Fasting Part 2

I have decided that I can do better than just avoiding food and drink in public.  Muslim children are trained to fast as they grow up.  They are eased into it at around age 8, and start by fasting for half the day and working their way up. I have heard several stories of children cheating, like taking sips of water when they wash their faces.  As adults every healthy capable Muslim fasts, everyone is expected fast, and everyone has always fasted, so I asked one of my Egyptian friends what they actually gained from fasting.  Though there are many standard answers I was inspired by how genuinely they believed what they were saying.  Setting a goal and accomplishing it by overcoming earthly needs is a powerful thing.  Discipline and then fulfillment.  Fasting is also thought to make someone a better person because the faster can sympathize with those who actually are starving.  As I said, I was inspired.  I am going to try to ease myself into fasting.  I am now fasting from breakfast on.  I wake up, eat a hardy breakfast, and then khalaws until Iftar.  I have had the honor of being invited to several wonderful Iftars, and the nights I don’t have Iftars I often go out to eat with friends anyway, so it isn’t as though I’m not being fed.  Wish me luck with my next level of fasting.