Lewa was doing the dishes when “All of Me” by John Legend blared from her phone speaker. She barely paused to rinse the suds from her hands before rushing to answer. Only one person had that ringtone. It was Clinton, her boyfriend.

Sometimes, I sit and just think about it—minimalism.Not the kind that’s all white walls and empty counters. The kind that lives in the small, quiet parts of life. To me, minimalism is living on purpose. It’s paying attention. It’s choosing to see beauty in the everyday things. It’s living without the pressure to impress or explain. It’s doing things because they feel right, not because they look right.

When I think about how I spend my entertainment or relaxation time, I honestly can’t say I lean more into books than movies—or vice versa. I’ve always walked the line between the two, never fully devoting myself to one camp. Some days I’m deep in a fictional universe, flipping pages like my life depends on it. Other days, I’m curled up watching a movie, totally immersed in someone else’s imagination. I guess you could say I like to balance both worlds.

Everyday, I think about tiny but grand gestures that pass us by unnoticed. Once you truly look for them though, you can find them everywhere. Like when you sneeze and a random someone tells you, “Bless you” which in essence means “Don't die”. The friendly vendor who sells pastries at school always slips in an extra bun for you because you are her favorite customer.

Fear to Jola was the whispers of chill air that caressed her skin whenever the clouds darkened. Fear was the pitter-patter or the sound of the thundering of rain on rooftops. Fear was the howl of the wind whenever the rain beat the earth.

cover image for A Thousand Splendid SunsSUMMARYMariam is a harami, an illegitimate child, who only sees her adored father once a week. On those precious days, they go fishing. He reads to her and gives her beautiful presents, but she can never live with him. She decides to visit his home, a visit he does not acknowledge, and returns to find that her mother has hanged herself. Determined that she will not secure a place in their household, her father's wives marry her off to Rasheed, an elderly widower from Kabul, far enough away for Mariam to be safely forgotten. It is a marriage that soon deteriorates into brutality and misery made worse for Mariam by Rasheed’s decision to marry the orphaned Laila.