2. Responding to our inner voice

I've always been a sensitive boy. From childhood. That has done a lot to me. It made me live, live intensely. Intense moments of deep happiness, but also sadness. Beautiful encounters, experiences, discoveries, pushing boundaries, enjoying. I've always wanted to embrace the whole world. Looking for peace, giving peace and always discovering that my heart feels this differently. As an emotional person I tend to withdraw when the going gets tough. But I say this to myself: dare to live, fully. Without the daring of life, intense moments are not forthcoming. You don't want the beauty, the amazingness of life to pass you by, do you?

Our life is a bumpy road, a race track, a ravine, a narrow mountain road, a country lane, a highway. So many gears, so many rhythms, so much passage and discovery. Daring to live is learning from being on the road and from adjusting where necessary.

My own life is no different, with the child of my time I am sure. 1971 is the year of my birth. With my feet in the middle of flower power. It is also the year in which Cat Stevens sang his song Father & Son alongside many of his hits during an international tour. The song is a dialogue between a father and a son. It depicts an intimate encounter, shimmering with a real conversation that represents deep peace between two hearts sharing inseparable love with each other.

Cat Stevens says he never understood his own father because he allowed him a lot.

“Don’t we talk too little about our feelings?”

I think of my father who is also very indulgent. He has always embraced my choices, even though it was sometimes difficult for him. Only once did I see him turn away to quietly shed a tear. That was when I left for Africa when I was 34. It must have been a very sensitive moment for him. But my urge to rely on my free choice was so strong, so intimately sensitive, that my father respected it.

I think I should have asked my father what exactly had moved him to tears. Don't we talk too little about our feelings?

For Cat Stevens, 1971 was also the year after he recovered from a tuberculosis that could have killed him. Those years were very rough for him. He began to think about the meaning of everything, became a peace seeker who began to explore spirituality. This search from his deepest feelings translated into some of his greatest hits, which he had written from his sickbed. Stevens' music was characterized by inwardness, by a sad tone.

In 1976, Stevens had a near-death experience. He had gone swimming in the US at an hour when the waves are the most dangerous. He was in danger of being swept away by these waves. He then decided to pray and promised God that if he survived, he would commit his life to the struggle for a better world. Then a counterwave came and took Stevens back toward land, out of the grip of the inward wave.

Stevens was saved. He began to muse. His brother gave him a Quran and more than a year later, in the transition from 1977 to 1978, he converted to Islam. From that moment on, Cat Stevens lived only for his faith. He changed his name to Yusuf Islam.

The singer is often referred to the break in his life with the moment when he became a Muslim. This is partly because he stopped releasing pop music between 1978 and 2006 because of his faith. But Stevens explains in a later interview that there is one constant in his life. This is his quest for peace.

Cat Stevens is an example of someone who lives very strongly with his emotional world. That is the nature of artists. They are often emotional people. This is nice. Because our feelings are a part of our lives that we should not avoid. For many, however, it is untrodden ground.

It takes introspection to deal with our feelings. It can also make us uncomfortable. Because it evokes a lot and can change our lives if we respond to this inner voice. But denying our feelings can lead us astray with our life choices. It can make us neglect the deep core of our lives. That denial can make us sour when we find ourselves in a crisis after many years of neglecting our inner life and at some point we start to feel empty.