The spirit can begin to soar

British photographer Peter Sanders, one of the most respected photographers of the Muslim world, shared many wisdoms in a recent interview I was honored to do with him, including the comfort that can come from accepting constriction.I've done personal solitary retreats in the past, for 10 days at a time. The first couple of days, you feel like a lion or tiger that’s just been put in a cage, you’re pacing around, you’ve lost your freedom, you’ve been curtailed. After a day or two, you sit down. By the third day, you’re looking around at this small room and thinking, well, this is quite a nice room, it’s quite spacious, the sun is shining in. You know what I mean, you accept your surroundings. And there’s something very comforting in accepting that constriction, because within constriction your spirit can begin to soar.As we know in Ramadan, we’re curbed, our eating habits are curtailed. After a while, once we get used to it, it’s a beautiful time, because the spirit begins to soar. I think personally that’s what we should try and take from this period we’re in now. It won’t last forever. And we’ll probably slip back into our old ways very quickly. I hope not.The earth is breathing a great sigh of relief at the moment. I don’t know if it’s just me; every day seems so blue, the birds are singing, the animals are out. It’s spring. And it’s Shaban; these are the sacred months. And I think it’s all part and parcel of the time we’re in.Before we ended our conversation, a listener asked what advice Peter would have for someone on their own search. Beautifully, he quoted both Taoism, and George Harrison.A great Taoist said, a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. You just have to set off. God is the journey. He’s every part of the journey – the beginning, the middle, the end. He is the guide. One of his names is Al Hadi, so if you ask Him, He’ll guide you, you must always remember that. It’s a beautiful journey, really. We’re very blessed. Everyone's on it, whether we know it or not. George Harrison once said, ‘If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.’ So try and identify the road you want to be on. Peter's book "Meetings with Mountains" captures images of the saints and sages of the Muslim world, a project that has taken almost 50 years to complete  "These people do not talk about peace. They are peace itself," Peter says, and in our conversation he shared some of the wisdoms that he's learned from them. To purchase the book, please visit his website. To support Peter's newest project, "Exemplars of Our Time: Mini-book Series of Modern Muslim Sages", please visit his LaunchGood campaign. To read all '30 reflections for our times', please follow the Facebook page '30 days 30 deeds', Instagram @salmahasanali, or subscribe to the newsletter at www.salmahasanali.com.

 PC: Nevzat Yildirim