winter in Finland | by Asko Kuittinen

Lonely Planet, Mario Pucic

A mosque is not simply “a place of worship.”

People get married in mosques. I did. They take their children to full-time or part-time schools that are located inside of mosques. I do this, too.

People gather at mosques to celebrate the birth of babies, and to pray over their loved one who have passed away.

Mosques are home to food banks and soup kitchens for those who are struggling in our communities. Our mosques house counseling services, study circles, and charity events.

We have classes at the mosque, and meals, and meetings. There are bookstores and libraries inside of mosques.

We grow up in mosques, making too much noise at prayer time, running through the lines of worshipers and climbing on the backs of our parents when they’re prostrating. It’s a playground, a sanctuary, a gathering place.

Mosques have served these purposes in our communities for the past 1400 years.

Our mosques are not just ‘places of worship’ where we bow our heads and then go home. They are our second homes.

Mosques are certainly not perfect places. We have our disagreements and divisions and faults. But if I were to walk into a mosque anywhere in the world, I would feel at home. It doesn’t matter if the people around me speak a language I do not understand - our hearts and limbs and smiles speak one language when we’re standing next to each other.

An attack on a mosque isn’t just an attack on people worshiping. It’s an attack on the very heart and soul of our community. That’s why it hurts so much.

Prophet Muhammad (saw) said, “The parable of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever.”

By Asmaa Hussein

At age 23, Tina Fey was working at a YMCA. At age 23, Oprah was fired from her first reporting job.  At age 24, Stephen King was working as a janitor and living in a trailer. 

At age 27, Vincent Van Gogh failed as a missionary and decided to go to art school.   At age 28, J.K. Rowling was a suicidal single parent living on welfare.

At age 28, Wayne Coyne ( from The Flaming Lips) was a fry cook. At age 30, Harrison Ford was a carpenter.  At age 30, Martha Stewart was a stockbroker.  At age 37, Ang Lee was a stay-at-home-dad working odd jobs. Julia Child released her first cookbook at age 39, and got her own cooking show at age 51. Vera Wang failed to make the Olympic figure skating team, didn’t get the Editor-in-Chief position at Vogue, and designed her first dress at age 40. Stan Lee didn’t release his first big comic book until he was 40. Alan Rickman gave up his graphic design career and landed his first movie role at age 42. Samuel L. Jackson didn’t get his first major movie role until he was 46.

Morgan Freeman landed his first major movie role at age 52. Kathryn Bigelow won the Academy Award for Best Director when she made The Hurt Locker at age 57. Grandma Moses didn’t begin her painting career until age 76. Louise Bourgeois didn’t become a famous artist until she was 78. Whatever your dream is, it is not too late to achieve it. You aren’t a failure because you haven’t found fame and fortune by the age of 21. Hell, it’s okay if you don’t even know what your dream is yet. Even if you’re flipping burgers, waiting tables or answering phones today, you never know where you’ll end up tomorrow. Never tell yourself you’re too old to make it. 

Never tell yourself you missed your chance. 

Never tell yourself that you aren’t good enough. 

You can do it. Whatever it is. 

Enchanting Bookworm Inspired Digital Illustrations by Simini Blocker

NYC based illustrator Simini Blocker understands the enchanting world bookworms revel in. From Hogwarts to Neverland or King’s Landing, Blocker captures the spellbinding imaginative realms literature has introduced to us with vibrant colours, gorgeous brushstrokes and fitting quotes from our favourite authors. You can find her gorgeous illustrations on Society6 and Etsy.

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Happy #BookLoversDay! 

to love—platonically, romantically, unconditionally—is to live. remember this when you want to close your heart to others.

Depression is the most common mental illness, yet it somehow convinces everyone that they’re completely alone.

I just left my husband alone with our two children for sixteen days. I was not worried about anything regarding the house, their food, or their wellbeing. I put all the appointments in the family calendar and my husband checked it and kept them. I literally did not worry about them. I missed them, and I was sad that they missed me, but I didn’t worry about them AT ALL. I need to impress upon you all that I missed their company, but was not worried for their welfare.

I also did no meal prep. I don’t even think I went shopping right before I left.

This is not about apples and oranges. This isn’t even about my husband. This is about the fact that this is apparently WEIRD.

Another mum at my daughter’s school is leaving for ten days. She’s taking her youngest (who is a very small baby) and leaving her husband with their two girls. She has been cooking for days preparing freezer meals. She’s panicking and deputizing her six year old to remind him how to make school lunches. AND I AM APPALLED.

A) He is definitely not helpless. (He’s a doctor or something.) What gendered bullshit. B) THAT LITTLE GIRL IS NOT OLD ENOUGH TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR HER AND HER SISTER’S WELLBEING. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. C) Why is she married to this person and creating children with him if he’s this big of an idiot?

While she was laughingly recounting this, the other mums were nodding and smiling sympathetically, like oh yes, I too have my caveman at home!! Such managing required! I was the only one who was like “Dude, he’ll be fine. Literally. He will be fine.” I said it a lot. She was not convinced. She kept bringing up her older daughter. She’ll be like a little mum!

NO.

NO NO NO NO.

NO.

Straight women, don’t do this shit. It’s gross. Don’t infantilize your husbands and then expect your daughters to pick up the slack. So fucking gross. So. So. GROSS.

The fact that so many adults think a six year old girl is more capable of learning and performing basic domestic tasks than a grown-ass man says it all, really. 

This stuff is so toxic and awful. I told a car full of women one time that I refused to be in another relationship until I met a man who was capable of making his own doctors’ appointments and washing the dishes. They told me I was going to die alone.

Fuck this shit. Don’t enable men’s incompetence and label it cute.

It’s also telling how the notes are full of women talking about having similar experiences, being expected to be more responsible than their fathers / older brothers / male cousins especially in domestic tasks from a young age. When I was eight and my mom came down with the flu guess who got to stay home all day cleaning and folding laundry while her father and older brother did jack shit? And this was in the 90’s. Not the 50’s or 60’s, the 90’s. Not to mention the time I was really little, like still had to be bathed by an adult little, my mother left me alone with my father for a few days and he didn’t even know how to give me a bath or take care of my hair, and had to call over the neighbor lady for help.