Tag: quote

Find Your Words…

A Wondering WandererLeave a comment

As J.K. Rowling said:

Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.

– Albus Dumbledore in “Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows”

I absolutely love this quote! And I couldn’t agree more. Words are indeed magical, and we can all do with a little bit of their magic.

And sometimes, we are the only ones who can bring that magic in our own lives. Because, we know ourselves. Because, the stakes are highest for us. Because, if we don’t, nobody else will.

So, find the words that give you hope. That show you the way forward when you feel lost. Only you would know the exact words to use.

Find them, write them down, and then put them on the walls, on your screens, in your heart.

And remember them on the days when you need a glimmer of hope.

Everyone needs to be a writer.

Not for anyone else, but oneself.

Because there will be days when you need the right words to get back up.

And the only person whose words would work would be yourself.

– Ehsaas

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Credits: Quote by me. Photo created with Canva.

The Unknown Knowns

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There are known knowns. There are known unknowns. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.

Donald Rumsfeld

I recently came across this quote by Donald Rumsfeld, the former American politician. Although this quote by itself is quite enlightening – highlighting the limits of our knowledge, keeping us in check, lest we become over-confident and forget that no matter how much we know, there’s always more to know – it is not what today’s post is about.

So, why did I mention this quote? Well, as you were reading it, you might have also noticed something like I did. The quote talks about “known knowns”, “known unknowns”, and “unknown unknowns”. But there’s another category – “unknown knowns” – that’s conspicuous by its absence here.

And what exactly are these “unknown knowns”? Well, by their very definition, we can not know them! But even though we can not know or observe them directly, we can feel them. These things fall in the category of intuition, of faith, of belief.

This will be subjective to everyone, and many people might not even be able to relate to this, but if I talk about myself, there are things I just somehow “know” – there’s strong faith, belief even about certain things, which can not be justified or proved, based on empirical evidence, observed by our five senses.

It is these things that I refer to as the “unknown knowns” – “unknown”, because we don’t exactly know about how these things work, how they affect other things, how they came to be, etc., and “known” because our faith in them is so strong, that we know that they are true, that they do happen, even though we may not know how they happen. 

It’s a complicated thing to try and explain in words. Let see if some examples might help. Of course, different people will have such faith in different things, but still, here are some examples: belief in a higher power, in luck or destiny, in the karmic law, in the power of love, in your dreams of achieving something, or even simply in a better future, etc. We might not have any concrete evidence to believe in these things, yet some of us do. We don’t know what that higher power is (I’m not necessarily talking about God here), but in our heart, we just know that it is there. That’s what makes these things the “unknown knowns”.

Reading that quote above, I was reminded that we live in a society that focuses so much on the knowns / unknowns in the traditional sense – where things can be proved and disproved using cold logic and facts – but we hardly put in enough effort to develop this other way of “sensing” things, which sometimes I feel is very important if we have to survive in this world.

Again, I may not have any way to prove this, but I know my life is better because of my faith in these “unknown knowns”.

What about you?

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Photo by Katie Drazdauskaite @ Unsplash

Value Of A Moment

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Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory.

– Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka “Dr. Seuss”

Today’s post is going to be a short one, like this month of February itself. 😄

To be honest, it’s also because there really isn’t much to add to this beautiful quote by Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka “Dr. Seuss” – he just said it so simply and succinctly!

I was recently reminiscing about a few cherished memories, and when I read this quote after that, I realized how true this is.

The specific moments I was thinking about were nothing out of the ordinary as such when they actually took place. At the time, I never would’ve guessed that one day they’ll become as cherished as they have now.

In fact, many times, if not all of the times, it seems that the value of a moment is actually that it is a memory. It is over time that these moments become more and more valuable. Sometimes, the people involved are no longer with us. Sometimes, situations have changed dramatically, such that we are no longer in a position to recreate similar moments again, and we only have what we already had. Sometimes, it’s just that feeling, experienced for the first time, that we can not really experience again.

If these moments didn’t turn into memories, they would be lost amongst the millions of other small moments we live through, and don’t even remember. Which also highlights the importance of living each present moment consciously, and not just sleepwalking through our life.

The moments that we are living through now will become a memory one day. If you are living through a tough time, it’s difficult, but it will still pass. But, if you are living through a good phase of your life, really cherish it, for, we’ll really know the true value of this moment much later – when all we’ll have is a memory of it.

And with that, I’ll wrap up this post. Wishing everyone a life full of such moments and memories! 😊

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Photo Credit: guille pozzi on Unsplash

The Meaning & Purpose Of Life

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The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.

