There is a strange feeling in flight
The soul uplifts itself in a way most indescribable.
Perhaps physical height equals heightened feeling and emotion?
As my body is transported from the land over the ocean.
My mind is transmogrified
My life is reconfigured to a new setting
Foreign is not a word for the earth is native to its inhabitants.
And so my habit is to configure flight into a place of solitude.
Before falling.

Families Relief had to postpone the crazy cycle to Brighton, it will now be taking place this Saturday God Willing.

It has been hinted to me that apparently this isn’t good enough! Suggestions have included doing the cycle blindfolded, with a tricycle or backwards. Hmm…instead, I’ve decided to do 70 MILES to Brighton, AND a few thousand feet SKYDIVE! Unfortunately they won’t let me jump out of the plane with my bicycle, but hopefully this has raised the bar high enough for you to sponsor me!

For those that already have, please pray that I live through the craziness

Please Sponsor me now!

www.justgiving.com/usaydcycles/

The Crazy Cyclist is back!

Armed only with a racing bike and a pair of legs, I will be taking on the 55 miles of road from London to Brighton this March 14th iA.

Please sponsor generously!
Note: If suffering from credit crunch anxieties. get on yer bike (to work, uni, etc)!

Sponsor now:
www.justgiving.com/usaydcycles/

“Yes, I am the inescapable, the irresistible,
The unnegotiable, the unchallenged [who dat?]
I am time
I scroll in measurements, control the elements,
I hold the evidence, I tell the story [say what?]
I am time
I know no prejudice, I bare no sentiments
For wealth or settlement, I move forward [who you?]
I am time
You can’t recover me, conceal or smuggle me,
Retreat or run from me, crawl up or under me,
You can’t do much for me besides serve
Me well and have good dividends returned to you
Or attempt to kill me off and have me murder you
Many have wasted me but now they are facing me,
Treated me unfaithfully and now endure me painfully
Plaintively, I wait to see what history will shape to be,
Who’s hearts will never die inside the sake of me
Angel’s scribe the page for me,
Keep a full account of all the names for me
And make a special mark for Hurricane who waited patiently” – Mos Def

We are all here for a reason on a particular path
You don’t need a curriculum to know that you are part of the math
Cats think I’m delirious, but I’m so damn serious
That’s why I expose my soul to the globe, the world
I’m trying to make it better for these little boys and girls
I’m not just another individual, my spirit is a part of this
That’s why I get spiritual, but I get my hymns from Him
So it’s not me, it’s He that’s lyrical
I’m not a miracle, I’m a heaven-sent instrument
My rhythmatic regimen navigates melodic notes for your soul and your mental
That’s why I’m instrumental
Vibrations is what I’m into
Yeah, I need my loot by rent day
But that is not what gives me the heart of Kunte Kinte
I’m tryina give us “us free” like Cinque
I can’t stop, that’s why I’m hot
Determination, dedication, motivation
I’m talking to you, my many inspirations
When I say I can’t, let you or self down
If I were of the highest cliff, on the highest riff
And you slipped off the side and clinched on to your life in my grip
I would never, ever let you down
And when these words are found
Let it been known that God’s penmanship has been signed with a language called love
That’s why my breath is felt by the deaf
And why my words are heard and confined to the ears of the blind
I, too, dream in color and in rhyme
So I guess I’m one of a kind in a full house
Cuz whenever I open my heart, my soul, or my mouth
A touch of God reigns out

Oscar Brown Jr – Children of Children

The children of children by the time they’re half grown have habits like rabbits and young of their own

The children of children from their mamas laps hop down to the ground to be taken in traps

The children of children trapped by dark skins to stay in and play in a game no one wins

The children of children while still young and sweet are all damned and programmed for future defeat

The children of children are trapped by adults who fail them then jail them to hide the results

The children of children unable to cope with systems that twist them and rob them of hope

The children of children of sin and ashamed keep pairing and bearing and who do you blame

The children of children cry out every day – they beg you for rescue and what do you say?

May he rest in peace.

When I signed up for the Crazy Cycle with Families Relief I knew it would be an event to remember, and thanks to all of you I was able to raise over £2200 towards the orphanage! Don’t believe that we did it? Check out the full gallery here!

If you have pledged money towards the cause, or are yet to sponsor, the justgiving page will be online for a few more weeks so please do get me to my fifth and final target of £2500! J http://justgiving.com/usayd/

And once again thank you to all of you for your support and encouragement – financial and otherwise!

Haven’t written on here for ages. Why? Because I’ve been training for my 60 mile cycle from London to Oxford! Why? Because I want to do what I can to help orphans in Bangladesh!

Okay, well theoretically that’s true. I think I’ve done my psychological training than physical, but hey, I’m doing the cycle next Sunday so wish me luck! Actually, wait, there was something else I wanted to ask for…Oh yea, please sponsor me too!

I live the days as they come, he says
What happens tomorrow – I can’t guarantee today
So why bother trying to be something I’m not
Striving towards an ends only to end up in a box.

If only lessons could be learnt through words
Life is an experience to be lived, not heard
Yet schooling seems to be the preferred option
Those high horses falling nearest the bottom.

I have a rough idea of the way out
Sketched in my head is an erroneous route.
The checkpoints are determined by ‘success’
To which my answers are but a guess.

Right, left, east, west…
Which direction will put my heart at rest?
“Follow this road, then take the second exit.”
Guidance is clear – but on the path I slip.
Plummet into what they call oblivion
Looking to the sky, the sun at meridian.

I once had a vision, it was clear as day
Then the night came and swept it away.
This is why I ask, if indeed you know,
For I understand why, but not the way to go.

Update: 19 Dec 08

I found a verse in the Qur’an that I feel relates to the message I was attempting to convey with this poem:

“And do they not see that We do drive rain to parched soil (bare of herbage), and produce therewith crops, providing food for their cattle and themselves? Have they not the vision?” (32:27)

Abdullah Yusuf Ali comments: The verse begins with “do they not see?”, a physical act. It ends with “have they not the vision?”, a matter of spiritual insight.

Sabr, the Islamic term translated commonly as ‘Patience’ is used numerous times in the Qur’an and Hadith. As with other words used in these texts, the meaning has far more depth than the simple closest translation.

This week I learnt about a saying of the second Khalif, Umar Ibn Al-Khattab (RA) on sabr. He described it as two*:

- The lesser sabr. This is where one is faced with difficulty, and they are patient. For example, the loss of something dear to you requires patience for you to get through that difficulty.
- The greater sabr. This is where you are being enticed by Shaitan, by your desires and you control yourself. For example the temptation to go out and do something you shouldn’t, but preventing yourself.

This really struck me. I have always thought about the first kind of patience, where you are landed in a situation and you are tested with how you deal with it. Do you throw a punch or do you walk away. Do you put up with the test or do you give up.

But the greater test, as Umar (RA) so rightly said, is the inner test of endurance. That battle between you and your desires. See this test is more difficult to say no to, its that rush of following your heart over your mind, of following your temptations over what you know is right. When your friends are telling you one thing but your conscience another. And I know I fail that test every day.

One of the definitions for being steadfast is ‘an unwavering faith’, that you don’t compromise in what you believe. If I know I should do something, do I do it. And perhaps even harder, if I know I shouldn’t do something, do I do it anyway.

I recently said to someone; “You have to be strong to be patient, You have to be patient to be strong.” Easier said than done, but rest assured, as God says in the Qur’an on numerous occasions; Indeed He is with those who are patient. What more can I ask for?

* I’ll try and find an accurate reference for this, at the moment I’ve just paraphrased off my notes from the circle.