Heba Raslan

“يتهاوى الصُحب من حولي كما تتهاوى الاوراق من غُصن الشجر .. فيمرُ شتاء وحدةٍ على نفسي ... ثم يسطعُ ربيع أملٍ على دربي .. فتنبت الحياة من أجلي صحب خيرٌ من ذي قبل ... فأمسك قلبي وأنُاجي .. رجاءاً .. لا مزيدَ من الفقدِ ! فيردُ قائلٌ .. يا فتى أوليس بتبديل الورق تنمو أغصان الشجر !”
― محمود أغيورلي

“They say that people who live next to waterfalls don't hear the water. It was terrible at first. We couldn't stand to be in the house for more than a few hours at a time. The first two weeks were filled with nights of intermittent sleep and quarreling for the sake of being heard over the water. We fought so much just to remind ourselves that we were in love, and not in hate. But the next weeks were a little better. It was possible to sleep a few good hours each night and eat in only mild discomfort. [We] still cursed the water, but less frequently, and with less fury. Her attacks on me also quieted. It's your fault, she would say. You wanted to live here. Life continued, as life continues, and time passed, as time passes, and after a little more than two months: Do you hear that? I asked her one of the rare mornings we sat at the table together. Hear it? I put down my coffee and rose from my chair. You hear that thing? What thing? she asked. Exactly! I said, running outside to pump my fist at the waterfall. Exactly! We danced, throwing handfuls of water in the air, hearing nothing at all. We alternated hugs of forgiveness and shouts of human triumph at the water. Who wins the day? Who wins the day, waterfall? We do! We do! And this is what living next to a waterfall is like. Every widow wakes one morning, perhaps after years of pure and unwavering grieving, to realize she slept a good night's sleep and will be able to eat breakfast, and doesn't hear her husband's ghost all the time, but only some of the time. Her grief is replaced with a useful sadness. Every parent who loses a child finds a way to laugh again. The timbre begins to fade. The edge dulls. The hurt lessens. Every love is carved from loss. Mine was. Yours is. Your great-great-great-grandchildren's will be. But we learn to live in that love.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated

“كم جاء الثواب يسعى إليك فوقف بالباب فرده بواب (سوف ولعل وعسى).
ابن القيم”
― ابن قيم الجوزية, الفوائد

“But what the evil people do, that's their responsibility. The burden they have to carry. Sure, when we see 'em starting on causing some hurt, we've got to try and stop 'em, but mostly what the rest of us should be concerning ourselves with is doing right by others. Every time you do a good turn, you shine the light a little further into the dark. And the thing is, even when we're gone, that light's going to keep shining on, pushing the shadows back.”
― Charles de Lint, Someplace to Be Flying