of my family members are fasting from sunrise to sunset until the end of this month. To my Muslim **tea mates** and **tea guests**, I'd like to wish you all a "Ramadan Mubarak" (I don't think it's ever too late to say that :-P).

**The Hostess serves everyone tea and dates** Enjoy :-) For those of you who are not so familiar with Ramadan, please consider taking a look at these and these to get an idea about the diverse cultural manifestations of observing this month though we Muslims share the same faith.

Although Boston currently lacks this "Ramadan feeling", especially with the absence of family members (aside from my brother and my mother who is visiting) and traditional meals to break my fast, I find that fasting here is more rewarding than it is in Dubai. I say this because I can actually feel the challenge of fasting in contrast to my spoiled life back home. The summer days of Boston are much longer plus I tend to walk outdoors more often here as I go through my daily routine (afterall, it is known as the"walking city" among many names). Those of you who've been to the Emirates or anywhere in the Gulf must know that this is all in stark contrast to being smothered by ACs 24/7 and to the shorter work and school days that are meant to accommodate for the fasting during this month.

With a busy schedule and the process of moving into an off-campus apartment with my brother (which I'm almost settled in), I would feel extremely fatigued and starved throughout the day. By the time I break my fast at sun down, all I want to do is SLEEP...

However, there are moments when I remind myself that there's a point to all this fasting and that feeling the drain of energy and the hunger are part of the process. Firstly, I feel like fasting helps me to practice mindfulness over my states and experiences. The hard part, however, is to practice being an observer rather than attaching to these states and experiences.

Aside from practicing such mindfulness and freeing up time to meditate upon oneself and the Divine by abstaining from food and drink, I believe that fasting also helps to show how privilege blinds us from other's experiences. If I feel like my mind has shut down this month because of fasting from sun rise to sun set while running many errands, how is it like for those who are suffering from the recent famine in the Horn of Africa and are traveling great distances to find food? Speaking of which, please consider reviewing this and this for easy ways to help out or to at least spread the word about them. We cannot be sipping **tea** while denying basic necessities from others through our apathy!

As I think of this famine, I can't help but go back to an a past blog post of mine to ground myself rather than drowning myself in hopelessness and powerlessness because of not being able to help in a major way.

To end this post, I'm wondering if those of you who fast or used to fast can share your experiences with us here. I'm sure that each of us will benefit from immense spiritual treasures through this sharing :-)

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B.

"healing teas"

2011-02-27T11:15:00.001+04:00

From: Amazon

TEA TIME!!

Tea I'm now sipping: Chamomile Citrus form Mighty Leaf. What **tea** would you like to be served?

A few months ago when I was doing my first internship, I stopped by Teavana on my way back from work to sip some of their free samples of tea. Although I was initially only there to get my dosage of free stuff (just because, as a college student, it's hard-wired in me to seek every opportunity to consume free products no matter how trifle!), I was too tempted to get a box of cookies infused with one of their popular teas (unfortunately, they do not sell this anymore but they recently started to offer a thinner version of it which I still haven't tried). To further deviate from my initial purpose of visiting the store, a book about medicinal herbal teas caught my eye. This book, which I eventually bought along with the cookies, is called Healing Teas: How to Prepare and Use Teas to Maximize Your Health by Marie Nadine Antol.

Before I say a bit more about the book (as this entry isn't meant to be a long, exhaustive review about the book itself), I would like to first talk about my interests in medicinal herbs in general.

When I was in high school back in Dubai still trying to decide what I wanted to major in college, I had initially followed my parents' wishes of medicine. At a certain point in my life when I really wanted to manifest more of my autonomy, my interests switched to pharmacology and then herbology! I guess I was always fascinated about natural medicine used by different cultures, especially the sort my grandmother would use (specifically the kinds used in both Gulf Arab states and Southern parts of Iran) and which is hard to find much information about (and it was only recently that I had bumped into something like this which includes how each herb can be used and a brief historical background of each).

As mentioned in one of my older posts in this blog, I connect with tea at a personal level. Therefore, finding a book that combined my interests in both herbal medicine and tea was a blessing. I find that a lot of sources on herbal medicine tend to be very biased and may even employ pseudo-scientific methods to make their exaggerated claims without considering the potential existence of the "placebo effect" (click on the link to be redirected to an interesting video about this phenomenon). However, one thing that I find unique about this book is that, it not only includes the traditional medicinal usage of tea from different parts of the world and how to make your own whether as a drinkable tea or to be used externally, but also a brief info on scientific tests that either confirmed or found mixed results regarding each of these teas' healing properties and potential side-effects of very strong ones.

Do you yourself also use teas medicinally? Would really appreciate it if anyone chooses to share their experiences and knowledge here!

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

cooking blog suggestion: "from the hearth"

2011-02-22T03:27:00.000+04:00

From: From the Hearth

TEA TIME!!!

Tea I'm sipping now: Tetley Masala with milk (WHOLE milk of course...no disrespect intended for anyone but I never understood the point behind low-fat or skim...they taste like water!! >,< Haha, as I type this now, I suddenly remembered how an ex-roommate of mine, who was a pro-skim/low-fat milk drinker, told me that whole milk is more disgusting as it tastes like fat!).

No worries **tea mates** and **guests**, I now stop my non-sense ranting about milk and continue among the many ritualistic traditions of this **Tea House**: What **tea** would you like to be served?

Ok, now to the main point of this blog post!

I was just chatting with Azaraksh, a good friend of mine, via Facebook whom I haven't seen for quite some time now. During this conversation, she shared a link to a cooking blog she recently started called From the Hearth. For now, it is a pilot project but she plans to commit to it more fully after she graduates this semester.

The blog mainly specializes on Persian cuisine. Her writing style combined with the images used in each post will certainly guarantee a delightful mouth-watering experience! This is why I decided that I wanted to share this blog with you, my fellow **tea mates** and **tea guests**, in hopes that you may try savoring such dishes as you sip **tea** here in the **Tea House** ;-)

After visiting From the Hearth, please let me know in the comments below about the dishes that you'd like to experiment for yourself or have already experimented and how it all went!

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

"mini-poem"

2011-02-11T09:25:00.004+04:00

From: link

TEA TIME!!!

Tea for the post: Bigelow Earl Gray Tea flavored with bergamot. One of my favorite teas which I usually sip in between my Monday, Wednesday, & Thursday classes when I have too little time to head back to my dorm and too much time to not do anything. What **tea** would you like to be served?

After a long time of not posting anything here (and still surprisingly gaining new followers!! Would like to welcome all of you to the **Tea House**!), I have a very random question to ask.

Do you guys have any idea if there is such a thing called a "mini-poem" (not necessarily a haiku)? I've once heard of "mini-fiction" which I'm interested in experimenting with sometime (please do check out their facebook page here as well).

But then again, I also wonder, what exactly makes a "poem" in general? I feel like now a days there's so much more flexibility in writing one that you could label anything as a "poem". Would you consider the following sentence below a "poem" or simply "poetic"?

"I am a beating heart among other hearts in the concert of life and death"

I made that one up years ago and suddenly remembered it today. I'm just really not sure what would I call it...can I call it a "poem"??

I guess we cannot limit the meaning of this "label", not even in the sphere of literature and creative writing. Personally, I feel like life and death are expressions of the Divine. I feel like "living poetically" means to be conscious of the "poetry" surrounding you.

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

P.S. Forgot to mention that I've recently created a Twitter account and I'm such a noob in Twitter! >,< But I'll see how it goes...feel free to follow, I've added a button on the right side of the blog.

the "trick or treat" of the gulf arabic states

2010-10-31T21:28:00.001+04:00

TEA TIME!!!

Just sipping some boring Lipton tea lol, what **tea** would you like to be served now? It better be something more exciting! :-P

Although Halloween has just passed, I have just bumped into a blog post written by one of our fellow **Tea Mates**, sparklydatepalm, where she wrote about trick-or-treat in Halloween and its similar counterpart, minus the "scary" costumes, in Gulf Arabic countries. This celebration is known by many names and in where I come from, which is the Emirates, it is known as "Hag el Leilah" (which is literally translated into: "for the night" or "the right of the night"). Her post really reminded me of home and made me think about why it didn't even occur to me to write about it here when Halloween was just yesterday?

In the Islamic calender, Hag el Leilah tends to be celebrated in the month of Sha'ban right before the holy month in which we Muslims fast called Ramadan. Honestly, as a person who was born in a city (in Dubai), I must admit that there isn't much that I know about this tradition aside from the idea that children wear their traditional clothes and collect sweets from door to door (kinda like trick-or-treat lol) and as they do so, chant a prayer which is more accurately described in the link to the article about Hag el Leilah which just shared above.

Also because I was born in a city and lived most of my life in apartments where our neighbors were primarily expatriates, I didn't quite experience this tradition. If I really could say that I've "experienced" this tradition in any way, it was more in the form of fellow classmates or teachers in our school distributing candy in pouches or creatively designed bags which we'd snack from in our bus trip home.

At the end of this post, I've posted a video of an ad about this celebration which I guess would give you an idea about the kind of ambiance in the traditional manner of celebrating it.

WARNING: before playing this video, please please pause the background music by scrolling down to find the Ipod gadget on the right hand side of the blog and clicking on the pause button so that you can experience this video to the fullest!! :-P

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

"the stranger" unveiled...

2010-10-30T19:02:00.002+04:00

TEA TIME!!!

Tea I'm sipping now: jasmine green tea, 'cause I seriously need to chill after a long week! What **tea** would you like to be served this time?

For those of you who've read my short story, When "The Stranger" Barged In... , may recall that I had kept The Stranger's identity open to interpretation. So, as you can guess by now, this post will reveal his identity as I had intended him to be. I will also share what my friends who've read this thought of his identity.

So.....in other words....if you still haven't read the story and/or what had gotten me to write it....click on the link now!!! And then come back continue reading this post....

Image from: United Mask & Party Manufacturing, Inc.

The people who've read this story and who've shared their thoughts with me about it have so far guessed that "The Stranger" is either conscience, a lost opportunity, a demon, a ghost, the angel of death, or death itself. Although I had, as most people may have already guessed, intended that "the stranger" be death itself, I still find the idea of seeing him as either "conscience" or "an opportunity lost" very interesting.

The friend who had identified him as "conscience" justified her point of view by saying that conscience can haunt and kill and we, just like the woman in the story, try in vain to avoid facing our awareness of it's existence until it eventually kills us. As for the friend who had thought of him as "an opportunity lost", he explained his position by saying that the woman, in trying to ignore "stranger", get him out of her house, and finally pointing a gun at him, is trying to deny the reality of his existence and is ignorant of what lies behind the mask. We tend to fear the "unknown" when the "unknown" may contain the keys to bliss or to our enlightenment. When "the stranger" unmasks himself, that is when the woman finally experiences what she had been trying to avoid all along, but by then, it is already too late...

Would now love to hear your input on this ;-)

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

empathy vs. compassion

2010-10-07T05:04:00.000+04:00

From: Art by Wicks

TEA TIME!!!

Tea for the post: pomegranate green tea from a cafe in the Little Italy of Boston :-P What **tea** would you like to be served?

The following article/video about how Compassion Meditation can be helpful for caregivers to combat "empathy fatigue" was shared by a Facebook friend of mine today. It also discusses the difference between empathy and compassion. I think the ideas discussed are not only important for those who serve suffering people (such as doctors, nurses, social workers etc.) but also for the rest of us who are immersed in this ocean of the negativity found in our world. This negativity I speak of is our witnessing (whether physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually) of other's suffering, feeling it and thus suffering with them, and yet feeling helpless as observers with little power to make a profound difference for them. Such "empathy fatigue" may even lead to apathy--better to not deal with such suffering and live my life...right?

I think that such a mentality however only adds to the problems, especially as apathy involves ignoring the issues at hand, and thus not even addressing them, and can potentially lead one to do the cruelest things or at least to say or do things without considering other's pain (consider "rape jokes" for example, which are so pervasive in many societies unfortunately. But then again, one can alternatively argue that rape jokes in themselves can cause apathy, even if the "joker" may not actually perpetuate the criminal act itself).

Such a mentality can even harm us ourselves in subtle ways especially by denying a great part of ourselves as social animals and only makes us feel more nihilistic. We deny ourselves the capacity to expand our consciousness beyond our ego (as one of my professors once joked with us: "So you better get your head outta your ass, 'cause there's a WHOLE WORLD out there beyond yourself!!" LOL) and to expand our potentials...(you'll see what I mean towards the end of this post lol; I'm just blabbering right now :-P).

This is why I believe the topic is important for each one of us to reflect upon, whether you deal with or have witnessed people who've undergone trauma, or have undergone trauma yourself, or simply see/hear of others undergoing suffering.

So, below are my thoughts regarding this article and the video that accopmanies it. Would like to note that a lot of my thoughts are partly based on my experiences as a volunteer in a rape crisis center hotline, some of which have touched me at a deep level or have left me with so much negativity that I couldn't sleep a night or two. Thinking about these thoughts and writing them down in a journal (and again writing them down here in this post) make a great difference for me and ground me in my purpose for volunteering in the first place. (Would recommend reading and watching the video before reading the next paragraphs below):

I guess it could be fair to say that mere empathy is just plain "mirroring" and inaction whereas compassion is mirroring but also seeing beyond the reflection itself--that is, seeing the person/animal as beyond the label of "victim" or "survivor" but as what they are which is "person/animal" with past, present, & future all at once and with thoughts, emotions, spirits, etc. all at once--as in seeing them as Whole beings, because this label of "victim" or "survivor' is only a Part, and the Whole is greater than the sum of its Parts. A table, for example, isn't defined by its legs, surface, wood, etc. but as a table; a Whole. In the same way, human being is more than just his body, possessions, past, present, future, thoughts, emotions, labels, etc. he is "human"; a Whole. I try my best to remind myself of this when I start having negative thoughts or feelings as I speak to the clients in the hotline. I try to listen to them as Whole individuals rather than with the labels of "victim" or "survivor", but I can't say I'm always successful in that and this article and video indeed add more for me to reflect upon.

