Overall, fasting isn't as difficult as I expected, although you do get fairly hungry by the end of the day. The hardest thing, for me at least, is not drinking anything, and specifically, not drinking water in the morning. I don't know if its just me, but my wake up ritual is usually to either go to the bathroom, or go get a glass or water. For sure I will do both of these things, it is just a question of which first. Normally I have a dry mouth when I wake up, at least I feel that way until I drink some water and start to wake up.
So this is the difficult time for me. In fact, my only breaking of the Ramadan fasting so far has been on Saturday morning, when I woke up and practically sleepwalked into the kitchen for some water. It was so automatic and subconcious that I barely realised I was doing it. Anyhow, according to Aly, as long as it was an accident, it is OK.
A lot of fireworks go off throughout the night. It reminds me of Dublin, where firecrackers were getting let off a lot in the lead up to halloween. I think that will be the first and last similarity between Cairo and Dublin that you will ever see me write.
As for the seach for God - no luck yet. I was thinking last night, what is more likely, the existence of God, or the existence of other forms of intelliegent life in the universe? Easy, intelligent life. OK then what about - what is more likely, the existence of God, or the invention of Time Travel. Hmmm more difficult. I decided to put the two at about even.
So from there, the debate in my head turned to this - its not really about the existence of God then - its about the possibility of spectacularly unlikely things to actually happen or exist. Like always, its a leap of faith to believe in them. But are the leaps equivelant? And are they in the same direction?
So this is the difficult time for me. In fact, my only breaking of the Ramadan fasting so far has been on Saturday morning, when I woke up and practically sleepwalked into the kitchen for some water. It was so automatic and subconcious that I barely realised I was doing it. Anyhow, according to Aly, as long as it was an accident, it is OK.
A lot of fireworks go off throughout the night. It reminds me of Dublin, where firecrackers were getting let off a lot in the lead up to halloween. I think that will be the first and last similarity between Cairo and Dublin that you will ever see me write.
As for the seach for God - no luck yet. I was thinking last night, what is more likely, the existence of God, or the existence of other forms of intelliegent life in the universe? Easy, intelligent life. OK then what about - what is more likely, the existence of God, or the invention of Time Travel. Hmmm more difficult. I decided to put the two at about even.
So from there, the debate in my head turned to this - its not really about the existence of God then - its about the possibility of spectacularly unlikely things to actually happen or exist. Like always, its a leap of faith to believe in them. But are the leaps equivelant? And are they in the same direction?
Tom,
Keep up the great work, I mean, spiritual and physical renewal!
This my 4th(!) Ramadan in Turkey and I still have not participated in the fasting. A few years ago I went to an AIESEC conference here during Ramadan and virtually no one was fasting. I guess it is much easier to fast in a more conservative country like Egypt where fasting is the norm.
Around 4am this morning a drummer (or drummers) did walk past 4 f***ing times!
If me fasting meant the end of this noise I would definitely consider it!