Is there anyone who wouldn’t like to hear or receive some endearment? Genuine ones. Pure, simple ones. Endearments that are not related to flattery or hidden self-interest.
Although people are different, I believe the possibility that one’s heart will not soften at receiving an endearing word or gesture is small. Even those with rock – solid hearts, or worse, dead hearts, should have a spot of tenderness hidden deep whithin them that would respond to a genuine endearment. Why, even animals and plants can be affected by endearing behaviour.
Now, can you think of the opposite? Instead of being the receiver, being the transmitter. In other words, can everyone instead of receiving endearment, be able to give any? I don’t think this is common because not everyone has this talent.
Imagine two people watching a singing robin at their windowstill.
‘Hello there, sweet, cute, little friend,” one says feeling so happy at the sight of the bird.
‘He’s just a bird,’ the second says, not in bad way, but he simply can’t add any more, believing that a robin is one of so many birds.
Can there be special, irreplaceable endearments? Of course there can, though nowadays, I doubt if people really care about that. A year or two ago, I noticed what I believe is an odd phenomenon. Either on social media or at social gatherings, I heard children calling their parents by their given names. In the beginning, I thought they were just joking or it was a game. Mine make the same joke at home, somtimes. But what I saw, was not for joking, playing, or disrespect. It was like a new fashion taught by parents, like a new, modern parenting style. Honestly, I find it odd, and disliked it. What could be a more special endearment than hearing “mama” and “papa”, “mum” and “dad” from your children? Who else would call you “mum” and “dad” from their own hearts?
Endearment isn’t only about sweet words.Nicknames and your own name can be just as endearing when uttered by a special person, or even given genuinely by a stranger. It is something that can warm the heart and fill it with happiness.
With all the best wishes,
Nahla
Don’t Feed Them
Three – no four, five, or even more – secret detectives and snipers, take over the four top corners of the building. They watch, scan, and analyse you, your bag, your hands, and every motion you take in every direction. Oblivious of their plans and intentions, you ignore them, and sometimes laugh at them.
A moment or two later, the highly professional officers spread their strong, white wings and take off. Crying and calling to one another, they start diving through the clear, breezy air, aiming for a specific landing point
You aren’t watching them, not very interested, for you’re busy unwrapping your sandwich. Before you take your first bite, your friend points to the beautiful ship sailing on the sea. You turn with a smile, and before you know it, your sandwich is snatched, shared, and swallowed by the brute intruders.
Seagulls! Have you ever been their victim?
Perhaps, that’s why you might see signs every now and then that says: “Don’t feed them.”
Have you ever thought they might do more than just steal food? The Birds by Daphne du Maurier will make you experience the unbelievable. Here’s the link for my review.
https://nh825.wordpress.com/2025/01/30/the-birds/
With all the best wishes,
Nahla
The Darkest Nights
They say: the darkest nights produce the brightest stars.
Isn’t it a beautiful proverb?
They also say the most darkest moment of the night comes just before the first light of dawn.
How many times do you feel lonely, desperate, and unsuccessful? And then, just when you are on the verge of giving up, you see luminous stars light up your dark night, and later on, the light of the dawn breaks through your faraway deep sky.
Definitely, these sayings are meant to give hope and assurance. Everything is possible, but things might take time. However, patience, sometimes, is too hard to be your friend, especially if you are the desperate not the advisor. But, you’ll be blessed if prayers are your shield.
Oh poor you, if you play the advisor giving these nice, hopeful, assuring phrases. The desperate would not listen, might even shoot you because they are trapped in the tightest circle of despair. “The hands in cold water are not like the hands in the fire.” This is what you hear in Arabic when you play the advisor or the wise man.
Then, when the miracle happens, when the solution comes, and when another chance is granted, the desperate will see the lumnious stars and the light of the dawn, and perhaps one day play the advisor to another desperate soul.
In brief, challenges and struggles are what make us understand how the darkest night can produce the brightest stars.
Have you ever seen the lumnious stars in the darkest nights?
I believe we all do.
With all the best wishes,
Nahla
Curiosity and Adventure
Are they closely related?
You might find yourself curious about something or someone. You might be eager to seek more details, sneaking and sniffing here and there like a cat after a mouse, and staying alert day and night like a secret detective on a top- secret mission. What you are investigating might be non of your business, or it could be part of your own business. In any case, you won’t rest, won’t give up, and will never feel satisfied until you uncover what have been mysterious for you.
Isn’t this what curiosity is? Am I exaggerating, a bit?
