Writing to You From Morocco

Salaam,

If you’re wondering why there wasn’t a new letter in your inbox last Thursday, it’s because my husband and I were arranging an international move to Morocco at lightning speed. We’d been planning this move for months and talking about it since before we were engaged. But coronavirus. Covid19 found a toolbox from I don’t know where and threw a wrench into our plans.

However, at the last minute, just as we’d gotten comfortable with the idea that we wouldn’t make the move for months, everything fell into place without us really trying. We had a short window to make the move happen, and we leaped.

When things are hectic, it’s easy to lose sight of the end goal. That’s how I was starting to feel along the journey that got us here. The discomfort of moving so quickly and not as we had planned got to me. That is until I saw the out-of-place English style grandfather clock in the hallway of the apartment we’re renting.

It struck me as being in such conflict with the traditional Maghrebi aesthetic of the home that I said out loud “What is this doing here?” With curiosity, I walked up to it, read the words in stylistic script engraved into it, and stood there stunned. It read “Tempus fugit.” The phrase may not mean anything to you, but it means a lot to me. It’s a Latin phrase that roughly translates as “Time flies.” I first heard this phrase in high school and had not heard it ever again since getting my diploma ten years ago. My high school Latin teacher used to say it almost every day at the end of class. It indicates how quickly time passes when you’re not paying it any attention because you’re engrossed in something else.

I took it as a sign that one day I will look back at the time we spent here and marvel and how quickly it passed. And I took it as a good omen that our time will be filled up with things that occupy our mind and nourish our spirit such that time will pass unnoticed. I pray that, if you don’t have it already, you find that thing that so fascinates you that it’s time well spent. Ameen.