Fall Is Here 🍂🍁

award-winning palestinian children's illustrator baraa awoor writes:

"what use is it to be an illustrator of children's books when the world has sentenced the children of your country to the death penalty, to vanish, to genocide?"

some of baraa's illustrations:

this is an illustration for youssef, whose mother is remembered running desperately into the hospital asking if anyone had seen a "small white boy with beautiful curly hair, his name is youssef," a description which was remembered by millions when she finally identified his body:

this illustration is for young omar, who was hugging his little brother and teaching him how to repeat the shahada after him (a prayer spoken by muslims before their death) as he lay on his hospital bed:

"we want a new year that doesn't kill us or our children, we want it a year without blood, without screaming, without pain, we want a new attempt to get our lives back, or something that resembled our life, even if life is a lie we still cling to it, return life to us—a new year's card unlike any other year:"

"The Unbearable Lightness of Being", Milan Kundera (translated by Michael Henry Heim)

E. Hughes, "Bulldagger in the Garden"

September 11th, 2024 | Rereading the Lord of the Rings

I finished The Two Towers last night! Definitely very different from the Fellowship in terms of pacing, but I liked it too. All the characters are well fleshed-out now, very excited to start the Return of the King!

Studying like this so I can get into Columbia and live out my New York dreams.

perhaps nothing else on earth matters, besides the love you take in, and the love you put out.

7 years ago while I was taking pictures this beautiful black cat appeared on the farm road where I was taking pictures and then slipped back into the weeds. It felt a little magical.

having short-term memory is like. this book profoundly affected me. that show bared my soul. i don’t remember a single thing about it. but it did

We do not need to get rid of anger in order to give up hatred.

We do not need to renounce enjoyment in order to give up desire.

We do not need to neglect our safety in order to give up fear.

Cease to indulge the feelings that, while pretending to be necessary, actually destroy the world.