Refraction

If you drop the edge of an oar into a lake, the the oar will look bent. Your conception of the bent oar will probably be without surprise. Because you are able to make an inference that refraction causes the perceived oar to 'seem' bent.

To rationalists in philosophy, knowledge is inferential.
Even the highest scientific knowledge are inferences. They are theories, until rebutted. The nature of knowledge is dialectical. They are constantly being 'proven', and even the claimed advanced proofs can eventually break the walls of certainty.

Yet, why does society worship scientific knowledge with much supremacy? Its own methodologies are flawed and skewed. Its weaknesses are inevitable, synonymous to human fallibility.

The value of science has become so elevated that other forms of knowledge become secondary....

I think the world would be lonelier without words.

Patiner

My mocha warms my fingertips,
But frozen numb tinge trapped to my littlest toe,
Chills the cold to suck my soul

Yet stubborn is my mind to stay-
If Old Man Winter wins,
Wastes be my day

So burns my cheek
Kisses wind blows
My arms they flail
Like loosen sails

Like two pretty bows
Ties my laces tight
Blades of skates carved
Ice smooth white

The puzzle

I think one of the most beautiful gifts in life is our capability to remember. A moment can be captured in our mind without us realizing it. Like a film of a video camera, recording without us knowing. Who would have thought years later, you'd reflect on a subtle memory. It conjures up, without summoning. It enters your mind, glides through the frame of your eyes, and there...

Time tells a story in itself, and time can be felt. It is a difference, between how you felt then and how you feel now. Quite a sensation, that it captivates you. It leaves you yearning. For a pause button. But one that cannot be found.

& in that moment, awed by your imagination. Of a reality frozen in your mind. Like gravity, you'd fall back into the moment of now. To be aware of the present, and know. For it is this moment of knowing that you find. That one subtle memory once hidden in the corner of your mind has revealed a truth. You would not have been here now, without it.

Every piece of the puzzle fits. The bigger picture will not be the same, if a piece had gone missing. That memory you remembered, as much as you've overlooked it, was a part of the greater things that have happened.

& the other beautiful gift in life,
is that life is a product of a puzzle in itself,
it is a puzzle we are constantly creating, and piecing.
Every moment counts, and every person matters.

Nothing more awesome than a cup of mint tea, Amanda Marshall crooning & curling up with a book on a Friday night :)

Trust me, this is love

When this trouble passes over
You and I will walk away
Knowing that our love survived
Another test of faith
You and I can walk on water
The river rises, we rise above
It may not look that way right now
But trust me, baby this is love 

-Amanda Marshall

I feel 11 again listening to her songs.  I remember sitting in the car with my dad, waiting for my mom to buy meat from the butcher at Town and Country Market on Dundas in Mississauga, right beside Popeye's. It was winter, but instead of snowing it was raining. And this song played on the radio....Our family was so young, and so new to the country.

Ten years later today, I realize what 'test of faith' and 'love' is, from the lyrics above. There is probably a reason why this song still resounds in my head.

Family love is unconditional, that is all. 

You are excused.

People enter into your life to leave.
Temporal.
Defined-
By the limitations of time.

The purpose they have to serve is theirs.
The purposes I have are mine.
Such, as accordingly.
Private, yet pervasively.

Some people leave and return.
Yet they will leave again. 

Undoubtedly, they will.

For between the two of us,
I think I too, may once have left.

Be.

Beyond the untold,
Beneath the unknown,
Between two folds,
Of all that was blown-

Beyond, beneath, between
But barely a belief
Be aware, but beware-
For some things may bequeath

Below, behind, beside
Perhaps before-

Benign.
Bewilders & be wild.

But let it be.
Or just be.

Mr. Kant

Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: The starry heavens above me and the moral law within me -Immanuel Kant

& I couldn't agree more, Mr. Kant.

Even though I have a love-hate relationship with your categorical imperative,
(often I'd exploit to my convenience, you'd be ashamed of me)

Outerspace

The image of a sunset from outer space from Julie Payette's presentation (click here) left me speechless. What a blessing and wonderful gift it really is to be living on this planet.