I personally think that another important thing to be aware of to prevent empathy fatigue is to keep the ego in check; are my objectives to be THE "super-hero" and to get my points across to the client or is it to actually help them? Why do I let my ego determine that the client's future will always be suffering--what do I know especially in a world filled with possibilities and potential, and when each human is filled with potential that they can transcend from being plain reactionary, and thus submitting, to their environments, genes, negativity, etc.? Another thing that was helpful for me was to remind myself that I'm not alone in the work and I'm only a Part of a Whole Team.

We are so deeply connected, our very existence and our very wholeness cannot be defined in isolation from one another, whether it be with fellow human beings or even our very environment--though we are whole individuals, we are only part of a greater whole. By genuinely helping others or at least connecting with them can humble us--thus, we are NOT the ones helping them, rather THEY are helping us, to think otherwise, in my view, is to think that they are indebted to you whether consciously or unconsciously.

Genuinely helping others helps us to see the people we "help" in their whole humanity beyond the labels of "victim" or "survivor" or a "nameless, faceless statistic", and thus we break our delusion that we are somehow on a higher plane for having "privileges" when in reality we have NOTHING. Our privileges are only borrowed and, unfortunately, we treat them as idols we attach to and as masks we define ourselves with until death takes them away from us whether we like it or not. To me, death itself is a silent testimony that there is far more meaning to our lives than mere accumulation of wealth and privileges. Let us therefore "fly" for the sake of "flying" rather than "flying" for the sake of mere "survival".

(here's the link again in case you missed it twice above...http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthieu-ricard/could-compassion-meditati_b_751566.html)

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

plant a tree with your blog/website

2010-07-17T11:44:00.000+04:00

Image from: http://www.kaufda.de/umwelt/carbon-neutral/how-you-can-join/

TEA TIME!!!

Tea for the day: warm green tea from a Korean/Japanese restaurant by my workplace. What **tea** would you like to have today?

As the title of the post points out to (and speaking of "green" tea LOL), there is a program out there called "Make it Green" that claims to plant a tree for your blog. The idea started in Germany and it aims to "neutralize" the carbon footprint produced by each blog by planting a tree for that blog. Click here for more information about how it works.

It is indeed a small contribution but if we each do it, it could hopefully turn to something bigger; we won't get anywhere with that sort of logic which is unfortunately quite prevalent these days.

To make your blog "green", you need to write a short blog post about the initiative (please see the link I had just shared above), choose a button for your blog (that looks like the image posted here except that there are other buttons and colors as well), and email the link to your post to: CO2-neutral@kaufda.de, and a tree will be planted for you!

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

short story: when "the stranger" barged in...

2010-07-14T07:40:00.000+04:00

Image from: http://www.109things.com/list/Writing-Fiction/227YRHC1N8ZCH

TEA TIME!!!

Tea for the day Lipton Orange Jaipur. Not too bad; I still like Trader Joe's mango black tea better! What **tea** would you like to be served?

Among the many promises I made in my previous post, I present to you below a short story I've written when I was either fifteen or sixteen. Although I always loved writing short stories (or at least fantasizing about them! XD) since I was either seven or nine, this is the only one which I've actually completed without discarding it and that I'm actually proud of!! :-D Anyhow, the idea for the story was a response to a writing exercise in Jerry Cleaver's Immediate Fiction (which I never actually finished reading...otherwise, I would've been writing much more often by now!!) which involved making a short story in thirty minutes related to the following most random words: strawberries, albino, and pistol.

Haha, but you know, I, being the slacker that you all know me as, didn't write this in thirty minutes...I didn't actually finish the story until the next year!!! But I think that that period of time was worthwhile and I kinda regret completing it...I mean...the very process of even typing up any story is SO exciting! (Don't make fun of me now...I'm already hearing some chuckles...grrr...)

Before I stop my blabbering and actually have you read the story, I'd like you to first consider the following question once you're done reading: who do you think "The Stranger" is? Be creative. ;-) I will reveal who "The Stranger" was to me in a future entry as well.

I'm also open to any critiques...after all, I am still an amateur lol.

Oh and one more thing--and I'll shut up after this, I swear!--expect me to post more about my terms and conditions regarding whether any of you **Tea Mates** are willing to share any written or visual art to decorate the **Tea House**...I just still haven't thought up of those "terms and conditions" yet!

Ok...now here's the story...

Enjoy!
From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

When "The Stranger" Barged In...

She was out collecting strawberries as part of her daily routine when before her stood a mysterious young man wearing a mask. From his pale hands and snow-white hair, she could tell that he was an albino.

She ignored his presence and tried to concentrate on her work, but the man still stood there gazing at her. Finally making some movement, the albino shamelessly walked into her house.

Furiously, she ran into her home, but he wasn’t there. She searched each room yet found no one.

“First you disregard my existence,” a strange voice said, “now you do not welcome me into your humble home?”

She turned to the direction of where the voice seemed to have originated and found the albino sitting on the only couch in her small living room with his legs stretched. “Humans—even the humblest among them—were and still are rude to me.” He continued.

“Rude?” she sarcastically questioned with an angry tone, “I don’t think barging in people’s homes without their permission is polite, especially when they’re strangers!”

“I believe we know each other very well…” he answered calmly, “You knew my name ever since you first learned how to speak. Although you’ve never met me, you knew people who had done so...” He stood and walked toward her saying, “I know both your parents.”

“My parents died ages ago!” she retorted, “Now get out of here or else!” she brought her deceased father’s pistol from a drawer and pointed it at him. The albino didn’t seem to display any fear of her threat. He simply looked at the pistol with eyes expressing disgust.

“I held you before you were born,” he said as he grabbed her arm.

“Don’t touch me!!” She interrupted and pulled the trigger—BANG!!—but…the man still held her arm and continued speaking as if nothing happened!

“Now I’ll hold you again…in the long run, nothing can stop me…” He said and then took off his mask.

She let out a scream and everything—her home, her farm, her fears, her hopes, her joys, her sorrows, and her breath—vanished, as if it were all but a dream…

Written by **The Hostess** herself.

no worries, the hostess is still alive!+introducing the new tea mates

2010-07-12T09:43:00.002+04:00

Image from: http://www.theage.com.au/news/diet/get-a-natural-sugar-high/2007/10/16/1192300736338.html

TEA TIME!!!

Tea for the day: mango black tea from Trader Joe's Speciality Teas--very very refreshing and I just LOVE the scent! Besides the black tea leaves and the natural mango flavor which contributes to most of the scent, each tea bag also contains blackberry leaves and hibiscus and calendula petals...**deeply sniffs her tea and sips it and says: "....ahhh...!!"** What **tea** would you like to be served this time??

My God...once again, it has been a while since I've last posted. Honestly, my schedule wasn't as busy as last time, but I wasn't feeling too emotionally well during the summer and thus had a complete block of ideas and inspiration for posts and tea time with you, my lovely **tea mates** and **tea guests**...hopefully your **tea times** with me have been missed lol.

*Sighs* but no worries my brothers and sisters...I'm now slowly feeling better and hopefully you'll see me post more often (especially since I just started my 6 month internship and hence no more distractions from homework, quizzes, papers, or exams...except that I may feel too exhausted after I return to my apartment each day during the weekdays!).

It seems that I've gained more readers during my absence and only recently seemed to have lost one. Aside from the latter (and I don't blame her for leaving the **tea house**...she must've felt too lonely without me sipping **tea** with her! As mentioned...I am quite a slacker as a **hostess** lol...hopefully, as I become into a better blogger, that will change), I think that is a great sign! That is why, among the many rituals of the **Tea House**, they must be welcomed and introduced, in fact, this is actually the main reason why I decided to post this particular entry! Thus, I'd like to introduce you to the following new **Tea Mates** (only those who have blogs or websites of their own or Blogger profiles have links to them. Also, I haven't sent a personal message to those of you who are following me through the NetworkedBlogs app on Facebook as I didn't want to seem too intrusive):

Alcolea
Hello Relaxation
Imola
Celtic traveler
Amy
Lila Kuznetsova
Less Barbara
Misbah El Muttaqin
Greggy Kavambaya
Zeenat Merchant-Syal
Shahzaib Bajwa
Mubeen Riaz
Hassan Ismail
Farah Khan
Facebook User

Now before I leave, I'd like to give you a heads-up about what the upcoming posts may look like. Expect me to share a short story and a bit of poetry written by me (and I'd love you to share your own writing or any piece of art or photography as well, please let me know if you'd like to do so! And no...it doesn't really have to have anything to do with **tea**!! Will post more on terms & conditions of that soon...), an update on my knitting, and a compensation for the missed "inspiration of the month" posts with some additional ones as well lol! (In case you don't have the slightest idea of what those "inspirations" may be, please do take a look at here, here, here, and here. In general though, each inspiration consists of one of my favorite quotations and my thoughts on it).

P.S. to Carnations: expect me to reply to all your wonderful comments on my blog entries soon lol!
P.S. to Hassan Ismail: expect me to reply to your awesome message!

From your **Tea Mate**,

Reema B. :-)

knitting updates!

2010-04-25T06:56:00.003+04:00

TEA TIME!!!

Tea for the post: blend of Samurai Chai Mate and White Ayurvedic Chai from Teavana. Didn't drink that in quite a while lol. What tea would you like to be served today?? Before I start with the main topic of this post, allow me to officially welcome and introduce you to two new **Tea Mates**: Sreelatha and My Getaway. Thank you again for stopping by the **Tea House**! I hope you have both received my welcome email :-) Will be checking out your blogs soon!

Finally, here is the update about my knitting (see my previous knitting post here) and my thoughts about my first knitting products and services from Darn Good Yarn online. Although the products took a while to ship, the balls of yarn I bought were AWESOME, I got a free size 11 bamboo circular, a free crochet needle, the yarn prices were reasonable, and the person who runs this online store is SUPER friendly; she even sent me a handwritten personalized card and had stopped by the **Tea House**! Thank you again Nicole! And please do sip some more **tea** here! :-) In other words, I am overall very satisfied with my purchase.

The yarn sold in this store are recycled, hand-spun, and fairly traded. There is a variety of colors and choices and the store keeps adding more products that keep getting better and better. I plan to buy more of my knitting items from there. For those of you who are into knitting or are even just starting like me, please do check it out for yourselves!

When I first received the stuff I had ordered, I was experimenting with one of the balls of yarn as I watching video tutorials about knitting (check out KnitPicks for free video tutorials combined with pictures and written step-by-step guides great for beginners like me. They also seem to sell good products and I may consider buying from them and testing them out). I then finally decided that I'd like to knit a scarf; its seemed quite easy and I thought it was a great opportunity for plenty of practice.

However, I came to realize that the amount of yarn I was having was not even close enough to knit even half a scarf!! LOL am I a "smart" or what??!! Thus, for this reason, combined with my busy schedule, I stopped for quite a while and decided that I'd like to order some more of that yarn online when I'm free. Now that my Spring semester has ended and my vacation has finally started, I looked at the Darn Good Yarn store today and saw that the particular ball of yarn I wanted was sold out! :-( Looks like I need to wait a bit longer...*sobs*...

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

my experience with reiki

2010-04-14T08:52:00.000+04:00

TEA TIME!!!!

Tea for the day: Two Leaves & A Bud Tea Company's Whole Leaf Organic Darjeeling Tea Sachets. I had apparently over steeped it but I was in need of it regardless; I've been having a soar throat these past few days; probably due to the changing weather in Boston. What tea would you like to be served today?

This may seem random, but I thought that I'd like to share this post I had written in my Facebook notes about my Reiki I Training which I completed on Saturday. Enjoy :-) :

------------------------
I had recently completed a Reiki I training and attunement in the Sacred Space of my campus. The price was cheaper than typical Reiki I trainings and was definitely worthwhile. I must admit, I did have my doubts but my trainer gave me a great way to think about it: "Do you meditate?" she asked me, "Yup" I responded, "Then take Reiki as a meditation, that's what it is. And be a scientist; experiment with it."

I was also told that although Reiki is secular, I may use my own religious and spiritual background to aid me in grounding myself before and as I'm doing it for myself or someone else as long as I do not neglect the Chakra system--if I'm not comfortable, the person I do it for will also not feel comfortable.

Therefore, Reiki doesn't interfere with anyone's belief system or anyone's "non-belief". The Chakra system, although being based on Ayurvedic Hinduism, doesn't in itself conflict with any belief system; it is just a tool and a framework diagraming energy centers (some forms of Sufism, Kaballah, and some Native American spiritualities also have similar concepts although the "energy centers" are diagramed differently and called different things). In fact, traditional Reiki as it is practiced today originally started off when the founder was asked about how exactly could Jesus (pbuh) have healed others with touch? Therefore, traditional Reiki doesn't really have a "religious" label attached to it. My trainer also emphasized the importance of joints as energy centers to be focused on since most movement produces a lot of energy. Among the goals of Reiki is to unblock these energy centers mainly via Chakras or joints.

