Honoring Arabic & Arabic Calligraphy

Arabic Calligraphy

I haven't told my husband yet about this latest blog and idea- Growing Gardens for Palestine. It's not so much that I am keeping it a secret as he can easily look over my shoulder any time he wants to see what I am working on.

I used to have a laptop and I'd sit on the soft sofa in the family room to work on my computer. In theory that sounds nice but the reality was that with the kids and the dog and the doorbell and dinner on the stove I spent more time taking the laptop off my lap than I did with it on. So now I have a square table that has moved into the family room, the heart of our home, to become my desk. I have a desk top computer, plus plenty of space for odds and ends. And I have an office chair because they really are designed with the idea of I have to turn around plus I often have to get up and down in mind.

To my right I have a book case where most of my favorite reference books are. Our home has at least one book case in every room. The formal living room however is the real library. Our best books are kept there, including a wonderful collection of books on the Middle East, as well as books on art, books on religion, history, and poetry- and books on Palestine.

When our children were little I kept enticing age appropriate books for them in there too, on a low shelf easily reached by little people. Story books by or about Arabs and children's books on Islam as well as pictorial travel books and anything else that I thought might help inspire them to define their own Arab and Muslim identity in positive ways.

When we are lucky enough to be in the Middle East I am always on the look out for books that simply can not be found here in America. When our kids were little (not so long ago) many children enjoyed picture books sold with a cassette tape reading the story aloud. Since I read aloud to them so much there was no need for me to buy ones in America, but while abroad I would always try to pick up ones in Arabic so they could at least hear proper Arabic when their father was not home.

My husband works hard, and his hours can be crazy, but like most all the other Arab men I know he really is wonderful with children.

Culture shock after visiting family in the Middle East is noticing how much more children- and mothers- are cherished by society as a whole, every where we have gone in the Middle East. There is a deep respect for family in the Arab world. You don't notice how much it is missing here in America until you go there to experience it for yourself. And of course there is the classic Arab hospitality - a warm generous welcome which often involves offerings of delectable food, or at least something to drink.

As my husband grows older he becomes more and more like his father- I hope our sons do the same, because that is a good thing, a very very good thing. Thankfully our children have not inherited my math gene...although being bad at math really has enabled me to have quite a sense of humor about it ... : )

In addition to many other fine characteristics, qualities and talents, my guys all like tinkering with tools, doing carpentry as well as fixing whatever might need to be fixed. I can not help but wonder how far back in time this tendency stretches, firmly passed on from father to son for generations.

My husband makes me online possible. He is a whiz with computers. I am not. But it is more than that. He helps me have the gift of time and space to do with what ever I want. When my computer 'breaks' he fixes it no matter how busy his own day.

And every year my husband creates and tends our garden, my own little patch of paradise- my reprieve- my joy and my delight- my inspiration- a beautiful beautiful garden. Sometimes his mother, our children's Teta sends seeds. One year she brought us bulbs for black irises which have thrived so much we have been able to share them with neighbors. Our neighbors get a huge kick out of having blooming things from 'The Holy Land'... and so do I.

My husband's parents grow their herbs behind their house, close to the back door which leads right into the kitchen. Before the apartments behind them were built I used to love looking out the kitchen window to watch a shepherd with his sheep and goats grazing in the large empty lot. Shepherds use dogs to round up sheep, but what I discovered in the Middle East is that they also toss small stones to startle and redirect their flock.

Here in Pennsylvania my husband plants our herbs by our front door. It makes sense for three perfect reasons. My favorite being that I like the fragrance welcoming people into our house, and we have a small front porch that fits two chairs where we sometimes sit. But that is not why my husband placed our herbs by the front door. He did it because of the way our house here in hilly Pennsylvania is built, with the front door much closer to the kitchen (which looks out into our hillside back yard)... The front door is a straight short hallway away. To get to the back door you have to leave the kitchen, wander through the family room (past my computer), out into the garden room where you make a u turn to get to the back door. So in a way where he planted our herbs is closer to how his parents have it- even though it might appear to be the opposite.

I suspect that growing up reading things from the right to left (Arabic) as well as English (left to right) makes for a very adaptable mind- more innovative simply in being able to automatically approach any problem at hand from whatever direction seems to best fit the situation.

Parsley
Parsley - What's in a name?

Today in Growing Gardens for Palestine on a personal private level I think one can think about herb gardens and where to put them, as well as what to put in them. One does not even have to have garden space to have an herb garden. Any window that gets sun welcomes a window box- or inside an apartment a container garden- or simply that mug that says Palestine.

Or if you want to be more subtle- I think learning the Arabic names for the herbs and spices we use from our gardens to flavor our food is a good step towards Growing Gardens for Palestine, both public and private.

On a personal level one can make labels to plant with each plant. Nicely designed ones that you can write on with special ink (like a laundry pen's permanent ink made to withstand being washed) are easily found in garden shops or in catalogs. Or you can make your own with anything at hand that might last a season- even a stone or a rock.

If you are lucky enough to know someone who speaks Arabic have them help. English translations optional, but try to have both the Arabic words spelled out for Americans to read, as well as in Arabic calligraphy to honor a wonderful art form as well as the language in its original form. If you want to tip toe off towards a more 'traditional' biblical garden then figure out the Aramaic words too.

http://www.magnoliaplantation.com/grounds_biblical.html

And in my imagined public Garden for Palestine, the garden respects religion but is not obsessed with it- for I want everyone to feel welcome, I would simply do the same labeling- but better. In additon I would have a brochure that visitors can borrow or buy, to help offer up a more detailed history of each herb and its use- as well as traditional and tasty recipes one might try. For example Tabouleh - Wheat and Herb Salad

http://mideastfood.about.com/od/soupssalads/r/taboulehrecipe.htm

photo by Edward Karaa

Tabouleh is a salad like no other. Made with fresh veggies, olive oil and spices, it can be eaten in pita bread, scooped onto pita bread, or traditionally with a fork. In the Middle East, fresh grape leaves are used as a scoop....Tabouleh Recipe