Salam, my name is Moudi.
I love this world and everything in it. I suppose I'd like for you to love it also. Perhaps to even find belonging in your life, and gratitude for the life of all other beings that share in this existence.
Belonging wasn't always a given for me. I grew up between Lebanon and the United States as a consequence of several wars and conflicts; some inner, some outer. It seemed to me that many were excluded from the circle of inclusion, as I was, due to false understandings and belief structures built on separation. Being queer in an Islamic household meant that I had to repress myself. There was also the fact of my stuttering, which added a deeper layer of repression. My experiences both as queer and someone who stutters attuned me with a curious listening towards the importance of kindness and compassion. Stuttering especially helped cultivate my fascination with the creationary power of speech and language, and the importance of being honest and intentional with words. And being queer in today's world taught me about story and narrative, and how the way we tell stories shapes and builds our belief systems and political structures.
Photo by Johnny Cowan
Design by Sean-Patrick McPeak
My writing focuses on such themes, pointing towards the possibility of justice and liberation through a spiritual framework of compassion, forgiveness, and awe. Central to my work is the question of what it means to be alive together in an impermanent world, and so gratitude, and the necessity of beauty. I often address and reference my inheritance of Lebanese customs and culture, including the poeticism of the Arabic language, while straddling my equal love and devotion to the land and lineage of the Rocky Mountains in the American West. I write with that tension in heart, not just in reference to land and place, but as the inner experience of belonging beyond form.
My hope is that my work touches that place in you that knows the importance of cultivating self-awareness. That perhaps our hearts may awaken against the backdrop of industrialization, profit, and war, which desecrate the dignity of each other, the land, and all beings. We have been gifted a brief and mysterious life in the wide unknowable universe. So why not honor our place in it, and begin already with the business of grief alongside its joy.
May all beings be at peace and at ease
May all beings find their true belonging
May all beings know that they are loved just as they are
May awareness dawn in the hearts of all beings