On the Arabic language

Arabic, as an academic language, has been a thorn in my back ever since I was a child. I say academically because the written and spoken Arabic are 2 different things altogether. Each area, city and even country has its own dialect, while we all write it and read it the same way.

Having said all that, however, I have to admit that no language is as rich as Arabic when it comes to descriptions. One word can have a thousand different meanings, all relying on where you use them in the sentence. It truly is amazing.

Today, I came across this:

Presence vs. Absence

Translation: The cold presence is much more painful than the absence. Isn't it simple, yet perfect? It could be applied to so many different scenarios and situations, and in each of those, it will still stand true.

It is these little things that remind me of just how wonderful Arabic truly is as a language. I can sit, read and enjoy, and that makes it perfect 

=)

Thoughts: On Life

I have been getting some random, yet awesome, and very inspiring quotes and thoughts via e-mail, twitter, BBM, Whatsapp etc and have decided to start sharing them here. I apologize beforehand as I can not attribute every single one properly.

Some of them are funny, some make you stop and think, while some others state what we refuse to admit ourselves. Most of them we already know, but every once in a while, we need to be reminded of them.

Mother Theresa 

Please find this

Today I had two philosophical conversations with two different people about human nature. With the first, I discussed how sad the world has become, how it has become easier to rely on friends rather than family; how blood is no longer a prerequisite for being loved unconditionally and cared for. Nowadays, it is the family you make for yourself, that what we refer to as friends, that loves and cares for you, no judgements. Relatives are the ones judging now, when they should be the first people to accept and embrace.

The second discussion was about how us, as humans, are constantly looking for, and are in need for closure. We can't just let things slide, no matter how hard we pretend otherwise. We say "I don't care" when in reality, we care way more than we care to admit. It only takes a few seconds to admit that we did someone wrong, or for them to admit that they hurt us, and yet, we rarely ever follow through. We all need and strive to be accepted, be heard and be noticed. We need to feel as though we matter, and part of that is closure. We need to know that the person who hurt us knows what they did, and that they are sorry for that.

We, as humans, are such a greedy bunch. We want it all, but are never thankful for what we have. We live in the past or the future, not in the present. We expect things to happen, but we rarely ever actively seek them. We are lazy and very conceited. We forget that for things to change, we need to change first. We need to make the first move, we need to decide, act and speak up. Only then will we see things change. Maybe not at first, but eventually, the change will be felt.

I will leave you with this video on youtube. It touched me with the simplicity of its message. Please listen to it and think about what it says.

I wrote this for you

Click here for blog

"And in you and in all of us, there is nothing more than the capacity to be a force for, or a force against. And to wonder, how many people wake up each morning and can't decide if they want to save the world, or destroy it."

From here

None of us alone

We are none of us alone
even as we exhale it is inhaled by others
the light that shines upon me shines upon my neighbor as well
in this way everything is connected
everything is connected to everything else
In this way I am connected to my friend even as I am connected to my enemy
In this way there is no difference between me and my friend
In this way there is no difference between me and my enemy
We are none of us alone


-Anon

Randomness

Some inspiring quotes to remember and turn to in times of need:

Randomly picked up from the net.

Astonishing, Mesmerizing and Hypnotic

This is the "Mapping during 600 years anniversary of the astrological tower clock situated at Old Town Square in center of Prague."

Click the jump here and trust me, you will not be sorry. AMAAAAZING does not do it enough justice.

Thoughts...

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be.
  - William Hazlitt

But if you do not find an intelligent companion, a wise and well-behaved person going the same way as yourself, then go on your way alone, like a king abandoning a conquered kingdom, or like a great elephant in the deep forest.
- Buddha

The beauty of poems...

... is that they linger. There is something so reassuring about reading a loved poem. It always manages to take you back to that exact moment when you fell in love with it for the first time. It yanks you through space and time, envelops you in a bubble, and for the next few minutes nothing can touch you or ruin the moment for you. For at that precise moment, you are isolated from everything, nothing exists but your thoughts and your soul. It is an experience that one can never tire from.


