Sandra Chami Kassis's Blog

Two pigeons were my turning point. I was with my husband abroad when their company’s driver was giving us a lift to the airport. While opening the car’s trunk to place the luggage; he moves a box aside to get more space for our...

How do i escape reality? Why does it insist on being unfair to me? Books can’t hold my thoughts anymore; i read and keep reading and the more I gather ideas, the more my brain keeps asking for more. Cheers to authors and writers...

How do you explain to someone that you’re hurt? How do you tell them when they don’t care? When they can’t see you or can’t feel an inch of your broken heart? How can you wave at a blind man and scream at a...

It started when I was almost 7. My parents got divorced (no big deal); but wait, back then; it was a huge deal. Women who got divorced were looked at differently so my grandmother made sure we don’t mention it to friends.. Besides the...

He doesn’t look at me like before mother..

He hasn’t noticed my hair or how i try to look pretty for him..

Mother, I’m not even sure if he sees me..

He doesn’t hold my hand

He wouldn’t hug me, not even once mother ..

He passes quietly by our quarrels like a guest when I desperately need him to speak

He sips his coffee, reads his paper and wouldn’t chat with me like before mother..

He treats me like a shadow while I reach for him screaming with unheard voices

He says he still cares but I highly doubt that mother

What have i done? What have i become? Where has he gone mother?

I pray to fall asleep every night but the bed doesn’t feel comfortable like before

The walls silently suffocate me as i stare at the nothingness around me

It’s probably my destiny mother

To learn to just love myself and write to you mother

He slipped away unlike anything you predicted mother

He doesn’t love me anymore and thinks I’m insane mother

He loves me, loves me not, loves me, not..

What have you done mother?

Here is a question: what if when we die; we get to meet God and he asks us one question: “How was heaven?!”

So how is “your heaven” so far? Any good?

Can you imagine waiting your whole life to live eternity in a “heaven”, any heaven … and you discover in the end that earth was the paradise we all once dreamt of but we screwed it up?

Let that sync for a moment..

The featured pictures is credited to ” Tatiana Plakhova” – Music-Portraits-series

© Sandra Chami Kassis – sandrachamikassis.wordpress.com, 2014 – 2017

بينسوا إنّو أوقات تحت “الماركات” اللّي بيلبسوا، أجساد بلا روح وجماجم بلا دماغ

بينسوا إنّو الخَسّي اللّي بتكبر براسن إذا ما سقيوها علم وثقافة بتعفّن وبتصير للكبّ

بينسوا انّو الدّني بتدور والدّرج اللّي استعملوا ليطلعوا رح يرجع ينزلن

بينسوا يقروا بين السّطورمِكتفيّين بيلّي بشوفوا

بينسوا يفكروا، يحبّوا، يسامحوا

هلّق يمكن بينسوا يتذكروا أو بيتذكروا ينسوا…ما بعرف، بصراحة نسيت

ساندرا الشامي القسّيس

 

Here is a small statement about fashion i shared on my Facebook wall that I would love to hear your opinion about:

[image error]

– It’s okay.

In life you will get hurt, you will be treated as a “nobody” and that’s okay.

You will get angry, you will get mad and that’s okay.

You will live in denial at times and other times you will embrace the truth and that’s okay. 

You will try your best, you will give up then try again; sometimes you will feel alive and sometimes you will feel numb and that’s okay.

Every day will be slightly different and that’s okay.

You ‘ll turn that alarm off, drag yourself out of bed, hoping for a miracle, just any miracle would do. The day begins, it ends…you finish it looking like a zombie and that’s okay. 

A glass of wine; white wine preferably. You sit by the window, grab a book you’ve wanted to read a year ago. One hour later; the glass is empty, the book is still closed, you’re still looking from that window and that’s okay.

A dream would do. You’re good wih dreaming; it’s what keeps you going. Dream big or dream small, whatever. As long as you come back then it’s okay.

Forget dreaming. Go dancing. Let yourself loose for once. Release that inner child. Make a mistake. It’s alright, it’s okay.

Stop caring if you lose them, let them care for once it’s okay.

Throw a lie here and there; standing by a principle is no longer fashionable..and that’s okay.

– Wait! So when is it NOT okay?

– You, convincing yourself that THIS is okay! 

I haven’t been a teacher for long but ive read for longer than ive known; and ive been a mother a bit longer; plus, I have been in love with kids since ever and my passion for teaching and giving for children is higher than any career i have known.

But just like any profession, i believe that our teaching system needs to be improved; especially in our country where it needs to be “revolutionized”. Please, allow me to elaborate.

First, what ever happened to respect? I mean call me old fashioned but the words “please” , “thank you” , “May I” , “Good morning” etc. Which should be tought at home seem to be missed from our kids’ vocabulary. So a session or two of “savoir vivre” per week are a must! 

Second, we oblige our students especially those of young age to sit for 7 hours or so straight in silence hushing them not allowing them to say a word or move and then we accuse them of suffering from ADHD. Or better yet, we give them full freedom to move around and say whatever the hell they want and once the hit a certain grade they’re not allowed to move anymore. What happened to going “in between”?

Third, adopting new methods! We can’t keep recycling our old teaching method and call it history. Have you heard of Finland? Have you seen Finland’s students? New methods should include games, art, dancing, whatever students are good at! It’s no big deal if a student doesn’t like maths or doesn’t understand shakespeare..

Fourth, we stress on grades and give high importance to comparison (especially parents) that students end up thinking only of their grades and end the day learning nothing. 

Shouldn’t school be all about experiencing new stuff and the joy of new information? 

We suck this joy out of our students that they literally drag theirselves to prison ( oh sorry i meant school) praying it will end their suffering with every breath they take.

[image error]