Moments in Time with BLisB (B.lack L.ife is S.imply B.eautiful)

I know that if Akemi and Chiasa were American girls, they would’ve attacked each other. They would have tried to rip each other’s hearts out and bloodied as many body parts as possible. They would’ve burned down houses and slashed tires and raised up girl armies. They might have even tried to castrate...the illest thing, however, that I know for sure from seven years in America-if they were Americ...

“About the two, or three, or four wives situation, I don’t know....it seems like men are given permission to have up to four wives only in certain situations. And it says ‘only if you can do justice with them’. Do you think a man could really treat more than one wife equally and justly?”~CHIASA

“People envy people who love. People who love like you and your father expose the people who do not love much or at all, just by your being alive. Then those people say, ‘We have to destroy him because of what he CAN do and what we CANNOT do. If we destroy him, no one will ever know that we cannot love. No one will ever know what’s missing.’”~UMMA

If you want to find out your true feeling for a girl, just ask yourself, What am I willing to do for her? Would I fight for her? Would I work hard for her? Would I kill for her? Would I marry her? If you think about it, and the answer to all those questions that you asked yourself is no, she ain’t the right one...If you couldn’t even imagine her as your wife, that means you’re setting up to disres...

What do you see yourself doing with your life?~The General. Family and business, that’s what all men are supposed to do right? ~Midnight

Anger is a weakness to a warrior.~Midnight

Nakamura was wicked enough to conjure up this whole thing on his own. His pockets were deep enough to buy up as many hands, bodies, and souls as he needed to use...I was not supposed to have access to any goggles, or even know the rules of the war...But I was changing the game. I wasn’t blue or yellow. I’m Black and my bare skin wouldn’t light up on their goggles

I felt guilty for being with her, guilty for allowing her to use up all her time on me, guilty for feeling close to her too fast, guilty for loving her, guilty for not loving her, and guilty for arousing her and knowing it, and leaving her alone with a boiling heart and fire in her bones. ~Midnight

We were both suspicious of one another and from two separate parts of the world, and of different generations as well, but we were smart enough to tolerate one another. We were sensible enough to know we had to. ~Midnight

That knock was the same all around the world. It was the police. My father trained me to be thoughtful. Sensei trained me to remain calm. Brooklyn trained me to stay still when confronted and cornered by the police. A flick of a finger gets a Black man executed by Brooklyn blue boys in the ghetto.

...only now, after all of this, did I realize that, more than land and money and power, men around the globe were fighting over the meaning of life, the meaning of love, and the way we each should be living from day to day. The money and the power was just a method to control the meaning.

Love and build, love and work, love and fight. Always love first. Anything placed before love will fail.

...but the art of the snake is to make sure that you don’t see him, and even if you think you can see him, he’ll camouflage and bend to fill your head with doubts as he either strikes or slips away.~Midnight

I already knew that Muslim burials are not like this, are not cremations. At the same time I know that Muslims respect life whether it is present or deceased. When a Muslim passes away, his body is treated carefully and respectfully. It is washed and shrouded, prayed for and prepared and placed into the earth in a particular way, an Islamic way. I whispered an Islamic prayer over the urn. It is my...

She was a motherfucking work of art. A woman so beautiful, a man loses his religion and thoughts and there’s nothing left but curses on his tied tongue. Perhaps she was one of my wife’s unique drawings come to life...

“First, you said God, then you said Allah. Which one is it?... Allah is God. Allah is Arabic for God in English...Sometimes English-speaking people get tight or scared or crazy when they hear Muslims say Allah...Allah or God, hmmmm...The two words sound so different from one another...My Aunt Tasha would probably faint if she heard me say Allah!... There’s only one God. So Aunt Tasha could chill.....

Two friends sit down for an open and sometimes VERY surprising conversation. One Africa ✊🏾

...not an honorable man. He wasn’t driven by any true beliefs. He believed only in himself and what he wanted at the moment. He took by force, what should never be taken by force, a woman’s heart and a woman’s body.

My aunt Tasha said people who don’t trust people end up trusting the wrong people.~Chiasa

Midnight and his beautiful African/Japanese sentinel Chiasa face seemingly insurmountable challenges in their unique fearless ways. They refuse to lose...

Midnight sees his nemesis Naoko Nakamura in person for the first time...

What-ifs were choking me. The thought battle was fucking up my head.

You have to make your mind light. If the mind is too heavy, you’ve lost your use of intuition and instinct, which every fighter needs.

I always know, as a Muslim, I have to be mindful of any eating place because of the difference between what we are forbidden to eat and what others accept. I knew the international symbol for halal restaurants and stores...The Sudan in me observed his humanity and understood his manner and believed in the honor system. The Brooklyn in me did not, could, would not. Refused...

“When people think that someone is asleep, they say things that they wouldn’t say when the person is awake”~Chiasa