I would like to take this opportunity to let you all know that finally my first poetry book, “A Purple Handbag” got published in both paperback and Kindle version. I look forward for your support in helping me get some reviews on Amazon related to my book. it will be my honor for you to buy my copy today and leave a review on Amazon. Reviews go a long way in supporting Author’s work and helping them move forward in their writing journey. Below is the link for both my paperback and kindle version of the book. Thank you everyone. :):)
Yours Truly, Noor Reflection
At times we tend to forget to count our blessings and get pulled down by our worries and problems that we over look those who are in desperate need of our help in any shape and form.
Recently on twitter, I have started to follow @medglobalorg and one of the doctors Naveed @seditious_medic. With some research I have gathered understanding around their medical mission to provide free healthcare to the refuges and needy in disaster zones.
Today, I am writing this post to help their team get donations for their medical mission leaving for Sierra Leone in few days.
I am guilty to accept myself that I never knew about Sierra Leone until I saw a tweet from Doctor Naveed that was a call for help to support their medical mission.
My curiosity led me to read about Sierra Leone on the internet. Below are some of the facts that I have gathered from various websites about this country:
MedGlobal is travelling to Sierra Leone this November 2018 to deliver free healthcare in hospitals and community clinics. Click on the following link to donate directly to support this great cause:
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/naveed-2?utm_id=60&utm_term=4EvQEre83
Please do share this post and link with family and friends to raise awareness around this great humanitarian work.
Noor Reflection
http://www.reflectionsinateacup.com
#borgenmagazine #sierraleone #donations #humanitarian #disasterzone #medicalmission
From last few days I have been reflecting upon this word “Success”. I guess my anxiety flared up with a fast approaching change in my work place and new job positions opening up with tough criteria and assessment exams involved. It will be total wrong of me to not accept that yes I got nervous, anxious of losing out.
One day, as per my usual practice in the morning, I was reading my affirmations from “Motivational Moments” by Mufti Menk who is a famous Muslim scholar from Zimbabwe and the following quote gave me much mental clarity and helped me change my thought process around the dictionary definition of the word success which means, ”
a performance or achievement that is marked by success, as by the attainment of honors.”
Rather I found total relief in the following words,
“Don’t be frustrated when you see no results after trying. There’s a lesson there. You may be struggling but it doesn’t mean you are failing. “
After reading this I must admit I felt lighter knowing that even trying out for something new and going through a selection process is also a success in itself. After gaining this understanding, I was able to cope up with my feeling of anxiety and nervousness and was able to develop a plan to follow to achieve a positive experience.
Noor Reflection
http://www.reflectionsinateacup.com
Tuck Everlasting
By Natalie Babbitt
Number of pages: 139
Genre: Children’s fantasy novel, drama
Publication date: 1975
I spotted this novel one day , and instantly requested the owner to allow me to read it first. What made me so impatient to read a book that I won’t wait for my turn to get it? Simple answer, the title “Tuck Everlasting” caught my attention and sparked enthusiasm for me to read it.
The novel revolves around a very interesting story of a family and an eternal life.
Natalie Babbitt, did a beautiful job capturing the emotions of all characters along with vivid and rich imagery with light touch of humour throughout the book.
The story starts off with an adventure of a ten year old girl Winnie Foster who is tired of her family daily routine and decides to run away from her home town called Treegap. In her quest to run away she meets a seventeen year old boy Jesse along side of a pond and from there the author takes over with an interesting story about the family of Tucks and a mystery behind the spring water. Complications arises when a stranger follows Winnie Foster and find out the secret behind the spring water.
The story not only revolves around eternal life but beautifully captures the sincerity and purity of various human emotions and a special bond of friendship while leaving a reader with a question to think about towards the end of the story about immortality.
I will definitely recommend this book and give it a five star.
Review completed by N. Reflection
@rinateacup
Www.Reflectionsinateacup.com
Always being curious about new books and looking into good reads, one day I decided to read the English translation by Jonathan Star of the book called Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu.
After reading the first few pages of the book, I was very eager to explore the history of the book. Curious to find out the origin of this sacred Chinese scripture, I googled the web for the meaning of the word Tao.
The understanding I got after reading various definitions was that Tao or Dao (English pronunciation) is a Chinese word signifying ‘way’, ‘path’, ‘route’, ‘road’, ‘choose’, ‘key’ or sometimes more loosely ‘doctrine’, ‘principle’ or ‘holistic science’.
Hence the word Tao Te Ching can be translated as “The Classic of the Way’s Virtues” or “The Book of the Way of Virtue.”
The Tao Te Ching is a Chinese Classic text also referred to as Laozi.
