Resonance

 

“There was something about resonance that bridge my two worlds and brought them together. In physics, resonance is the tendency of a system to oscillate with a greater amplitude at some frequencies than at others. It explains phenomena like glass breaking at the right – or not – pitch. Electrical resonance explained how radio frequencies can be selectively received.

The concept of resonance was so simple yet so powerful. Push a swing at its natural frequency and it oscillates at its maximum and you have a happy child. Resonance also explains my love for writing – and reading. Do yo sometimes read a book and find that one line that resonates with the beats of your heart, and you figure, “Yes, maybe it was this one line that I had to go away with.”

And there are times when I write and I know  my words will shake someone somewhere, because that’s exactly how I felt when I was writing them. All I needed was someone whose “natural frequency” was similar to mine.

#Bestof2012 Ahechoes Posts

So the year is coming to an end, and I would like to take a few minutes to thank everybody who has been visiting this blog. With all the stuff online fighting for your attention, it is an honor that you’ve been spending some time here, so thank you very much. Thank you for your comments, likes, shares and retweets. I’ve been going through some of the comments that my friends have been sending me, and there seems to be a pattern, can you find it?

Person (A) on Facebook says, “long time no talk, but recently started reading more of ur writings and they are really good. i just want to thank you that some of ur writings i find them helpful esp to tough times in life. keep up writing and think of colletcting ur blog posts and put them in a book.

Person (B) shared my stuff on twitter, with the message, “write a book someday “

Person (C) on Linkedin said, “Write something, like a novel or maybe a children’s book for starters (JK Rowling!)”

So until I get to that, I’m listing below some of the top posts for my ahechoes.wordpress.com compiled for new readers. Some of these were actually published in 2011 but they still made the “most read” list of 2012. Enjoy!

1) The Masks People Wear.

2) How to Stop Hurting Too Much.

3) Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish, Stay Curious. 

4) On Introverts. 

5) Sands of Time.

6) 9 Traits of Successful People

7) Dear Single Ladies

8) When Failure is a Success

9) The Road Less Traveled 

10) Losing Your Person

Why This Blog’s Stats Will Continue Struggling

So recently I have been pondering on my Blog’s statistics and how it seems to be making turtle-like progress, remaining as nothing but a speck in the blogosphere. The fact that I write out of passion and not out of an attempt at popularity helps keep this thing alive, because if it comes to the statistics, they pretty much need CPR every once in a while.

Upon reading a summary on The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, it pretty much helps me contemplate on why this blog will continue lurking in the shadows, evading popularity as much as I do. Malcolm argues that one of there are three main factors to determine whether an idea will tip the balance and become exponentially popular is known as Law of the Few.

The Law of the Few says that an idea can become widely popular when it is endorsed by a few important types of people. Gladwell describes these types as Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. The main thing about these people is they have the charisma, the connections and the trusted position to spread the idea across several fields.

So the fact that I’m an introvert who feels more comfortable expressing myself behind a screen, a username and a password doesn’t exactly help much. I spent the better part of my life trying to extend beyond my comfort zone when it comes to people and friends but the only thing I got was pain from both “family and friends”. And since it’s really hard for me to forget considering I keep a detailed diary of just about everything, I came to the conclusion that I’m tired of holding acidic memories in the vase of my heart because I am the only one who gets hurt (or who remembers the pain) so my natural inclination is to avoid people as a preemptive measure to avoid creating more acidic memories in the first place.

But I digress. Going back to the statistics, I’m happy with whatever statistics I have got because if there’s one thing that I have learnt as an introvert it’s to appreciate the quality of a relationship and not the quantity. And I like the fact that I actually know many of my readers.

According to Dr Wikipedia, As of Feb 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence. Among that much noise, it’s very easy to completely disappear, for after all this is just one speck in the blogosphere, one drop in the ocean or just one brick in the wall.

It’s actually a privilege to have people take some time out of their busy schedules to actually read what you have to say.

So if you’ve read this far.

Thank you.

Overview of April and May’s Posts

So I’m hoping to pick up the habit of writing an “overview” post every other month for the sake of my occasional readers.  The most recent post I put up was dedicated to Syria and had information on how to donate, “Bleeding Syria“.

A friend of mine called me the other day and said why my posts sounded “sad”. She called to check up on me, and it seemed interesting because during the course of the discussion I figured out that the posts made her feel her pain. And that’s how I tend to measure the success of my posts; how many of the posts resonate with people, and whether people can relate to them such that it induces an emotional reaction within themselves.

I posted on relationships with “Acidic People” and I tried to answer the question, “Who’s Your Person?” only to figure out that I have more experience losing my persons over time in “Losing Your Person.”  There was a post discussing events in our lives and learning to deal with them in  “Corrosion, Life and Three Little Words” and how sometimes we think our lives may be crumbling down around us when in reality it’s just “Crumbling Up.” There was also a post on zoning out and where I go in “This is where I go, when I go“

Furthermore, we spoke a bit about violence; first in the “Irony of School Shootings” and then in “School Violence” discussing the act of violence against Lujein in a school in Abu Dhabi.