Basic Reiki is done through touch or merely having the hands glide over the person without actually touching him. Advanced Reiki (i.e. Reiki II) focuses on the non-touch aspects of Reiki and on healing or reducing emotional and mental suffering through energy. Reiki III is the master level and is typically taken when one wants to teach it to others.

Energy is sensed in different ways for different people. I personally sensed it in the forms of vibrations, heat (sometimes internally; not just the natural way it is generated with any touch), magnetic field, or as a warm air going to areas of pain and energy blockage. Since I take Reiki as a meditation, I think that even the natural physical expressions of heat and touch itself helps me focus on that area that is currently being touched or at least visualize energy flowing with the same results as actually directly sensing the energy. Sometimes, Reiki can intensify a pain or reveal a pain you did not sense before hand and then slowly alleviate it. According to my trainer, pain always has something to tell us and we need to listen to it especially when it arises in the process of doing the Reiki.

Reiki practitioners do not claim to be the source of healing. In fact, it is considered to be more of a stress reduction technique which could potentially result in the body naturally and gradually healing itself with its innate wisdom or at least as a preventative measure when it is done frequently. It does not actually guarantee healing for everyone or in just one sitting. To me at least, the meditative aspect of Reiki is done by both the practitioner and the client, and to me also, unless both of them are in a meditative state then it won't fully work. The source of such healing or energy is believed to come from the Universal Life Energy (which some have identified as God or His "barakah" as some Sufis may label it or simply mere energy in the none divine sense of the word). The Reiki practitioner is merely a channel of energy.

I remember that before ever hearing about Reiki, I used to perform particular kind of supplication for pain I learned in a book of "azkar". It involved touching the area of pain and saying three times (translation); "In the name of Allah the Gracious, the Merciful" and then 7 times: "I seek refuge with Allah and His Words from the evil of whatever I find and undergo." I noticed that whenever I did this with total concentration, it always worked with either alleviating the pain or simply reducing its severity. There are more examples of such practices in Islam that involve invocation of God and I've even heard of a story of the Prophet (pbuh) healing a man's ankle by touching it and supplicating. To me, I'd think that such things are a sort of "reiki". Thus, if we are define such practices as forms of reiki, although not "traditional" or structured, then we could argue that Reiki is indeed as old as time itself and is more universal than a lot of people think.

One of my friends here has shared a beautiful and heartwarming blog post about reiki (or at least a form of it), I highly recommend you to read it, it's called Healing through Compassion: http://darvish.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/healing-through-compassion/ he also told me that there is an actual clinical offshoot of Reiki called Polarity Therapy. I don't know anything about it but I'd love to research it.

I had an intense experience during the attunement process in Reiki I and I am currently brainstorming a poem about that, so stay tuned!

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

befriend me and your fellow tea mates on facebook!

2010-04-12T02:05:00.001+04:00

TEA TIME!!!

Tea for the post, Numi Monkey King Jasmine Green Tea. Besides this tea, I have so far tried their powdered Moroccan mint tea and chamomile/lemon tea and I must say that I like the latter best. At first, I used to like the mint tea but there are times when it makes me feel like I am drinking minty toothpaste. What **tea** would you like me to serve you today?

I have been so bad with blogging since November till now lol. However, I am glad that I have gained another **Tea Mate** again, therefore let me officially introduce you all to her. I'd like you all to welcome Neva Flores. I'm currently following her blog where she writes beautiful poetry, I'd highly recommend you to check it out.

I finally uploaded my knitting pictures but I decided that I'd type up this particular post for another purpose and (once again) procrastinate updating you about my knitting. But no worries **Tea Mates** and **Tea Guests**, I will share that pretty soon. My Spring semester is ending in two weeks and its also getting busier with final papers, presentations and interviews with potential employers for my very first internship.

Anyhow, I just thought I'd like to let you know that I have created a Facebook account (yes, I already have my own but I have some private information in that one and I'd rather reserve that for my family and the friends I've met in person) so that I can actually get to know you **Tea Mates** better and also to connect with my other online friends (however, those whom I've known for a longer time, I may add them in original Facebook account). I think it'll also be nice for you to get to know one another as well if you're interested.

Anyhow, on the right margin of my blog, I have placed a widget that connects to my Facebook account if you're interested in connecting. Alternatively, you could search for my username which is: Tea Hostess Reema, but if you still can't find me, then you could search for me via my email: rpen90@gmail.com

See ya there!

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

the wonderful world of podcasts!!

2010-03-22T10:07:00.002+04:00

Image from: http://sporeflections.wordpress.com/2009/03/19/my-mac-is-a-disappointment/

TEA TIME!!!

Tea for the day: warm green tea with milk and tapioca. Yes, I've finally tried it but in a restaurant setting. I bet you they add way too much milk and sugar to actually make it taste so good lol. What tea would you like to be served today? *Sigh* I understand that I haven't been a very good host in the end of 09 and in this year as well....at times I find myself either busy or just feeling lazy and uninspired otherwise I'm sure that I CAN post daily lol. Haha and it looks like I am quite behind with the monthly dosage of my "Inspiration of the Month" posts!!

Before I jump into the topic of my post, I'd like you all to welcome CY who's a new **Tea Mate** (lol, I know CY I should've done this WAY earlier!! Please do forgive me, I am now looking at your blog and I'll be one of your followers ;-) ).

Anyhow, how have you **Tea Mates** been during my absence? I recently got a 13inch MacBook Pro; my very first Mac ever!! I was always a PC person but I had a friend convert me through screen sharing on Skype...I'm sure that any of you who has also experienced this conversion knows exactly how it feels!

Now since I was playing around with my Mac, I was looking at I-Tunes and was amazed about a world I have never explored; free podcasts. There's like a podcast for anything, even the most unexpected of things. I feel like I've been missing out on a lot especially during those long moments of struggling to wake up from bed and long walks and rides. Yes, music is nice but (yes, I know this is going to sound very geeky and nerdy now lol) I would rather invest those times in learning new things and exploring souls and worlds through short stories (whether fictional or not), poetry, people's contemplations, their travels, and their cooking. So far, I've only been subscribing to the podcasts and didn't really start listening to them. I also don't even have an Ipod or an Itouch so that I could listen to them in my long walks and rides.

Personally instead of listening to music while walking or on the metro I always like to dig into my own thoughts, meditate, or listen to the "music" already around me; the music composed of birds singing and flying, people walking and talking, my own foot steps, and cars passing by; each passerby having stories of their own. There's also visual music of streets, plants, people, birds, and cars passing by. There's also music of sensation of heat and cold, changing weathers and seasons. This is indeed worth contemplating about wouldn't you say? (As I'm typing this, I'm suddenly remembering watching August Rush; I really loved it!).

In conclusion, I'd love to tell you that if you still haven't experienced the wonderful world of podcasts, then you better start now! In the meantime, I think it'd be cool if you **Tea Mates** or **Tea Guests** can share recommendations if you're already immersed into that world.

Before I leave now, I'd like to assure you that I will be updating you about my knitting. I still haven't uploaded the photos, so stay tuned to that and come back for more **tea**!

From you Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

fundraising for the boston area rape crisis center

2010-02-22T22:38:00.001+04:00

Image from: http://www.firstgiving.com/reemab

TEA TIME!!!

Tea for the post: Mighty Leaf Organic Hojicha Green Tea. What tea would you like me to serve you today?

This post's gonna be pretty short as I'm quite busy this week. Since I had already mentioned that I am currently volunteering in a rape crisis hotline, I thought I'd let you **Tea Mates** and **Tea Guests** know about an event organized by this rape crisis center which is a 5k walk. In registering to walk in this event, I've also created a fundraising page. I would highly appreciate it if you could sponsor me and donate for my fundraising page to help support the Center especially as I've heard that federal funding for such cirsis intervention centers have decreased.

To access my fundraising page and support me, please see the first right hand side widgets that's lime green and is titled as: Help Me Support BARCC!!! (the one that says firstgiving). Or you could directly go to my fundraising page by clicking here: http://www.firstgiving.com/reemab The fundraising page will be disabled (and its widget here will be removed) on July 11, 2010.

Would highly appreciate your support and let me assure you that, as a volunteer there, your money will not be excessively wasted on administrative costs like many charities. Below is a description about how your donations help and actually bring results:

$25 helps BARCC answer two hotline calls.
$75 pays for medical accompaniment to a hospital emergency room by a trained volunteer.
$200 supports the first three sessions of free counseling for survivors and their families.
$1,000 allows a new volunteer or intern to attend BARCC’s comprehensive training program

Here's the main website of BARCC itself: http://barcc.org/ and here's the link to the walk itself: http://www.firstgiving.com/barcc

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

knitting

2010-02-16T07:47:00.000+04:00

Image from: http://www.shop.darngoodyarn.com/product/dgys-premium-recycled-silk-yarn

TEA TIME!!!!

Tea for the post: bubble green tea with milk. I personally never imagined having green tea with milk, but I really liked it! However, since this was the second time I had something like this, I think I preferred the one I had the first time at Infusions Tea Spa in Allston, MA. Also, I think the next time I drink this, I'll try it warm, without sugar, and maybe with less milk or with the Rainbow evaporated milk with cardamom flavor rather than fresh milk (I typically use this brand of evaporated milk whenever I drink Lipton tea; I feel like it gives a nice scent and flavor to the tea. Unfortunately, I can't find it here in the US...but I did hear that it could be found in Indian grocery stores in the country and I personally haven't really checked).

Speaking of trying out new stuff, since I started going to my hotline trainings, I found it funny how most of the girls and young women there (most of whom were between 19 to 25 year olds) would have their knitting projects ready to work on as they're out and about! This is really not a sight to be seen back in my home in the UAE, especially in Dubai; so yes, it was quite an extraordinary sight for me! Watching them work on their projects during our break times really inspired me to want to learn knitting (as you may have noticed in the "fun" list I was talking about in my previous post).

In my search of free knitting video tutorials, I stumbled upon Knitting Help.com. The first video I watched seemed to be simple and easy to follow, hopefully, once I get the knitting tools I need and have the chance to experiment, I'll try to follow these tutorials and will some day post a review of the website here ;-)

Knitting Help.com also provides free patterns and project ideas and links to some knitting stores online. Among the knitting stores linked is a website called Darn Good Yarn that sells recycled and fair-trade yarn, local Californian Alpaca wool yarn, banana fiber silk yarn, and silk Sari yarn. They have AMAZING colors (see the picture above) and offer a 5% discount with all first-time orders. Although the website only sells yarn and offers free patterns and ideas for projects, it did have a special offer only for February the 8th of getting a free pair of size 11 bamboo circulars if you order two or more balls of yarn on that day.

I didn't know about this offer until after I started emailing the owner of the site about weather I could get samples of the yarn to experiment before actually buying the yarn. She told me that they didn't but that they had that offer and that since I'm interested in learning, she'd also provide me with a free crochet needle in case I go in that direction! So, I ordered two balls of yarn and she added the free bamboo circulars and the free crochet needle. One of the balls of yarn cost $7.59 (originally $7.99) while the other was $6.64 (originally $6.99). The shipping cost $3.99, so I've paid a total of $18.22, plus I'm receiving the free needles; a good bargain for an expensive craft like knitting.

Although I placed my order on that very day and she had shipped it the next day, I still didn't get my package so I still can't comment on the quality of the products yet. So far, this long delay is my only criticism of this online knitting store. But then again, the package probably didn't reach me yet because of the bad weather in some cities and also due to this long weekend (it was President's Day today...I personally don't understand why do Americans have so many holidays; but I like that!!). I guess I should receive it by the next day or two because, according to the package tracking online, it is in transit and has just left the sorting facility in Boston. Will post a review of the products once I get my package and spend some time experimenting with them to see if this really was a good bargain overall ;-)

Would highly appreciate it if you **Tea Mates** and **Visitors** share links to good knitting stores online and free online video tutorials.

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

the "fun list"

2010-02-10T09:58:00.000+04:00

TEA TIME!!!

Tea for the day: fusion of green and white tea. What tea would you like me to serve you now?

During one of my hotline trainings, we were discussing "self-care". As the name implies, it means taking care of yourself to avoid or reduce the probability of getting secondary trauma or depression as a result of interacting with survivors of trauma (in the case of my hotline: survivors of rape and sexual assault). Speaking of which, I had my very first call in my very first shift overnight on the Monday that just passed! It went very well, although I was so nervous at first and felt like I forgot everything from the training until I picked up that phone!!

Anyways...among the suggestions for self-care is to create a "fun list"! I really like this, I mean, a lot of us create lists about errands we should get out of our way, however, although I think that is very good habit, when we finally have some free time, we have no idea what to do! We therefore end up spending those hours in facebooking, watching T.V., etc. when we could be doing something we love to do but always felt we didn't have the time or mood for it!

So I finally decided to create this "fun list" (although in my case, I decided to call it the Free Time List (a boring and lame name, I know!) because I also added hobbies I wanna learn, like knitting, or relearn after a while of not doing it like Tae Kwon Do). In my current list though, I just added stuff I wanna do during my free time while I'm in Boston in the vicinity of my campus so that I don't feel too overwhelmed with the amount of stuff I wanna do (although my list is still looking somewhat overwhelming...).

What do you **Tea Mates** think about this? Any other suggestions about how to deal with "free time"?

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

oil-filled lenses bringing sight to those in need

2010-02-04T20:25:00.001+04:00

TEA TIME!!!!!

Tea for the day: that same old blend of green and white tea (oh yes, and I still got more Lipton tea to get rid of....I don't know why I have too much of both of these teas!). What tea would you like to have?

