One thing that has helped me personally in the past was to stop interfering with the people around me and getting frustrated when I couldn’t change t… - Elif Şafak

"Some people make the mistake of confusing "submission" with "weakness", whereas it is anything but. Submission is a form of peaceful acceptance of the terms of the universe including the things we are currently unable to change or comprehend."

فمع أن القرآن يقول أن النميمة وقذف الناس أثم كبير، قلما يبذل البشر أي جهد لكبح أنفسهم عن ممارسة ذلك . فهم لا يكفون عن إدانة شاربي الخمر، أو البحث عن النساء الزانيات لرجمهن، لكن عندما يتعلق الأمر بالنميمة التي هي أثم أعظم بكثير في نظر الله ، فإنهم لا يعرفون أنهم يرتكبون إثما.

Her mother had once told her that childhood was a big, blue wave that lifted you up, carried you forth and, just when you thought it would last forever, vanished from sight. You could neither run after it nor bring it back. But the wave, before it disappeared, left a gift behind – a conch shell on the shore. Inside the seashell were stored all the sounds of childhood.

Why roots were rated so highly compared with branches or leaves, Peri had never understood. Trees had multiple shoots and filaments extending in every direction, under and above the ancient soils of the earth. If even roots refused to stay put, why expect the impossible from human beings?