Tag: Thoughts

piecing dreams together

Posted on by Ajmal

The white bedsheets are an empty canvas and the scattered blocks are his chaotic paint. He sits there in his red and white striped shirt entirely absorbed in a world that only he can see. I watch his small hands pick up a piece, examine it, and press it into another. There is a profound silence in his concentration. It is the kind of quietness we lose as we grow older.

Looking at those disjointed plastic pieces, I cannot help but see the fragments of our own lives. We are constantly surrounded by isolated moments, random encounters, and unpredictable days. On their own they seem to lack meaning. But given enough patience we piece them together into a narrative we call a life.

They simply play. And for a moment, the whole world becomes enough.

It brings to mind Tagore and his timeless lines from Gitanjali. He wrote of children meeting on the seashore of endless worlds, building houses with sand and playing with empty shells. They do not seek hidden treasures or cast fishing nets. They simply play. Sitting on this bed, my son is on that very seashore.

We carry the heavy luggage of yesterday and the anxious blueprints of tomorrow. But his entire universe exists right here in the space between his fingers. He is breathing in the absolute purity of the present.

Carl Jung believed that creating something new does not come from the intellect. It comes from an inner necessity, a play instinct. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves. This is exactly what is unfolding in front of me. He is not trying to engineer a perfect car. He is simply letting his imagination spill out into the physical world.

But the most beautiful part is what happens tomorrow. He will take this car apart. He will pull the pieces away from each other without a single trace of sorrow and use them to build something else. He creates for the sheer joy of creating, completely unattached to the final product.

We hold onto things until our hands bleed. We grieve over broken plans and shifting realities. Yet here is a masterclass in letting go, taught quietly by a child playing on a Sunday afternoon. He knows that no matter how many times a structure falls apart the pieces remain. They are just waiting to be built into a new dream.

the border of a mind

By the way, did you know that I’m actively writing in malayalam also these days. Find them here. I’ve written a small book as well if you’re into that. If you like listening to stuff, do scroll through the selection of podcasts. If you’ve time, have a look at the visuals I’ve made. Grateful for your moment here. Keep coming back here : )

versions of places

Posted on by Ajmal

There are places we revisit that no longer feel the same. A childhood home that seems smaller than we remember. A café where we once laughed for hours, now just another building on a busy street. A city that once felt like the center of everything, now just another stop along the way. We expect places to stay frozen in time, but they don’t. They change. People come and go, buildings wear new colors, old landmarks disappear. But more than that, we change. The person who once stood there is no longer the same. The version of us that gave meaning to that place exists only in memory. It is a strange kind of loss, to return and feel like a visitor in a space that once felt like home. To stand where we once stood and feel the weight of time in the quiet spaces between then and now. But maybe that is not a loss at all. Maybe it is proof that we have moved forward, that we have grown into people who can never quite fit into the past again. Some places stay with us, even when we no longer belong to them. And perhaps that is enough, to carry them in our hearts, not as they are, but as they once were, as we once were.

unseen roots

Posted on by Ajmal

There is a quiet, overlooked beauty in the way things heal when we finally stop interfering with them.We are taught to treat everything like a project that needs a deadline. When we feel a pang of sadness, an old grief, or just the heavy exhaustion of a long season, our instinct is to manage it. We want to analyze it, fix it, or find a strategy to overcome it. We treat our internal wounds like malfunctions in a machine, running around with tools in hand, desperate to restore order so we can get back to being productive.But the heart has its own seasons, entirely independent of our schedules.

Think about what happens when you cut your finger. You don’t sit there commanding the cells to rebuild, nor do you try to force the skin to mend itself by sheer willpower. You simply clean it, protect it, and then you trust the quiet, intelligent design of your body to do what it has always known how to do in the dark. Healing isn’t an action you perform; it is an organic intelligence that takes over when you finally provide the space for it.The same subtle magic happens within us when we stop fighting our own weather. There is an incredible lightness that comes when you look at your own exhaustion or your own fractured pieces and decide, just for today, to stop trying to repair them. You don’t need to put a positive spin on a difficult day. You don’t need to apologize for being tired, or feel guilty because you aren’t moving at full speed.