I found this video after clicking on a link from one of my friend's links on Facebook about a Hello Kitty Chanisaw! Haha, well now this video doesn't have anything to do with chainsaws or Hello Kitty lol, but it talks about a simple yet innovative idea; a solution to providing eyeglasses to those who need it in developing countries.

I personally find the narrator's use of the label "Third World Countries" as very offensive...I'd personally rather use "Developing Countries", because no world to me is first, second, or third, in reality, we are all poor and it is this denial that breeds arrogance and increases the gap between the "rich" and the "poor".

I also don't get why is there a rabbit in the very beginning of the video...

Anyhow, enough of my blabbering, here's the video! Oh yes, and before you start the video, don't forget to pause the background music via the Ipod gadget on the right hand side of the blog!! (Scroll down a bit and you should see a dark brown, floral Ipod)

Adspecs from Joel on Vimeo.

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

inspiration of the month 4

2010-02-01T11:11:00.003+04:00

TEA TIME!!!

Tea of this blog post: organic Moroccan herbal mint tea by Numi. Although I was at first skeptical about whether this was really mint until after I smelled it and drank it; this sort of tea is also part of my childhood and I always loved it. What tea would you like to be served today?

Yes I know, this ritual of "inspiration of the month" has been skipped twice I guess....that is why I'm not skipping anymore by posting now. For new **visitors** of this **Tea House** who don't know what this ritual of "inspiration of the month" is about, please see the first "inspiration of the month" blog post.

Before I share with you the "inspiration", I'd like to say something about the music I've finalized for this **Tea House**. The Ipod gadget (the Mixpod) gadget displayed in the right hand side of the blog now has a total of seven soundtracks. I made sure that they were as diverse as possible and yet matching the theme of the **Tea House**. I'm open to suggestions. By clicking on "menu" in the Ipod, you can choose what song you'd like played as you sip some **tea** at the **Tea House**. Below is the name, singer/composer, and language of each of the soundtracks:

"Tea House Moon" by Enya (instrumental)
"Memories of Light and Wave" theme from the video game Final Fantasy X-2 (instrumental)
"Now We Are Free" by Lisa Gerard; theme from the movie "Gladiator" (I'm not sure what language is this sung in, but I'm assuming it's Gaelic or an invented language?)
"Chouwa-oto" by Kokia (Japanese)
Naseer Shamma playing Jamil Bashir compositions (instrumental: oud)
"Doosh doosh" by Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat (Farsi)
"Mina Sonati" by Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat (Farsi)

I hope you enjoy them!

Now, here's your simple inspiration of the month! I found this simple yet beautiful quotation from a bookmark I found in Barnes and Noble bookstore nearby my campus:

"Wisdom begins in wonder."

---Socrates

I really think that this quotation still stands true especially for our modern age where people seem to be much more cynical and critical of everything and justify such attitude as being realistic and as key to knowledge. However, although asking questions is indeed key to knowledge, it is the attitude and mindset from which it is asked that matters, for one can approach a problem, statement, argument, etc. with a mindset of either blind-faith, doubt, or wonder.

In blind-faith, one accepts anything without doubting; simply basing their values, etc. on mere faith. Doubt involves critical thinking and always questioning everything. With doubt, you're only making sure that you always argue against the claim, argument, etc. without attempting to understand it more fully or considering views that maybe a balance between your view and the other's view. Wonder also involves some amount of critical thinking, but it also involves creative thinking and leads to a more open mind compared to the previous two.Wonder is a balance between the extremes of blind-faith and doubt.

If we can learn to live our lives always in constant wonder and awe, like childish scientists or childish artists, then indeed there's so much more we can unlock and learn and we can thus live our lives fuller. It is with wonder that a lot of music, art, and inventions are made rather than abiding by either of the extremes of blind-faith and doubt. I'd love to learn how to master this art of wonder myself, I always feel I forget this wisdom myself or that there's much more to it that I still don't understand yet. However, having this bookmark with this quotation by Socrates helps remind me to keep that mindset as I mentally have a "debate" with the claims and statements of an interesting book. I hope he does the same for you.

From your Tea Mate,

Reema B. :-)

package of joy

2010-01-25T11:23:00.003+04:00

TEA TIME!!!

Tea for the post: green tea (yup, I'm still struggling to finish those AND the Lipton tea off!!). What tea would you like to have? (You better choose your favorite, 'cause it's been quite a while since I've last posted...you must celebrate the reopening of the **Tea House**!)

Wow, I seriously didn't expect to get this busy for so long...yet I'm surprised how I have apparently gained two more **Tea Mates** rather than lost any **Tea Mates**! I now officially welcome our two newest **Tea Mates** Barry Hamdani and alonzoevans41 to the **Tea House**, I hope that you have both received my personal welcome email...

I had left Dubai for Boston on Janurary 7. My Spring semester of my Sophomore year just started on January 11. As I had mentioned in my previous two posts, it was so great to be home and to have delicious Gulf Arabic food after a whole year! (For those of you who are new to this **Tea House**, I had posted a recipe of a dessert from this region, please see both Milky Rice Pudding Disaster and Solution to the Milky Rice Pudding Disaster for more info and a link to learn about other food from the region).

I had also attended the opening of Burj Khaleefa (previously known as Burj Dubai; the tallest building/man-made structure in the world) and got VIP seating through my uncle who works in Emaar; the Burj Khaleefa itself and the Burj Khaleefa Downtown were among the company's projects. Click here to see the opening of the tower via the Facebook fan page of the governor of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Although I am only taking three classes (one of them only being a one credit course), I am more busy with extracurricular activities. So far, I am volunteering at

Big Sister Association. Mentoring 1 hour a week
Institute of Urban Health Research where I am currently just doing data entry for one of its projects (they may have me do something else later...dunno lol) that evaluates services for women with substance abuse in Boston. Currently doing it 5 hours a week
Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, where I will be volunteering as a hotline counselor (I am currently undergoing training three times a week until Feb4 when my shift starts. Hotline shifts are only once a week. Each shift is 5 hours)
International Carnevalle Committee member...although all I've been doing was just offering ideas for an annual 2-month long festival my campus organizes to celebrate cultural diversity, haven't been too seriously involved but still attend its meetings one hour a week.

I'm hoping that once I'm done with my hotline trainings that I'll have more free time to go to the gym and/or blog to sip more **tea** with you!! I like my schedule better than the Fall semester where I felt it was more about academics. Also for some reason, I was barely even seeing my friends as much! I was especially feeling so stressed for finals during the Fall semester...that was when I got the surprising PACKAGE OF JOY!!!! (See picture above)

I was one day checking my online student account and noticed that I had a package waiting for me. I was wondering: "hmm...I don't remember ordering anything online to receive a package at this time...also, mom didn't mention anything about sending me a package of any sort...".

When I went to the package pick-up center on my campus, I was even more confused...I had a hard time learning who it was even from!! I opened the box to see if there was a message or something inside...but instead I only found LOADS of snacks. I dug up the snacks to see if there was anything but with no avail...

After quite a while though, I finally noticed that the yellow label stuck to the box was actually an envelope! I open this envelope to find this card with a heart warming message...I'll let its picture below speak for itself:

Although this was a very simple message along with a box of snacks (mostly junk food), it made all the difference for me. It reminded me that indeed back home, I'm having a family cheering me on regardless of how much I may put myself down or how much naysayers may get to me. It made me feel happier that I was going home after these finals and will be enjoying the beautiful weather (in fact, I had left Boston right before the snow storms!), the amazing food, and the company of my family, cousins (who are technically my childhood friends), and friends (although I didn't get to see a lot of them once I got to Dubai since most of them had finals and I had lost all their numbers due to my sim card issue I talked about in my last post). Now that I'm thinking about how uplifting was this package for me, it actually reminds me of the following Arabic proverb:

"Sisters' eyes may dry, your wife may find solace in another's arms, but your mother will weep for you till she dies."

Of course, I think that this would also apply to fathers. In the end, friends will come and go. But it is the family (and your closest of friends) who will always be with you throughout life. Therefore, it is critical to have a good relationship with your family. Personally, I feel quite sad when I hear of people who don't even know about their first cousins and don't even care while I consider my first cousins and second cousins to be my childhood friends whom I still stay in touch with. What I find even sadder is when one has bad relationships with their parents.

During my visit to Dubai in winter break, I had gone to Bahrain for a weekend along with my parents. We went there because one of my cousins had married a Bahraini man (whose family we know through other cross-marriages) and his family wanted to see us. I had so much fun there as I saw how different their culture was compared to the Emirati culture. I felt like they were more open, independent, humble, social, and lively. I think this is because they have not received the same attention or had undergone the same developmental insanity as the Emirates or rather as Dubai in particular. I have also noticed that unlike in the Emirates, there weren't so many immigrant workers in the airports, bazaars, etc; they were more self-reliant.

I felt quite attached to the family in Bahrain and wished that I could've stayed longer; I felt as though I've known them for two years rather than just two days; in fact, I felt like they were my family. I also thought that I'd love to marry a Bahraini man myself so that I can be connected to such a culture and to such a family who treat strangers as their own.

Phew....I hope this long post makes up for all this time I haven't been posting!! For those of you who are having good relationships with your parents, family, and close friends, I hope that this post will prompt you to give them a call or something to tell them (whether directly or subtly): "Thank you for being you."

From your Tea Mate,

Reema B. :-)

PS: I have finally updated the play list for the **Tea House** and have thus added two more songs besides the one that automatically plays (which is by Enya). The second song is Japanese sung by Kokia while the third is by one of the most famous oud masters in the Arab world called Naseer Shamma. Click on the "menu" in the Ipod gadget on the sidebar of this blog to access them. Please do offer suggestions as well for more songs that can suite this blog. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Jan 29: After adding even more songs, the order of the music has changed....so please do ignore the description of each particular song above....

tea house background music

2009-12-31T01:05:00.003+04:00

TEA TIME!!

Tea for the post: Lipton tea with milk and cardamom. Lol, in fact, that's really the only kind of tea I've been drinking during my time here in Dubai--my home. I will be back in Boston in January the 7th; I hope that I'll be posting more often by then.

As I had already mentioned, during my time here at home as well, I've barely had access to a computer (I didn't bring my laptop) and even when I did, it would only be for a brief time. It is now late at night here and I am going to bed, but it suddenly occurred to me that it is time for me to change the background song of the blog; what do you **Tea Mates** (or any other visitor of this blog) suggest? I am looking for a relaxing, welcoming, and preferably non-vocal music; kinda the sort of music that'd suite a **tea house** atmosphere (not necessarily Asian).

In case I don't get the chance to post tomorrow, I'd like to wish you all a very Happy New Year (and a very late merry christmas as well!)

From your Tea Mate
Reema B. :-)

jet lagged, busy, and phoneless...but good to be home!!

2009-12-20T08:56:00.003+04:00

TEA TIME!!!!

Tea for the day: karak tea (click here to know what karak tea, which is also known as chai karak, is), what tea would you like me to serve you today?

Omg....this week has been quite insane indeed....I had traveled back home on the same day as my last final which was on December 15. It's been a year since I've last gone home lol. The flight from Boston to Dubai (with a 5 hour transit to Amsterdam) took about 19 hours. I slept quite a lot but my eye glasses broke when I got to the Schipol Airport in Amsterdam. So, I had to wear my disposable contacts (and yes, I ended sleeping with them as well...I just couldn't keep myself awake especially in the flight to Dubai!). Because I had slept quite a lot, I was surprised that I didn't feel as jet lagged as I used to in my last Winter Break in Dubai (I was literally exhausted for a whole week!). But after a day or two, I'm now beginning to start crashing down!!

I didn't bring my own laptop with me as I wanted to travel light. In fact, I came here with only a backpack and a purse! This is in fact my very first time not checking in any luggage; and I would love to keep traveling in this simple way! In fact, I would actually like to buy myself a light laptop...but nothing too small...any suggestions?

I would also like to buy a new phone. My US phone doesn't work in other countries and my Dubai phone was broken ages ago. To top that, I hadn't used my sim card for a whole year and it got locked! Hopefully I'll get my sim card unlocked and will get a new phone. Was thinking of either an Iphone or a Blackberry...but I feel like everyone has those! I wanna be "unique" lol :-p haha, any suggestions for that too?

I have been quite busy this whole week especially with family and I barely get the chance to use my dad's laptop to blog. However, I have been working on 2 drafts and hope that I continue posting more often! I have been slacking off quite a lot in my blogging these past 2 months lol....

I guess this is the end of my post...wasn't really expecting to post anything this plain and boring but thought that I'd update you with what's going on with me and what my current excuse is for not blogging for a while. In fact, I think I may begin just blogging once a month if I continue being this busy...

Anyways...happy holidays **Tea Mates**, please do update me about your holiday season ;-)

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B.

the social business

2009-12-04T04:00:00.001+04:00

Photo by: The Hostess

TEA TIME!!

I'm now sipping (for the very first time) Organic Red Rooibos Tea from Peet's Coffee & Tea which had recently opened near our campus. What tea would you like to have?

I had bought a small box of this Rooibos tea (in teabag form) since I've only briefly heard about it and its health benefits and was just curious about how it tasted. To be honest with you, although the aroma of the teabag was welcoming, I am slightly disappointed. I was expecting a bitter yet refreshing taste that relaxes the senses but...it doesn't seem to have any taste at all, although I've steeped it for more than five minutes! Any of you **Tea Mates** had rooibos yourself and think differently?