Sonnet # 43
By: William Shakespear

"When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things unrespected;
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And darkly bright, are bright in dark directed.
Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
How would thy shadow's form form happy show
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!
How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made
By looking on thee in the living day,
When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay!
All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me."

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
By: W. B. Yeats

"HAD I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."

IF
By: Rudyard Kipling

"If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!"

To make you ponder...

Don't Stand at My Grave and Cry

Do not stand at my grave and weep

I am not there
I do not sleep

I am a thousand winds that blow
I am the diamond glints on snow

I am the sunlight on ripened grain
I am the gentle Autumn rain

When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds

In circled flight
I am the soft stars that shine at night

Do not stand at my grave and cry

I am not there
I did not die

Author Unknown

They said...

We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are.
- Anais Nin

In life we all have an unspeakable secret, an irreversible regret, an unreachable dream and an unforgettable love.
= diego marchi


In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
- Benjamin Franklin

All the world's a cage.
- Jeanne Phillips

Something to ponder...

Reality alone exists - and that we are. All the rest is only a dream, a dream of the One Mind, which is our mind without the 'our'. Is it so hard to accept? Is it so difficult to assimilate and to live?

- Why Lazurus Laughed by Wei Wu Wei


it is true... why is it so hard to accept that which is presented to us and just assimilating with teh life we have?

Any thoughts on that, Void?

Something to keep in mind...

Life is short, so be sure to:

Break the rules,

Forgive quickly,

Kiss slowly,

Love truly,

Laugh uncontrollably,

Dance freely,

And never regret anything that made you smile.

Random quotes...

I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
- Robert McCloskey

Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.
- Michel de Montaigne

All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.
- James Thurber

No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.
- Henry Adams

This is the way of peace: "Overcome evil with good, falsehood with truth, and hatred with love." - Peace Pilgrim

Is repetitive action virtuous action? If behaviour and conduct are merely repetitive processes then all human relationships actually cease. If I behave mechanically every day, - repeating a certain code of conduct which I have learnt, which I find profitable, or which is pleasant, repeating that over and over again, - my relationship with you ceases, completely - I have become a machine.
- J. Krishnamurti

What a pity, when Christopher Colombus discovered America, that he ever mentioned it.
- Margot Asquith

Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane.
- Philip K. Dick

...when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be
the truth.
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

All the lessons of history in four sentences:
Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad with power.
The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small.
The bee fertilizes the flower it robs.
When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.
- Charles A. Beard

Quote of the day

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity. - Christopher Morley

So true

"What the eye does not admire, the heart does not desire"

Bent by Matchbox 20

If I fall along the way
Pick me up and dust me off
If I get too tired to make it
Be my breath so I can walk
If I need some of your love again
Give me more than I can stand
When my smile gets old and faded
Wait around I'll smile again
Shouldn't be so complicated
Just hold me and then
Just hold me again

Can you help me I'm bent
I'm so scared that I'll never
Get put back together
Keep breaking me in
And this is how we will live
With you and me bent

If I couldn't sleep could you sleep
Could you paint me better off
Could you sympathize with my needs
I know you think I need a lot
I started out clean but I'm jaded
Just falling
Just breaking the skin

Start bending me
It's never enough
'Til I feel all your pieces
Start bending me
Keep bending me until I'm completely broken in
Shouldn't be so complicated
Just touch me and then
Just touch me again

Without understanding
Hell, I'll go there again
Can you help me I'm bent
I'm so scared that I'll never
Get put back together
Yeah, you're breaking me in
And this is how we will live
With you and me bent

It is better to be alone than in bad company...

... and Buddha agrees:



"But if you do not find an intelligent companion, a wise and well-behaved person going the same way as yourself, then go on your way alone, like a king abandoning a conquered kingdom, or like a great elephant in the deep forest." - Buddha

On the way to overcome things:

'This is the way of peace: "Overcome evil with good, falsehood with truth, and hatred with love."

- Peace Pilgrim

So true...

" That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history. " - Aldous Huxley



The reason for the above? Humans are stupid, selfish, ignorant, arrogant...