Finally, there were some mundane discussions on Facebook or Twitter , Graduation and “TCA After the Storm” .

Of Rejections and The Weather

Last week has been a week of failures and rejections for me. If you’ve been in touch with me then you know the details, but it was amazing how one rejection came after another came after another, “We regret to inform you,” “After careful consideration,” “Application Status: Not Selected.” Add to that failed experiment runs in the lab, and all I could say was, “How worse could it get?”

Many people told me, “Don’t let it get to you.” Truth is, I feel like I’m beyond the disappointment stage right now. Sometimes I do get annoyed, but then I get over it. I personally believe that at any given day, a failed attempt is better than no attempt at all. Also, just appreciating the blessings I have been given by Allah (SWT) makes me think that it doesn’t really matter if I don’t get that “one more thing”.

On another note, the weather has been too dusty lately. It seems to be the transient period between winter and summer. You know how a sound or a smell can trigger some sort of good/bad memory. For me, the weather can act as a memory trigger, especially these last two days I’ve been feeling very nostalgic. The weather reminds me of high school days when our school days used to be shorter than normal because we were given long breaks to prepare for the IG’s, so we had to wait for the bus or take a cab. My best friend and I used to walk in this weather to go take a cab from the main road (because for some reason our high school was located very far from the main road and we had no other option but to walk). This weather reminds me of her, Baskin Robbins and those milk shakes.

To link the two topics together; I suggest that you celebrate rejections/failures with baskin robbins milkshakes. Why celebrate them? Because every failure is one step forward towards success, so it might be a reminder that you’re nearly there.

I guess that’s it for now.

Hadeeth of the day (and I might have repeated it, but one week before a major deadline, I need the reminder before anybody else)

عن أبي العباس عبد الله بن عباس رضي الله عنه قال كنت خلف النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم يوماً فقال “يا غلام , إني أعلمك كلمات : احفظ الله يحفظك , احفظ الله تجده تجاهك , إذا سألت فاسأل الله وإذا استعنت فاستعن بالله , واعلم أن الأمة لو اجتمعت على أن ينفعوك بشيء لم ينفعوك إلا بشيء قد كتبه الله لك , وإن اجتمعوا على أن يضروك بشيء لم يضروك إلا بشيء قد كتبه الله عليك , رفعت الأقلام وجفت الصحف ” رواه الترمذي وقال : حديث حسن صحيح

n the authority of Abdullah bin Abbas, who said : One day I was behind the prophet and he said to me:
“Young man, I shall teach you some words [of advice] : Be mindful of Allah, and Allah will protect you. Be mindful of Allah, and you will find Him in front of you. If you ask, ask of Allah; if you seek help, seek help of Allah. Know that if the Nation were to gather together to benefit you with anything, it would benefit you only with something that Allah had already prescribed for you, and that if they gather together to harm you with anything, they would harm you only with something Allah had already prescribed for you. The pens have been lifted and the pages have dried.”

Overview of June’s posts

So the month started with a background story to “The Day Akela Died,” giving out some information on what inspired the story. Also I provided a sneak peek on what stories would be coming up soon inshaAllah. If you haven’t received your copy, make sure to check it out here.

Then we discussed a bit on The Masks People Wear, and that brought on a lot of comments from readers who connected with that post, leading to a compilation of comments on The Masks People Wear – Comments. Then I disappeared for 11 days and returned with a post that was not exactly that popular titled the Effects of More Facebook-Like Inventions. The topic came up once when my friend and I had one of the longest chat ever that stretched to the wee hours of the morning. But you can tell from the many comments – or lack thereof – that people’s interest was not piqued enough…or maybe, people other than RetireWannabee didn’t have anything to contribute with.

The next post was Passionate about Your Work? and people did have a lot to say on that one. Following that was a transition from job issues to relationship issues on Relationships Worth Fighting for and Family Worth Fighting For. And finally the month ended with some productivity tools to help you keep track of things such as time, goals, religious obligations and writing, in 6 Cool Tools to Help You Keep Track.

It has been quite an interesting month I must say and even though I wasn’t as productive as I should have been, but reader’s contributions on my blog made up for that. Thank you all for continuously supporting and sharing this blog. Thank you for all your comments, and emails, and twitter retweets.

The journey is not over, and if you’re wondering what I have planned for next month inshaAllah, check this out…

Google A Heart’s Echoes

So today I checked what are the google terms that actually lead to my blog, and here are the top results;

Among other phrases are “Feel like a loser” which leads to this, and Kenya’s Survival Guide which leads to the Kenya Studies 001 and 002. Only this morning, I received a viewer who searched for ‘Masdar Institute Blog site: ahechoes.wordpress.com’

Now someone was really exact there. But what’s interesting is that I’ve been playing with the idea of actually blogging about masdar institute. You know, mention the temperature problem (what problem??), and the occasional email problems (what email??). Also talk about how someone might be doing their defense and the alarm system goes off, ‘An Incident Has Been Detected…’

Maybe someone was using their bunsen burner to make coffee. (Just FYI, didn’t happen yet – at least as far as I know.)

