Between Life & Death – by Mitch Albom

September 30, 2015October 2, 2015 / shenazw / Leave a comment

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in. We think we don’t deserve love, we think if we let it in we’ll become too soft.
But a wise man said, ‘Love is the only rational act.'”

“The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves.
We’re teaching the wrong things. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it. Create your own.”

“If you’re trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will look down at you anyhow. And if you’re trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone. Do the kind of things that come from the heart. When you do, you won’t be dissatisfied or envious. On the contrary you’ll be overwhelmed with what comes back.”
Quotes from Tuesday’s with Morrie

On Youth & Temptation – by Oscar Wilde

September 3, 2015September 13, 2015 / shenazw / Leave a comment

“Ah! realise your youth while you have it.
Don’t squander the gold of your days listening to the tedious, trying to improve the hopeless failure, or giving away your life to the ignorant and the common.
These are the sickly aims, the false ideals of our age. Live!
Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing…. A new Hedonism – that is what our century wants. You might be its visible symbol. With your personality there is nothing you could not do. The world belongs to your for a season.”

“Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us.
Nothing remains but the recollection of a pleasure or the luxury of a regret.
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself.”
Oscar Wilde

>inspiration

Five levels of Truth-telling – by Walsch

August 22, 2015August 23, 2015 / shenazw / Leave a comment

“1. When you tell the truth to yourself, about yourself.
2. When you tell the truth to yourself, about another.
3. When you tell the truth about yourself, to another and reveal who you are.
4. Telling the truth about another, to that other. – your truth of course, not the truth. The truth objectively doesn’t exist, but sharing your innermost truth about another, with that other.
5. When you tell the truth to everyone, about everything.
And if you can take these five steps, you’ve taken five steps closer to heaven, because heaven is not having to lie any more.”
– Neale Donald Walsch

Whoa, while I certainly haven’t mastered these, I find this a beautiful life-long practice to acquire.

> Inspiration

Onto The Dreamers Path

August 20, 2015September 30, 2015 / shenazw / 2 Comments

With theirÂ hands full,
they build elaborate locks and gilded cages,
to house the heart and soul.
While the dreamer,
builds a little key,
to escape,
onto the dreamer’s path.

by SHENAZ WAHID

Every Dreamer has at some point had to build a key out of his own imagination, one that allows him to step out of the mould and step onto his path.

Why We Dance

January 30, 2015August 1, 2015 / shenazw / Leave a comment

We dance to play music with our bodies,
We dance to feel the freedom we know is rightfully ours.
We dance to surrender wounds to the strumming of guitar.
We dance to hear the song within ourselves.
We dance to give movement to the love we feel.
We dance because the earth is always singing.

by Shenaz Wahid

Meeting fear in the dark lake

October 14, 2012October 18, 2012 / shenazw / Leave a comment

Dusk was soon handing herself to the dark and the three of us are standing on the rocks by the lake.
The lake which has a signboard outside saying, “Beware of crocodiles.”
The villagers say it is a hoax, so that the tourists will swim in a nearby beach whose shops can profit.
We ourselves had swum in the lake, the previous day in the sun’s company.

But right now is completely different.
The rocks casting dark shadows in the darkness that deepened every second, brought alive all our fears.
The crocodiles, whether or not they were hiding beneath those deep black waters, were alive in our imagination, lurking somewhere far beneath, waiting.
It is all so beautiful as long as we are standing outside, looking at the sweeping landscape begin to dream in the night, but we had come here to jump in.

Wasi heroically says something about swimming to a far off rock and back, but quickly changes his mind.
“So I’m going to have a smoke over it.”, says Tanzim as he sits down on a rock to light his cigarette.
We are all staring at the water when Wasi says, “Look there, the eyes staring out.”
“What? Where?”, we ask. It was his attempt to get us to completely change our minds. A cup floating in the water appears as the crocodiles snout and by now there is no way I’m jumping in either. There is not a soul far in sight but for the three of us and the crocodiles in our mind.

In one crazy moment, I ask my guardian Angel to protect me. Wasi runs and dives into the water first and I follow him. Pitch black bottomless darkness within.
We swim out in a matter of seconds.
Me and Tanzim jump in the second time, and the manner in which we jump back out, both throwing ourselves at Wasi, arms and legs beating the water madly, to get us out, is beyond hilarious.

We laugh hard as we ride into the stars and the rice fields, our bodies and hearts soaked in the lake’s sweetness, feeling more alive than ever.
Even if just for a few moments, we had dove into our fears to find they were silly voices in the head, that die the moment we embrace them. As I turn back to look, while the bike drifts through the road back home, fireflies ignite the path.

by SHENAZ WAHID