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

Free

What does it mean to be free? It is to manage expectations and to let life unravel the way it is suppose to. Managing expectations does not equate to minimising responsible behaviour. Such would be impractical as the system of this life runs on the principle of accountability. We are accountable for our own happiness, for our successes, for our future and to a certain extent, the outcome of our decisions and actions. To be accountable means to take charge of our life within our capabilities and the means we have access to. To be accountable is recognising that we are proactive actors in our own lives. And hence to be free is to understand that we are gifted with this free will. And that we exercise our free will properly to make informed choices and to channel our energy for the desired outcome. May or may not happen the way as planned, but the beauty of this is to give it all it, and then to let nature take its course. Because if we don't and we dodge what is to come and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Living day-by-day, week-by-week

It has been an incredibly different year, and now we are seeing second waves in many parts of the country. The summer was great while it lasted, and now as I'm writing this, it is a gloomy, cool, rainy season. It's been raining cats and dogs for a week now, so I haven't been stepping out of my house as much. With the surge of cases, there will be stricter measures put in place as well, so it's been difficult to make plans ahead. If it is anything that defines the year, it is really about living life day-by-day, week-by-week. Taking life one step at a time. And despite so, life tries to go by as per normal. And once again I'm feeling another season of uncertainty, lack of motivation for constant self-directed behaviour and keeping up with energy. Maybe it is the turnover of season, with shortening of daylight hours, maybe it's my job, and maybe it is the effects of using social media, making me feel like my simple life is boring and pales in comparison, being awa...
Post a Comment
Read more