Pablo Picasso

So, I came across this quote recently. And it made me stop and think a bit. So, obviously, I had to share it with you guys. 😄

[ Note that even though I’m attributing it to Pablo Picasso, there seems to be some doubt about the accuracy of that. People much smarter than me have tried to find the true source of the quote, but it’s still not exactly clear. So, for now, I’m just going to trust the good people at goodreads.com who ascribe it to Picasso, and run with it. ]

The first thing it made me realize was that I didn’t have a clear enough picture of the difference between “meaning of life” and “purpose of life”. I knew they were not the same, but I couldn’t exactly put my finger on it. Kind of looking at something through a misty haze – you feel there’s something there, but don’t know what precisely.

Before I go into a long-winded exposition on the difference between these: What do you think? Do you know exactly what these two things mean to you? What are some of the things that give meaning and purpose to your life?

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Discovering Our Course

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One recognizes one’s course by discovering the paths that stray from it.

– Albert Camus

This quote is taken from Albert Camus’ essay “The Myth Of Sisyphus”. And I wouldn’t blame you if it sounds confusing to you. I had first come across this quote a while back. And while I don’t remember exactly how I felt about it at that time, I think, now, with slightly more life experience, I can relate to it better.

Sometimes it is difficult to know where to go next in life, which path to pick. There are just so many possibilities, so many directions that one’s life can take. It’s not the case for everyone, though – there are people who clearly know what they want from life, and how to get there.

But if you are like me, you probably have been a bit confused, at least at some point, about where your life was headed. I was at such a crossroad recently, and that’s when I realised one interpretation of this quote that was applicable to me.

Of course, different people may have different interpretations of it. And I haven’t read the source essay to know full well in which context Camus said this himself. Still, based on just this one line, my interpretation is simply this: when you don’t know what you want, you decide based on what you don’t want. And sometimes, that gives you enough clarity to know what you wanted in the first place.

But as I was writing this, I realized, it’s not even just about “wanting” or “not wanting” things – it can be extended to other things as well. For example: You discover what kind of a person you are, by finding out what things you just can’t do or support or stand for.

The things that you don’t want are basically paths diverging from the road that you are on currently.

By knowing what we don’t want, what we are not, where we don’t want to end up, etc., we get a step closer to understanding the truth behind it – what we want, who we are, where we are going.

Imagine it like this: you are travelling on the highway, with no specific destination in mind. At regular intervals, there are exits. One exit will take you to city A, another to city B, and so on. As you encounter these exits, one-by-one, by either taking or not taking one of them, you are deciding the final city where you’ll end up, which will ultimately determine what course you took in your journey.

So, I think the point here is when we encounter these “exits” or paths, we should be mindful, as that will determine where we end up in life. Sometimes, we are just so used to “driving”, that we don’t even realise when we make a left turn here or right turn there. We are on “auto-pilot” mode, just going through the motions. But life doesn’t always present a U-turn for you to go back and make a different choice the next time.

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How Old Are you?

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You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.

– Samuel Ullman

Most of us must have heard of the oft-repeated phrase: “Age is just a number!” What it’s meant to imply is that our “age” is not defined by the number of years that we’ve been alive. But this phrase also doesn’t specify what, then, is “age” defined by?

I think this quote by Samuel Ullman very cleverly tells us what our “age” really is – a measure of the impact of our experiences.

I like the juxtapositions presented by the author – faith vs doubt, self-confidence vs fear, hope vs despair, and the way he related these to one’s “age”.

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Choices Of Hope

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May your choices reflect your hopes; not your fears.

– Nelson Mandela

Isn’t it a nice feeling to find your thoughts echoed by the greats? 😀

There’s one major difference though: While I can hardly manage to put those thoughts into words at all, the greats say it so succinctly, and with words that just speak to you, that mere mortals like me can just listen to them in awe. If the words above are as soft as falling asleep, mine would be as harsh as the morning alarm!

Even though my words probably won’t do justice to this wonderful quote, I still did want to talk a bit more about it.

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Things Swept Off In The Breeze…

A Wondering Wanderer3 Comments

Only those in tune with nature seem to pick up on the energy in wind. All sorts of things get swept off in the breeze – ghosts, pieces of soul, voices unsung, voices repressed, love uncherished, and a thousands galore of spiritual ether.

– Terri Guillemets

Nice quote by Terri Guillemets! I totally agree with her on this – there indeed is a certain energy in the wind, an energy separate from the physical energy of the motion of the wind particles. This other “energy” is something different, something difficult to describe, something you either feel or you don’t, something magical.