Trellis

A trellis of naked branches,

Web the milky, grey, snow-covered ceiling

So maybe my boots had a mini puddle inside
 & my socks were soaked,

But freshly-fallen snow-capped roofs

Leave me with excitement, everytime

& the cold left my lungs minty breathless.

Faith

When treated precariously-
Dependent on circumstances,
Conjured upon during conveniences
Faith becomes ever so fragile, like a bubble
The constant threat becomes solely a fear failure,
& maybe of losing faith.

When sown like a seed,
Implanted into every action
Like a passion, almost-
Faith becomes ingrained,
It is simply is the the impenetrable immaterial by its own form
Failures are accepted as challenges, as longer routes to successes
Arrogance becomes the bigger threat.

Support and Send Me to Guatemala!

Hi everyone,

This coming February, I will be joining 80 students from Carleton University to partake in an opportunity called Alternative Spring Break (ASB). ASB is a service-learning program offered by the Carleton University’s Student Experience Office.  As part of this program, I am expected to fundraise as a means to offset the travel and program costs and I am seeking your support in achieving my fundraising goals


While we are privileged with a decent educational system here, I will be helping to repair the infrastructure of the school there during my reading week. The goal of this trip is to engage is Community Service Learning, where I will be participating in volunteering activities at Aldea el Novillero, in Guatenala, to assist with indigenous Maya Quiche community. While the focus is on the local community, we are encouraged to embrace a more interconnected approach and consider similar issues in our home communities. 


I will be documenting my trip into a video, sharing my reflections and blogging my experience here. At this time I am seeking your support. I am responsible for the costs associated with the trip including airfare, accommodations, and food. If you are able to contribute to these activities, donations of any kind would be greatly appreciated. By providing me the opportunity to participate in ASB, you are helping me to create positive change through community service across Canada and around the world.

Thank you!

Sincerely,
Shafiqah Muhamad Nor

P.S. Click below to contribute

Starlit

My greyhound bus ride to Ottawa was accompanied by a beautiful starlit-sky. The brightest one, I believe, was a part of the Ursa Major constellation I've learned to recognize when I was 12.

There came a time I used to believe I was greater than each speck that scattered the sky. Yet, last night, I felt the tiniest among the smallest glitter in sight...It's silly how perspectives change.

Remembrance

Far as the eye is able to see,
Deep, and depth into the darkness the heart can sense
& only a fleck of dust that spills-
Into a poetry of praise

& here stand I, staring at your infinite sea
& wonders the self, by the ceiling of your sky,
For even millions of words expressed, seem unworthy
Of sketching your grandeur and perfect lines

For when I see the stars, how distant you seem to me
& when I see the blue, how close you fathom within me
Admire greens and mountains,
I wonder, who tends to them
Who hears, the whimper of the grieving?
& feels the burns of dreaded days
To whom does this heart yearn for,
When the eyes weep and things fail.

The world is willed to silence,
Into pride for a while
Is there a place of return?
What greater could exist,
None other be but you.

For when I see the stars, how distant you seem to me
& when I see the blue, how close you fathom within me
Admiring forests and mountains,
I wonder, who tends to them
Who hears, the whimper of the grieving?
& feels the burns of dreaded days
To whom does this heart yearn for,
When the eyes weep and things fail.


N.B. I was moved when I first heard the song. I think my translation doesn't do justice to the real meaning, but this is my attempt at poetically translating a beautifully written Indonesian song (Tafakkur-by Opick). 

Snowflakes

No two snowflakes are the alike.
Maybe humans are just too lazy to compare between snowflakes, and it is easier to assume that each are different.  If snowflakes are like fingerprints, I wonder if there are more snowflakes than the number of human beings in history of mankind...

Of time and distance

That which will withstand time and distance, I think can prevail.

If there is anything that I have learnt about friendship, it is realizing what it is able to overcome. Two of my best friends are (and will be more) further than I am physically. But I continue to be amazed by how easy it is to pick up conversations from where we last left off. The mutuality and naturalness seems effortless. It is as if neither has ever left the presence of the other. =]