Project 365

You lack a foot to travel?
Then journey into yourself
That leads to transformation
of dust into pure gold.
Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself

— Jalal ad-Din Rumi

Everything you see has its roots in the unseen world.
The forms may change, yet the essence remains the same.
Every wonderful sight will vanish; every sweet word will fade,
But do not be disheartened,
The source they come from is eternal, growing,
Branching out, giving new life and new joy.
Why do you weep?
The source is within you
And this whole world is springing up from it

— Jalal ad-Din Rumi

I find peace and calmness in this poem. Somehow 🙂

Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s places.

And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.

I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the willfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.

What is more, those who choose not to empathize enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.

— J.K. Rowling at Harvard University Commencement, 5 June 2008

Imagination also enables me to be more grateful about my life, for whatever hardships I have endured, others have experienced much rougher life than I have 🙂

Gelukkig Nieuwjaar! Happy New Year! Let’s celebrate our life and wish for an exciting one this year!

The hurt you embrace becomes joy
Call it to your arms where it can change

A silkworm eating leaves makes a cocoon
Each of us weaves a chamber of leaves and sticks

Silkworms begin to truly exist
as they disappear inside that room

Without legs, we fly

When I stop speaking, this poem will close,
and open its silent wings…

— Jalal ad-Din Rumi

There’s always hope in everything…

As you prepare your breakfast, think of others
Don’t forget to feed the pigeons.

As you conduct your wars, think of others
Don’t forget those who want peace.

As you pay your water bill, think of others
Think of those who have only the clouds to drink from.

As you go home, your own home, think of others
Don’t forget those who live in tents.

As you sleep and count the planets, think of others
There are people who have no place to sleep.

As you liberate yourself with metaphors, think of others
Those who have lost their right to speak.

As you think of distant others
Think of yourself and say
I wish I were a candle in the darkness

— Mahmoud Darwish, a Palestinian poet

To the woman who has given me endless inspirations…

To the woman who has taught me how it is to be a real woman…

To the woman who never fails to remind me to be strong…

To the only woman who has given me life…

To my only mom. Happy Mother’s Day. I love you always.

Knock,
And He’ll open the door
Vanish,
And He’ll make you shine like the sun
Fall,
And He’ll raise you to the heavens
Become nothing,
And He’ll turn you into everything.

— Jalal ad-Din Rumi

I just love this one 🙂

”ŽThis place where you are right now, God circled on a map for you.

— Hafez

Do not look for God,
look for the one looking for God…

But why look at all?
God is not lost,
God is right here…
closer than your own breath.

Jalal ad-Din Rumi

God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites, so that you will have two wings to fly, not one.

— Jalal ad-Din Rumi