Sonya Syed

This week has been pretty busy so there is a bit of tiredness which is of course lessening the work capacity. Today I took off from all the activities, planned to relax and kill time. Sometimes I think it is wise to do nothing because there is an exceptional beauty in nothingness. Ramadan are going perfectly, better than they were expected to be due to the heat and long hours of fasting. What we feared the most has become so easy for us to experience, even the sky-rocketing prices of food items are somehow becoming tolerable for a common man. Truly there is some Divine force for Whose Magnificence we all shall remain indebted for an eternity, He Who gives us the strength to move on or else life would become an unbearable burden. There is some strong inclination within to write about love . What is this strange phenomenon “Love” that all Religions, Prophets, Sages and scholars have so ardently preached and practiced?   To us love has been limited to the affections and care...

Today I followed the forgiveness mantra that I wrote about so ardently in my yesterday’s post “ Different Perceptions ”.   I thought there is no harm in practicing myself whatever I am indirectly preaching. So today was my first day and I had some interesting feelings. There are couple of people with whom I had a bit of rough experience. So in the morning I sat down took their names and prayed for their peace, welfare or whatever I could think of. Surprisingly more and more names and faces began to emerge in my mind with whom I have had some negative experiences at some point in my life. I was shocked to realize that I have been holding grudges with quite a few people when I falsely believed that I had forgotten and forgiven them. As I was praying for them, in few moments I felt as if a dark huge stone with black smoke moved. I immediately thought that something happened with them but then I realized that nothing happened with them. In fact what happened is that the h...

What a day its been heard some painful news from different quarters, I hope God bless them all with peace, safety and health. Maintaining one’s peace amidst of challenging situations becomes a challenge in itself. When you hear any of the spiritual teachers speak they would say that one’s peace is more of an internal matter independent of any person or situation. There can be tears in your eye but in the background it shall always be peace, and ultimately that inner peace takes over the apparent sadness. It takes time and lot of practice with patience to achieve this state of being though. Yesterday I heard my favorite spiritual teacher Marianne Williamson speak on OWN TV with Oprah about some deep spiritual matters. Two things that fascinated me the most. Marianne spoke about forgiveness and how it negatively affects us if we keep a grudge or anger against somebody. Even though that person had hurt us in some way or took advantage of us or deflected our love....

I seriously need to change all my profile pictures because seeing myself with the same smile in same attire for months is literally aching my eyes. I admire people on facebook who constantly update their status and profile pictures, it makes them so present. Whilst people like me who are highly cautious about themselves can never do anything that is remotely connected to socializing. My list of many do’s and don’ts have restricted me. There are quite a few people these days who are telling me to relax my rules a bit. I am always stuck up in what is practical and rational but sometimes it is wise to allow oneself to fly high without any logic, let things be. Why does everything has to be either this way or that way, why cant things just be. I don’t know if leading such a cautious life is feasible or not in the long-run but if I have to assess on the current results then it has both its advantages and disadvantages. Advantage is more on the professional front when caution ...

There are times when words flow without any restraint and then there are moments when thoughts are present but no appropriate words to express them. Something of the like is happening to me, there is so much to say that I’m rendered speechless. Multitasking is revered these days and it has been presumed to have many benefits but in my case its different. Rather than getting any results it had completely overwhelmed me. In August I have to complete two very important assignments because other activities are going to start which would have their own demands. Once committed, I don’t like to escape from my responsibilities so it all needs to be managed beforehand. My issue is that first I jump into situations and then I think whether I should have done this or not. When it should be the opposite, where one plans first and then dive into new adventures. No proper planning can make a person an unguided missile. How swiftly we have reached mid of Ramadan even with long hours ...

What do you see? Glass half full or half empty……. As soon as I saw the above image on my facebook page my instinctive response was half empty, and this is really scary. In all my honesty I admit that I saw the lack. Does it mean that subconsciously I am inclined to see the lack? Thanks Oprah for waking me up from the false belief that I am a person full of gratitude who only sees abundance; rather it’s the opposite with me. Really perspective is everything, because if you see glass half-full then your life would be easy to live. In the half empty scenario it shall always be the lack and wanting, a bottomless pot which shall remain empty irrespective of much you fill it.   I have even shocked myself because I want to be the person who sees the glass half-full. I need to work hard on myself and be more grateful for all the blessings I have. These are little cues or hints through which God shows us the right path and guides us to improve ourselves. Now f...

There is a little girl I know who recently came to Karachi from her village in Punjab. A wonderful girl with a lovely personality but yesterday she said something in her innocence that just resonated deep within.  She said, “ in Karachi there is so much luxury but no peace and in our village there is no luxury but only peace ”.  The moment I heard these words spoken by her I was awe-struck, I couldn’t believe what I just heard. To hear an eight year old speak so articulately and have such insights on life is a phenomenon in itself.   So I asked her to elaborate her statement and with all her simplicity she replied, “ in our village groceries would end suddenly and then we have to travel many miles before we can find a store but in Karachi everything is easily available.   In our village we get fresh vegetables right from our garden and play fearlessly outside our home. While in Karachi its all about money, everyone is running after money trying to ...