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Between the lines

As long as we're learning, we'll tend to find ourselves digging deeper into layers and layers of contradictions. Life will continue to pull us from all directions and sometimes compel us to take a stand or to question ourselves. As much as adults have developed quite a fixed set of worldviews, we can't deny how we're constantly growing and how our beliefs take shape and being reshaped as we move forward and deeper into learning. In today's age of overstimulation, we witness how our worldviews are constantly tested and questioned, even by ourselves. Like in tug-of-war, they are affirmed and then challenged, to be reaffirmed again and the cycle repeats. This process is a given as long as we're learning and growing. Thus, it's essential to develop an openminded stance to deal with uncertainties, discrepancies and doubt that confront us- to be okay with being uncomfortable and carry with us questions we may not have immediate answers to, to be okay with grey areas, relativities and spectrums, to be able to say 'i don't know' and take concerted steps towards understanding them.

What we need is the courage to stand between the lines. It's always easy to scurry to the edges and subscribe to the views of the majority, but it takes alot more to stand rooted and allow ourselves be exposed to different views, alternatives, possibilities and slowly find our way and arrive to our own stand. Leave those prejudices, preconceived notions and stereotypes behind, be open and welcoming.

Being open doesn't mean we let ourselves get easily swayed to wherever it is the wind blows us to. As mentioned aptly and beautifully by Imam Ali a.s, "The winds do not blow to make trees dance, but to test their roots". We'd never escape the winds. If we try to, then we'll never recognise how strong our roots could be. If we try to, we'd live a life of safety and never truly grow beyond our comfort zones and the bubble we have created for ourselves. Indeed we've been gifted with great faculties to discern and comprehend the world, if we are brave enough to utilise it.

This journey certainly isn't easy. But it is definitely a path towards living a life of clarity, meaning, purpose and discovery.

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