Constantly Seeking Inspiration

[Link] Going Green: A New Tradition for Ramadan

The suburban Chicago paper the Daily Herald reports that the council, which represents 50 area mosques with 400,000 members, has launched a "green Ramadan" initiative to encourage Muslims to use the holiday as a time to reduce their carbon footprints and become better environmental stewards by, for example, eating more local, organic food and less red meat; drinking tap water instead of bottled; planting a vegetable garden; recycling at home and promoting recycling at their mosques; carpooling to prayers, walking and using public transportation more often; and investing in clean energy.

"We want them to go beyond the fasting, go beyond just looking at Ramadan as something that is for Muslims and to really look at the broader implications of Muslim responsibilities toward humanity," says Junaid Afeef, the council's executive director.

via www.treehugger.com

photo

(Solbeam) Quote

via faridarox.tumblr.com

Dialogue: American Beauty (1999)

RICKY FITTS

It was one of those days when it's a minute away from snowing and there's this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. And this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that's the day I realized there was this entire life behind things, and... this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video's a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember... and I need to remember... Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in.

Scene: Video

Hard to imagine this movie was released almost 10 years ago.

Photo: Complicated Cacti

More proof that beautiful traits are born and are within complex, thorny, complicated, people--err, I mean plants. Something beautiful exists in everything. Beauty is subjective.

-Farida

Video: Ramadan Message from the President & Greetings

Wishing all my friends a Ramadan Mubarak (Happy Ramadan)! Today marks the first fast. No food or water from sun up to sun down. A month of charity, fasting, worship,reconnecting, renewing our faith,  sharing, and sharing our gratitude.
The month of Ramadan is a month a Muslim looks forward to each year. It reminds us how blessed we are and how much humanity depends on peaceful coexistence and being mindful and respectful of our fellow human beings, of all faiths. I hope you all have a blessed, peaceful, loving Ramadan.
Continue to share the love, wishes and blessings.
Love,
Farida

PS: Here is a  write up by the Houston Chronicle about the Jalali family. Lovely people. Sweet story.

With that being said, here is President Obama's Ramadan Message. (Click HERE)

The video is accompanied by a post from Rashad Hussain, deputy associate White House counsel:

As the new crescent moon ushers in Ramadan, the President extends his best wishes to Muslim communities in the United States and around the world.

Each Ramadan, the ninth month on the lunar calendar, Muslims fast daily from dawn to sunset for 29 or 30 days. Fasting is a tradition in many religious faiths and is meant to increase spirituality, discipline, thankfulness, and consciousness of God's mercy. Ramadan is also a time of giving and reaching out to those less fortunate, and this summer, American Muslims have joined their fellow citizens in serving communities across the country. Over the course of the month, we will highlight the perspectives of various faiths on fasting and profile faith-based organizations making real impacts in American cities and towns.

This month is also a time of renewal and this marks the first Ramadan since the President outlined his vision for a new beginning between America and the Muslim world. As a part of that new beginning, the President emphasizes that our relationship with Muslim communities cannot be based on political and security concerns alone. True partnerships also require cooperation in all areas - particularly those that can make a positive difference in peoples' daily lives, including education, science and technology, health, and entrepreneurship - fields in which Muslim communities have helped play a pioneering role throughout history.

The President's message is part of an on-going dialogue with Muslim communities that began on inauguration day and has continued with his statement on Nowruz, during trips to Ankara and Cairo, and with interviews with media outlets such as Al Arabiya and Dawn TV.

As this dialogue continues and leads to concrete actions, the President extends his greetings on behalf of the American people. Ramadan Kareem.

Photo: "No Machines, Hello Nature"

A Mermaid's Evolution Part 1: Eight Psychological Types

One of the first books I bought when I got into Psychoanalysis was, "Introducing Jung" by Maggie Hyde and Michael McGuiness. I highly recommend this book if you never heard of Carl Gustav Jung, and want to learn about archetypes and myths. I was lucky enough to work with a Jungian Psychoanalysis back in 2003. At that time in my life I was interested in making sense of my writing styles and other areas of my life. Needless to say, it opened many chapters in my life and opened my mind to a whole other world of creative exploration and meditation. It was also when I realized that my archetype was the "Mermaid". I am sure you have taken notice of my Mermaid fondness in my blog, "Take a Dive, Make a Splash". (You have if you have been following Farida blog since 2001 ). Seven years later, I am out growing the "Mermaid" archetype in my writing.

