إذا هبّت رياحك فأغتنمها

My brother Mohammed told me something once, in a conversation I barely remember the reason for. my mother was there. he said our father used to say:

إذا هبّت رياحك فأغتنمها، فعقبى كل خافقة سكون

It is a famous Arabic saying, which translates to, If the winds blow in your favor, seize them, for the aftermath of every gust is stillness.

And it stuck with me since then

There are moments in life when everything aligns. and you wouldn’t feel it, or notice easily if you don’t observe, it does not come with announcement, sometimes it is just like something in the air shifts, and the thing you have been waiting to do becomes possible. the fear is still there. the doubt is still there. but for a brief window, the resistance softens. the path opens. the wind is with you. the opportunity is there.

This is not metaphor. it is a pattern older than language. the farmer who plants in the right season does not plant harder than the one who plants wrong, he plants at the right time, and the earth does the rest. the weight lifter who attempts the lift when the body is ready lifts what weeks of force could not move. timing is not a gift. it is a discipline. and recognizing the moment when conditions are favorable is its own form of intelligence.

I have written about this before, in a different way, about good times for a change . about those rare seasons when letting go becomes possible. when the thing you have been gripping finally loosens on its own. I said then what I still believe: when that time comes, do not waste it. do not let fear make you cautious exactly when courage would cost you the least.

Because here is what I know about the wind: it does not wait.

It will find you in the middle of something else. it will arrive when you are tired, or uncertain, or not quite ready. it does not care about your readiness. it comes when it comes, and it leaves when it leaves, and the stillness after it is long and quiet, and very honest about what you chose to do while the air was moving.

If I have any advice to offer, and I offer it the way a person offers their last hope to someone else, it is this: when you feel it, move. when the time is right ascend. when the conditions are favorable, when life arranges itself around a possibility, do not stand still asking whether you deserve it. do not perform caution as if caution were wisdom. act. ascend. use the wind while the wind is yours.

ask yourself honestly. are you where you want to be in life? are you in a moment that allows change? if yes, do it. if not, don’t force it. unless you feel it in your bones, don’t pretend you’re ready. and when you are ready, when the time feels right, and you have even a little strength, light the candle. take it. when the cave calls you, answer. say, I’ll fight this time. ask for the doors to be opened. go in. cast light on the monsters. the next day, choose one. just one. look at it closely. don’t look away. don’t be afraid to admit how much it hurt you. how much it took from you. then leave. come back again when you’re ready. take the climb in small, rising steps. every time you choose to face it, even a little, you’re already moving forward.

• The way forward letter to my friend Karb

I know that sometimes the sickness makes you numb to the signal. sometimes you are so deep inside yourself, paralyzed, or afraid, or simply exhausted, that the wind passes and you feel nothing, and you only know it was there after the stillness returns. I know that. and I am not speaking past it. I am speaking directly into it.

You can know it is the right time without feeling it. knowing and feeling are not the same thing. feeling is weather. knowing is a different instrument, more certain, less dramatic. trust the knowing when the feeling has gone quiet.

Time will pass . this is not a comfort. it is a law. the same law that makes the wind temporary makes the stillness temporary too. but the window between them, the moment when the gust is real and the path is open, that window does not announce itself twice.

فعقبى كل خافقة سكون. The aftermath of every gust is stillness.

So move. while you still can.