I don't know why, but I've literally been going through an obsession with Cat Stevens for the past 2-3 weeks. Every morning when I wake up, I set a playlist of about 15 of his songs and go about getting ready for my day with it playing in the background. It always puts me in a happy, positive, ready-to-take-on-the-World type of mood. I had always loved certain pieces of his in the past, but I've lately become enthralled with his work and his outlook on life.
Cat Stevens is a stage name that Steven Demetre Georgiou developed for himself at the onset of his musical career. At the height of his popularity in the mid-late 1970s, he converted to Islam where he adopted the Muslim name Yusuf Islam (unfortunately for him, after the tragic events of 9/11, his name has since been added to the "No Fly" list due to a suspected terrorist having the same name!). Shortly after he converted, he set his musical passions aside and devoted himself to philanthropic and educational causes within the Muslim world. Since then, he has received numerous awards and worldwide recognition for his efforts in promoting World Peace.
I wanted to share a few of his quotes that I found because I truly feel that he is an extremely talented, genuine and brilliant man who possesses a refreshing and realistic perspective and ideology of the World. Ride on the Peace train, enjoy :)
"All things can be forgiven if we can progress. "
"Communal well-being is central to human life."
"I always knew looking back on my tears would bring me laughter, but I never knew looking back on my laughter would make me cry. "
"I am confident that, in the end, common sense and justice will prevail. I'm an optimist, brought up on the belief that if you wait to the end of the story, you get to see the good people live happily ever after. "
"I found a religion that blended scientific reason with spiritual reality in a unifying faith far removed from the headlines of violence, destruction and terrorism. "
"If you want to sing out, sing out, and if you want to be free, be free, cause there's a million ways to be, you know that there are. "
"To be what you want to be, you must give up being what you are."
1 comment:
for a few months straight at one point in university i had set my computer to wake me up in the morning by automatically playing "Morning Has Broken" lol... it was a nice way to wake up. Cat rules.
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