Raindrops on jasmine and Queen Burger’s french farayas,
bright copper qirsh and warm woolen abayas,
brown paper packages filled with aish al saraya,
these are a few of my favorite things.Cream colored camels and crisp, small cucumbers,
cell phones with ring tones and afternoon slumbers.
Street cats that adopt you in amazing large numbers,
these are a few of my favorite things.
Speaking broken Arabic with people you meet,
Stopping in traffic for goatherds on the street,
Standing next to the sopa for heat,
these are a few of my favorite things.
When the mosquitoes bite, when the kids fight, when I’m feeling stressed,
I simply remember my favorite things, and then I feel so blessed.
Fresh bread, kaak, and khubz tabboon,
Potlucks with friends always ending too soon,
Kids swinging at Martyrs Park under the light of the moon,
these are a few of my favorite things.
Jabel Amman, Jabal Weibdeh and Jabel Hussein,
Haggling in the balad with my last dinarain,
Eating warm shawarma under softly falling rain,
these are a few of my favorite things.
Girls in white dresses at their second cousin’s wedding,
Getting lost in East Amman not knowing where I’m heading,
I am sure there’s so much more that I keep on forgetting,
these are a few of my favorite things.
When the mosquitoes bite, when the kids fight, when I’m feeling stressed,
I simply remember my favorite things, and then I feeeeeeeel
s0000o blessed!
.
.
.
.
This Limerick Called Life 
Sooo cute! How long did it take you to come up with it? I also love the pictures too.
the writing was easy, collecting the pictures fun but time consuming. then I threw it together in photoshop.
Joyce, lovely!!!!
oh, yay. I was anxious to hear your response. thanks for the inspiration!!!
MashAllah alayki. Great job!
Did you like the line about the street cats? It was speaking directly to you (and me!)
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful…
The pictures were great as well.
thank you, jaraad.
Amazing words and pictures, Great post dude 🙂
thanks, ali. i’ve liked your posts too. keep snapping.
You’ve outdone yourself with this one! You’re amazing. How do you get all of these pictures? The one with the soba – where in the world do you find such a picture?
thanks kelli! the soba was an advertisement for space heaters. doesn’t it look inviting?
This was fantastic! (I actually have a picture of a sobah I took when we first moved here to show my family in the US how we all gathered around a propane-powered flame.)
Joyce, you’ve outdone yourself with this one! I’m estimating 2.5 hours…yes?
Thanks UmmFarouq! two and a half, three hours, on and off. it was a fun little project. any excuse to open up photoshop. did you like julie andrews dancing at the citadel?
Disgusting… really truly disheartening. NOW how am I going to do a top anything post?! Joyce, that was inspired beauty and a uniquely special blessing… Thanks girl.
I can’t do anything but smile and laugh after that comment. Thanks Momma!
Post Script:
I sang it aloud to my entire family. Cheers, applause followed.
That is the coolest. I am sure you made it applause-worthy.
Joyce! Brava! That was one of your greatest posts 🙂
that was awesome 😀
Salam!
Thanks for dropping a comment on my blog! After skimming through this post, I take it you’re from Amman, Jordan…(?) Cool! I visited there a few times–it’s pretty!
You post some lovely pictures; they remind me of my hometown in Hebron (Khaleel), Palestine. And the little girl on the right actually resembles my youngest sister in appearance!!! lol
Hope to hear more from you soon.
Salam,
Rania Abuisnaineh
Thank you for dropping by. You should drop by in person if you every get back to Jordan.
The girl on the swing is my daughter, as is the girl holding flowers further down.
Salam!
[…] can read to get you started. The first one is actually a parody of My Favorite Things but they are my favorite things about Jordan, which is where I live. My second list poem is called Seven Things About Me and is in a poem form. […]