spitfire (n) wild & free

Sara. 26.

[imaanovernafs]

Allah ﷻ is All the Hearing. Be patient.

[aseaofquotes]

John Steinbeck, Sweet Thursday

[landsccape]

[thenightlymirror]

James Baldwin.

[expressions-of-nature]

by Felix Wesch

[sarathespitfire]

I think of the Before times and my heart cracks like an egg in my chest, leaking to my neck and arms, the edge of my jaw, the small of my back. When every person was brand new and every friendship was pure love and every spring day was romantic. When we didn't have to schedule our calls and sent conspiratorial emails, left coded Facebook messages when Facebook was in its infancy and still lent itself to friendship. Somehow back then every clear sky was a promise and every whiff of jasmine was a miracle. We knew how to love and did it well. We could see each other, and when we reached out, we hoped to touch. To make contact. Maybe it was youth. Maybe every passing moment takes with it a quantity of idealism that can never be relinquished. Maybe we left too much behind to our First Loves and Best Friends.

[lilium--bosniacum]

[fairytaleprincessart]

[julaibib]

[bloglikeanegyptian]

also if you are wondering whether all these awful things coming out of gaza are true or if things are really as bad as they are there i can promise you they're worse. for every graphic image you see and for every story that gets translated for english speakers there are thousands of people who weren't photographed, who refused to have their loved ones photographed, who are too traumatized to speak, who don't want attention. if you know a single palestinian you already know at least three or four additional horror stories that have received no coverage at all. a small example i can give you is that a fertility clinic in egypt received a phone call from gaza asking to terminate frozen embryos of a palestinian couple who had undergone ivf there. the call was from a stranger because everyone in that family, up to their fifth degree relatives, had been killed.

[sarathespitfire]

reflection 12/16

I'm almost 6 months into intern year. It's winter, today is my one day off, and I'm looking out at the East River. The sky is peach orange and the sun is coming up. I felt inspired to write something, but it's hard for me to eke out anything because I've been totally consumed by becoming a doctor. I'm working harder than I've ever worked in my life, and I've generated a protective cocoon around my emotional being to insulate myself against the tragedies I see daily. I get so close to humankind every day and it's a hot flame, even the approach is searing. But I'm reminded how full and empty life can be, how beautiful and terrible, its mercies and ravages. I feel God in the profundity of these interactions and the privilege he gave me. I also just want to make it out in one piece and maybe not gain so much perspective that I become removed from the little wonders, the meaning in my own life.

[sarathespitfire]

12/31

I'm on night 10/11 of a stretch of shifts that have been grueling. I'm home after a really long night during which multiple sick patients had emergencies. I almost passed out at the last one and I'm working harder than I've ever worked in my life. I go to work and laugh about it (because my colleagues are stretched thin too, and together we find humor), but when I come home in the stillness of the morning all the emotion hits me and I start to cry.

[sarathespitfire]

reflection 12/16

I'm almost 6 months into intern year. It's winter, today is my one day off, and I'm looking out at the East River. The sky is peach orange and the sun is coming up. I felt inspired to write something, but it's hard for me to eke out anything because I've been totally consumed by becoming a doctor. I'm working harder than I've ever worked in my life, and I've generated a protective cocoon around my emotional being to insulate myself against the tragedies I see daily. I get so close to humankind every day and it's a hot flame, even the approach is searing. But I'm reminded how full and empty life can be, how beautiful and terrible, its mercies and ravages. I feel God in the profundity of these interactions and the privilege he gave me. I also just want to make it out in one piece and maybe not gain so much perspective that I become removed from the little wonders, the meaning in my own life.

[landsccape]

[sarathespitfire]

anger

why are you so angry? he says to me. the question bounces around in my head when night reaches every corner every nook and cranny of my room. spread eagled. hollow eyed. collar bones shining with moon, pulse slow and even. I ask myself if it’s possible not to be.

[brownandwhat-deactivated2025060]

[bloglikeanegyptian]

What do you say to people who keep saying that egypt has done nothing to palestine since the genocide has started?

the egyptian people have been lined up with over 100 trucks of aid at the border for ten days and israel is refusing to let them in. egyptian truck drivers have been on video screaming with frustration at being sent back every day, begging to be let into gaza knowing that they may not come back. you can hear the bombs being dropped on gaza from the rafah border and egyptians are still waiting to get in. protests are banned in egypt but egyptians still went down to protest in solidarity for palestine. as a people, the entire country is in mourning. the entire country is desperate to help palestinians. egyptians have always stood in solidarity with palestine and always will. multiple egyptian celebrities, influencers and athletes have taken public stances against israel that have put their livelihoods in jeopardy.

on a state level, israel and egypt have a peace treaty that prevents egypt from taking any independent military action in sinai without israeli oversight. israel has also bombed the border crossing four times, injuring four egyptians and creating substantial infrastructural damage.

the egyptian government's position does not reflect the egyptian people, but it is also necessary to point out that egypt is between a rock and a hard place. israel's foreign minister has openly stated their goal is to complete the ethnic cleansing of gaza and evacuate the surviving population of gaza into sinai. the ultimate goal of this israeli government has been expansion by any means necessary, which is why the violent armed settlement of the west bank is still continuing. palestinians in gaza are already refugees from the 1948 ethnic cleansing of palestine (the nakba). they do not want to be displaced again into egypt. they do not want to live the rest of their lives in a "tent city" in sinai, as israel's politicians have proposed.

egypt's president (who has rarely spoken sensibly in his life) has made the point that if the palestinian resistance is displaced from gaza to sinai, this will absolutely be pretext for israel to attack egypt, putting the peace treaty in jeopardy. sinai is already a hotbed of militant groups that have carried out many attacks against egyptian civilians and military outposts.

israel militarily occupied sinai from 1967 to 1982, and only retreated due to their defeat in the 1973 october war. so you can imagine that israel proposing to evacuate palestinians to sinai under threat of mass death is not only unfeasible, it will further destabilize the entire region.

egyptians will also not accept the ethnic cleansing of gaza. it's important to note that president anwar el-sadat was assassinated for agreeing to the peace treaty with israel. so that's a little bit of a glimpse into the egyptian attitude towards israel that has remained largely unchanged since 1973.

both egyptians and palestinians recognize that if palestinians are forced out of palestine, the palestinian cause is over. our president is mobilizing this sentiment to his own gain. the problem is that israel is willing to carry out a genocide against the people of gaza regardless of whether they go or not.

egypt's position right now is refusing to allow palestinians without a dual nationality into egypt and insisting on aid being let in. this is the only stance egypt is willing to take on an international level due to our current leadership. it is not wrong in and of itself but it lacks any strong messaging on the urgency of palestinian survival and is not going to stop the current genocide.

israel wants to force palestinians out and is still refusing to let any substantial aid in. their goal is to destroy gaza by any and all means (siege, starvation, aerial warfare, land invasion). it's a stand-off that can only exist because the israeli state is absolutely willing to murder 2 million civilians and the biden administration has given them the green light to do so.

if nobody reigns in israel, egypt (like every other arab country) will end up complicit in the mass death of palestinians in gaza. but the responsibility lies squarely on israel. the israeli regime will never wash its hands of the genocide it is currently committing.

the choice israel has given gaza (and egypt) is ethnic cleansing via displacement or ethnic cleansing via mass murder. it is one of the darkest and most evil policies we have ever seen on the face of this earth against a population that is 50% children.

[zandrapaints]

there's always time to take a moment