2012

7 days into 2012 and one of the longest running traditions on my blog is now broken. There was no long review of 2011, or an equally lengthy set of resolutions or plans for 2012. For those who loved my long, pontificatory entries, where I gave myself high-ish undeserved grades for the year gone past, and set myself beautifully abstract goals for the year ahead...well, I might still do one (or indeed, two) of those. I have a good idea of what such posts would contain, so it wouldnt be hard, but I just dont feel like doing them right now. If I do end up doing them, then it will be by January, or else it won't happen at all.

It's hard to explain (but I guess I'll try anyway, lol). I've read two accounts of a trip to Ziyarat, to visting the holy shrines in Karbala and Najaf, and they, more than anything awake this longing in me to go visit. Please read them (I and II). Next to these, all else pales in comparison. My own personal struggles and failings, and disappointments and frustrations, (of which there are many), my own haphazard attempts to navigate the course of my life, and various other banalities, all fade away. What they write so beautifully and eloquently, that, that is what I want, and nothing more.

In my moments of quietness and peace, which have been few and far between recently, they are what I keep on coming back to. In the end, this is what it is all about, and I hope one day soon to be invited there. All else is secondary.