However, you won’t be curious unless you are interested, attached, and involved with that specific person or thing. For example, when your neighbour’s driveway is suddendly full of cars, your curiosity might soar to its highest levels. But, you won’t be as interested in a similar situation on the next street.
Hence comes the close relation between curiosity and adventure, for, of course, you won’t be glued in the spot if you’re curious about something or someone. You’ll need to move in one direction, or all directions. However, this is when problems, dangers, and mistakes become too close to happen if you’re not careful enough. Your curiosity could become like the one that killed the cat. That’s when the two cousins, curiosity and adventure, turn you blind and deaf to reason, and push you from the brink of the cliff.
Strange how both curiosity and adventure can brighten your life and also darken it!
Have you read Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier? Mary’s story might give you a living example of these two related traits?
Here’s the link for my review:
/https://nh825.wordpress.com/2025/01/27/jamaica-inn/
With all the best wishes,
Nahla
Would You Take The Risk?
If you had a choice to play the big gamble in your life, to stand still before a fully loaded gun save one of its chambers, listen to the click of its trigger, and wait for the bullet that might be fired and hit you dead, or for the one that would never come out. You might end up lying dead on the ground, or you might go home with a million pounds. What would you do?
That was one of the oddest and simplest questions I never expected to be asked during my converstation exam in my final year at university. To be honest, I was pleased to have this one, and I felt so blessed.
Do you want to know why?
Simply because my answer slipped off my tongue without giving it a second thought.Things wouldn’t have been the same if any of my friends’ questions had been mine. It wasn’t because theirs were harder, but because, sometimes, you just can’t talk genuinely about everything.
‘No, I wouldn’t risk my life.’
‘But, it’s a million pounds. There’s a chance you could get it.’
‘Even if they paid me the money in advance to enjoy and spend my life before making the gamble, I wouldn’t take the risk. My life is priceless, and my God didn’t bless me with a divine soul to gamble with it.’
That was my answer, and that year I got the best mark of my converstation exams over the four years of my university studies.
Money will come anyway, whether a little or in abundance, but you live once, and this once can be millions lives, both imaginary and real. Would you risk all that for just a million pound that might worth nothing in the next hour?
With all the best wishes,
Nahla
P.S. I think nowadays the million pounds prize should be, at least, a trillion.
A friend to all
… is not a friend at all.
Have you ever heard this saying? It makes sense, doesn’t it?
Isn’t it odd that one can be your friend and your rival’s, your opponent’s, even your enemy’s? You can, of course, be kind to all, but not a friend to all. I am not talking about social media friends, for in this case you can be a friend to millions. Online frienhip is exactly what it implies “online”. I am talking about real, close friends who you can trust, love, agree, or even disagree with. Perhaps that’s why true friendship is a rare gem, too hard to find and too precious to keep.
In fiction, and in real life, true friendhip could take you by surprise. An old man might be a young child’s best friend, a man of the world might be a saint’s, a prisoner might be his keeper’s, and an animal might be a man’s. In all cases, its the quality, not quantity that makes unique friendships.
Wouldn’t it be better if this friend of all should be a passerby after all?
Perhaps you can change the saying and add whatever you like.
A friend to all …..
With all the best wishes,
Nahla
The honest
Honesty is a noble, human trait, and I believe that, along with kindness, it will never die out. But, honesty is truely unique when it is genuine and touches your heart. I am not referring to the type of honesty that comes with formal interrogation or businesslike settings; I mean honesty that simply slipped off the tongue when you feel you compelled to be honest at that moment, regardless of any costs or requirements.
Last summar, just before moving, my eldest son, my daughter, and I went for a long walk by the seafront. It was a clear, hot day, with overfed seagulls soaring and screaming all of the sky. They looked as much happy and busy as all the people walking along the parade.
What could be better than having a fish and chips meal on such a summary day? We headed towards a fish and chips takeaway restaurant which was so busy with long queues waiting to either make or collect orders. I always tell my family what I’d like to order and wait outside as far as possible becuase I can’t bear the smell of frying oil, especially on boiling days. However, on that particular day, my son insisted that I go inside with them. Perhaps that was becuase it was so busy outside.
I walked inside with them, and we were waiting for our turn to make the order. As we were talking, I noticed the chef glancing at me once or twice, as if he wanted to say something. When it was our turn, my son gave the order, but then the man looked from my son to me and said: ‘ I just want you to know that we fry pork, sausages, fish and chips, all with the same oil.’
The three of us stood still for a while. It was the first time someone had given us this piece of information without us asking. When we thanked him and declined the order, he said. ‘ I know you have laws, and I respect that.’
