The poor kids: dad asks so many dumb and annoying questions. I know them to be dumb because they tell me so, and because they roll their eyes at me and shake their heads. But I ask them anyway, because I think my dumb questions are important.
Continue reading “Not so dumb questions”Category: Family
To be kids
I suppose that raising kids of our own can help us become more generous both to our youthful selves and those we interacted with when we were young.
Continue reading “To be kids”When I were a lad
A sure sign I’m in the grip of a mid-life crisis: I took the family on a trip down memory lane last weekend, subjecting our poor kids to an interminable tour of every place of minor and major significance in their dad’s life.
Continue reading “When I were a lad”Altercations
Faced with the perpetual bickering of a brother and sister so close in age, I really have to marvel at my parents who raised four of us. How on earth did they manage?
Continue reading “Altercations”Extended families
Living far away from extended family has both its advantages and drawbacks. When I hear tales of the interference of in-laws in the lives of many couples, I feel blessed that my in-laws live three thousand miles away and speak a different language.
Continue reading “Extended families”Good friends
As parents, we naturally worry about who our children take as friends. We’re worried about unserious mates who will distract them from their studies. We’re paranoid about county lines drug gangs targeting our sons. We’re frightened about groomers targeting our daughters.
Continue reading “Good friends”Personal
Sometimes it is a mistake to publish some things. Hence we withdraw.
Continue reading “Personal”Professional
I have started having conversations with our children about life. About the importance of thinking about the future. About making good decisions. About having a vision.
Continue reading “Professional”Together apart
A migratory lifestyle is not easy. We attempted it five years ago. For a time, we had a high standard of living in some respects, but the emotional impact was too great for it to be sustainable in the long term.
Continue reading “Together apart”I am what I am
God granted me an extra chromosome, by which He made me all that I am.
Continue reading “I am what I am”A good woman
It is such a blessing to have a good woman at your side. I don’t know what I’d do without mine. She counsels me when I’m feeling down, offering different perspectives and fresh insights. She is my companion on the path, forever calling me back to the One. Hers is contentment, reminding me of the unending stream of blessings bestowed on us from above. Hers the cloak of righteousness, calling me back to what is greater than us. Yes, that woman who twenty-one years ago chose to be my wife, to walk with me, through thick and thin, upon this path back towards our source. God bless the woman.
The panic attack
Last night I had a major meltdown. The trigger was relatively minor, but I blew my top. The morning-after is worse than a hangover. In truth, I’ve probably been carrying anxiety around with me for a year or more.
Continue reading “The panic attack”The cycle of life
The tides of time. How the years pass us by. Some of those I knew at university have already seen their own children graduate. Some then were already married and had started a family when we were in our first year of studies; those children now all grown up, with children of their own. Some I once knew are now grandparents.
Continue reading “The cycle of life”Unfair
Our eldest now petitions us daily for a smartphone. After all, she says, all her friends have one.
Suddenly, I am an old fogey. What on earth do you need a phone for?
Continue reading “Unfair”Letter to myself
Dear Younger Self,
Salam alaikum!
I am writing to you from the future. In a couple of years I will be 40; you have just passed 20. The year is 2015 and while it only vaguely resembles to world of 1989’s Back to the Future II, it is shaping up to mirror the dystopian nightmares of other works of contemporary fiction: ours is an advanced technological society, supported by wars without end overseas.
The Internet, which you have recently discovered, has grown exponentially and has had a vast impact on our lives, both for good and bad. That brick of a mobile phone in your pocket has evolved into a handheld computer, vastly more powerful than that huge beige machine on your desk. Your 100MB Zip disks are long obsolete; today we can store 128GB of data on a slither of plastic smaller than your fingernails. As for your dreams: instead of working in International Development, you work in a new-fangled field called Web Development. I’m not sure how that happened, but I blame you! Continue reading “Letter to myself”