Tag: romance

  • Hopeless dreams

    Hopeless dreams

    A dream without hope taunts us more than it comforts us.

    It teases us with its distraction while we indulge in it, but reminds us that we believe we’re unworthy of it when we cast our gaze once more towards reality.

    When we believe in our dream, we’ll find the signs and the opportunities to map our path towards achieving that dream.

    But when we believe that our dream is unreachable or unrealistic, we’ll focus on everything that points towards a struggle, an obstacle, or an assumed impossibility in our desire to achieve it.

    That’s how we harm ourselves. We convince ourselves that the good that we yearn for is out of reach. Or worse, we convince ourselves that we are undeserving of it.

    If only we paused for long enough…took a deep breath…and realised that there are experiences we had in life that we never thought possible, but they came to pass anyway. Despite us not believing that they would.

    Those are the experiences that inspired us to dream. And those dreams that they inspired are our truths that we know is possible if only…

    Breathe beloved, and change that ‘if only’ into ‘when’, so that the dream that fills your heart in the quiet moments may find space in your life in your daylight hours.

    Just breathe…

  • Don’t deny your heart

    Don’t deny your heart

    Silence can never render the heart’s true yearnings irrelevant or obsolete…it only makes it more torturous until fulfilled…if ever

    The heart’s true yearnings slowly morph into unfulfilled moments of angst that are beyond explanation or reason

    Sleep soon escapes us as we try to busy ourselves with the urgencies of life in our efforts to distract us from that gaping void

    A void that can only be filled by responding to the yearning of the heart

    But whose yearning we’d much rather suppress than to risk hurting a tender heart more than its current pain

    Once battered, trust is abandoned

    The heart then becomes a slave to its yearnings while being shackled to its grief

    Breathe beloved, breathe…just breathe…and allow your heart to muster courage that escapes your will.


  • The ultimate rebellion

    The ultimate rebellion

    Living romantically, despite the horrors of life, is the ultimate protest

    It’s the obstinate rebellion against those who wish to rage, because they have no peace to give

    It is the cry of the lover for his beloved

    The anguished heart searching for peace

    The lonely soul searching for home

    To see beauty when surrounded by pain

    Or to be gentle when born of torture

    To love despite being surrounded by hate

    And to claim dignity when shame is the only language spoken

    That is the ultimate protest

    Because we must strive for what we wish to create

    Rather than rage against what we wish to destroy.

    The world is full of rage

    Perhaps it needs some romance again.

    Join me, beloved

    Join the conquest of this madman.

  • True love is never lost

    True love is never lost

    Fate has a way of giving us what we ask for when we don’t realise we’re asking for it.

    It is the yearnings of the soul that calls out to the heavens, while our mouths utter pleas that are born of the distractions of needs.

    Needs are ephemeral. They pass through us like the passing of fluids through the loins of beasts.

    Denial of such needs leads to anger, and anger betrays the soul.

    The yearnings of the soul prevail beyond such fickle expression.

    It is in the infinity of true love that the soul finds peace.

    Whatever ends, is therefore not true to love or to the soul. It is not what physical bond we may maintain that defines such love.

    Such a love is defined by the pulse of the soul that continues to beat, eternally rhythmically, for the same soul that set it alight and inspired its beautiful rhythm.

  • Poetry of old

    Poetry of old

    “Poetry often belies the age of the poet,

    but always reveals the struggles of the soul.

    What we write of youth, applies to old.

    But most would rather resist it,

    Than bear the truth be told.

    I’m in love with life.

    But I hate the world.”

    It’s possible to live life romantically, you know. Despite the horrors and pain that appear to be so pervasive in this world, perhaps romance is the ultimate rebellion against the cruelty of life.

    Perhaps.

    This is something that I wrote a few years ago, it still accurately describes my conflicted relationship with this world.

    What you take from this, be it pessimistic, optimistic, or simply cynical, is a reflection of who you are and what your current relationship is with your world.

    Yet, most will read into this what they believe to be true about me, not realising that what we see in others is a reflection of what we are hopeful, grateful, or bitter about in that moment.

