One Lucky Soul: OLS Reflections Eighty

OLS Reflections Eighty by Omar Cherif, One Lucky Soul

The first list-article from the OLS Reflections series was published on 22 August 2014. Little did I know that it will last for ten years and counting. In it, I mention that the Pages Reflections file was 121 pages long and consisting of 38,998 words. A decade later today the same file is 2846 pages sporting 888,145 words — close to a million!

The series is comprised of reflections, introspections, observations, and philosophical poetry, as well as lessons learned through life experiences. There are also some thought-provoking questions and the occasional language-related joke or pun. Some 130 of them made it to Goodreads as quotes. Woot Woot.

I equally mention how the reflections may be grouped according to their level of seriousness. This eventually led to creating the humorous subcategory, the (un)fun sibling: OLS Reflections — The Unfun Ones, which for now makes up about 23 of the total 80 articles.

Links to the entire collection can be found below. Now Onward Forward: Here is the latest...

• Being alone tends to be feared by many as it’s widely regarded as the worst and scariest thing that could happen to one’s life. But it isn’t so. Lying to oneself is worse and scarier; because when done long enough people end up believing their own lies, failing to distinguish between the delusions and their actual inner truth. What follows, in the words of Fyodor Dostoevsky, is that “they lose respect for themselves and for others. And having no respect they cease to love”. A life without love then means bitter, alienating loneliness — especially with one’s own company and therefore also among others. That, my friends, is the real miserable tragedy.

Those on the other hand who learn to value and cherish their solitude end up becoming a celestial force of nature.

• The sun does not apologise for its vibrancy

Nor the wind for its gust

The moon does not feel guilty that its lunacy

Does not always appear perfectly full around the crust

Brother, forget the ‘should’ and the ‘must’

Do what thou wilt with love and self-trust

Stay true to thyself, shine on with beaming lust

Keep flowing and glowing like our ancestors, the primordial stardust.

• There is something absorbingly soothing about listening to the sound of rolling waves while welcoming the rising sun. It has this magical ability to wash our spirit clean from all troubles and conflicts. In actuality, every sunrise signifies a new beginning; whether to be the best version of ourselves, to lead a more conscious, empathetic, compassionate existence, or to stop suffering.

You see, the very possibility that we can go to bed one night to never ever wake up ought to be that one catalyst enticing us to enjoy life to the fullest. That is, today, in the present Here and Now. Simply because life has an expiration date and tomorrow may never come. One way to do so is to connect with Nature; to build a lasting relationship with it. For we ARE Nature. We only seem to temporarily forget it — due to the distractions of life. But truly, it is the sobering realisation of the inevitability of our own mortality that tends to lead to awakening.

Shine On & On.

• Poetry is whispered magic for the listening hearts. As an art form, it uses language to alter consciousness — allowing us to transcend reality as we know it.

• When what you love doing in life requires a certain degree of solitude and seclusion, there is a high chance that at some point it becomes addictive. These are the activities that inherently make one glow while radiating unfiltered passion right out the core of their every nerve ending. The reason being is that this kind of inner — and outer — meditative peace of mind and soul is rarely ever found around others. The same goes for drama, or lack of it. For the creative person such a Flow State of being remains essential.

By embracing solitude with open arms you naturally come to know yourself better. Another reward for digging deep into oneself is coming to equally know that, somehow, you are everyone and everyone is you — the consciousness of mankind. Then you are never truly alone, even when you are. Echoing with what Mark Twain had succinctly worded. Fortunately, aloneness and loneliness remain two different things.

Get into yourself and you will discover wonders.

• Make it a habit to every once in a while spend time with people over 80 and children below 10. The experience of seeing the world through their eyes tends to enrich our palette of perspectives.

• Forgive. Because you deserve to set yourself free. However, it is not always about forgiving others or being forgiven by them. Sometimes to be able to carry on living we must learn to forgive ourselves — for not knowing what we didn’t know at a certain point in time. Forgiveness then tends to breed empathy, compassion, and eventually self-love.

• The feeling of being loved, even by your own self, catalyses a certain joie de vivre. People then tend to become better versions of themselves. In return, it makes loving others a much more natural and empathetic process. Truly, learning how to love yourself is the ultimate gift to yourself as well as to the world.

You see, love will never cancel or annihilate hate. It just helps forging us in a way that allows us to live in a world where both exist and yet empowers us to choose love — every time.

• “It must be strange to be considered normal or ordinary. It must be absurd not to see through the absurdities of life. But what is normal, ordinary, or absurd anyway? Who gets to choose or define these societal concepts, as in according to who? And do normal, ordinary people seem normal and ordinary because they like to see themselves as such? Because they strive to fit it within the societal status-quo norm of their time and place, hence project the corresponding image of their seemingly acceptable, polished-up, edited-out persona unto the outside world? Is that why certain people feel included and represented while others excluded and marginalised?

• She dances with her demons
While her angels sing along
Wears her skin so boldly and beautifully
Juggling two rights with every wrong.