Now Is the Time to Say New Things

Yesterday, along with whatever belonged to it, has gone, my dear friend.
All that was said for yesterday is no more. Now, new things must be said…

It’s been more than a year since I last wrote here…

I started this blog during a time when my outlook on life was undergoing a profound transformation, when my mind was buzzing with so many questions.

Many factors triggered those questions, especially living in a place like Turkey, where you never quite know what each day will bring, and it’s hard to make sense of or rationalize what’s happening. That environment certainly played a big role.

In parallel, from childhood onward, I never managed to become “part of a side” or belong blindly to any community, even something as trivial as a soccer team. I’ve always been skeptical of deriving my identity from such affiliations. As our society became ever more polarized and people increasingly clung to their existing identities with fervor, I found myself feeling more alone. This, in turn, led me to explore the possibility that there might be a greater reality beyond everything I’d learned or experienced.

Now, a considerable amount of time has passed, and many aspects of my life situation have changed. Yet there has been one change more important than all the others, one that compels me to write this post:

I no longer have those “mad” questions racing in my head.

I don’t feel a need to ask anyone anything anymore, for I’ve come to see that all questions reduce to the same question, and all answers reduce to the same answer.

I think Mevlana Rumi expresses this perfectly:

“I was on the brink of madness, desperately knocking on the door to learn the reasons behind it all.
Then the door opened, and I realized I was knocking from the inside.”

A saying by Imam Ali that once felt very deep to me, though I didn’t fully understand it at the time, now holds much more significance:

“Knowledge was but a single point; the ignorant have multiplied it.”

And the famous lines of Yunus Emre, often repeated by tongue but seldom inscribed on the heart, also resonate with me more than ever:

Knowledge is to know knowledge
But truly, it is to know yourself.
If you don’t know your own self,
Then what point is there in reading?

The purpose of reading
Is to know the Divine.
If reading leaves you still ignorant,
It’s as empty as a piece of dry bread.

This rekindled my desire to write again, in hopes that what I share might serve as an answer or a guiding light to others who have questions like I once did. I’d like to offer whatever portion of wisdom I’ve gleaned, in the measure of what I’ve been able to grasp and experience, and to express it as best as words will allow.

Now is the time to say new things…

Until we meet again.

With love…