Ramadan – 2015 – III – Reflections and Gifts

Sun Sets on Ramadan 2015

Today, July 17th, is the final day of Ramadan. 30 days ago, Tomas and I began our modified version of fasting to be in harmony and solidarity with our neighbors and townspeople. We had no idea where this would take us. We didn’t even know if we would be able to complete the whole 30 days but we decided to take one day at a time, be attentive and responsive to our bodies and see where we would go.

During this past month I would say that we have definitely kept the spirit of Ramadan, even though we did not keep to the letter of it. In spite of our personal “modifications,” which I will discuss later, we benefited in ways we could not have imagined beforehand. This post will attempt to convey some of the gifts and blessings we are “taking away” from our experience.

Ramadan 2015 – I

Mosque on the Hill at Sunset

Last year was my first experience of Ramadan. I put my toes into the water, so to speak, of this holy month of fasting and prayer by joining my Moroccan neighbors for three days of complete fasting. As Tomas and I were living among a group of international travelers, I was pretty much “on my own” for those three days but even so, I felt the community support of the practicing Muslims around me. Tomas supported me from the sidelines but did not choose to join me at that time. You can read about my first experience of this Islamic tradition in these blog posts: Ramadan 1,2,3.

This year Ramadan has been entirely different for us. Being that we are living in the compound of an extended family and have numerous Moroccan friends and acquaintances, Tomas and I realized that we needed to consider carefully “if” and “how” we would take part in Ramadan. As I have stated previously, we chose to do a modified fast from 9AM until Sunset, which is close to 8PM at this time of the year.