Growth often looks like absolute stillness. It looks like the forest in late winter—seemingly bare, quiet, and completely unproductive on the surface, while underneath, a massive, silent renewal is preparing itself.When we step out of our own way, we realize that we don’t have to orchestrate our own restoration. The same Almighty who commands the tides to turn and the seeds to split open in the soil is already cradling your heart through its quiet winters. It is a profound, weightless solace to know that your healing does not depend on your effort. It depends on your surrender. You are allowed to just be a passenger for a while, resting in the absolute certainty that the hands that created you know exactly how to mend you, and that the light is already finding its way back to the center of your life.

gentle existence

Posted on by Ajmal

Long after we have left a place, a conversation, or a person’s life, something of us remains. We do not get to decide which moments will be remembered, which words will linger, or which version of ourselves will stay in someone’s mind. But we do leave traces, whether we mean to or not. A kindness we barely recall may still be shaping someone’s heart. A simple encouragement may have given someone the courage to keep going. Even the way we made someone feel in a single, ordinary moment, safe, seen, understood, can last longer than we ever realize. At the same time, we are remembered in ways we never intended. An impatient word, a careless comment, a silence where there should have been understanding, these, too, leave marks. We move through the world unaware of how we imprint on others, how our presence, however brief, becomes part of their story. We will never fully know the depth of our impact. But perhaps that is reason enough to move with care, to speak with kindness, to treat each interaction as something that might be remembered longer than we think. Because long after we forget the details of a moment, someone else may still be carrying it with them. And in that way, we live on, not just in the things we build, but in the hearts we have touched, in ways we may never see.

we are made for the open sky!

Posted on by Ajmal

We spend so much of our journey weaving soft little cocoons, convinced that the ultimate goal of living is to keep everything perfectly still and safe. We arrange our days to avoid the wind, collecting comforts and quiet routines, hoping to build a world that never shakes. But a bird isn’t defined by the stillness of its nest; it is defined by the absolute freedom of its flight. We are not made merely to be comfortable. We are made for the open sky. When someone ruffles our feathers , challenging our patience or softly disrupting our peace, our first instinct is to turn away. Yet these moments are actually beautifully disguised gifts. Rather than acting as a hurdle, that person serves as a gentle mirror. They show us the tucked-away corners of our own hearts that are finally ready for a little more sunlight and grace. Their presence is an invitation pointing to a locked door within you, suggesting it is time to open it. It becomes an opportunity to drop your heavy defenses and step into a much more spacious, forgiving version of yourself.In our desire to navigate this world well, we often rely entirely on the maps of others. We fill our pockets with the wisdom of podcasts, the quotes of philosophers, and the trending vocabularies of healing, carrying them around like precious stones. But a profoundly liberating moment arrives when you realize you no longer need to hold someone else’s lantern. Your own soul has a radiant light of its own. There is a quiet joy in finally setting down all the borrowed words and trusting the unwritten poetry of your own experience. You have lived and learned enough to trust your inner voice.Sometimes the wind blows just hard enough to scatter our perfectly laid plans. A chapter closes, a certainty shifts, and the path softly bends in an entirely unexpected direction. While it can feel disorienting, this is never a loss, it is a clearing. You cannot paint a new masterpiece on a canvas that is already full. When the familiar ground shifts, life is simply making room for your next season of growth.Take a deep, trusting breath in those open spaces of change and you will find a weightless solace. You were never meant to carry the exhausting burden of orchestrating the universe. When the walls of your plans gently give way, it is just the Almighty letting the sunshine completely in. It is an act of quiet mercy a Divine love that tenderly removes the ceilings we placed above our own heads, promising that whenever we finally let go, we are already entirely held.

grace in transience

Posted on by Ajmal

There is a certain beauty in things that do not last. A sunset that fades into the night. A song that ends too soon. A season that slips away just as we’ve grown used to it. The very fact that they are fleeting makes them precious, because we know we cannot hold onto them forever. We often resist endings, wishing we could stretch time, keep things as they are. But what if the beauty is not in their permanence, but in their impermanence? What if their meaning comes from the fact that they are here for only a moment, asking us to truly see them before they go? Love is more powerful because we know time is fragile. Laughter feels lighter because it comes and goes. Even the most ordinary moments, sitting in the sun, sharing a meal, hearing a familiar voice, become extraordinary when we remember that nothing stays exactly the same. Endings are not failures. They are proof that something mattered. That something was lived. And though we cannot keep everything, we can pay attention while it is here. We can let things be beautiful, not because they last, but because they don’t.

