28 things I've been thinking about
A Mid-February dispatch.
It’s mid-February. I blinked and suddenly January is over and the year is properly underway. Wild.
I’m back in London for the first time this year. I’ve been in Saudi, Dubai, Egypt, Kenya for a wedding, and now home. Back at my desk. About to slip into deep work again. My brain is in the process of processing.
Here are 28 things I’ve been thinking about lately:
“Wagwan alaykum.”
How quickly a season can change. How one thing can rearrange a narrative you thought was stable. How you might even let it.
My mum saying, “You’re single. You have to get used to doing things alone.” Not as a threat (for once) but as empowerment. And how it was exactly what I needed to hear.
How nervous I was to go to Kenya without “a person” there. Only people I’ve known for years. And how quickly a shared history dissolves anxiety.
Watching Saudis explore their own country with pride and curiosity. The energy of people reclaiming their own narratives in real time.
The lamb carpaccio at Dar Tantora, where we stayed in Al Ulla.
The question of why I live in London.
Getting back to London and immediately remembering why.
How my body will escalate if I don’t listen the first time. Jaw locked. Face tight. Message received.
How soft it feels to be met with softness.
That sometimes the universe feels funny and generous and slightly smug.
The response to Call Her Binti. The women who felt seen. The women who felt triggered. How it feels to trust myself enough to speak.
How every choice a woman makes feels positioned against another woman’s.
That self-trust is staying coherent under other people’s projections.
That deep work requires disappearing a little. (The world is very loud.)
The relief of not trying to explain everything in real time.
The ethics of telling stories about people you know. How to write with compassion but without self-censorship.
The sudden realisation that I don’t have to put up with a single thing I don’t like.
That the same intensity that overwhelms you is the same intensity that allows you to love, feel, create.
“Last year I abstained. This year I devour. Without guilt, which is also an art.”
Alain de Botton’s point that some people make you feel boring and some make you feel interesting. The difference isn’t you. It’s how many doors they’ve opened in themselves.
The Epstein files and how when men are given unchecked money and power, this is what they choose to do.
How we are constantly being trained to treat the unacceptable as normal.
Watching Minnesotans sing “It’s okay to change your mind” outside an ICE building and sobbing.
Watching Tell Me Lies and feeling chilled by how charming Stephen is. How we all know a Stephen. How Lucy gets judged as equally toxic when half the time she’s just trying to survive it.
Road to Freedom’s Ramadan campaign, supporting displaced Palestinian and Sudanese families in Cairo.
A Free Palestine. Always.
-Alya xo
What’s been going on with you? Let me know in the comments or press ‘reply’ to write to me directly.
I’m Alya Mooro, a writer and author of The Greater Freedom: Life as a Middle Eastern Woman Outside the Stereotypes. My work explores voice, womanhood, shame, desire, and the long work of becoming. I write about the stories we inherit, the selves we outgrow, and what it takes to live from the centre of ourselves.
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2, 3 , 6 7 and 8
16, 17, 19 and 20!!!! Always in sync. Ramadan Mubarak hayati 💞💞💞