My Journal

My wife and I had a good friend over for dinner and a documentary. We scrolled through the PBS app and settled on watching a documentary called “For Sama”. It won a bunch of awards, so we figured it would be good.

The film starts with raw footage of a mother, named Waad, singing to her daughter, Sama. While Sama is enjoying the lullabies with a smile, bombs start landing just outside of their building. Sama doesn’t even seem bothered by the explosions outside. It seems as if Sama finds this as a completely normal part of her young life.

Waad grabs Sama and rushes downstairs to take cover before another bombing happens. This is where we learn Waad is inside of a hospital where she volunteers to heal civilians who are being bombed by the Asaad Regime.

Throughout this documentary, you will witness Waad’s entire life dedicated to freedom. Not only do they write “Freedom” across various places of the city, but they stay dedicated to serving their city of Aleppo even after hospitals start becoming targets of bombings to destroy the city’s spirit.

Even more interesting, Waad writes the documentary as if it was a letter to her daughter Sama. She explains to her daughter why it was necessary to have Sama grow up inside all of this chaos and despair.

Guys, I cannot recommend this documentary enough. My jaw was dropped almost the whole time. The documentary is freely available on YouTube or the PBS app:

Yesterday, I went rock climbing in an indoor gym. It’s one of my favorite activities because this activity works my mind and body.

I strap in and start my ascent up the wall. Right away, I’m challenged with how to get my feet on the wall so I can position myself to the next step. I try a few options and finally get a position where I feel comfortable and go with it.

As I keep stepping up the wall, I am slowly reaching and “testing” each option I have.

I’m now at about 90% up the 35-foot wall, the end is clearly in sight. One more major challenge and I have this wall done.

With a firm stance on the wall, I see a route that I could take, but I pause to evaluate my other options. To get a better view, I pull my head away from the wall and look around.

I see a second potential route and then all of a sudden…. BAM!!! I completely fall off the wall. There was no warning. I immediately detached and gravity handled the rest.

Within microseconds of falling, the first thing to hit my mind was the phrase “Analysis Paralysis”.