Pretend cafe

There's something therapeutic about writing a philosophy essay in the middle of the night, while listening to songs that you like, while sitting in the middle of a room filled with only your mess, while contemplating whether you should go get another cup of tea. It feels like you have endless time on your hands, no expectations or obligations to attend to. It feels like sitting in a cafe and writing.

There are several things about my mother that I am not completely able to appreciate. But with new experiences, I am able to appreciate a few of those things. My mother is very 'herself'. She always wore whatever she wanted, not caring about whether it was 'in' or not. She leads a life where she makes sure every single day is productive. And one thing she told me once, that I keep forgetting, but shouldn't, is: No matter what happens, I should not hesitate or feel too ashamed to come back to Allah and get back on my feet.

There are several levels of 'losing' yourself. Sometimes it doesn't matter if you've lost yourself in some ways. It's good for you, even. But, if you lose all of yourself, you're in trouble.

I should probably go get that cup of tea and come back and write. 

Humans of New York

“My parents were always fighting. They weren’t very supportive. I used to be bitter about it. I was caught up on how my life could have been different if I had better parents. How things would have been different if x, y, and z had happened. But then you get older and you realize maybe they didn’t have the capacity to give you what you needed. They couldn’t understand you, just like you couldn’t understand them. You realize they were dealing with their own disappointments. And you even start to think, ‘Maybe I could have been a better son.’”

"We're eye doctors."
"What's something about the eye that most people don't realize?"
"The eye doesn't see. The brain sees. The eye just transmits. So what we see isn't only determined by what comes through the eyes. What we see is affected by our memories, our feelings, and by what we've seen before."

"Through it all, we have all become much more compassionate souls. The depression taught me a valuable lesson: Who knows what battle people are facing everyday that is unseen? Embrace every present moment! You never know when your perfect life will drastically and instantly change. We had a perfect life until we didn’t. (A 30-second phone call with the confirmed cancer diagnosis came soon after we built and moved into our "dream home".)"

"I've got a wife and three kids, and a job I'm trying to hold on to. It's a lot of work and it's a lot to worry about, so it's easy to fall into a routine where all I'm doing is worrying about the next moment. In the midst of all this, sometimes I have to force myself to step back and appreciate the wonderful things that have already happened: one of my children is a budding artist, the other is beautifully kind, and the other is full of energy and potential. And they're all happy. And they're all healthy."

"I tend to be cynical about a lot of things, but Maya Angelou is somebody that no matter how much I pick her apart, she still has integrity. She was a victim of incest and rape, and she worked as a stripper. And now she’s a literary icon and Nobel Laureate. It goes to show that life is cumulative, and you can’t devalue any type of experience."

"People confuse the source of their happiness. They become temporarily happy when they get a new car, or a new house, or a new marriage. And they think that they are suddenly happy because of this new thing in their life. In reality, they are happy because for a brief moment, they are without desire. But then soon another desire comes along. And the search continues."