My Feet Only Walk Forward: Guest Blogger, Kamal Fizazi: A Letter to Friend About Hope and Survival

I recently wrote my first guest blog on Brandon Lacy Campos' site: My Feet Only Walk Forward: Guest Blogger, Kamal Fizazi: A Letter to Friend About Hope and Survival.

It emerged from a letter I wrote to a real-live friend, an Arab, like me (well, from a different country), thus the nickname, "Habibi", who has struggled with suicidal thoughts over the years.

Just last week, I found out another friend of mine, someone who combated HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, and depression, lost his fight. He committed suicide, jumping out of his 12-story window.

I and my friends who knew him are devastated and sad.

Why did I not know he was in such pain? What could I have done differently? How could I have been a more effective part of a solution for him?

I have personal insight into pain and loss, what it is to feel an all-encompassing despair.

So, I wrote this letter to my friend, "Habibi", sharing some of the resources I have used get through tough times. Among the things I mention is a spiritual resource, a Qur'anic prayer, Surat al-Asr. As a Qur'anic prayer, Muslims may recognize it and it may have special resonance for them, but its suggestions are spiritually universal, and I believe many people will be able to find something from their own faith tradition in it and in what I wrote in the guest blog.

I hope you will read my offering of love and compassion, and if you are so moved, comment on it and repost (use the My Feet Only Walk Forward link: My Feet Only Walk Forward: Guest Blogger, Kamal Fizazi: A Letter to Friend About Hope and Survival).

Love, Light, & Peace,
Kamal