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Showing posts from May, 2011

Visiting Jumeirah Mosque

After 3 ½ years living in Dubai I finally got around to visiting the Jumeirah Mosque.   It’s the only Mosque in Dubai that invites non-Muslims to go inside and learn more about the mystery of what happens beyond closed doors and uncovering some of the myths surrounding the Islamic religion.   They offer a program called, “A Taste of the Emirates…Open Doors.   Open Minds.”   I was ready for my eyes to be opened.   Do you know what I discovered?   Behind that closed door, there were rituals going on that I had done every single Sunday growing up in a Roman Catholic family.   At the start of the tour, our guide recited the prayer we hear over the loud speakers five times a day every day since we arrived, and then the Salat (act of prayer, which they use as the first “connection” to God during the service).   He then translated it into English.   The first line of the Salat is “Glory to God in the Highest.”   I mouthed back to him, “and peace to his people on earth.”   Then I couldn’t he

The Deadline Dance

Have you ever blown past a deadline? I have...but never one for a client.  It's always one I've made for myself. I have missed a very important self-imposed deadline. I committed to doing a book review on the first of every month. That is one of the biggest challenges I find being a freelance writer. Sure, it’s easy to make deadlines that are set by paying clients, but keeping a commitment to yourself is much more difficult. But, I remind myself, now I have not only let me down but my friends and followers as well. And that’s tough to take. So…my apologies! I can only offer to you that, where the book reviews are concerned, I will only do a review on a book I have read from cover to cover so my review is honest and complete. On the first of this month, I looked at my night table and the desk in my office and there were many books marked at various pages but not one was close enough to being finished to make me comfortable enough to do a formal “review.” A Mini Review There i