Souad

“it has been one of the greatest and most difficult years of my life. i learned everything is temporary. moments. feelings. people. flowers. i learned love is about giving. everything. and letting it hurt. i learned vulnerability is always the right choice because it is easy to be cold in a world that makes it so very difficult to remain soft. i learned all things come in twos. life and death. pain and joy. salt and sugar. me and you. it is the balance of the universe. it has been the year of hurting so bad but living so good. making friends out of strangers. making strangers out of friends. learning mint chocolate chip ice cream will fix just about everything. and for the pains it can’t there will always be my mother’s arms. we must learn to focus on warm energy. always. soak our limbs in it and become better lovers to the world. for if we can’t learn to be kind to each other how will we ever learn to be kind to the most desperate parts of ourselves.”
― Rupi Kaur, The Sun and Her Flowers

“Whenever you conceptualize social justice struggles, you will always defeat your own purposes if you cannot imagine the people around whom you are struggling as equal partners.”
― Angela Y. Davis, Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement

“Sometimes you need to scorch everything to the ground, and start over. After the burning the soil is richer, and new things can grow. People are like that, too. They start over. They find a way.”
― Celeste Ng, Little Fires Everywhere

“عندما كنت أسير بين الشباب اليائس الغاضب المرفوض، كنت أقول لهم إن خليط المولوتف والبنادق لن تحل مشكلاتهم، حاولت أن أقدم لهم أعمق تعاطفي مع إيماني الراسخ بأن التغيير الاجتماعي يأتي ويكون مجدياً من خلال العمل غير العنيف. لكنهم سألوا، وكانوا على حق "ماذا عن فيتنام؟" سألوا ألا تستخدم بلادنا جرعات مكثفة من العنف لحل مشكلاتها لتحدث التغيرات التي تريدها؟ وأصابت أسألتهم كبد الحقيقة، وعلمت أنني لا أستطيع أن أرفع صوتي مرة أخرى ضد عنف المظلومين في الجيتوهات قبل أن أخاطب راعي العنف في العالم اليوم: حكومتي.”
― مارتن لوثر كينج الأصغر