Seekers' thoughts

Nothing like some nostalgia… my affliction. But also blessing. And this is what I try to say in this poem, to explore this dual-nature of looking back at past memories.

We are often told to let go of the past, and for good reason I believe. We shouldn’t cling to what has left us, particularly bad things. Life is a journey that is best traversed lightly; no need for so much baggage. I think this also includes some “good” things, too. We can’t keep things forever in this world… As the Prophetic advice states: live in this world like a traveller.

Yet the travellers finds motivation in seeing how far they have come, from where they began and where they now find themselves; they find lessons, they see progress or lack of it. Reflection is the key here, I think.

And the travellers set out on the journey only with the belief and hope of arriving at a place far better than where they began. Life, therefore, is about getting to a better place, perhaps beyond this world… And we are already on that journey, so it’s best to not get distracted by what we gain or lose along the way.

For me personally, it isn’t so much the memories that make me sad, because I still have fun and see my friends and loved ones and laugh and joke and play football lol. It is how fleeting they are. How palpable the passing of time is, how quickly it goes by is what pains me. Yet in this is something incredibly humbling: we are at the complete mercy of this passage. “By the passage of Time!” (Qur’an 103:1) We have no choice but to submit our goals, our targets, our ideas, our wishes, our aspirations, our attachments, our desires, our joys, our sorrows, our lives to the Passage of Time, and, if we believe, to the One who created it…