Laozi also known as Lao Tzu was an ancient Chinese philosopher, writer, and the founder of philosophical Taoism. Taoism is a religious or philosophical tradition of Chinese origin which emphasizes living in harmony.
The Tao Te Ching is a fundamental text for both philosophical and religious Taoism.
After gaining the understanding of Tao, Taoism, and reading about Laozi, I found the book very inspiring and composed of many philosophical views about life.
The book is about ancient Chinese wisdom that was written around 500 B.C.
Tao Te Ching is an eastern text that has been translated by many scholars. The translation I read from Jonathan Star, is considered to be very close to the original text and is considered to be very relate-able to one’s life. It is also acclaimed that Star has done a great job in preserving the poetic phenomena of the text as well.
Throughout the book, the reference is made to Tao and Sage. For my understanding, I googled Sage again. As per Wikipedia definition, a Sage is someone who has attained the wisdom which a philosopher seeks.
The book is divided in to 81 verses. Each verse conveys a very important message related to life. Each verse grabs the reader’s attention by teaching the important message of living in harmony, and focusing on various wise teachings. The philosophy presented in the book embodies deep meanings of the existence of universe and how to live in peace. It talks about power of giving and not expecting back like water who nurtures every thing on Earth and need no return. The Tao Te Ching is the route in itself, the path to emptying the human mind of ambitions, schemes and desires and allow it to be flooded with humility, stillness, calmness and leading simple life. To summarize each verse of Tao Te Ching will take away from it’s original essence. One must read each verse over and over again to understanding the philosophy of Taoism.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is eager to learn and understand new dimensions and meaning of life.
Happy reading.
Review completed by N. Reflection
Resources referred:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laozi
Browsing through the collection of my Kindle books, I decided to read a book called “The Supreme Gift” by Paulo Coelho. This time unlike other times, I decided to start the book without reading its excerpt. After finishing the book, I must say it left me wondering about various aspects of life and true essence of the definition of love. The author has taken a unique yet beautiful approach in explaining the meaning of life and love to many of those who are still in search of this answer.
The Supreme Gift, by Coelho is a short book that focuses on Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, a passage from the Bible. Adapted from the original work of Henry Drummond, Coelho has narrated about love by sharing his own perspective thus embarking inspiration and pouring wisdom into his readers. The book talks about 9 ingredients of love which are summarized below , in the form of a sermon delivered by a young Scottish preacher. The 9 ingredients of love according to Drummond are:
1- Patience
2- Kindness
3- Generosity
4- Humility
5- Courtesy
6- Unselfishness
7- Good Temper
8- Guilelessness
9- Sincerity
After reading the book on my Kindle, I will definitely invest in buying a paper copy of this book to refer back to it in the upcoming days when I am faced with a quest to find the purpose of life. This book definitely gets 5 stars from me.
Book review by N. Reflection
I have been nominated by Nicolle for The Blue Sky Tag!
Thanks for the nomination Nicolle. It is quite an encouragement.
The Blue Sky Tag is where the participating blogger does the following in a blog post:
As per the rules for The Blue Sky Tag , my answers to questions from Nicolle are as follows:
My answers:
11 Nominations:
The list of nominations for The Blue Sky Tag are as follows. If for any reason you don’t wish to participate in this process, please feel no pressure to do so. Thanks
IM ASHAMED TO DIE UNTIL I HAVE WON SOME VICTORY FOR HUMANITY.(HORACE MANN)
What inspire you to blog?
How do you get ideas for blogging?
How do you define poetry?
Do you consider poetry as a form of art?
How often do you read posts in Reader on Word Press?
Do you agree that writing is a form of healing?
Does writing promotes mental relaxation for you?
Have you tried writing for kids?
Who is your favorite author?
Who is your favorite poet?
Any favorite poems?
Picture of Blue Tag from Elsie L.M.C.
Nomination completed by Coffee in Style.
Triple Versatile Award!
Today I got nominated for Triple Versatile Blogger by Ally L. Mare. https://writeallywrite.wordpress.com/.
This is my very first award the joy of receiving it is beyond explanation and very encouraging at the same time. I would like to thank Ally L. Mare for their wonderful recognition. As per the guidelines of this award, please refer below to seven interesting facts about myself and my theme based account Coffee in Style. I definitely make time to read other bloggers inspiring and unique submissions and my nominations are below. Thanks for visiting my blog. 🙂
The Rules
Seven Facts About Coffee in Style
I Nominate
Completed by Coffee in Style
I stared at my keyboard for few minutes before I started to write my blog post called. “Black, White or Grey”. So many words and memories crossed my mind as I watched my fingers typing one character to another forming a word and then creating a sentence. A while back I read the following quote from Justin Timberlake, “The gray area, the place between black and white – that’s the place where life happens”.