Although I didn't like the tea too much, I did try their Pumpkin Spice Latte while I was in Peet's Coffee & Tea cafe. I must say that I like their pumpkin spice latte more than either Starbucks' or Dunkin Donuts' because it feels like I'm actually drinking a coffee with legit natural flavors. (I just realized that I'm now speaking positively of coffee in a tea house!! What hypocrisy and blasphemy!! XD)

Aside from either tea or coffee, one thing that I really liked about Peet's Coffee & Tea is its aim to not only provide with quality teas and coffees, but to do so with socially, environmentally, and economically responsible practices. It also donates to and supports organizations and entities (like TechnoServe) that aim to improve the lives of the farmers it works with. Unlike some businesses that make similar claims, Peet's Coffee & Tea seems to be more transparent about how it aims to achieve such ideals and what particular organizations and entities it supports.

This may seem like a childish thought, but I wish that all the businesses out there follow such practices that is good for everyone; practices that both take and give back rather than just take till all is exhausted. It is indeed quite childishly stubborn of our "modern", "civilized", and "cultured" societies to be still doing the latter and to still associate being a "do-good-er" as being "anti-capitalist". In addition, it is ironic how even when societies may value democracy, equality, morality, etc. their economies exclude the poor and underprivileged in their own nations and/or worldwide (a topic discussed in a blog post I had shared in my last post: http://kalman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/back-to-the-land/). At times, I feel guilty of eating the food I eat, wearing the clothes I wear, etc. in our highly globalized world since I wonder whether a single poor person, an animal, or the environment has been abused or denied their full rights in order to produce and sell me such products. And it is astonishing to see that such tyranny still exists. I also feel guilty for being the one to have such luxuries while many others are denied it.

It is, however, uplifting to see the increasing awareness of individuals and businesses about the importance of equitable and sustainable trade. Instead of continuously feeling guilty and hopeless and blaming God, Fate, or any person or circumstance, I think that we must make use of this challenge and produce a positive ripple effect which can not only uplift those whom the ripple touches, but also ourselves. Otherwise, we'd paralyze ourselves with vain negative energy and that is not adaptive for us or anyone. I think we should also consider that the underprivileged have much more to teach us and that we ourselves are "poor"; we are just too arrogant to acknowledge that. I could go on and on about how in the end we are all "poor" but I'd rather leave it up to you to reflect in your own way and maybe possibly promote discussion.

After blabbering about being thankful, charitable, and socially minded in my previous two or three posts, I now present to you a video of a speech about the concept of a "social business" from Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank. My professor of my Social Entrepreneurship class showed us this video and I'm glad that I found it myself to share it with you (this is not a complete video though and I highly recommend watching the full video via the button already provided (watch full program) or look it up in http://fora.tv, the question and answers part in the ending is not to be missed. Oh, and don't forget to pause the background song by pressing the pause button on the Ipod gadget on the right side bar of the blog before playing the video!):

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

inspiration of the month 3 & blog changes

2009-12-02T06:22:00.011+04:00

TEA TIME!!!

Tea for the post: Thai jasmine tea. What tea would you like me to serve you today?

The end of the month has come so fast!! I mean, I feel as though it was just Summer yesterday and now the Fall semester is suddenly ending and winter break is approaching (by the way, I will be going back home to Dubai during this 3 week holiday!! I'm quite excited especially since I'll finally be learning to drive so that I can get my licence...even if I don't, I'll at least have finally started!!)

Speaking of speed, I had recently bumped into this interesting blog post about the connection between our speedy modern lifestyle, food, and democracy. Please do check it out as it is quite a fun and interesting read about a very important topic. It actually reminded me of my trip to Ecuador where I had stayed in a reserve/organic farm and where almost everyday I would eat organic food that came fresh from that farm...you have no idea how healthy I felt after the end of that trip...and I had lost a lot of weight (in a healthy way...not an anorexic way)! I hope that maybe in a future post, I could start a discussion related to this blog post. Anyways, here's the link to the post: http://kalman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/back-to-the-land/

As you **Tea Mates** may have noticed, I have made some changes to the blog and have added a playlist and a book shelf. I plan to add more books but there seems to be a problem with my Shelfari account and I'm trying to solve it. I also don't remember the names of some past books I've read which I'd love to share in this shelf. I have so far only added one song to the playlist but I will change the song once in a month or two so that it doesn't get too monotonous. I have also removed the shout box and chat widget as I noticed that no one was making use of them and they were only taking up space in a blog that was otherwise meant to have a simple design like a simple **Tea House**.

Enough of my blabbering lol, now that it is the end of the month I think we need to continue our second ritual! For those of you who are newbies of this **Tea House** and would like to learn more about one of its ritualistic traditions of sharing an inspirational quotation in the end of each month please click here and here.

Now, I present to you....the INSPIRATION! This is a translation of one of Rumi's poetry (however, I typically hate how translations tend to ruin the essence of the written art...I also wish that I knew more Farsi to be able to read the original piece myself! This piece seems to be related to the blog post I just shared, especially the part where the author talks of abundance and heedlessness).

Oh yes, and one final note: since the time in my laptop is in Dubai timing, and since Boston is 9 hours behind Dubai, the date of the post is a day ahead! Oh....and I just realized after posting this that today is December 1st...not November 31st!!! XD

"Thanksgiving is sweeter than bounty itself.

One who cherishes gratitude does not cling to the gift!

Thanksgiving is the true meat of God's bounty;

The bounty is its shell,

For thanksgiving carries you to the hearth of the Beloved.

Abundance alone brings heedlessness

Thanksgiving gives birth to alertness.

The bounty of thanksgiving will satisfy and elevate you,

And you will bestow a hundred bounties in return.

Eat your fill of God's delicacies,

And you will be freed from hunger and begging."

----Rumi

charity in the unity of 2 festivities from east and west: thanksgiving and eid al adha

2009-11-26T02:14:00.001+04:00

TEA TIME!!!

Today's tea: Pumpkin Spice. What tea would you like to have?

It is quite interesting how two different festivities one from the east while the other from the west, are coinciding together this year; it just makes the atmosphere even much more festive than it already is! Both Thanksgiving and Eid Al Adha involve lots of food, being thankful, and charity. I thought that before the festivities arrive that it'd be a good idea to share some links of charitable websites whether you're Muslim or non-Muslim. In two of these websites, you can be charitable for free! Click on them and you'll see exactly what I mean ;-)

Donations in these websites are all tax deductible. You're also more than welcome to share other trustworthy charitable websites yourself in the comments section :-)

Learn new words and facts while giving free grains of rice to the world's hungry for free:

http://freerice.com

Be charitable for free just by clicking everyday either for the sake of literacy, hunger alleviation, giving free breast cancer check and mamograms for women in need, rainforest conservation, animal rescue, or child health. You can even buy some of the site's products in its shopping section and all its profits go for the causes involved:

http://theliteracysite.com

Donate your Udhiya/Qurbani to Islamic Relief USA to help those in need around the world celebrate their Eid Al Adha (the organization in general doesn't differentiate between Muslims and non-Muslims and only 3% of the money the organization gets goes to administration, the rest is spent on the causes involved)

https://www.islamicreliefusa.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=433&utm_source=fb&utm_medium=fb_ppc&utm_campaign=qurbani_09

I think that the fact that two similar festivities from conflicting cultures are coinciding this year is a Sign for us to reconcile our differences and any enmity remaining toward one another and to unite in our diversity to focus on more pressing issues: serving those in need who in the end do not deserve to be in need because of our greed and constant desire for excess.

Yes, fulfilling desires maybe natural, but let me tell you this: what is natural is not always adaptive, but what is adaptive is always natural. And it is indeed adaptive and natural for us to be in harmony with one another and to spread our resources with fairness the way nature naturally does itself. That is much more organic. In Islamic terms, I believe that that is the way all things in the heavens and in the earth submit themselves and prostrate to Allah and celebrate His Glory as the Holy Qur'an emphasizes in several chapters; as Muslims, let us join them and submit our will to Allah rather than give in to the surface of our immediate desires.

From your Tea Mate,

Reema B. :-)

japanese tea ceremony and giving thanks

2009-11-25T09:27:00.003+04:00

(Source of picture: http://www.sleepwarrior.com/matcha-green)-tea)

TEA TIME!!

Tea of the day: Aveda's Comforting Tea. What tea would you like to have?

Finally I get to post something!! I was worried that you Tea Mates will desert the Tea House and leave me so lonely when I come by! I have been quite busy and overwhelmed with different things, but now I finally have a week long holiday--a thanksgiving break! It'll be my first time celebrating thanksgiving; last year, I simply went to NYC with some of my international friends and stayed in a hotel for a weekend and we had managed to be there in time for the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. This year though, I will be experiencing for the first time a legit American thanksgiving. Me and my brother have been invited to 2 American households in the same day; one for lunch and the other for dinner!!

I need to fulfill the promise I made in my previous post, so I am going to write about the Japanese Tea Ceremony demonstration I saw in the Sacred Space of my university. For those of you who don't know, a sacred space is a place where people of any religion and spirituality or even no religion or spirituality can pray and meditate. Our Sacred Space is part of our university's Spiritual Life Center which coordinates different religious, spiritual, and interfaith programs. I am a member of Multi-Faith Student Connection which meets there in the Sacred Space once a week.

The week in which I had posted my previous post was Spiritual Wellness Week which was organized by our university's Spiritual Life Center. In one of the programs, we had an event called Zen and Japanese Tea Ceremony. Staff and students from the Kaji Aso Studio , which is a Japanese art institute in walking distance from our campus, came to demonstrate a traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony and explained some of the philosophies behind it. Now, what I am going to explain below is only a description of what I've seen the way I understood it, please feel free to correct me if you know more about the topic or if you are studying and practicing this yourself (I've heard that it takes years to master the tea ceremony!). I guess that this is indeed a better time to write about the tea ceremony as it is almost thanksgiving and I think that the process of the tea ceremony is in a way a form of giving thanks.

Tea Ceremony embodies the concepts of Zen Buddhism. There are three components to the ceremony: the host, the person who passes the tea to the guest(s), and the guest(s). All of the people sit on the floor and the utensils are wiped and the tea made on the spot. The whole ceremony is a meditative process and is thus done very slowly and with great care, from wiping each and every utensil, to folding the napkins, to pouring and serving the tea, to the guest admiring the artwork of the cup (he may even ask who was the artist) and then to him/her finally drinking the tea and saying: "It's delicious" (those are the only words exchanged, it is a very silent ceremony) everyone including the guest(s) bows. I honestly would've loved to post pictures and videos here but I was worried of disrespecting the people who may not want to have their pictures in a blog for complete strangers to see. I had also forgotten to bring my camera with me to the event anyways (yes, photography wise, I had become much more lazy...what happened to the days when I used to carry my camera everywhere and would even picture the most mundane things to the extent of being annoying to people around me?!).

The tea that is drunk in Japanese tea ceremonies is called matcha (see picture above), which is expensive as it is the youngest leaves from the black tea tree and is freshly hand-picked and then crushed into powder. It is associated with multiple health benefits. Although we unfortunately didn't get the chance to drink the tea, we were told that it is quite bitter. Since the Japanese don't like bitter things too much, they usually have a sweet in their mouth as they drink the matcha tea. I can't remember the particular name of the sweet but it was a kind of crystalized sugar that artists design in a variety of shapes.

I always found it interesting how most religions emphasize the appreciation of simple things and what's around us. However this is done in different ways. In Zen and other similar religions, the appreciation is done with the immediate objects directly. In Islam it is done with both appreciating the detail of the object while glorifying and thanking Allah since He is seen as the Infinite and the origin and sustainer of each and every process and molecule involved. In the end, whatever you believe in, I say simply be thankful and grateful and try to make every second a meditative process. Happy thanksgiving and Eid mubarak (yes, Eid has coincided with thanksgiving; I love it when different festivities coincide like that!)

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

inspiration of the month 2

2009-10-31T21:58:00.001+04:00

TEA TIME!!!

Tea for the day: Thai iced tea. What tea would you like to have?

I did not expect my week (and coming weeks) to be quite busy, I hope you Tea Mates can forgive me!! This week, in my campus, was Spiritual Wellness Week and we had different events going on in our university's Sacred Space (will tell you more about what that is later). I have so far gone to two of the events: Chakra Night and Zen & Art of Japanese Tea Ceremony. I hope that in my next posts, I will tell you more about these events with a focus on the concept of a "tea ceremony", so stay tuned!

Anyhow now that it is the end of the month, I think I should carry on the second ritual of this blog ;-) (click on the link if you have no idea what I'm even talking about right now!). So here's a random quotation which is among my favorites, would love it if you also share your own (it doesn't have to be related to tea!!):

“A woman is like a tea bag, you can not tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water”

Nancy Reagan

(Translation: do NOT underestimate the burning power of women!!) xD

From your Tea Mate,

Reema B. :-)

solution to the milky rice pudding disaster!

2009-10-24T11:14:00.001+04:00

TEA TIME!!!

Tea for the post: chamomile and mango tea. What tea would you like to have?

This post's going to be a short one, 'cause I finally remembered to tell my Mom about my milky rice pudding disaster I had days ago and asked her what may have possibly gone wrong. I thought I'd update you with her reply (click on the link to see which blog post of mine I'm referring to and to find the ingredients of this dessert) ;-)

It seems that I had apparently added too much milk at the time...and I'm assuming that the temperature in which I was stirring in was too high. Therefore, no pudding was even forming!!! I just ended up stirring and stirring for an hour or two and and it was just plain warm liquid!

In the end, perfecting such simple food and desserts requires trail and error...there's no particular, rigid measurement of recipes to follow.