We stepped out hungry, but so happy.
‘Oh, mama, that’s becuase of you,’ my son said.
‘And what have I done?’
‘Your hijab, mama. It’s the first time you came in,’ he laughed. ‘You know how many times we ordered fish and chips from there, and no one told us that before. Such an honest man!’
‘But mama what about the other fish and chips we ate before? My daughter seems more interested in whether we had been making a big mistake.
‘We are allowed to eat fish, so we make an order for fish and chips. God knows that we don’t know it’s been cooked with pork, and in that case we are pardoned. But, from from now on, as we know how things are, we’ll ask every time before having any takeaway.’
I will remember that day forever. This is not only becuase, since then, we know about the frying process, but because of the honest man you come across once in a blue moon.
With all the best wishes,
Nahla
The promise
Have you ever promised someone something?
Of course I have, we all do.
Have you been true to your promise?
Hmm … sometimes, most of the times.
Have you ever broken any?
Well… I can’t remember
Can you trust someone who breaks their promise, who couldn’t stand by their word?
Never … but unless it was inevitable.
Would your answers be any similar?
You might forgive once, but when things happen twice or more, nothing can heal the wound of mistrust. It’s better not to give a promise at all than to give one with any possibility of being unable to keep it. It’s not only unethical to break a promise, but also heartbreaking, disappointing, and deceiving.
However, what if the promise itself is impossible, dangerous, or unethical? Would you blindly, stubbornly fulfill it? Or would you listen to your heart and reason, and break it?
That’s what the new book I am currently reading is all about. A girl, in her early twenties, gives her bedridden mother a promise to move and live with her aunt after her death. From the very beginning, starting with the cold letter she receives from her aunt, to the long, miserable journey she makes, to people’s fear and shock about her destination, to the first sight of her aunt and her husband, everything seems to be shouting at her to break her promise and forget about it. If her mother were able to rise from her grave, she would do, so just to tell her daughter to forget about that mistaken promise and flee from her Aunt’s house. But, the girl, full of curiosity and stubbornness, stuck to the promise all the same.
I’ll let you know more when I finish it.
With all the best wishes,
Nahla
P.S. The promise is not the title of the book
The actor
I once heard that an actor’s testimony can not be validated. I have no idea whether this notion has any reference, but I suggest it’s merely a point of view, likely as a reference to the lack of credibility.
Acting is a talent before being a profession. How many actors are there in the world? Countless, right? But how many are truely talented? Just a few, wouldn’t you agree?
The talented will make you weep, scream, laugh, hate, love, and sympathise with them. Above all, they make you believe whatever they’re giving you. The untalented will make you neutral, if not bored.
Perhaps, this is why some think that a real actor’s testimony might be considered invalid. After all, the courtroom can’t be a stage, and truth can’t be dramatised. Truth has to be proved with competent, relevant, credible, and unbiased testimony.
Have you ever noticed how many writers make it clear from the very beginning of their novels that it’s all fictional? They don’t want to mislead their readers, to bear no responsibility if things were not accurate. While the story and characters may reflect something or someone in real life, it’s all based on imagination.
Truth can’t be imagined, but imagination cam help us see the truth.
What do you think? Are you still reading? Pray tell, you are!
By the way, there are many unknown actors who perform better in real life than on the stage. They are professional, but not talented. Ironically, they can’t be exempt from giving testimony. Hopefully, the judge, would never be one.
With all the best wishes,
Nahla
Obsession
I wonder if obseission is a psychological, complex problem? In fact, I believe it is.
It is like idolization, you fall for something or someone and make them like air and water in your life. Both are desturctive, but I think obsession is even worse. This is because idolization, sometimes, is out of true love which can be blind or selfish. But, obsession is mainly about possession, fear, and greed.
In both cases, either in idolization or obsession, you can’t see the truth, you can’t listen to reason.
Perhaps, that’s why this quote makes a very good sense: “Truth was something intangible, unseen, which sometimes we stumbled upon and did not recognize, but was found, and held, and understood only by old people near their death, or sometimes by the very pure, the very young.”
Do you agree that only the old, the very young, and the pure can sometimes see the truth? Do you think that might because they are no longer obsessed or have not yet become obessessed?
My Cousin Rachel by Dephne Du Maurier can tell you more about obessission. Here’s a link for my review.
/https://nh825.wordpress.com/2025/01/20/my-cousin-rachel/
With all the best wishes,
Nahla
Pure and Simple 