I feel that this energy knows me. Intimately. It knows how to reach deep down inside and pull me up, despite all that I may be buried under. I find few things as soothing to the soul as a stroll on a breezy night (or day even, as long as it’s not hot). Despite all that may be going on in my life, all the things that may be weighing on my mind at that moment, it transports me far away from them. In that instant, it’s just me and the wind, talking, playing, just being.

ghosts, pieces of soul, voices unsung, voices repressed, love uncherished

So much said in so few words! This is the part of the quote that really hits home for me. I’m finding it difficult to put my feelings and thoughts about them into words. But let me still take a stab: Taken individually, these words may sound melancholic, but in the overall context of the quote, they transform into something warm-and-fuzzy, something beautiful. I don’t know what other words to use, or how else to describe the emotions they trigger, but hopefully these would give you an idea. A brilliant collection of words, woven together even more brilliantly.

Truly, words are just noises and smudges; it is how we use them that gives them their immense power.  And Terri here has done an amazing job at that!

* * *

Note: On some sites, this quote is attributed to a “Drew Sirtors”, about whom I couldn’t find any other piece of information anywhere! I don’t know if it’s a pen name for Terri Guillemets or what other reason there could be for this ambiguity. What’s even more surprising is that this is not a one-off quote by Drew – there’s another popular quote attributed to him/her, but there’s no information at all on this person! Anyways, the point is – I’m not sure to whom this quote actually belongs, but I’ve attributed it above to Terri since it was originally attributed to her the first time I came across it, and also because there seem to be more attributions to her online, than to Drew. If you have any information on the true origin of the quote, please do share!

Photo Credit: Unsplash and Canva

E. E. Cummings: The Hardest Challenge…

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I find this quote from E. E. Cummings to be very true.

We always have an opinion on everything. Even if a random person, whom we are meeting for the first time, were to appear in front of us, and ask for some advice, we would definitely have something for him (even though we may not give that advice to him out of politeness or political correctness, but our minds will definitely think of something for him).

This works the other way too. Everyone has some opinion about how we, ourselves, are, and how we ought to be. That includes how we talk, our body language, our sense of dressing, our lack of knowledge about something, etc. People always have something that they want to tell us.

And this is not always with of a sense of condescension or contempt. Sometimes, people genuinely want what’s best for us. Like your family or friends. They’ll share their knowledge or opinion in the hope that it will make us better, prevent us from making certain mistakes, etc.

But, irrespective of the intentions, the ultimate effect on a person is that everyone tries to make the person be somebody else, according to what they think is best. But as the person leading that life, one has their own idea about how to lead their own life.

The result is that one has to deal with too many opinions, some their own, and some from different people. These opinions are often in conflict with each other, and one may easily be confused as to which one to take into consideration, and which to ignore.

To whom do you listen? To yourself or to those around you? Who’s to say who will be right? When faced with a choice, say you are thinking of going for option #1, but everyone around you suggests you take option #2. And say, after a great deal of thinking over the options, considering the arguments that others made for option #2, you do end up going for option #2, who made that decision? Did you or did they?

And even if you do take option #1 (your own original choice), suppose that turns out wrong (everyone makes mistakes and wrong decisions sometime in life). When the next time you have to make a choice again, and when again, the others have certain opinions different from your own, whom do you listen to?

These are not easy questions to answer. To make decisions that are truly one’s “own”,  one needs a great level of self-awareness and courage.

Self-awareness, so that one can objectively decide what one’s own thoughts are, without getting them mixed up with the plethora of thoughts from others that one will, undoubtedly, be bombarded with.

And courage, because that’s what one needs to stick to one’s own convictions, even in the face of a 100 people telling them that they are wrong. And specially, when one has actually been wrong in the past. A mistake, in the past, in a totally different scenario, doesn’t mean that one will make another in the current scenario. But those other people won’t miss a beat in telling you that you were wrong before (when you hadn’t listened to them), and that you should listen to them now if you don’t want to be wrong again.

In such a complex mix, it is a real challenge, the hardest even, to maintain a clear vision of who you are. So, yes, I agree:

The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else.

– E. E. Cummings

Better Than False Ideas…

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The above quote has perhaps never been more relevant than today. In the age of continuous media propaganda, where it’s difficult to make sense of what is true and what isn’t, it would do us good to remember this. We should think twice before blindly believing whatever bullshit we are fed.

The thing with having false notions about our environment is that it biases us against the truth. Once we think we know something, when information to the contrary presents itself, we try to distort that information to fit in with our preconceived views. This leads to more confusion and moves us further away from the truth.

It also leads to frustration and animosity, because we are continuously faced with opposing views that require efforts to accommodate to our world-view, and sometimes, because of such a continuous onslaught, we might get a feeling of antagonism from those around us, when they actually may only be trying to tell us the truth.

That’s why I think it’s important that not only do we do our best not to get seduced by wrong beliefs, but also that we remember that no matter what we believe, there’s always a possibility that it may not be the most accurate picture of the truth, and a better explanation of the facts could still be out there.

It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.

– Thomas Jefferson