Hmm...I just remembered that one of our Tea Mates (A Woman Made of Dust; better known as WMD) wanted to try this out herself...I wonder how did hers turn out. So WMD, or anyone of you who has attempted it, if you are reading this post, please do post a comment here in reply and let us know how yours turned out!

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

my black books of ideas

2009-10-22T09:07:00.000+04:00

TEA TIME!!!

Today's tea: soothing green tea. What tea would you like to have?

I always thought that writers are the bravest and strongest people. I think this because "good" and/or sincere writers are willing to even relive their pain in the process of writing about it. I on the other hand tend to have a hard time doing that, especially if I've already gotten over the shameful or painful event and I am not even willing to relive it ever again.

I always loved writing, especially poetry and short stories (though I've only actually written one short story which I really liked, but I do love to think of and imagine different plots in my head!). Unfortunately though, I haven't been writing too much of such things these days.

However, besides keeping this blog, I do keep 2 Moleskine notebooks. In one of them, which is the pocket sized one, I write down the most random thoughts, reflections, meditations, or anything I may have found profound or inspiring. In the other larger Moleskine notebook, I write down "entrepreneurial" ideas and/or any "pioneering" career goals I may have. In this same one, I also write down the skills and hobbies I'd like to learn and develop, cooking recipes, languages I'd love to learn, etc.

I actually like to journal in this unstructured way, without actually writing down particular dates and all...without the "dear diary" formality of it, without pressuring myself to write in either of the journals all the time, without caring about how my handwriting looks, the grammar, and whether what I write even makes any sense or not... just writing from my unconscious. I feel like by doing that I unleash more of my creativity. Lord knows, but even if I don't actually do those "entrepreneurial ideas" and/or die before ever doing them, I'll at least be leaving behind treasures of ideas for others to either apply them or simply be inspired by them and create something even better out of them.

Speaking of ideas, I remember the day in 2005 when I went to the Mary Baker Eddy Library which is near my university in Boston. I especially remember the "Hall of Ideas" part of the library/museum. In that hall, there would be a public demonstration. In the beginning of the demonstration, you would hear music and diverse quotations from famous and great people about the importance of "ideas" and spreading these "ideas". There was this one quotation (I think it was said by Mother Teressa, I don't remember it exactly) that said something like this: no one can ever kill or imprison and idea. You may do so to the person, but never to the idea. Once an idea is spread, it just continues growing infinitely.

To me at least, I think that no one ever "owns" an idea. Once an idea is spread, it becomes everyone's idea, since each person interprets it his/her own way, applies it (or doesn't) in his/her own way, and may even develop it his/her own way. The idea can even be shaped in such a way so that it can be applied more flexibly by the whole "team". I think it would be selfishness to not share an idea which, as you can infer from what I been blabbering about now, can have so much potential for changing for the better. We just need to hush our ego a bit and simply let that drop of water of ours send a ripple effect throughout the pond. To be honest though, I at times forget that myself and my ego ends up getting the better of me.

Enough about ideas lol....let's go back to the topic of journaling: what is your version of a "journal" and/or "diary"?

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

hyper-sanity!

2009-10-17T08:21:00.002+04:00

TEA TIME!!!

Tea for the day: Lipton....not too legit I know but I got too many Lipton tea bags which I'm trying to finish off! >,< You see, when some family members came to visit from Dubai, they decided to bring loads of Lipton tea bags along with them. When they wanted to go back to Dubai, they decided to leave me with left overs! Anyways...what tea would you like to have?

I am having an Anthropology midterm exam, a Statistics in Psychological Research quiz, and a Social Entrepreneurship full case study write-up about Banco Compartamos all due for this Monday! Those three classes are back to back on Mondays so I need to get all this done by this weekend! Feeling kinda nervous as I have barely touched my Anthropology book and do not have the slightest idea about the sorts of questions our Prof. will ask....

On Tuesday, I have a Learning & Motivation quiz...then I'm done for this week and the next! Hopefully I'll be able to blog more often after Tuesday....

*sigh* too much negative energy in starting this post....so here's some positive energy to light it up!

I have this friend from Saudi who is among the first friends I've made in my university in Boston. Her name is Fatima. She's so much fun to be with but I must warn you that she is quite a crazy girl! (Or rather "hyper-sane" according to her definition; she was inspired to use this term after I once told her about how a certain anti-psychiatry movement were hypothesizing that schizophrenia could possibly be a form of "hyper-sanity" (more than "sane" to the extent that other sane people find them insane!).

Whenever I am with this girl I become as crazy as her! Our conversations would be filled with "sound effects" and "meh" or "maw" or "neh" whenever one of us defeats the other in an argument or is simply *sighing* after being made fun of a lot (and yes she is the one who invented these "words" (except for "neh")...if that's what you want to call them...!). :-D I tend to make fun of those particular words by either making a 'meow' sound for the "maw", or a goat sound for the "meh". In addition to that, either of us ends up inventing our own terminologies either intentionally or not (and inevitably making fun of the other :-p). We also take a lot of random pictures of each other (sometimes without the other expecting it! However, I tend to enjoy taking random videos of her because it annoys her and it always ends up becoming into an AWESOME video!)

Last Friday night, I was having dinner with her and she wanted to tell me that her stomach was hurting. Apparently, in her mind, she had mixed up between the words "tummy" and "stomach" and thus ended up saying: "My "stummy" is hurting!" :-D This is among the many things I make fun about her! But in this case however, I decided to turn this into a Facebook status which I'm sharing with you here: (note that Fatoom and Fatooma are among the many nicknames given to any girl called Fatima. Also note that the number 6 used in her name is part of Arabic chat language which uses numbers sometimes with apostrophes to symbolize Arabic letters not found in English):

From the book of Fatoom Madness Quotations: "My stummy is hurting :-(" (sorry fa6ooma, I just had to share this eventually!! :-p)

She just commented on this Facebook status today. I told her that it's gonna be a serial called: The Book of Fatoom Madness Quotations, making her so famous free of charge! She then said that I should make it into an actual book. I said that I'd go tomorrow to buy a pocket Moleskine notebook just for this very purpose....Lord knows, but it may end up getting published...and the book will function as a way to combat stereotypes about the Middle East and Muslims! :-p She replied: "Sounds like a great project" (unlike me, she rarely uses exclamation marks!). I told her, however...although she'll get some of the profit, most of it will go to me because I'm the one who came up with the idea! :-D She said: "But the opening of the book should be 'MAW!' and I should review the book before it is published" :-D

What do you Tea Mates think of the idea?? :-p

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

where the hell is matt?

2009-10-14T06:55:00.000+04:00

TEA TIME!!!

Tea for the day: iced peach and apricot tea from a cafe which a friend of mine took me to. What tea would you like to have?

This week and the coming week are gonna be kind of busy so I doubt that I'll have enough time to keep my blog updated. Since I wanted to let you Tea Mates know that I'm still "alive", I thought I'd share with you a beautiful inspiring video.

I first saw this video last year. I was doing one of my 5 daily prayers in the University's Sacred Space. There, I met a girl who was practicing yoga and somehow (can't remember how) we ended up having a deep conversation. She then shared this video me through http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/

Although the dude here can't dance well (as if I know how to even dance myself!!! :-D), I really feel touched by the spirituality and beauty in sharing his passion of dancing while traveling all around the world and inviting others to join in the random dance! I especially love the music, the music in this particular video is called Praan by Gary Schyman (I believe it is sung in the Bangla language). The meanings behind it is just beautiful, click here to see its translation in the info section.

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

milky rice pudding disaster!!! >,<

2009-10-07T09:00:00.005+04:00

TEA TIME!!!

Tea for the post: Stash Premium's Fusion Green & White Tea. I'm also munching some Pepperidge Farm Milano Milk Chocolate Cookies...mmmm.....(though not too good a combo with green/white tea lol). What tea would you like to have? (You better pick one that actually complements the flavor of Milano cookies!).

There's this friend of mine whom I haven't seen ages (though we ironically live adjacent to each other!!). So this friend of mine invited me over to her dorm and decided to make me dinner. I thought: "Hey I haven't actually made milky rice pudding (my country's version is called farnee) in a while...why not make some as our dessert?" I've only made farnee twice in my whole life; the first time, it was too grainy, the second time was perfect but was missing the crushed walnuts as topping.

The ingredients of farnee are quite simple (particular measurements typically depend on your preferences and is more learned through trail and error):

Milk
Rose water
Sugar
Basmati Rice
Water
Crushed walnuts (to be sprinkled on pudding as a topping.)

Some people add cardamom. Some also use crushed pistachios or almonds instead of walnuts as topping. In addition, some add other extra stuff. But I prefer to follow my grandmother's simple way since I believe that her farnee is the BEST farnee I've ever had and will ever have! :-p

Unlike the rice pudding I've encountered in the US, our farnee should not actually contain rice grains. In addition, ours contains rose water which adds both a refreshing smell and flavor. Below are the directions involved:

Wash the rice till the water looks clear
Soak the rice for 30 minutes or an hour
Blend the rice (covering it with water)
Using a coffee filter (or any kind of filter or piece of cloth with super tiny holes) filter out any residue from the blended rice. (see picture below, on the left)
Blend again and again until you see that all the residue is gone while you're filtering after each time you blend (steps four and five are what make this dessert a bit difficult to make....because sometimes if you haven't filtered out the residue well, you may never be able to tell until after you've actually make the rice pudding and eat it! That is when it'll feel quite grainy and weird)
Heat the milk and stir it along with the blended rice, small table spoonfuls of rose water, and sugar in a pot.
Keep stirring the mixture in low heat until you feel some friction and the mixture starts to look creamy and thick (see picture below this list on the right)
Pour in small bowls and sprinkle with crushed walnuts
Allow to cool before placing them in the fridge
**Enjoy**!!

The above two photos were taken during my second time making this dessert in which it was perfect! (I think this was because mom was supervising me at the time!) Although I am sure that I had followed these directions well,today in my third time making this dessert, it turned into a complete DISASTER!!!

First if all, the timing I started was quite wrong. I should've started way earlier in the day. Second, I was using one of my suite-mates' blender. When I first poured the rice into the blender all the water and rice literally spilled all over the place!! The owner of the blender told me that I forgot to put the blades in. I did that. Again, after a second attempt, the same mess happened and I lost some rice. I had to re-soak again and add more rice. I found out that I had forgotten to put a plastic seal in which its absence caused the second mess. After finally blending and filtering, I did the rest of the steps. But for some reason I cannot understand, the mixture wasn't thickening!!! I kept stirring for an hour or so and no result although the mixture was steaming! Eventually, I had to give it up since I was late to go to my friend's place....

I hope that I get to find out what actually went wrong....hopefully, the next time I contact my mom, I'll get my answer...once I do, I'll let you Tea Mates know so that you can get it right yourselves ;-)

Oh and one more thing, I just bumped into this blog post written by an Emirati woman. If you'd like to see how Gulf Arabic food is like (which as I mentioned in my previous posts is very VERY rare to find in restaurants around the globe) please do take a look at this: http://arab-mania.blogspot.com/2009/09/tasting-emaraati-traditional-food.html

From your Tea Mate,

Reema B. :-)

too much time in your hands...to hate

2009-10-03T10:43:00.004+04:00

Today's tea is...actually pure water!! :-D It's kinda late at night and I'm not in the mood of sipping any tea at the moment. Anyhow, what tea (and I really do mean **tea** this time) would you like to have?

This week, I was on Facebook and saw that someone had invited me to join a group. It was an Islamic group (and although I am Muslim myself, I'm usually cautious about joining Islamic groups on Facebook, as many of them seem to be extremist or fanatic groups that portray Islam in stereotypical ways to outsiders...or at least that is simply my own personal experience).

Anyways, in checking out this group, I noticed a wall post that was telling others to report a certain group that was offending the Holy Koran by having it written on toilet paper (and to actually use it as so!). I checked out the referred link and was indeed appalled to actually see that this was true. The creator of this offensive group had even created a blog preaching hatred against Islam and Muslims. Skimming through her blog, I can see that she (and like anyone who spits fireballs of hatred) is obviously full of ignorance about Islam. Yet in a sense, I can't fully blame her for she has obviously only tasted the few "bad apples" who've spoiled the rest of the "apples".

Enraged, I reported the group and shared the link with some of my other Muslim friends on my Facebook account so that they can report it as well. I was (and still am) quite disgusted at how there still exists in this modern globalized world people who are not willing to keep an open heart and mind. I always wonder whether such people who preach hatred toward any race or creed actually have a life to begin with....they have too much of time in their hands to take all that time and effort to create hateful blogs and groups and to "bark" hatred in online discussion forums or chat rooms.

My brother, who saw me send the chain message, told me today that what I just did was wrong and that I am only "burning blood". In other words, that I am now causing our fellow Muslims to have reason to hate. He also told me that the reason why such people even create these kind of outrageous blogs and Facebook groups is to provoke us Muslims and to get more attention by having us forward and spread their message to begin with.

I guess my brother is indeed right, and I do regret what I've done. However, my intention was to repress their so-called messages...but in doing so, I have actually spread it further. This is why I am not providing you a particular link to this facebook group or blog for you to see for yourselves.

In typing this post now, I have suddenly remembered a particular verse in the Holy Koran that describes the attitude of the true believers toward the ignorant who speak to then mockingly: "And the worshippers of The Gracious are those who walk on the earth in humility and sedateness, and when the ignorant address them (with bad words) they say: 'Peace'." (Surah Al-Furqan, Ayah 63).

Indeed, I have done contrary to this particular verse (and other similar verses) in the Koran!! I hope Allah forgives me...but I also hope that we all learn from this mistake that I've done, whether you be Muslim or not.