our memory in others

Posted on by Ajmal

We do not belong only to ourselves. There are versions of us scattered across the minds of others, shaped by the moments we shared, the words we spoke, the way we made them feel. To someone, we are the person who once offered them kindness on a difficult day. To another, we are the friend they lost touch with but still think about. To someone else, we are just a passing memory, a stranger they once sat next to on a train, a familiar face from years ago, a voice they can’t quite place but somehow remember. We have no control over how we are remembered. Sometimes, we exist in someone’s story as the hero. Other times, as a lesson. And in some cases, as the one who hurt them, even if that was never our intention. The way we see ourselves is only one version of the truth; the way others remember us is another. It is humbling to know that long after we have left a place, a conversation, a life, something of us remains. A phrase we once said. A moment that meant nothing to us but everything to someone else. We do not get to choose how we are remembered, but we can choose how we show up. And maybe, just maybe, that is enough, to move through the world with kindness, leaving behind memories that feel like light rather than shadow.

the shades of silence

Posted on by Ajmal

Silence is not a universal language. For some, it is peace, a place to breathe, to listen, to return to oneself. For others, it is discomfort, a reminder of distance, of something unsaid. The same quiet moment can feel like rest to one person and tension to another. In relationships, silence can be a bridge or a wall. Sitting in stillness with someone who understands you can feel like the deepest kind of closeness. But silence in the face of conflict, or when a response is expected, can feel like absence, like something has been taken instead of shared. We assume others interpret silence the way we do, but they don’t. One person may fall quiet to avoid hurting someone. Another may grow silent because they don’t know how to be heard. Some use silence to hold space. Others use it to create distance. That’s what makes silence so complex, it’s not just the absence of sound, but the presence of meaning. It is shaped by timing, by intention, by memory. It speaks in its own way, but only if we are willing to ask what it’s trying to say. Sometimes, we need to learn how to sit with silence. Other times, we need to gently break it. The challenge is knowing the difference, and honoring what silence means not just to us, but to the one sitting across from us in it.

the someday shelf

Posted on by Ajmal

When we believe we have plenty of time, we treat it casually. We delay phone calls. We postpone dreams. We tell people soon, later, when things calm down. We live like the future is a guarantee as if time will always wait for us to be ready. But time is not generous in the way we assume. It moves quietly, steadily, without asking if we’re done yet. Days become weeks, and then years, and all the things we meant to begin still sit quietly on the shelf of someday. There is a kind of recklessness in treating time as infinite. Not in the bold, risk-taking sense, but in the way we allow important moments to pass, unnoticed. The small chances to connect. The ordinary days that could have held something sacred. The joy we defer for a “better” time that never quite comes. It’s only when time feels fragile, when we lose someone, when we feel a shift, when a chapter closes—that we begin to see how casually we held it. And then we remember: time was never promised. It was only given. So maybe the most radical thing we can do is live like time matters now. Not in grand gestures, but in presence. In intention. In choosing not to wait for the perfect moment, but to treat this moment as enough.

lives in the in-between

Posted on by Ajmal

So much of life happens in the spaces we barely notice. In the seconds between sentences. In the quiet before someone answers. In the pause where we decide whether to speak or to let the moment pass. We rush through our days, focused on what’s next, on what needs to be done. But meaning often lives in the in-between, between the things we planned, between the milestones we chase, between the moments we think define us. The real weight of life is in the softness of what fills the gaps. It’s in the glance exchanged when words aren’t needed. In the way someone lingers just a second longer before saying goodbye. In the hush of a morning before the world wakes up. These moments ask for nothing, demand nothing, and yet, they shape us in ways we rarely recognize. Perhaps if we slowed down, we would see them more clearly. Perhaps the life we are searching for is not in the big, extraordinary moments, but in the spaces we too often rush past. Because life is not just in what happens. It is in how it happens. In the pauses, in the breath between words, in the quiet spaces that are easy to overlook but impossible to replace.