Shalanosa's Sanctuary

I’m reading this book slowly, meditating on each author’s experience. wanting to belong in a country that doesn’t want you.
wanting a better life for your children and grandchildren.
racism – casual, and not so casual.
The feeling of strange words in one’s mouth.
Musings on gratitude.

“…some things you have to grow up to understand.”

“Ungrateful” by Mashuq Mushtaq Deen, Alien Nation: 36 True Tales of Immigration, edited by Sofija Stefanovic

I grew up between cultures, so these true tales of others’ experiences are at once enlightening, beyond my comprehension, healing, heartbreaking, relatable, and foreign.

For example, My whole life I have been entranced by negative space, seeing the shape of a thing by what it is not. I have felt my whole life as if I am seeking an ideal that can only be described by what it is not. Love, happiness, romance, belonging, myself. But:

“As it turns out, I can’t define myself by the spaces I don’t occupy.”

“An Island Unto Herself” by Roxanne Fequiere, Alien Nation: 36 true Tales of Immigration, edited by Sofija Stefanovic

One day I hope to see the shape of things as they are, and not as they are not.

Thank you for reading, and remember to support these incredible authors.

— Shalanosa