Rana Ahmed

“This is what rituals are for. We do spiritual ceremonies as human beings in order to create a safe resting place for our most complicated feelings of joy or trauma, so that we don't have to haul those feelings around with us forever, weighing us down. We all need such places of ritual safekeeping. And I do believe that if your culture or tradition doesn't have the specific ritual you are craving, then you are absolutely permitted to make up a ceremony of your own devising, fixing your own broken-down emotional systems with all the do-it-yourself resourcefulness of a generous plumber/poet.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

“إِذا المَرءُ لا يَرعاكَ إِلّا تَكَلُّفاً فَدَعهُ وَلا تُكثِر عَلَيهِ التَأَسُّفا
فَفِي النَّاسِ أبْدَالٌ وَفي التَّرْكِ رَاحة ٌ وفي القلبِ صبرٌ للحبيب ولو جفا
فَمَا كُلُّ مَنْ تَهْوَاهُ يَهْوَاكَ قلبهُ وَلا كلُّ مَنْ صَافَيْتَه لَكَ قَدْ صَفَا
إذا لم يكن صفو الوداد طبيعة ً فلا خيرَ في ودٍ يجيءُ تكلُّفا
ولا خيرَ في خلٍّ يخونُ خليلهُ ويلقاهُ من بعدِ المودَّة ِ بالجفا
وَيُنْكِرُ عَيْشاً قَدْ تَقَادَمَ عَهْدُهُ وَيُظْهِرُ سِرًّا كان بِالأَمْسِ قَدْ خَفَا
سَلامٌ عَلَى الدُّنْيَا إذا لَمْ يَكُنْ بِهَا صديق صدوق صادق الوعد منصفا”
― الشافعي

“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“In my twenties in San Francisco I became a sophisticate and an acting agnostic. It wasn't that I had stopped believing in God; it's just that God didn't seem to be around the neighborhoods I frequented.”
― Maya Angelou, Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now