But you know I figured since I have a problem with keeping my mouth shut sometimes, I don’t want to be hunted by Masdar’s extremely-hard-working marketing team since I think they’re the most efficient team around here, so I’ll leave my brutally honest review for after I leave this place.

Reminds me of a day when someone told me that I shouldn’t be so brutally honest, and my reply was, “So what shall I be? Just brutal?”

As an overview of the month, this month began with Why Do We Laugh At People’s Dreams?

I reminisced a bit about Kenya in Of Jobs and Seeking Knowledge where I spoke of the job my grandma used to give me during summers, and also in a Pinch of Swahilism.

Three of AH flavored notes came up on The Glint of light on Broken Glass, Stepping Stones and 9 Traits of Successful people who were just like you and me.

Finally, I got a little bit personal in If The Birds Don’t Sing, Do They Write? and On Why I Write?

the most popular post of the month could be found here.

And thanks for your continuous support.

On Why I Write

So today is going to be one of those random posts where I ramble just to kick up my statistics to hit a certain target on the 31st of the month. I thought of sharing with you on why I write. Simply said, because it is very very difficult for me to stop. I’m serious. I remember a time in uni when I used to make a conscious effort to stop writing (not start writing cz I could do that subconsciously sometimes). Call me obsessed, and I was. But the downside to living in an imaginary world filled with colors that don’t exist, people that don’t exist, and sounds that don’t exist is that one day you actually wake up to realize that you’re missing out on a lot of things that’s happening in your life.

Like listening to a child laugh at the spinning of a coin on the table.

I remember once when I was really awed by one of my baby cousins, who just couldn’t stop laughing at the amusing sight of a coin spinning on the table. And every time I did it, he would laugh, and laugh, and laugh.

So much purity, so much innocence…

What happens when they grow up?

So maybe I leant more on writing about my imaginary world when I hit my teens. Maybe it was easier to understand – and control – than my real life, even though it was no secret that most – if not all – of my characters could be found in my real life.

Then I took a creative writing class and I learnt two things;

a) Universality in writing can be achieved through specificity. Until then, I used to write short stories where I didn’t always tell the whole story as it should be told, but I filled it with so many gaps “for the reader to fill” and the only thing I used to fill it in is emotion. But then hearing that advice about actually being specific, my writing took a jump and became better, because suddenly readers were tuned into my world; they could actually hear, see and smell everything that I could. Just recently, I got an email from someone who’s read a short story,

“can you believe I still imagine that roofless corridor they sat at… I’m sure you didn’t describe it that way; you wrote something much nicer loool … but the image is still in my head of what I imagined when I read it even the grass… “

Another comment that came earlier about the same short story,

[comment edited for typos] “abt ur story, I really like it.  its sooo good tht it doesnt only touch ur heart bt ur memory as well and bring those nice flash backs with the classic era of 1970 wth all pale colors and interesting turns. mashalla it looks like a classic painting from the 70′s. i could draw the pic of all the events in the back of my mind and still have it till now thnx i really enjoyed reading it.”
To read the short story (5 pages) that these comments refer to, go to http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/the-day-akela-died/15847920

b) Stop running away from what you want to really want to say. While editing one of the poems – the last draft can be found here – my professor pointed out something. While I can’t entirely quote him, but the idea was that I was trying to build fiction based on a true story, when the true story was actually better than the fiction I was trying to modify it into.

So maybe my writings have been online since 2007 as facebook notes at first, but nobody can really compare between what can be seen here and the previous 2007 ramblings which mainly revolved around three topics;

1) Complaining about AUS

2) Complaining about AUS and…

ummm..

3) Complaining about AUS

So the question that many people are wondering about; when am I actually planning to take my writing seriously (i.e. quit engineering for it)?

Just for the records, my Blogspot blog was born in 2008, and my wordpress blog was born in 2009 – complete with the my brand name ‘A Heart’s Echoes.’ And to be honest with you I’m planning to give myself six years ensha’Allah to actually make something big of this, and someone might say that’s a long time especially since I’ve been actually penning down words for myself since 2000. But I  want to take my time developing this craft; slow and steady. I don’t want to shoot to success only to find myself falling down hard because I know I wouldn’t be able to handle that.

Until then, this blog will continue spreading the way it is, one person at a time reading one word at a time….

Thanks for dropping by.

AH

PS once I read this interesting tweet about a person who knows two writers and discovered that one had finished two manuscripts before getting published, and the other finished five manuscripts (if I recall the numbers correctly), and that’s a definition of persistence