Tuesday 18 March 2014

Connecting with your Creative Soul.

I believe that creativity is in all of us, we just have different expressions of it.

Having a heightened awareness of the self and developing an eye for detail I feel is fundamental. To do this I believe it’s about forming stillness and giving ourselves space to allow for creative voices to rise within us, finding courage to express our own creative thinking in ways that are most honest and sincere to us. A genuine expression is often an enjoyable one.

It’s often about finding the source; the inspiration. What gives us an emotional high?

And once this connection is made then what?  

Like many things we want to give longevity to, creativity is something that has to be nurtured; allowing space for growth and development. Like a running stream it can never remain stagnant. It’s a fluid journey, constantly flowing; regularly needing to be replenished otherwise it runs dry.

Too often when the word creativity is thrown into the room immediately many respond by saying “I’m not a creative person” and people say that it conjures images of painting, photography, sculpture, music, theatre, dance and performance. I believe it’s all down to perceptions.

I believe that there is creativity in all that we do; there is an art in most things. Art for me I feel spills into so many elements of life. It doesn't have to necessarily be limited to the stories we write or the pictures we paint, but can be found in the masterpieces we make in our daily lives; from the food we cook to even the conversations we hold.

Skills can be artistic.

Skills and art where’s the link I hear you ask? Yes even skills that wouldn't necessarily be categorised or even considered as anywhere near artistic, I believe can have original, imaginative and resourceful elements. It is when a skill becomes so enjoyable and such a pleasure that it takes over our senses as we know them; we become immersed. It is the skills that over time are crafted, fashioned and perfected, meaning that there is a conscious and continual engagement to produce something better.

Take the example of Tajweed and the learning of how to read the Qur’an with correct recitation. Learning the rhythm, short or long letters, pauses all take great skill and many believe it is a technical science however I believe it is a beautiful art also. I only have to look at the canvass, the sheer beauty that Allah swt has created around me to realise that there is a natural intrinsic desire within each and everyone one of us to be creative.

It’s just a matter of time that when we dim voices of the world, give space, allow stillness that we shall hear the voices of our soul rise… then watch the creativity pour forth.  

  

Wednesday 5 March 2014

WORLD BOOK DAY!

WORLD BOOK DAY!

Finally the day has arrived 6th of March, on which I will be launching my book "Time for Bed Zayd" at my old primary school where my journey to develop my writing began.

Mr Smith was his name; a man of old principles and discipline who taught me to play chess and write in a script that resembled the scribbling of a child from the Victorian era. Most of all he helped me to think, to feel, to touch and to taste the words that I wrote transforming my monotone, colourless story, into 4D epic adventures.

I have two schools to visits tomorrow, at three different sites, in two different cities where I will share my book with hundreds of children. The best part in reading to the children is witnessing the light in their eyes, which for me is the greatest gift of all.


My earliest memories as a child are of me and my brother crawling into my fathers bed to listen to his stories of far distant lands... in Urdu he would take us on adventures across land and sea. Feeding my imagination and me hanging onto every word, that when the story would end I always begged "just one more..." wide eyes pleading that today before mother became fed up he would read us another.

Today I feel a sense of nervous excitement about my World Book Day readings but somewhere inside of me I cannot help but wonder about all those children that do not have someone to read to them... all those children who have been displaced, become orphans or are sick or those who due to poverty, conflict or war do not have access to books, or time to settle to listen to a story...

My heart hopes and prays that each child has an opportunity to hear and read stories that bring them happiness and I've learned that reading and telling stories is a real privilege.

I ask the Almighty that I have the opportunity to read and share with those less fortunate. Real riches I feel are in that.