A Wedding In Dallas. A Funeral In Jeddah. A Blockade In Gaza.

I don’t know much. But I do know the value of showing up.

A wedding and a funeral in one weekend. The universe doesn’t care for symmetry, but sometimes it hands it to you anyway.

“Inna lillahi wa inallah-e-raji’oon … Teyze Ayten has passed away…”

The message my mom sent in our family chat was one we were dreading to read. I called her, hearing her voice thin with grief. I messaged my cousin my condolences, having just seen her in April when I was in Jeddah, saying how we’re looking forward for her mom to recover. My heart wept heavily for her.

That very evening, we had a wedding to attend. A cousin on my dad’s side. A nikkah in Dallas. I'd just been planning my outfit. Hair curly or braided? Heels or flats?

"They’re burying her at fajr”

In an hour, I repacked my suitcase I hadn’t even unpacked and was back at Terminal D in DFW Airport, heading to Jeddah. I’ve lived my life split between countries and cultures, the airport my most visited third place. You always think you'll have more time.

Between a wedding, and a funeral. Two gatherings cut from the same cloth, one stitching life together, the other unpicking the seam. Why does it take love or sorrow to bring us together?

I’m in my thirties and still watching my elders for cues - between a wedding and a funeral… I don’t know the right things to say in my ‘native’ languages, the right prayers to recite. I don’t know what rituals to perform, I don’t know the proper body language. I don’t know much. But I do know the value of showing up.

But showing up feels different now, because while I’m ping-ponging between joy and grief, another drum keeps beating: Gaza is still under blockade. Why does it take love or sorrow to bring us together, yet we look away from suffering that isn’t our own?

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In Case You Missed It…

• 61,700+ Palestinians have been killed since October 2023, with thousands more missing under rubble.(Al Jazeera)

• UN warns 14,000 babies could die in Gaza in the next 48 hours without aid. (this was from yesterday, and no aid has reached yet) (The Guardian)

• 1.9 million people—90 % of Gaza’s population—have been displaced, many more than once.(UNRWA)

• 15+ years of land, sea, and air blockade mean electricity for only a few hours a day and 78 % of piped water unfit for human consumption.(UNICEF)

• UNICEF and UN agencies warn famine is imminent unless aid flows drastically increase.(United Nations Press)

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Tangible ways to help today:

1. Give money that moves fast & transparently

• PCRF (Palestine Children’s Relief Fund): Field hospitals, trauma care, prosthetics, food & water deliveries.

• MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians): Surgical supplies, dialysis consumables, mobile clinics

• ANERA: Community kitchens, hygiene kits, medicine logistics inside Gaza

• UNRWA: Emergency shelters, schooling in tents, cash grants to displaced families (desperately under-funded)

• Restless Beings: Non Profit run by friends I trust. They’ve provided direct food & shelter packs for 30,000 Gazans, many of them kids.

2. Pressure your local stores (looking at you, Trader Joe’s)

1. Call the manager (or customer-service email) of the grocery chain you actually shop at.

2. Ask if they stock produce “grown in Israel,” including Medjool dates. Flag the 2025 Co-op vote in the UK as precedent for a full de-shelving.(Middle East Eye, Retail Gazette)

3. Script starter:

“Hi, I’m a regular customer. Israeli feta (barcode 729…) on your shelf funds a government enforcing a UN-condemned blockade of Gaza. Will you remove Israeli-sourced products until international law and basic human rights are respected? I’d love to keep shopping here—please let me know your plan.”

1. Tweet, tag, post a Google review. Public pressure keeps the follow-up meeting on their calendar.

(Need a cheat sheet? A barcode starting with 729 almost always means Israel. Boycott guide here.(apan.org.au))

3. Know someone in Gaza—or someone who escaped? Ask.

• Direct remittances via MoneyGram or UK/US-based Hawala networks reach families faster than large-scale aid.

• Send eSIMs / data top-ups so they can communicate when towers briefly light up.

• Share job leads & freelance gigs with Palestinians who’ve fled and need income to rebuild lives from scratch.

If you have a verified contact but don’t know the safest way to send funds, reach out; someone in your community will know a path. Don’t let uncertainty become inaction.

4. Support Gazans who made it out

It’s easier to post infographics than to befriend the refugee family now living two zip codes away. Invite them for dinner, help with résumé translations, show up at parent-teacher night. Rebuilding begins wherever they land.

5. Be Louder Than Fear

Yes—people in the U.S. have been fired, doxxed, even arrested for Gaza solidarity. But fear is designed to quiet the just. Be brave anyway: call your reps, stand at the vigil, share reliable reporting. The cost of silence is paid in someone else’s blood.

• Contact elected officials with this single sentence: “I support an immediate, permanent lifting of the Gaza blockade and restoration of unrestricted humanitarian aid.”

• Show up at local ceasefire vigils or art builds—even once. Bodies count.

• Share credible journalism (Al Jazeera’s liveblog, TRT, UNRWA situation reports, HRW’s 2025 chapter).

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My birthday is this Friday. And the best gift for me is if you do one of the above things - please.

With a heavy heart,
Ayesha