I am not sure if I will keep the title of my blog, considering I want to whole-heartedly focus on my new calling and central theme in life. Which, I am still exploring; this time without the guidance of a Mentor, but through my own writings and meditation. I am eager and excited about the uncertainty of the new muse/theme/archetype I will channel into my work. Only time will tell. You do have to keep an open mind however, when approaching this subject. It is easier to understand and hard to explain, if you don't already get it.

I am sure I will journal more about this process in the near future. One observation I have made in my life recently is, that how in some areas I have become so much stronger, and other areas where I was titanium, have softened up a bit. I am sure these lessons are in preparation for something greater. I can feel it in my bones, in my cells, and in my mind.  I don't share as much as I used to. Do not get me wrong, I still share my blessings, good thoughts, and wishes. It's those candid thoughts, the almost private thoughts, that I used to freely share, I sometimes miss. I am definitely more guarded in more areas of my life. The experiences in the last few years of my life have proved themselves to me.

Writing is such an outlet. More than a passion sometimes, but an expression. Whether or not, I have readers or not, the idea of putting it out there is freeing. Although I cannot lie, it is always nice to know I have readers. It makes it all the better. I like to think all the "matter" I cannot share concretely, I spread through out my writings and characters like layers.

Writers, at all levels are creating something from themselves. It is  selfish, it's maternal/paternal, it's proof, and it's a living testament of their life. Good or bad, a writer's mark is made with every punctuation and paragraph.
Words don't die. They live. Maybe discreetly, under folders, in flash drives, in leather bound notebooks, scratch pads and even post its. They live on forever.

More on this matter later in part 2. In the meantime, I scanned a few pages from the book. The book is filled with entertaining illustrations of the different psychological types. Take a look and enjoy. Oh, one more thing, you can click to enlarge the image.

With Love,
Farida Ansari Rafique

 

 

5 minute journal: Click. Click. Click.

*a quick journal post, on the fly.*

-Farida

Click. Click. Click. Switch- static-Click.

 

“Sponge”, me? Yes, that is so. That is what they call, Information overload?

Please make room for some more data. The universe is expanding and you are growing. Filling up space, it’s not hard, just different. Pardon the simple words. They are from the heart; they say what I feel, and nothing more.

 

Rhythm is present in everything.

Flow is beautiful.

Share some more? No mystery here, just rather be unclear.

Energy never dies. It is the law before it was a title of an album.

I maybe late to the party, but according to my watch I am on time.

 

Crossed off would be items. Met my episodic for the first time. Loving it deeply. Can’t wait to share it with the world. It is created. This is where I start speaking in abstract.
Not much fun to figure out. There is nothing to figure out, if there is no inclination to.

 

The past is certainly not part of the present. No need to delete. It is all saved in my leather bound notebook. All etched in my head. What I didn’t say has been typed out, and the lines to be delivered.

 

For the lovely souls I met along the way. Couldn’t say it enough.

What I have learned in my short time on terra firma, is what you give, give, give, you do receive, receive, receive. Not always from the ones you gave to, but in mysterious ways, ways of the Creator, ways of the Universe.

You do, sometime receive a lesson or two, but those too, are priceless; gifts. I think you would agree too.

 

Be who you are, and nothing less. You are one of the kind. You can only be your own best. The higher the goals, the unthinkable the goals to some—all the sweeter it will taste when you get there. Be steady. Keep steady. Keep the faith. Soon, everything falls into place. Work is not work, when it’s passion. Every step is a step towards a fulfilled purpose. Each deadline, each roadblock, is a new growth. It is an opportunity to learn and be in charge of your own path.

 

No one ever got to his or her destination without doing some individual work. It’s so.

Life is what you believe it to be. “Crunchy granola, anyone”?

 

Flip flip. Scan. Scan. Scan.

Highlight. Underline.

Type. Type. Type.

Read, absorb, read, time alone. Study time. Make it so.

You are a sponge. This is information overload.

Expand your mind. Grow.

This is indeed Time.

No better time, no past time, any future time.

Represent yourself. 

The time is now.

Light is More Important Than The Lantern

Light is more important than the lantern,
The poem more important than the notebook,
And the kiss more important than the lips.
My letters to you
Are greater and more important than both of us.
The are the only documents
Where people will discover
Your beauty
And my madness

Poem: Qabbani
Painting:
Girl reading a Letter at an Open Window
by Johannes Vermeer

Wordy: Prosperity

Prosperity is not in what you have
attained, but rather in
what you GIVE away...
For it is only when
You BECOME empty
that you can be
filled with something
GREATER.

