Azure new looks!

Muahahahaha! Today is a lovely day, and I have changed the looks of Quest & Lust!

I love the azureness and the floweriness. With a heat stroke to beat, and positivity to seek, I expect the new look to make me want to look at the blog and feel afresh! And write while I seek, like thousands of others, that ideal desktop blog publishing widget that means you never have to face a dashboard again. At least not twice a day!

(Interesting how blogs are becoming extensions of our personalities. I am observing how seriously people think their blogs "make them, them.")

Bending spoons - May the force be with I

The power that I have felt within the three days of not complaining is tremendous. It is something that I haven't felt since a long time.

These are my feelings:

• No one can solve my issues.
• I have the the power to solve my issues and create opportunities.
  
• If and when I do not complain, my mind is compelled to come up with a novel way, a solution around the problem.
• If complaining, in some way, takes our energy out of us and disperses it in the wide, open, black space - then being thankful and quiet starts reigning the energy back in.
• There is nothing to complain against or even to have praise for . It is only my state of mind.
  

Something from The Matrix fits in beautifully:

Spoon boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Spoon boy: There is no spoon.
Neo: There is no spoon?
Spoon boy: Then you'll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

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Use of time

Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.
Rodin (1840-1917)

The boat shook, but we have arrived, Captain!

Day 3

Yesterday was the third and last day of my resolve to not complain. The penalty for the occasional slip-up was to send peace upon the energy of the universe/multiverse ten times (aka durood shareef) followed by thanking the Lord ten times (i.e. uttering "Shukar Alhamdolillah ya Rab-il-Aalameen").

I woke up early - something I have been having trouble with since I started working again after a year-long hiatus. The first complaint that I uttered was, also, very early.

There is a vacant plot next to our home, which has now been walled. Within the boundaries of that piece of land has grown a plentiful jungle... with seeds of a variety of trees carried on the wings of air. There are tasteful berries, the medicinal neem, and the thorny keekar.

This jungle is towards the south-east of our home, and that poses a challenge: a blocking of sunlight, and sometimes the air. Besides, since no one can jump into the jungle to cut down the trees, the jungle has grown wildly and completely spills over into our home.

So my first complaint was: "Oh now this jungle is totally blocking the air!" Immediately paused, decided it was a breach of contract, and promptly paid the penalty. A gush of wind ruffled the hair of the jungle and set my spine tingling. I thought the sound was beautiful.

I also remembered that a few months ago, I had wished that I lived (and worked) in a place where brids sang. This little forest had responded: over the past few months, a variety of musical and colorful birds including robins, parrots, and the mad cuckoos had taken up place there. Each morning, I get up to hear birds I cannot recognize the variety of. Each morning they remind me that this is a new day. Each day, I somehow forget to see how the most trivial and absurd of my prayers come true. I think I am, like most fellow humans, busier seeing what's missing rather than pausing to appreciate what IS.

But not yesterday, which was a day without complaint; a day which brought me a personal understanding of the blessing of being thankful.

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Blog word of the week*: Magic

A haiku:

Affectionate friend, your magic touch of kindness wakes me up to joy!

-The Prophecy

* Blog word of the week (patent pending) is a private creativity exercise amongst a circle of fellow bloggers. I have been added to the circle by the almost famous Miss Insiya "Pop Critic" Syed. It's a brainchild of Karachi-based designer Sara Jamil aka Jammie @ Jam Designs.