Closing Pandora's Box

It’s bee a very long time since you last wrote. You write very inspirative post,” said the General.

A few days ago, I decided to step outside into the garden and go looking for bugs. I didn’t get very far as the grass was too long; hugging my shins and almost reaching up to my knees in other places. And so, I sat down a few steps away from the kitchen door and watched. I sat there for over an hour. I saw life, I saw order, I saw determination, and I saw hope. Seeing and looking are two different things, but that’s a discussion for a different day. I was looking at weed filled grass but seeing something else. I’d like to share with you two photographs I took on my phone and you can tell me whether after looking you too can see that which I did.

Next to my leg on the right side was a dandelion and on the left some tiny pink flowers, through which were crawling many little insects. I watched them as they moved about on legs thinner than a single strand of my hair, gracefully scuttling about, almost as if playing hide and seek with me and my phone. But luckily (for me) there was one insect, so engrossed in what it was doing, it didn’t care about what I was doing, and so I took a picture of it.

It is normal for us to be so dazzled by surrounding beauty like of the flower, that we do not even notice the real beauty; the beauty of the effort put in by the miniscule insect to conquer the flower and reach its destination. In the same way in our lives it is those things, those people, that we take for granted who become like the insect in the picture above (do you see it?), that get forgotten in the presence of something seemingly more beautiful regardless of how temporary it is. Yet they are always there, trying and trying again, not giving up on what they believe, not giving up on you because that’s who they are and what they do. (Thank you, my dear insects friends).

They say, blow the dandelion away, make a wish and it’ll come true. And they wish for you to do this and that, so you give and give from the kind depths of your mortal heart, till there seems to be nothing more to give. You are left hanging and it takes so much strength. Hang in there my dear, have faith, grit your teeth together and remember the insect, unfazed by anything around it. The thing about being strong is that no-one asks how you are, or how you feel. So let me ask you now, ‘how are you today?’

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Photograph of insect climbing flower taken from personal photography available here.
Photograph of blown away dandelion taken from person photography available here.

You star. Splendid. Amazing. Astronomical. Sometimes I wonder whether stars know just how beautiful they are? Sometimes I wonder, do stars, whose job it is to illuminate the dark dark universe around them, know how much light they have? Do stars see their light or do they only see the darkness that surrounds them? In their journey through the universe, do the stars see their path illuminated by other stars, just as we humans use stars or do they ever look at themselves and see their magnificence? The stars can’t speak to me, but I know you can. Take a look at yourself and see your light, because you are everything and so much more than a star.

Mirror mirror on the wall
Who is the fairest of them all?
You, my Queen, are fairest of all.¹

The mirror and the timepiece tell the story of your beauty. Mirror mirror on the wall, the glass hides not neither does it stall. Who is the fairest of them all, would my beauty silence the hall, a question many would lie in response to. Not the mirror, nay, for it speaks that which it sees. It flatters not and neither does it deceive.

Your glass, be it hanging on the bedroom wall or hidden away among the contents of your bag, shows just how  your beauty goes. When decades pass; the soft needles of the winter snow, dig deep trenches upon your brow. Your beauty, a radiating field once the envy of many, will be covered in weeds, no longer gazed upon in want or in need. What worth will it hold then?

Mirror mirror on the wall
Who is the fairest of them all?
Queen, you are full fair, it is true, but Snow White is fairer than you.¹

Then when they ask, where is your beauty now, what will you have left to show? Hidden in the lines on your forehead or behind the sunken eyes, which saw your lustful days? And your timepiece will show you the precious moments that went to waste as you tried to outwit time’s thievish ways.

Why ask others, do I look beautiful, when men lie to please for in that is ease. Question the one that never lies, not intimidated by royalty or repelled by a ragamuffin. If your eyes tell you, you are beautiful when you look in the mirror then be it so and be you grateful.

But what is beauty? For that which is skin deep only lasts as long as the skin holds its keep. Be like that flower which catches the eye in its prime but still gives off its sweet scent even as it is about to die.

[This is a scheduled post]

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Catachresis – (noun) 1. The misuse of a word; application of a meaning to a word not its own, as asset used in the sense of advantage; also a mixed or strained metaphor, as a paradox for example. 2. The use of a wrong form of the word, through a misunderstanding of its etymology. – Taken from Webster’s Comprehensive dictionary.
¹ Mirror mirror on the wall – from the fairy tale, Snow White and the seven dwarfs.
Image of mirror taken from here.

This article appeared in the Local Guardian last week:

(click to enlarge)

If when you stand in front of the mirror and are not happy with what you see, remember that you are BEAUTIFUL and be grateful.

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Title: Firework – Katy Perry
If you would like further information about neurofibromatosis, click here to visit the medical website that I use to do my university homework.

When I was young, about 13 or so, my dad brought me a telescope and microscope to explore both the micro-universe and the macro-universe. They were modest things; the telescope had a maximum zoom of 400x and the microscope’s zoom was 200x. I used to love standing out in the garden during the depths of the night, just staring up at the stars and following planes. As I grew older and astronomy no longer had a place in the physics curriculum my star gazing days were left behind. Instead, my eyes were turned away from the heavens and towards the universe that lies within us, and here I am today studying all about it. Recently, I saw a link to The sky at night on BBC Iplayer, which sent me hurtling back to the nights of stargazing. The sheer size, magnitude and beauty of the universe, here at home on earth and out beyond the reach of my little grey telescope is awe inspiring and extremely humbling. So I decided to collect some beautiful pictures from NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the day website and share them with you. Each picture has an explanation, and caption which you can view by clicking on it. Enjoy!

You remember once I said smiles can be found any where if you look hard enough? Well there’s a smile in the beautiful photograph above. See if you can spot it.

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Title: Forever Young – Jay Z ft. Mr Hudson
All Photographs – Taken from http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
Holy Qur’an, Surah Al Mulk, Chapter 67 : Verse 4