tears of joy

when your heart was split and they took parts of it away,

countries away, for years you have been separated and it was painful.

when God brings you back together, you can not help but hold on to the moment.

before things change again because things keep changing in this world.

things change and people move all the time.

people you love are so far away.

and you yourself could be taken somewhere.

it is the painful nature of separation.

in our part of the world family bonds are so much stronger and separation hurts more than anywhere else.

our emotions are more important than our careers and our parents we would carry on our heads

or hide between our eye lashes if we could.

although we dress like the west and drive the same cars, as Egyptians we are so fundamentally different than the westerners. most of us call our parents on a daily bases, we never hear the answering machine and roll our eyes.

we do not need support groups because our moms and grandparents are there for us, our cousins and second cousins are all in our lives willing to help.

when our sister gives birth we take shifts and the new mom moves in with her mom, the whole family is there to help. the whole world stops.

we usually do not live in different towns and our mothers have given us all they have to give, and we live under their feet in happiness without a feeling of duty.

family is everything and we breathe this love and bond, it makes us stronger.

if one of us has a problem all the family will pray for them every night.

we visit the houses of God together and in a group we pray until dawn that our loved one's problem is solved.

for all of these reasons we do not mind our business, because we do not care more about business than family. we are a connected chain if one of us falls we all cry and pray until they rise.

if one of us is sick we all gather and with our hands place our palms on the part that hurts them and we read passages from the Quran. Our hearts are one, our souls are connected.

We are slaves to the little people called children in our families and we would give up our everything for them.

let us do good that we do not need tests, always in remembrance and gratitude that we do not need to taste grief to hold on to the divine rope.

let us be us , as warm as we were created, we can not help but be lovers.