For me, fasting this year means more than abstaining from food and drink.
It means cleansing my inner space and tending to my inner peace.
This Ramadan, I fast from adding more negativity to an already burning world.
I fast from noise.
From endless news cycles that make me reactive.
From unconscious dialogues about worldly issues.
From feeding my ego with subtle moral superiority.
I refuse to participate in hatred.
I take responsibility for my inner state.
I choose my attention carefully.
Because attention is life-force.
Attention is energy.
And energy amplifies whatever it touches.
If I constantly feed on outrage or fear,
I carry outrage and fear back into the world.
“Imagine there’s a war — and nobody comes.”
War does not begin with weapons.
It begins in thoughts.
In narratives of “us” and “them.”
In old stories repeated without question.
In quick outrage.
In the impulsive sharing of anger.
Peace begins the same way.
Not first in politics.
Not in conferences.
But in the individual human being.
If I remain inwardly steady,
I act more clearly. More balanced. More wisely.
This is not withdrawal.
It is responsibility.
As a mother.
As a wife.
As a leader.
As a member of a community.
Especially in tumultuous times.
I cannot control world events.
But I am responsible for my inner state.
So I tend to my inner light.
Not out of naivety.
But out of conviction that real change emerges from inner clarity.
Perhaps the most radical act in times of division
is the refusal to participate in mainstream fear.
Peace begins with me.
Hold your light, dear one.
And may the worlds be blessed.
If I need inspiration these days, I choose with discernment:
sometimes it’s the GFL-Station Videos on youtube,
or the scientific explanations of geophysicist Stefan Burns
but everyday it is the watching of the Tarawieh prayer live from Mecca.
