As for the earth, We spread it out and placed upon it firm mountains, and caused everything to grow there in perfect balance (Quran 15:19)
— English by Dr. Mustafa Khattab, the Clear Quran
Balance
Snow
Pure, fresh, pristine.
Having arrived just a few hours before,
it was waiting for us as we stood at the trailhead.
A clean white carpet draped on the forest floor,
inviting us in.
And we walked.
Hard as rock. And unforgivingly slippery.
Treacherous under a thin blanket of powder.
One misstep and we’d be on our backs.
We kept walking.
Brittle as glass.
Cracking easily under the weight of our steps like fine china.
A crisp ripping sound in the muffled forest air,
and then quiet.
We pressed on.
Soft, as the finest Egyptian cotton.
Cushioning our feet as if walking on puffs of cloud,
high above the forest floor.
We continued walking.
White turned gray and then black
as the day surrendered to dusk and then night.
Darkness descended upon us,
erasing the difference between the ground and the sky.
Like walking in nothingness,
the only sound we heard was the one of our own breathing,
and our footsteps on the black snow.
And we kept walking.
Winter’s Sunset
There’s something wonderfully sad about a winter’s sunset.
It deadens the pain, the melancholy of regret.
A fleeting moment of calm surrender.
And ephemeral beauty.
Captured in an instant.
Forever preserved.
In the vast darkness of my heart.
A tiny light deserved