Hi friends,

 

After I put the kids to bed, I went to the kitchen to prepare lunchboxes for today, but I decided to check my phone first to see updates since I checked two hours ago, only to notice that 30 minutes had passed while I was still standing in the same spot in my kitchen, about to start doing the lunchboxes. Like every time I checked my social media feed last week, I got sucked into the news, the horrific updates, sharing informative reels done by brilliant fellow content creators, and writing comments wherever I thought it would make a difference.

 

But that’s not just me. That’s you, too. That’s how most of us spent last week, switching between our phones and our lives. We felt, maybe for the first time, the most helpless, the most shocked by the media bias and the stark dehumanization of our people. We felt overwhelmed with grief, despair, and fear. 

 

Today, though, please let me remind you of this: just as wanting to stay poor to feel with the poor does not make sense, we can’t allow ourselves to remain hopeless to feel more supportive of our brothers and sisters who are fighting for their land and lives in Palestine. We just can’t. Yes, we now see, more than ever, the long haul we have ahead on the way to freedom and for the world to see the truth. But we are closer than we were a month ago. We must keep using our voices and demanding that international law be implemented. We need to keep sharing facts and educating the one-sided world. The minute we notice we are only consuming and not sharing, commenting, or creating, we need to disconnect so we can regroup and come back with better energy to speak the truth. Staying online to support our freedom is helpful only if we speak from a place of hope in humanity, albeit so hard to come by, and only if we believe that our efforts in educating and moving the world for Palestine matter. They do.

A Book to read with your children about Palestine created by my friend Deema Al-Alami and Muna Abu-Dayeh with 8 artists from Palestinian origins. This is an e-book version that you can enjoy instantly for free.

Here is your weekly dose of The Sunday Spark ⚡️ a newsletter listing a few sparks that I thought were worth starting your week with: 

1. 🙏 Don’t forget that we can donate to support Palestine. Jordan friends please donate to Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization. You can also buy Palestine mersh from Sima Najjar and proceedings this week will go to JHCO.

 

2. 💪 A post I wish I created; how to avoid burnout in these difficult times by Yasmin Kadour, an amazing Egyptian somatic therapist.

 

3. 📑 An incredibly generous resource for mothers in crises from Baby Melons. Mother or not, section two is helpful for all of us in regulating our nervous system. 

 

4. 💭 A reminder:

 

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”  

―Desmond Tutu

 

(Thank you Readwise for helping me find this quote from a book I read)

 

 

 

See you next Sunday First name / my dear friend!