“Black, White or Grey” – is a very diverse topic of discussion with different conclusions drawn by each and every one. However, it is important to consider that how this phenomena fits itself in the form of a communication and dealing with people? It is an established fact that everyone has different personalities with different behavior traits. Some individuals seem themselves fit in the category of highly sensitive people, while other consider themselves as strong, stubborn and not easily affected by criticism or negativity around them. However one categorizes themselves, the fact doesn’t get changed that each and every one adhere to conversations and communications in their own unique and learned way that could have been acquired from different life experiences.
It is a common saying and reference point among many individuals that, “I am either black or white in my dealings and there is nothing in between.” At times having this personality trait holds deep value in itself yet at other times it could deliver mixed message of lacking a balance.
The question then arises related to, what is balance or to be exact what is a balanced approach? One can apply the understanding of balance in many aspects such as communication, dealing with people, conflict resolution, maintaining work life balance, and the list goes on. To me the sole purpose of maintaining balance is to achieve desirable results on a mutually agreed ground without evoking any hurt feelings for all parties involved if possible and ability to move forward without any grudge in heart.
After establishing firm understanding around balance the phenomena “Black, white or grey” get easy to achieve and can be applied properly in day to day life. I can strongly advocate from my experience that being totally black and white in personal matters at times creates a stressful situation and the outcome might not be a win-win situation. I strongly believe that whichever approach one chooses, the underline notion and intention should be to maintain balance.
Starring at steam coming out of my hot tea in front of me in my favorite tea mug, one thought after another came in my mind and then faded away just like hot steam from my tea started to settle down.
I then looked at the title I gave to my article – “5 fingers”. Instantly my mind started to reel at various incidents around the globe among various communities, religions, race, and countries. Of course media plays a very powerful role in delivering these incidents to us. However, sometimes creating a positive influence on others yet at times fueling up negative thoughts and emotions among individuals of all age groups. Whatever, the impression might be given by media, the outcome sometimes fades away instantly and sometimes it lasts forever.
5 fingers? What does it symbolizes? The answer to this question is very simple. The way our 5 fingers are not same and equal, similarly no two individuals are alike. Since no two individuals are alike, one cannot be punished because of actions of the other.
When we are able to understand this symbolism that is created by nature, it is very easy to detach oneself from the negativity of racism, by looking at the incidents that are happening around the globe among people of different religions and communities.
In today’s world where social media plays a vital role, sharing negative contents even for having few laughs is a crime in itself. One must not underestimate the degree of this crime because the effects of sharing negative content that promotes hate and triggers violence among people of different religion is a biggest threat to the whole mankind and the damage is irreversible.
At the end of the day, one must realize that life is a precious gift of nature. Each and every individual around the globe cherishes life in their own unique way and pay gratitude to nature in their own form of worship. There is absolutely no harm in sharing best practices and understandings of the way one expresses gratitude to nature with each other. However, the intention should always be to promote peace, preserve life and nurture humanity.
Back in school days I always used to wonder what does “developing as a person” really mean. At times the message communicated through educational institutes and professionals conveyed dual and mixed message to understand this term. Does developing as a person mean higher grades or does it mean to excel and thrive among yourself to become a more accepting and understanding individual?
The message I would like to pass on to young and growing minds is that developing as a person means, to understand that learning and seeking knowledge is not limited to classroom or lecture hall experiences. Knowledge is all around us. As human beings, it is our duty towards nature to question and to seek out answers through constant tries and errors.
Knowledge these days is categorized in to areas and is distinguished by subject names from math, chemistry, biology, physics, astronomy and the list continues. Knowledge is not limited to one area of expertise. From grooming to raising a family evolves knowledge and during this process one must discover themselves and then develop themselves as a better human being.
Developing as a person also means to have the courage to accept. Practicing acceptance not only in the form of success but also developing strength to face and fight failure, defeat, criticism, hatred, negativity, rejection, isolation yet finding strategies to cope with the outcomes and allowing yourself to move forward in life. Trying out different possibilities to achieve positive outcomes and personal satisfaction is a part of developing yourself.
Developing yourself often is divided in to categories for ease of understanding. Many professionals and individuals will argue that there is two types of developments professional and personal development. I strongly believe and would like to emphasize that to me professional and personal development is the same phenomena as it evolves around an individual however in different areas of life.
Developing as a person is the hardest role that one has to understand, and practice almost every day in their life. The role is hard there is no doubt about it, but it is not impossible. Each and every one of us can improve ourselves in certain areas of life with some effort yet producing tremendous positive results around us.
