Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hitam Manis

This is difficult to write, but it's definitely an important one amidst all the conversations we've been having lately. Growing up being brown/Malay wasn't easy, especially when it became ingrained in me that having a darker skin tone by default, is less desired than fairer skin tones. In childhood, I couldn't recall having to endure comments about my skin colour. Thankfully amongst children, these values ascribed to lightness and darkness didn't yet come to the fore. This consciousness became more obvious since secondary school. And it was tough and painful.  I've been in a sports CCA since secondary school and I couldn't really avoid not becoming tanned. What hurts the most was even my peers at that time would make comments about my skin colour without even realising the damage caused from these words. These comments I recall, were sometimes made under the guise of humour. I was called 'budak hitam' (literally means 'black child') and even ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reclaiming my voice

It has been more than 2 years since I published anything on this blog. I have written a few reflections quite abit during this time, but they are mostly in draft versions, probably reflective of the scatteredness of my thought processes, or the ongoing engagement with the topic which has yet found a proper resolve (or is there ever a resolve really?), or just me finding mere words to articulate my thoughts that are waiting to be entertained and possibly verbalised or written. I'm driven to write this post precisely because I can't entirely ignore the nagging voice inside my head, telling me to use writing as a tool to not only express myself, but to reclaim my voice. It is such an insanely noisy world. The constant stream of information from different online platforms not only pull me from various directions, but it spreads my attention too thin that it is impossible to follow one stream of thought, sit on it for awhile, slowly reflect and if possible, articulate it. It is not ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cycles

I found myself stopping in my tracks as soon as I was greeted by a view. There I was. Struck with awe and captivated by the beauty of the full moon. And a large one this time. So full, so bright, so round. Though a moon in its very physical form is full and round, we embrace this moment when we finally bear witness to this true form. Don't we have to see some crescents, quarters and gibbouses before we see the full moon? What a beautiful reminder from nature that it takes a cycle to be able to witness this beauty. And that cycles and processes are important building founding blocks of life. Like the metamorphosis of the caterpillar and the developmental stages of a growing embryo in the womb. Every journey consists of changes and processes. And we trudge along to finally reach to the end point; a beautiful end product, a beautiful long awaited destination and a beautiful final abode. A journey may be interspersed with days which seemed bleak and dark. But there is light at the e...
Post a Comment
Read more