Chinese Proverb

Video: The Passenger

What don't you love about this video? Celluloid greats set to Iggy Pop. Check it out HERE. (the full list of movies are listed in the information.)

Love it.

Dialogue

HERMAN BLUME
What's the secret, Max?

MAX FISCHER
The secret?

HERMAN BLUME
Yeah, you seem to have it pretty figured out.

MAX FISCHER

The secret, I don't know... I guess you've just gotta find something you love to do and then... do it for the rest of your life. For me, it's going to Rushmore.

for scene video click HERE.

"The World As I See It"

When we survey our lives and endeavors we soon observe that almost the whole of our actions and desires are bound up with the existence of other human beings. We see that our whole nature resembles that of the social animals. We eat food that others have grown, wear clothes that others have made, live in houses that others have built.

The greater part of our knowledge and beliefs has been communicated to us by other people through the medium of a language which others have created.

Without language our mental capacities would be poor indeed, comparable to those of the higher animals; we have, therefore, to admit that we owe our principal advantage over the beasts to the fact of living in human society.

The individual, if left alone from birth would remain primitive and beast-like in his thoughts and feelings to a degree that we can hardly conceive. The individual is what he is and has the significance that he has not so much in virtue of his individuality, but rather as a member of a great human society, which directs his material and spiritual existence from the cradle to the grave.

The example of great and pure characters is the only thing that can produce fine ideas and noble deeds.

 A man's value to the community depends primarily on how far his feelings, thoughts, and actions are directed towards promoting the good of his fellows. We call him good or bad according to how he stands in this matter. It looks at first sight as if our estimate of a man depended entirely on his social qualities.
     
And yet such an attitude would be wrong. It is clear that all the valuable things, material, spiritual, and moral, which we receive from society can be traced back through countless generations to certain creative individuals. The use of fire, the cultivation of edible plants, the steam engine — each was discovered by one man.
     
Only the individual can think, and thereby create new values for society — nay, even set up new moral standards to which the life of the community conforms. Without creative, independently thinking and judging personalities the upward development of society is as unthinkable as the development of the individual personality without the nourishing soil of the community.
     
The health of society thus depends quite as much on the independence of the individuals composing it as on their close political cohesion.


The World As I See It

Albert Einstein

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nothing Gold Can Stay

by
Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

Photo: Farida Rafique

Wordy: Taking Risks

"So what if my telephone is turned off again at home? Or my electricity is shut off?  Or my credit cards canceled? If you don't bet, you don't have a chance to win. It's so silly in life not to pursue the highest possible thing you can imagine, even if you run the risk of losing it all, because if you don't pursue it you've lost it anyway. You can't be an artist and be safe."
Francis Ford Coppola

Dialogue

"A couple of hundred years ago, Benjamin Franklin shared with the world the secret of his success. Never leave that till tomorrow, he said, which you can do today. This is the man who discovered electricity. You think more people would listen to what he had to say. I don't know why we put things off, but if I had to guess, I'd have to say it has a lot to do with fear.
Fear of failure, fear of rejection, sometimes the fear is just of making a decision, because what if you're wrong?
What if you're making a mistake you can't undo? The early bird catches the worm. A stitch in time saves nine. He who hesitates is lost. We can't pretend we hadn't been told. We've all heard the proverbs, heard the philosophers, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time, heard the damn poets urging us to seize the day. Still sometimes we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes. We have to learn our own lessons. We have to sweep today's possibility under tomorrow's rug until we can't anymore. Until we finally understand for ourselves what Benjamin Franklin really meant.
That knowing is better than wondering, that waking is better than sleeping, and even the biggest failure, even the worst, beat the hell out of never trying."

Dr. Meredith Grey

"Grey's Anatomy"

Happy Birthday!

 

FOR COMPLETE ARCHIVES 2006-PRESENT CLICK HERE.

Wordy: August 9, 2009

Carl Jung

Gratzi, Shukriya, Gracias, JazakAllah..In Other Words

File Under:

"Speaking in Abstracts"

Expressing my Gratitude to all those Who Inspired Me and Encouraged Me

Thank YOU.

Thanks to the One.

Thanks for all the goodness..

Thanks for every challenge..

Thanks for every single little thing...

Paying it Forward >>>>>>

Farida Retrospective: No Place Like Home

Dallas, Texas 2007

File Under:

"Farida Retrospective"

Writing Material

Memories

Texas Homegrown

Pre-Production

Build Up

Paper/Pen

Coffee/Cigs

Pre-LA

Wordy: August 7, 2009

Anais Nin