    How connected are you with your relationship with the world around you?

  • In celebration of women

    In celebration of women

    On this Women’s Day, here’s a message to the men out there.

    If you have that special someone to share this day with, consider yourself blessed. Women don’t love selflessly unless they commit fully.

    If their passion scares you, don’t grow defensive or feel threatened. Draw strength from them. They see in you what you don’t see in yourself.

    They see you beyond the failures of your past, or your feelings of inadequacy in your role as a father, brother, son, or husband.

    When they inspire you to be more than you are, it’s not because they think you’re not good enough. It’s because they believe that you’re worth so much more. And they want you to be all you can be.

    It’s not weakness to show your heart to her. Weakness is found in protecting yourself from being discovered because you are afraid of not being good enough.

    When you protect yourself from rejection, you deny yourself growth. When you deny yourself growth, you deny yourself the fulfilment of embracing the very love and companionship that you desire in life.

    A woman is driven innately to nurture, and nurturing automatically inspires growth. So perhaps the tension between you and your partner is because she sees how much more you can be together, and you’re afraid to embrace that reality from fear of not being able to make the cut.

    I know of men that would kill a bull to be in your position. And if you find it difficult to understand her, try to understand the men she had in her life before you. Including her father, or other male figures. The ones who treated her badly, or denied her a voice.

    The sad reality is that there are a few good men who have to bear the burden of the many who have lost themselves to the ego of society.

    I hope you choose to be part of the few. If you choose this, you will have the best of what this world has to offer by way of companionship and fulfilment of purpose.

    To love, without restraint, and to be loved in return, is the greatest gift. Don’t deny yourself this gift by protecting yourself from a weakness that only you believe in.

    And to the women, don’t stop believing in yourself. But recognise that when you judge a man by the standard of those who came before him, you have yet to fully heal from the harshness of your past. Don’t make a good man bad by holding him accountable for something that he had no part in.

    And men…don’t make a good woman bad by expecting her to make up for the gentleness and compassion that you were denied by those who came before her. Including your parents.

    Cherish each other…and gaze upon each other in the same way that you want to be seen. Anything less is an injustice to your soul, and to the beauty that is waiting to bloom between you and your partner.

    Have a blessed Women’s Day.

    Zaid Ismail
    Author | Life Coach

    #womensday2020

    https://youtu.be/ZYRfUoR9Q4Y

  • Cherished to death

    Cherished to death

    When love is a well kept secret, it becomes torturous

    When love is embraced, it emits a glow that keeps the darkness of the world at bay

    When we withhold our love from fear of it not being enough, we destroy the very object of our affection

    Thus, self deprecation cherishes beauty in silence, but leaves to whither and die, the object of its cherishing

    It is the doubts we harbour of our adequacy, that undermines our resolve to be beautiful

    In our efforts to hide from the world our fear, we lose sight of those who see in us what we don’t see in ourselves

    Those same souls who worship our beauty, but are discarded through our fear, are the souls whose hearts we cherish…silently

    Our belief that they do not need our embrace as much as we wish they would embrace us, is what leaves them cherished, but discarded

    Even the most cherished of hearts, if left without a home, will die of exposure.

    Perhaps this is why the good fades from our lives, as we hold on to the bad that we believe is not fair to place as a burden on others…

  • To be loved…

    To be loved…

    Love, without understanding, is mere infatuation.

    To love, is to see the strength that created such beauty, not just to admire the beauty.

    To love, is to caress the scar with a gentleness that honours the pain that caused it.

    To love, is to see the pain that sometimes distorts the beauty, without devaluing the beauty.

    To love, is to see, before needing to be seen.

    The profession of love, without truly knowing who is being loved, is a profession of need, more than it is an embrace.

    It is when our need to be understood by our beloved exceeds our desire to understand them first that love makes a silent exit, and entitlement replaces it.

    To truly love, you must first seek to understand, because understanding demands that you pay attention to your beloved, before you feel a need to demand their attention for what you need instead.

    Be loved. Be blessed.