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

generosity of rain

2009-09-29T09:22:00.001+04:00

TEA TIME!!!

Today's tea: Lipton tea (lol, not too legit...I know). What tea would you like to have?

It was raining yesterday as I was on my way back to campus from my brother's apartment. I had slept over his place during the weekend you see.

I was quite unprepared for the weather. For one thing, I wasn't carrying an umbrella or wearing a rain coat. I had a lot of stuff in a paper Macy's bag. It was quite heavy that I couldn't run to catch the train that was already standing as I arrived to the T-stop. Since I was waiting for the next train for quite a while under the rain, the bag tore off the very moment the next train arrived and I wanted to get on! EVERYTHING was all over the dirty wet pavement before me!! I first pulled all the stuff toward me, allowing others to get on the train. I had to figure out how to stuff the 2 tiny plastic bags that were already in the large Macy's bag.

I felt like I was a homeless person before the people who weren't helping me out (let alone share space under their large umbrellas while I was waiting for the train). I guess I can't blame them as they must've had places they had to go to. It is embarrassing moments like these in which no one gives you a hand that you get inspired to help another person who gets in a similar awkward situation. In other words, I thought: instead of blaming people and bringing myself down with them, let me raise myself higher by making sure that I don't end up like them when I see that someone is in need. Yet I must admit, I am usually slow in seeing an opportunity in which I can actually be of help, I guess it was the same case with these people.

The train eventually left. I then saw a young Asian girl running toward me with two plastic bags! She was breathless and spoke to me quickly saying: "I saw that you dropped your stuff, so I thought I'd give you these bags in case it happens again.", she gave me the bags, I thanked her, and she ran back. It was indeed so nice of her that although she was obviously having some other business she had to tend to, she still took her time to be of help. I guess in the end it is best to celebrate a moment of generosity rather than to blame those who are not otherwise, thus bringing yourself down with them. By depriving yourself the positive emotions of gratefulness and the lesson(s) to be learnt in the experiences and challenges of life, you are not being generous to yourself...so how can you be generous to others after "breaking the bow" with negative emotions?

oh yes, and before I forget to mention, I had added IM chat here on the blog! Scroll down a bit and you'll see it. I wanted to place it earlier in the site but it didn't work out. So I had to leave it here in the end of the side bar. I hope you make use of it to either communicate with me or your fellow Tea Mates!

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

inspiration of the month

2009-09-25T07:04:00.001+04:00

TEA TIME!!

Tea for the post is Teavana's blend of Samurai Chai Mate with White Ayurvedic Cha i. And....you know the usual ritualistic question of each of my posts: what tea would you like me to serve you this time?? (Hey, at least this question was written in a different format unlike the usual ritualistic ones!)

An idea came up for me to post an inspirational quotation at the end of every month as another ritual for this blog. You may think it's kinda a few days early, but I thought that now that my classes are slowly starting to get more busy that it'd be best I post them at least a week earlier or so. I think it'd be refreshing if you Tea Mates can share some of your own inspirational quotes as well (preferably one for each month please).

I may post less frequently these days, unless if I somehow figure out how to manage my time better. Ironically though, I may start another different blog! :-D Yes I know what you're thinking: I'm still a novice blogger and need to learn how to post more frequently and with more quality. But this other blog I want to create will be revolving around my religious and spiritual reflections (Islamic in nature). I want it to be a way for me to connect and meet other like-minded Muslims.

As much as I love multi-faith and multi-cultural discussions, I would rather reserve this other blog purely as a way for me and my siblings in faith to journey together in our own "caravan" and support each other in any spiritual struggle and to be better versed in our religion and its implications. In fact, I am even a member of my university's Multi-Faith Student Connection group, so please don't get the wrong idea! It's just that I feel that there's too much religious and cultural intolerance on the internet to the extent that I wonder whether these people (Muslim or not Muslim, theist or atheist) have anything better to do with their lives (if they even have a life themselves) than to spit out cyclic flames of hatred and shove down their ideas down other's throats with such brute force.

I have diverse friends both with and without a religion and/or spirituality, and although we may have discussions of religion and spirituality, and even discuss why we agree or disagree with certain beliefs, we do not treat or speak to each other the way, for example, those in YouTube or in Yahoo Answer's religious/spirituality section do.

It honestly disgusts me, especially when people are insensitive and cold toward how religion or spirituality can play a central role and meaning in some people's lives, and sometimes even his/her very essence of living. Can't people accept that religions are just the way they are and not argue out of ignorance and stereotypes?? If you have a bad experience or relationship with religion or God or any gods you might've believed in, please (and I mean please) do not attempt to tear out the beauty that others find in their own religions and spiritualities just because you do not see such beauty yourself. Indeed, I think that is the cruelest thing any human can ever do: stripping out the experience of beauty and love from another fellow human being.

In my humble opinion, each and every person has a religion (even if you say that you do not; in saying that, you are expressing that you have the belief and faith in not having a religion and in not applying any religious practices!), so please do not be arrogant. Yes, diversity does separate people but it can also be a source of celebration. It is people (and not diverse religions, cultures, spiritualities, philosophies, theories, and viewpoints) that separate among one another and that do not choose to have an open mind to celebrate diversity which is in the end inevitable.

Here's the link of this new blog if you're interested: http://journey2submission.blogspot.com/

Anyhow, here is the quotation (or the inspiration) of the month which I want to share with you Tea Mates, I think it is a universal message regardless of our backgrounds :-)

"Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness, kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile." ---Mother Teressa

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

how to say i love you

2009-09-21T09:01:00.003+04:00

TEA TIME!!!

My tea for the post is green tea, what would you like to have?

Was thinking about how I didn't post any videos on this blog and I am sure that I have some videos that I'd love to share with you Tea Mates. Anyhow, here's one which I really found very sweet and makes people reflect. (However, this sort of guy-girl relationship and dating in general are not things that I would personally and culturally agree with myself...may explain about that in a future post).

Here's what I found in the info section of this YouTube video: (in the meantime, enjoy the video! Oh, and sorry about its appearance, this is the smallest size I could make it to fit it in here):

Written by Hayley Stuart
Directed by Hayley Stuart & Francesca Sophia

SYNOPSIS:
Nicola is sitting on a bench when she is approached by Sam, an intrusive boy who strikes up an unlikely and intimate conversation with her, in which they bond awkwardly over their mutual feelings of isolation in a generation that would rather communicate via the Internet than in person.

Starring Nicola Potts:
http://www.youtube.com/user/nicolaepotts

& Sam Smith
http://www.youtube.com/user/sam0smith

Music written and performed by Jaymay
http://www.myspace.com/jaymay
(Used with permission.)

Filmed on location in Manchester, England.
Shot on Panasonic AG-HPX 171 E.

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

I haven't learned, I am learning

2009-09-19T12:38:00.003+04:00

TEA TIME!!!

Tea for the post is Teavana's blend of Samurai Chai Mate with White Ayurvedic Chai. I hate its taste once it gets cold though as it is quite a spicy tea. What tea would you like to have?

Ever have the feeling that you know that you have so much of time and yet get so confused as to how the day ends so quickly that you haven't really done much? Well, that is the exact feeling I've been having these two weeks since classes started. I really love my schedule for this Fall semester. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, I start at 9:15am. On Mondays I have three classes back to back while Wednesdays and Thursdays are only two classes with either a 1 or 4 hour gap between the two. Now here's the best part of my schedule: I only have one class on Tuesdays and Fridays which starts at 1:35pm!

And yet I still wonder why I "don't seem to have the time to":
1) have teatime with you guys
2) dust my room
3) do my readings
4) go to gym
5) stay in touch with friends and family from back home in Dubai
6) sleep early!

I finally noticed that access to Internet is the culprit here. You see, once I am done for the day and get to my place, I drop my stuff, and have the intention of simply checking my email. But then as a person my age who doesn't feel like either a teenager or an adult, and also as a foreigner transitioning to the social life in the US which involves being in an abrupt explosion of many more diverse views than I'm used to, I do experience some temporary "on and off" phases of "identity moratorium", questioning my identity, what I identify with, values, and interests which I used to think will always be stable since I was so confident in them and strongly based my identity on them. (loool, I'm sure you can feel the stress from that very LONG sentence!!) Thus, I use Google and/or Wikipedia to look up my questions and to try to solve my internal struggles. Thus, link leads to link and question leads to question.

At times, I get too stressed from these internal struggles that keep getting resolved, and then coming back afresh!!! I wonder if I'm going insane!! I noticed that it is a cyclic process and it is only me who can actually control it (although the cycle may appear uncontrollable, and even inevitable, giving me illusions of hopelessness. And indeed, the plethora of information in the internet is just....speechlessly overwhelming!!).

Thank God though, that during the course of this Holy Month of Ramadan (when the struggles were at their peak), I feel like I have finally or at least partially taught myself how to handle such struggles. These struggles have also shown me how arrogant I was (and still am to some degree...after all my motto is: I haven't learned, I am learning).

Yet in a sense, I sometimes feel that these struggles leave me feeling so cold and hard-hearted. However, upon reflection, I noticed how reactive I can be to my emotions to the extent that it can impair my thoughts and judgement and continue the cycle of vain questions which I had already answered. I also noticed how such emotions made me too preoccupied with my questions that I feel like I've been impatient, absent, and cold toward people unintentionally.

To those of you who are undergoing something similar, one of my advices to you is that you make use of these struggles as part of a training for your soul. Embrace the challenge. Nothing is a distraction to your development unless you make it as so. And remember: you haven't learned, you are learning. I'd also like you to consider what I am going to share with you in the next paragraphs below.

In the end, identity moratorium is a natural component of development as I've been learning in my Psych classes, and psychologists like Erik Erikson encourage society to allow youth the freedom to explore different identities. This, (combined with the following Koranic verse (translation of its meanings): "It is He who has made the earth easy for you to walk on (and use) so walk in its paths thereof and eat of His provision, and to Him will be the Resurrection" (Surat Al Mulk, verse 15)) have made me made me feel better especially in terms of thinking about why I chose my major. I decided that now that I'm still young and have so much of opportunities (paths in which I can tread in this earth), I might as well find joy in exploring regardless of whether or not the subject has anything to do with my career plans.

Here's a related concept I found in The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho: "The world was huge and inexhaustible; he had only to allow his sheep to set the route for a while, and he would discover other interesting things. The problem is that they don't even realize that they're walking a new road every day. They don't see that the fields are new and the seasons change. All they think about is food and water. Maybe we're all that way, the boy mused."

Also, I read the following in the preface of The Alchemist: "During this time in spiritual exile, I learned many important things: that we only accept a truth after we have first wholeheartedly rejected it; that we mustn't run away from our own destiny; and that the hand of God is firm, but infinitely generous."

Finally, here's a long quote I really like from Rocky Balboa. I think that these words are really refreshing to keep us all moving forward in life in general: (click on the link to find more beautiful quotes from the movie):

"I'd hold you up to say to your mother, "this kid's gonna be the best kid in the world. This kid's gonna be somebody better than anybody I ever knew." And you grew up good and wonderful. It was great just watching you, every day was like a privilige. Then the time come for you to be your own man and take on the world, and you did. But somewhere along the line, you changed. You stopped being you. You let people stick a finger in your face and tell you you're no good. And when things got hard, you started looking for something to blame, like a big shadow. Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now if you know what you're worth then go out and get what you're worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain't you! You're better than that! I'm always gonna love you no matter what. No matter what happens. You're my son and you're my blood. You're the best thing in my life. But until you start believing in yourself, ya ain't gonna have a life. Don't forget to visit your mother"

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

international carnevalle...help me with ideas!

2009-09-15T20:45:00.001+04:00

Today's tea is again a fusion of green and white tea. What tea would you like to have?

One night, I went for dinner with a friend of mine and we were discussing ideas about what should be the theme for this year's International Carnevalle. I remember that we had great ideas which we were really excited about.

International Carnevalle is a festival we have on our campus throughout the Spring Semester. It celebrates cultural diversity through events like international fashion shows, international market place, etc. We form a committee in the Fall semester to discuss ideas, organize these events, and advertise them. Last year's theme was "Unmask the World".

When this friend of mine came over to my place yesterday and she was asking about whether I wanted to join the International Carnevalle Committee this year I said:

"I'm not sure....by the way, remember when we both went to P.F. Chang's at the Pru the other day?"

"....yeah..." she replied,

"Well, I think we had a great idea for the theme for this year's carnevalle....I completely forgot about it though...do you remember?"

"No....I don't think so"

"something about....webs...."

"Hmm....." she says, "as in spiders??"

"No no!!! I'm sure we didn't say anything about spiders! But I am very sure that there were webs involved!! Cultural webs??"

She looks at me clueless and I say: "You know! As in how cultures have some common ground and are connected yet different....like the pattern of a spider web....but I don't remember what name did we decide to call it!!! The name was what got us all excited. That is what's bothering me now!"

"uffff......Reema, why didn't we write it down!! I think it was your idea 'cause I remember hearing it myself...."

"I think you first proposed an idea then out of that I may have been inspired to propose this...well now that we forgot about the idea we can at least propose a new one, at least we have an 'idea' of what the forgotten idea was..." (lol)

"hmmm, when I think of webs I think of internet..."

*silence*

"Now that I think about it," I finally say, "some cultures now a days do have their own chat language...or at least Arabs in our generation made up an 'arabic chat language'."

"How is it like?"

