Slaves

“I didn't know I was a slave until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted.”, Frederick Douglass

Sometimes we love or fear people and things to the extent that we let them control us and rule our lives. To a certain degree this might be acceptable because I think we should be living for others not only for ourselves, but at some point in time we should stop to think and re-evaluate because sometimes we forget ourselves and our rights to live our own life and enjoy it. We sometimes allow these things and beloved ones to drive us blindly… we help them abuse us… we enslave ourselves… and become Slaves with our own will… and we convince ourselves that this is the right thing to do. Now… it is time to wake up… to break the chains… to fight for freedom… it is time to say “NO”… it is time to make them hear it and accept it.

“The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave, his fetters fall. Freedom and slavery are mental states.”, Mahatma Gandhi

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Farid

"What small hands!! One day mine were that little and one day yours will be that big!" Despite his small size and his inability to participate in conversations, he grabbed the attention of the presence… he was the main topic of all discussions this day. He said nothing, but we were all listening to him. His eyes were inspecting each of us carefully, he then smiles nicely and moves his head to someone else with the same childish smile… When my turn came, I felt we were in some sort of a silent conversation with angel smiles and touching hands. I am not sure which couldn’t understand the other… could he understand us but we didn’t know, or was it us who couldn’t understand him. He was very powerful with his weakness, pure smile and thinking eyes. "God bless you my nephew, God bless you Farid"

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The Clown

Every day he paints his face with happy colors, dresses up with cheerful clothes to make them laugh, to make them forget about their sorrows for a while or maybe forever. His greatest achievement was to draw smiles on every lip, to make eyes sparkle with joy. His mission was never easy, but he never gave up… It was his life’s goal and his every day task, though… he never felt bored. He never gave himself the chance to control his life, he never owned it… it was other’s property, it was part of theirs. He didn’t know how to think about himself, he never knew whether he was happy or not, he didn’t have the time luxury to stop and think. Suddenly, he discovered he was The Clown, the unhappy clown who used to make everyone happy but himself!

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The Closed Page

Usually, when you read a book, you turn a page to read the next one. Sometimes, you may skip some pages to reach a specific page, then you might go back to the former to continue reading the normal sequence of events. This time, when I turned the page, I wasn’t sure I was ready to read the next one. For the first time in my life turning a page was so hard on me, and wasn’t an easy act to make, although it used to be very simple before. This page was really heavy, it almost weighted as much as the entire book… Yes, one page was worth the whole book… One page had it all… Between the lines, there were many hidden lines with deeper meanings… This page was filled with lines that can only be read with closed eyes… It needed profound thinking. Actually, I wasn’t sure whether I was reading or writing! This time… pages kept being turned one after another, it seemed that the previous page was closed, maybe forever; I really can’t turn it back… It is The Closed Page now… The next page is empty, or maybe it is me who still can’t read it!

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Three Ducks

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”, Anais Nin

Once upon a time, there were Three Ducks… Two young ducks, and an older one… They were friends, very close friends… They couldn’t pass a day without being together in a way or another… They were mysteriously tied to each other with a strange bond… They cared and loved each other very much… The young ducks helped the old one many times, they were always there when it needed them… and the three of them never failed one another… The old duck always felt grateful to the young ones… They helped it pass the hard times smoothly, they always stood by its side… The old duck always wished to see the young ones happy… It wanted them to be the best in the world… It wished it can make anything to help them… The old duck’s life earned its meaning by the presence of the two young ducks in it.

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The Prisoner

“Questions are a burden to others; answers a prison for oneself”, Patrick McGoohan
He was locked in a cell… surrounded by bars… He couldn’t feel he was himself anymore… He couldn’t enjoy the taste of flying… He was carrying burdens… He could never touch the walls of the cell he was locked in… as they were just in his mind… He wasn’t sure he was free… and he wasn’t a prisoner too… He was struggling for freedom in a lost battle… His ideas and thoughts were struggling him… He fought daily to reach the… “nowhere” and to obtain the… “nothing”… He was always wondering to where he belonged… he was feeling he belonged to… the “nowhere”… He was looking for himself… He was searching for his lost soul… Behind the bars, he was there… and he didn’t dare to cross.
“Within yourself deliverance must be searched for, because each man makes his own prison”, Edwin Arnold
It is the free bird inside The Prisoner’s heart that will make him feel liberty.

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