I love photography. At least that is how Week 1 of the digital photography class at a community college begins for me. Signing up for a class was a normal trajectory of a general lack of success on the do-it-yourself pathway. I’ve learned that I learn best, in most subjects, when given a formal classroomContinue reading “In the Beginning – 16 Weeks of Digital Photography Class”
Category Archives: reflection
More Than>Syria
Where do I begin to even share my thoughts on Syria. The slaughter of Syria. The human moral stain that is Syria. The collective human failure that is Syria. The suffering that is Syria. When I first wrote something public about Syria, it was a diatribe (it was) on how Friday sermons unnecessarily brought up,Continue reading “More Than>Syria”
VONA: Future Advice on Writing
As I walk away from VONA, I have to remind myself first and foremost that I too am a writer. I might not feel comfortable embracing this label, with all my swirling self doubts and insecurities, but I am a writer because the craft of storytelling is something that lies deep in my genetic code.Continue reading “VONA: Future Advice on Writing”
On Verbing the Workshop (A VONA Post)
I am still amused by the concept of “workshopping.” Its an actual action one can do and does in an MFA experience, or in writing. Every time I hear someone using it as a verb, chuckles start up across my mind and work hard to suppress an external expression because I don’t want to offend.Continue reading “On Verbing the Workshop (A VONA Post)”
Four Points to VONA, Or the Nagging Question: What Am I Doing Here?
I start with four points, stumble through four thoughts and end with four, gems thats where VONA presents itself so far at the end of the first full day of workshop. Today was the end of the first full day of “workshopping”, which apparently is a thing you do in a MFA program. I hadContinue reading “Four Points to VONA, Or the Nagging Question: What Am I Doing Here?”
Expectations for VONA
I just finished packing up for my trip to Miami, Florida. I will be spending the week out at the University of Miami campus in Coral Gables for the VONA Writers Workshop. I am really excited about this opportunity, as it was part of my self development goal for 2016. I was asked how I felt about this opportunity.Continue reading “Expectations for VONA”
Field Notes for the Millennial Quran Study Project
Field Notes are the posts that have my running notes on what I am gleaning, unfiltered to an extent, from the project. It serves as the first order of learning from this project for me. As such, I hope you view these particular blog posts as “Cliff’s Notes” to the project and can draw from them your ownContinue reading “Field Notes for the Millennial Quran Study Project”
Controlled Failure
I had an ambitious goal for 2015: To read a 105 books during the year. But I failed at it. I didn’t give up. I just realized that while it was an ambitious and “good” goal, it was worth allowing myself to fail, rather then make a mockery of the the intention behind setting theContinue reading “Controlled Failure”
Tecun Uman – Every Guatemalan’s Hero
The irony of the town Tecun Uman is just beginning to settle in with me. We crossed the Guatemalan and Mexican border earlier today and I sit in the small town of Salvador Urbina in the Mexican state of Chiapas reflecting on some of the images I have been wrestling with from my time inContinue reading “Tecun Uman – Every Guatemalan’s Hero”
Falling for Flagstaff
Can you instantly fall in love with a place just by your first impressions? I don’t like Arizona all that much, only recently have I begun to explore it. What ideas I have about Arizona come from the Sonora desert and the politicians that don’t like me or my people. Yet this recent camping tripContinue reading “Falling for Flagstaff”
Corner Office Shaikh 