"You see, Many people our age can't type Arabic fast or don't have an Arabic keyboard. Instead, we use a combination of English letters, numbers, and apostrophes. Since there are many letters not found in English, we use numbers and apostrophes to symbolize those letters! For example, the letter 'haa' (with a very guttaral 'h') is replaced with 7 since it looks like the written form of the letter." (for example, the phrase Salam alaikum is actually written as Salam 3alaikum, since the first letter is not actually found in English and is different from the 'a' sound)

"Haha that's so cool!"

"So maybe this year's carnevalle can be something about chat languages in different cultures? But I dunno any other language that uses this kind of chat language..."

"You could try to tell the new e-board about it."

*end of dialogue*

Well, I guess we are kinda getting somewhere here...you guys have any ideas yourself to help me out? Just noticed that this post reinforces the point I was trying to make in my previous one!

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

still alive...and blogging!

2009-09-11T10:29:00.001+04:00

No tea for this post...but I am having some fruit! What tea would you like to have?
Classes have started and I had ideas about what to write for this post. But now that I sit here to write it, I completely forgot what those ideas exactly were.

I guess forgetting does serve some benefit since it forces us to explore other ideas or to re-explore those forgotten (or partially forgotten) ideas in a different angle. Without forgetting, not only would our cognitive resources be so overwhelmed with so much information, but also we wouldn't be experiencing that joy felt when the ideas come back at that perfect moment in which we come to realize much more applicable potential in these ideas and further develop them. We also wouldn't be experiencing that joy felt when we look at our pictures or any other souvenir of our past. Such joys are blessings. Such joys are what stimulate us to move forward and make the very essence of living more meaningful and purposeful.

Here's a quote from one of my favorite short chapters in the Holy Koran:

"By degrees shall We teach thee (the Message), so thou shall not forget
Except as Allah wills: for He knoweth what is manifest and what is hidden." (Surat Al-A'laa, verses 6 & 7)

As much as I'd like to type some more and share an illustration from my own life, I think I'd rather go to sleep....it's 2:25am here...maybe I'll say more in a future post? At least I'm letting you know I'm still alive and blogging!!!

......*yawn*.....zzzzzzz

From your Tea Mate,
Reema B. :-)

6 conquerors of the world, 1 conqueror of my memories, & a thank you to our new tea mate: "A Woman Made of Dust"

2009-09-08T11:26:00.001+04:00

TEA TIME!!!

My tea for the day: Stash Premium fusion green and white tea. Though it may not be the best green/white tea, I still find it quite soothing especially while sipping it in my new dorm bathed in the afternoon sun. But this time, I drank it at night after coming from an on-campus event. What tea would you like to have now?

The other day, a new "tea mate" who calls herself 'A Woman Made of Dust' left a sweet comment on my first post and suggested a book for us tea mates called: A History of the World in 6 Glasses, by Tom Standage. Thank you again sister tea mate ;-) (lol too many links in one sentence!)

After reading both editorial reviews on Amazon.com and our new sister tea mate's description of the book, I decided to add it on my wishlist in my Amazon account. In a nutshell, the book is about how each culture has its own signature drink that has shaped other cultures and world history in general. The 6 drinks are: *tea*, coffee, wine, beer, spirits, and cola. Maybe if I get to read the book myself, it could be a potential topic for a future post...I'm kinda curious about whether tea is the greatest world conqueror of the six drinks!! :-p

However, of the six drinks, tea is definitely the greatest conqueror of my own memories. Tea brings back good memories of sleep-overs at my grandmother's place when me and my brother were little kids. I remember how in every breakfast with grandma, we always had to have a glass or cup of Lipton tea. Grandma would always advise us about the benefits of drinking a cup of tea once a day.

Tea also brings back memories of one of my favorite traditional Gulf Arabic foods called khoboz wa mehyawa (translated as bread and mehyawa, which is also known as meshawa in some Gulf Arab countries...click on the link to know what it is; it doesn't have a name in the English language. I'm honestly surprised that I was even able to find it on Wikipedia!!!).

Bread and mehyawa is ideal to have while sipping red tea or tea with milk (especially chai karak also known as chai haleeb which is made by black tea leaves, cardamom pods, boiled milk...and lots of sugar! This tea is a staple in the Gulf region of the Arab world). Mehyawa is typically homemade. Sometimes people add melted butter and/or eggs along with the mehyawa on the bread (which can either be Iranian bread, khoboz irgag (which is a kind of thin crunchy flat bread found in Gulf Arab countries), or khemeer).

I once shared bread and mehyawa with one of my American friends here in Boston, and she LOVED it...I'm sure she must've finished the rest of the bread I gave her by now...

Eventually, tea reminds me of my grandmother's cooking, especially the desserts that she, and many other mothers and grandmothers from the Gulf, would make during Ramadan. Such desserts, I think, would require a separate post in order to describe each for you tea mates. I may share some recepies if I ever attempt to make them myself.

Although the Arab world is the cradle of coffee, I rarely drank it back home in Dubai. I would only have coffee once every two weeks. I would only have Arabic coffee when we had guests at my grandmother's or when we visited relatives during Eid (which is twice a year).

However, when I first came to America last year, I drank more coffee between classes. Noticing the habit building up, I now drink it once in a blue moon and try to drink more tea instead. America is also where I "discovered" bubble tea (lol) and learned more about the different varieties of tea, especially through my brother's Japanese room mate. *Sigh* transitioning to America even effects the simplest spheres of one's life...

From your Tea Mate,

Reema B. :-)

a whole day of cooking...while fasting!

2009-09-06T07:16:00.005+04:00

It's TEA TIME!!!

*Phew* now I can finally sit here, sip some tea, and type my blog after a FULL day of cooking with mom! My tea for today is: Ahmad Tea flavored with peach and passion fruit. It was my first time having this tea...I just LOVED the smell! But I expected better...what tea would you like to have now? By the way, I really appreciate the blogging tips I've received from my previous and very first post, they were quite helpful! As you can see, I am now implementing one such tip by adding pictures!! xD Hopefully I'll add more some other time...I would like some animation though...

Although it is the Holy Month of Ramadan (the month in which we Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and in which we believe the Holy Koran was revealed to our Prophet), I am not fasting since I am kinda sick and need my medicine during the day...it's difficult to actually "feel" the holiness of the month in a non-Muslim country, especially when you yourself aren't even fasting.

Although I already moved into my new dorm, I am now staying at my brother's place during this vacation to spend time with my mom before she goes back to Dubai. Since my brother is quite possessive of my laptop (>,<), you may notice that my posts (and tea sipping) will be slow...hopefully I'll post daily once the vacation ends and I stay at my new place. I also hope to post more general daily reflections as I get pretty distracted here in the living room with my mom and brother (especially when both of them need the internet and when my brother keeps poking me sharing his 3D architectural designs with me! Though I have to admit, I somewhat envy his enthusiasm and constant creative productivity. Would love to share his designs with you tea mates, but I don't think he'd allow me).

Today, instead of deciding to eat from a restaurant during the time of breaking our fast in the evening (known as Iftaar), mom was in quite a cooking frenzy! :-D From 12pm till 5:45pm, me and her were in the kitchen the whole day cooking a variety of traditional Gulf Arabic foods. Actually, I just made the salad and dessert...although mom calls for my help, she tends to do everything herself as she is fast, steady, and gets things done the minute they need to get done while I'm slow and tend to take breaks in between. :-p However, since I'm not fasting and both she and my brother are, I was helpful enough with tasting the food for her, making sure that the salt and herb quantities were right.

Speaking of herbs, it was difficult to find what we actually wanted for our food, even in ethnic grocery stores, so the food didn't turn up the same way as it was meant to. I find it amazing how people can still cook the whole day while fasting despite the tempting aromas...especially from frying samosas (known as "Samboosa" in Gulf Arabic)!!

Anyhow, posted below are the pictures of some of the food we had along with their names, I'll share the ingredients with you once I actually attempt to make them myself. However, I don't feel like these really give the best idea of how Gulf Arabic food is really like. I couldn't take much pictures as mom was zipping around the kitchen and barely allowed me to. I just realized also (and unfortuantely) that I didn't take a picture of the main dish called 'Aish wa Mash (literally: Rice & Mung Beans...the kind my mom makes contains ground beef or lamb rolled into a ball along with other herbs, hers is among my favorite dishes!).

Food from the Gulf region of the Arab world is highly influenced by both Persian and Indian food. It is found homemade so don't expect to find a Gulf Arabic restaurant. I've never seen one myself, not even in my own country. I even read a Gulf Arabic cookbook (called Cardamom & Lime by Sara Al-Hamad) where the author says in the Introduction that she herself has only seen 2 such restaurants in the world (whatever Arabic food you may have eaten yourself from an Arabic restaurant is typically Mediterranean or North African...and no..."Iranian" food or "Persian" food are NOT "Arabic"! Although they both influenced one another greatly).

Left: The dessert called Farnee (rice pudding, also known as Muhalabiyyah...also found in Iran, Iraq, the Mediterrenean, and South America, but this doesn't have the rice grains and has more rose water, thus it is more of a match with the Persian version)

Right: Chicken Kofta stuffed with cheese (in this case Philadelphia cheese, we typically use Kiri cheese back home, but since that's a French brand, we couldn't find it here in America)

Below: Dates (in Arabic, each stage of date has its own specific name, in the photo, this date is called Tamer as it is in its last and most ripest stage. During Iftaar, people begin by eating dates to raise their blood sugar and iron after a day of fasting).

From your Tea Mate,
Reema :-)

heya tea-mates!

2009-09-04T12:00:00.002+04:00

It's TEA TIME!!

Before introducing you to the "tea house" and telling you what's it all about, I want to make sure that you have your first sip of tea to make yourself feel at home here (for the best experience of my posts, I think tea is required to relax you in order to tolerate my inexperience in the world of blogging! Actually, please do ignore this comment as I will explain the significance of tea after you have your first sip...). Now please sit down on these silk cushions and fill your lungs with incense...(do you prefer Asian, Middle Eastern, or Native American incense?).

Let's see what tea do we have here...would you like black, red, green, or white tea? Chai? Mate? Oolong? Moroccan? Flavored tea? Herbal tea? Blended teas? Hot or iced tea? Any preferred brands of tea? Sugar? Honey? Cardamom? Tapioca? Milk? Sorry no coffee here, I think it's too over-rated!

I was originally intending to type up each of my posts while drinking tea with you guys (hence the title, and yes in real time; not make belief!), but since it is very late at night here and I felt excited to type up my first post, I decided (unfortunately) to ignore this ritual for this first post.

The very idea of the blog was inspired by the movie "Julie & Julia" and by an online forum where one of the new members creatively introduced herself by "virtually" having a tea party. However, instead of creating a blog about a personal cooking challenge like in "Julie & Julia", I thought of blogging about the books I read and my reflections. In other words, having a tea party with the book, the author (in an abstract sense, not necessarily physically), and those of you interested in that same book or similar books.

Yet that was just my initial idea. I then thought: "I kinda want to make a similar blog like Julie's so that I can actually motivate myself in learning to cook fast and in this way also share the joy of cooking and food with you tea mates (I don't even know how to cook, lack common sense in it, and am very SLOW! But I'd love to learn!).

But then as a college student, I doubt I could commit to the latter. This is why in the end, I decided to make our tea parties a place where we not only talk about books, food, and cooking, but also about our very aspirations, reflections about ourselves and life in general, and what inspires us...or makes us laugh! Tea time functions as a way to make time for us to meditate together and relax in our daily hassles as we sip from our little cups and enjoy conversing and connecting with each other.

And I really do hope that we remain life-long tea mates. As a newbie blogger, I still find it a challenge to commit to posting. I hope that tea will be my motivation to continue posting and connecting and your motivation to read and connect ;-)

Welcome to the Tea House,
From your Tea Mate,
Reema B.

**Tea_Time**

sunday disasters at my kitchen

happy new year!

on vulnerability

thoughts with an empty tummy

"healing teas"

cooking blog suggestion: "from the hearth"

"mini-poem"

the "trick or treat" of the gulf arabic states

"the stranger" unveiled...

empathy vs. compassion

plant a tree with your blog/website

short story: when "the stranger" barged in...

no worries, **the hostess** is still alive!+introducing the new **tea mates**

knitting updates!

my experience with reiki

befriend me and your fellow **tea mates** on facebook!

the wonderful world of podcasts!!

fundraising for the boston area rape crisis center

knitting

the "fun list"

oil-filled lenses bringing sight to those in need

inspiration of the month 4

package of joy

**tea house** background music

jet lagged, busy, and phoneless...but good to be home!!

the social business

inspiration of the month 3 & blog changes

charity in the unity of 2 festivities from east and west: thanksgiving and eid al adha

japanese tea ceremony and giving thanks

inspiration of the month 2

“A woman is like a tea bag, you can not tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water”

Nancy Reagan

(Translation: do NOT underestimate the burning power of women!!) xD

From your Tea Mate,

Reema B. :-)

solution to the milky rice pudding disaster!

my black books of ideas

hyper-sanity!

From the book of Fatoom Madness Quotations: "My stummy is hurting :-(" (sorry fa6ooma, I just had to share this eventually!! :-p)

where the hell is matt?

milky rice pudding disaster!!! >,<

too much time in your hands...to hate

generosity of rain

inspiration of the month

how to say i love you

I haven't learned, I am learning

international carnevalle...help me with ideas!

still alive...and blogging!

6 conquerors of the world, 1 conqueror of my memories, & a thank you to our new tea mate: "A Woman Made of Dust"

a whole day of cooking...while fasting!

heya tea-mates!

Tea_Time

no worries, the hostess is still alive!+introducing the new tea mates

befriend me and your fellow tea mates on facebook!

tea house background music