not obeying clocks anymore. have shifted to a more intimate form of timekeeping measured by friends’ physical presence, the timbre of a beloved’s voice and my own shifting cycles of despondency.
This is a very old Islamic tradition, still alive in parts of Turkey. When a white blanket of snow covers everything - people go to the tops of mountains peaks and scatter seeds and food for the birds through the snowing season so as not to let the birds die of starvation. This deed was started by the Muslim caliph Umar bin Abdul Aziz and is narrated in various books of history and quoted as “Go and spread seeds on the tops of mountains - may the birds not die of starvation in a Muslim country.”
