Farawell oh-eight.

I suppose it’s impossible to do a new year post without reflecting on all that transpired the year before. This is just an informal list …for myself really more than anything else…since I’ve got mommy-brains now and don’t remember anything ever.

• I became a mother. I grew a tiny fetus inside my body and when the time came, delivered him to this world and became a guardian for life. No accomplishment in my puny little life will ever define me more than this experience has. I believe in God, I believe in miracles, I believe in love that can unhinge your heart from sadness and move you to tears of absolute joy. I am so, so, so grateful to have  experienced this and really, I will never be the same.
• I fell in love with the father of my child. As i stumbled into this role as a mom, i witnessed the most beautiful transformation in Adil. He was always the gentle, mellow love of my life whether it was soaked with drama and passion the 3 years we dated or the strong supportive life partner he became in our (almost) 5 years of marriage. But THIS was something else…adil was a natural father from day 1…he gave me so much strength and support that the three of us fuzed into a family immediately, regardless of my post-partum struggles.
• Living through the “Bhutto-got-killed-incident-in-Karachi“. It was totally eye-opening and terrifying, exposing the high levels of naivete i still cling to as an American living in a completely safe and stable city. It also made me love karachi a little bit more.
• I became a working mom. Though I had grand ideas about transitioning into a stay-at-home-mom role, like most things with motherhood, it was not a natural progression for me. I went back to the University part-time and managed to get myself a 100% raise in the process…that was just due to good timing and a wonderful boss who wanted me back.
• My thesis was picked up by a publishing house and published into a book that now sits on amazon.com. It makes me way proud and at the same time…frustrated that I sat back down and proceeded to do nothing after that shabang! One specific thing this did was define for me the importance of writing. My writing sucks royally now but there was a time when all the writing exercises and short stories and mandatory 1-hour daily writing blocks produced really eloquent stuff …and I hope to attempt that again at some point in my life. Perhaps the transitionary phase in Dubai..?
• We lived through Hurricane Ike, the “third most destructive hurricane to ever hit the United States”…the hardest part was watching the kiddo suffer without any electricity for days and days…but really, motherhood is not for the faint of heart. 🙂

I’m sure there would be lots more but these are the major ones that I can think of now. As for resolutions go, i’ll strive to be more resilient in my path to wisdom, patience and…weight-loss. (doh!)

Wishing all of you much peace and prosperity this year.