Change
Coping and accepting change is the topic we all can relate to at all times. “Change is constant”, I was once being told. It is true that change is constant. But coping with change requires some training, support, mentoring from people we trust and feel connected to at some level.
At times talking about change with others put one’s mind at ease. Discussing concerns related to change, sharing fears, making speculations around change at time helps one to cope with it in a positive way. Personally I can relate to this strategy as for me change at time is hard to acknowledge and accept. Accepting change is related to acknowledging fear of unknown. It is thus having fear of unknown which make the acceptance around change hard but not impossible.
Change is inevitable. There is no denying to this fact. However, coping with change is something we all need to master at our own level of comfort, and understanding without jeopardizing our personal values, emotional, physical and mental health. Just like John F. Kennedy said, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
Change comes around in variety of different ways, forms and styles. We as a human are designed to adapt to change as per our biological make. Humans are designed to cope with change whether it is related to social, economic, environmental, and financial or any other factor one cannot even comprehend. How and why is this possible? The answer to this questions lies in the history of mankind. Humans are known to be the survivors, the seekers, above all the conquerors through history and time.
Embracing this understanding and acknowledgement gives us hope that change can also be conquered and outcomes can be positive or can be redirected to a suitable form of acceptance.
I decided to do this blog post as I get asked how can one help in supporting a humanitarian cause be it helping Rohingya Refugees, victims of terrorists attacks, natural disaster, violence, health matters, importance of education, or any number of other issues that are happening around the globe. I myself used to struggle around thinking of ways of giving my best back to humanity. However, we all have limitations. Our limitations are around unable to travel to those parts of the world and physically helping those who are in great need of financial and medical aid. This does not mean that we should get disheartened and give up. Take some time and read the following steps one can take and make a difference around the world even from their electronic devices. Always remember change is a constant process and does not happen overnight. One single step, even a thought of making a difference around the globe and reaching out starts the cycle of change and creates vibrations in the universe that overtime reaches out and affects everyone.
This blog post is evergreen and I will be adding more ways one can use towards helping humanity. Please do add your comments or thoughts, as it will help others to find their path.
Noor Reflection
Around the globe, March 8 is marked as International Woman’s Day. Each year on this day women are given tribute for their accomplishments, hardships, and struggles. History is full of stories where women have worked hard to establish and embark their own self-identity. In today’s time Testimony Tailors is a name that is one of an emerging examples that shows such strength and courage of Rohingya Refugees woman who have been the victim of genocide.
Tula Toli massacre in Myanmar is one shameful truth of today’s time that happened to Rohingya people. The Rohingya people are the ethnic minority group that mostly resides in the northern region of Myanmar called Rakhine State. They are Muslims and are the most persecuted minorities of the world. The Tula Toli massacre was the mass killing of Rohingya people that took place under the Myanmar military clearance operation destroying the whole village and brutally killing men, women and children.
I learned about the works of Testimony Tailors through my twitter feed. I was deeply moved by the bravery of these women who do not want to give up, and wants to rebuild their lives. Even with very limited resources, they supported each other in Bangladesh camps and taught one another how to use a sewing machine.
Please click on the link below to gain awareness around Testimony Tailors and to learn how these women are surviving in difficult times. Today they need our help, support in any shape and form. They are part of us. There should be no us and them. We need to support them for ourselves, for our children and for generations to come. Human beings deserve to dream and to prosper and no one should ever take this away from them.
Today I stand with Rohingya because I am Rohingya.
https://testimonytailors.com/about/
Post written by: Noor Reflection
#rohingya #refugee #refugees #women #stateless #refugeecompact #bangladesh #myanmar #cooperative #cooperatives #IWD #IWD2019 #BalanceforBetter #humanity #amnesty #genocide #life #testimonytailors #Hands4Rohingya
Started working on my second poetry book The Rising. The book will stir your imagination around strength, courage , hope, spirituality and healing.
Stay tune
An ability to stand up for oneself is beauty
The courage to say no to bullying is beauty
The strength to address what is wrong is beauty
To practice self development is beauty
To challenge oneself is beauty
Beauty lies within each one of us
and that is the beauty of a beauty
Noor Reflection
In the midst of events
When judgment is foggy
And pain unbearable
When night seems longer
And days are unhappy
I want to quit, run and hide
Letting my fears to win over me
But then I hear this voice
Gearing me in the direction I missed
Reminding me of my inner powers
Lifting my soul, bringing out my strength
To be a healer, a fighter, a hero
I bow my head in silence
To thank Him for not letting me give up.
Noor Reflection
What other’s have to say?