Life and its lessons (5)
Life and its lessons (5)
Giving light: I had different sit downs over tea with a few people since my last post. Just listening to them made me thankful to be in the seat across. There are people who transfer their light and insights to others and give instant ideas, reflections and thoughts. My lesson- give time, notice and listen more often - in people around us you will find gems. To them I say, “Thank you for giving me energy and light”. Let’s all learn from the humble examples that these gems bring to our lives and try to share out some of our own light to people around us. - Know that your little; is someone else’s much”
Emotions: One of the most beautiful blessing we have is the blessing of emotions - Allhamdullilah. The feelings that comes with emotions is an evidence we are alive. Earlier in life I used to think the emotions of happiness, joy, excitement, etc were the only ones to show and all the others were somehow needed to be suppressed and ignored. Only to find out as much as my smile and being happy is good for me so are the feelings of sadness, grief and loss. All emotions are healthy at the right proportion. My lesson, it’s okay to cry when you feel like it and that sadness is not necessarily a curse. Having these different emotions in a healthy manner balances each other. If you have not tasted being sad then the true value of being happy is not experienced. So, to deal with a situation if you need to cry; cry, if you need to be alone and reflect; reflect - just don’t dwell in them. Learn to experience emotions/feelings and manage them accordingly because suppressing them for a while will only create a bigger problem later.
Age: People are obsessed with age, most people throughout our lives either want to be younger or older. Even the cosmetic and beauty industry has taken advantage of this with the multi-billion-dollar industry of makeup, body-building, plastic surgery and hair colouring. A friend of mine through our usual discussions taught me a profound lesson – age is a blessing from Allah; she mentioned how some of her school friends died young and us being here is a blessing indeed. My lesson - don’t take this age/life for granted. To me age signifies; life lived, experiences travelled, wisdom gained and opportunities ahead. Age is our test in this world – it’s the time given to us to complete this test. Let’s focus on what is required and should do in getting good grades – bi idnillah.
Delusions: There is a famous quote by Maya Angelou “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time”. Every now and then I get new insight into this quote; my recent reflection on this is; we sometimes ignore and make excuses for love- love of a job, a passion, a thing, a memory, a country- love of a person. When done long enough this leads to delusions and assumptions that are not positive for a person. My lesson - indeed it’s as Maya says - believe in what they say - don’t make excuses for acts and words. We are too attached to the idea of what we love - that beautiful bag, the memory of an event and a human being. From time to time bring that idea from your mind and test it - ask the right questions. Is it the same as your assumption or reality is different? Life becomes more beautiful when most of us live in reality than a delusion that breaks later.
Inspiration: Change is never easy- “At some stage, the Almighty closes doors because it’s time to move on. The trouble is we may not see this. He knows what He’s doing. He also knows that you won’t move unless He creates some discomfort for you! Change is never easy! Trust Him” - Mufti Ismail Menk
Until next time Insha'Allah – Cya
Zuhur Yasin :)