Just-talking-out-loud

It is customary to do a deep cleaning of your home right before Norooz, Iranian new year. People wash their walls, windows, rugs, and basically everything. This is not really a tradition for my mom. She is very clean and organize. She never allows for the dust to stay. So basically her home is always spotless. I wish I could say the same thing for my own home.  Anyway, since I don't really have time to clean my house, I can at least dust this blog. It always  makes me happy to visit this place and read my own posts as well as the visitors comments. One of my goals for this year is not allow this blog to gather dust again. 

Job interviews are like going on a date. You spend sometime with strangers trying  to impress them and get to know them. Then, you go home and wait for them to contact you back. It's been 4 weeks since my 2nd interview with an office and they did not have the decency to call or email me to let me know they have decided to go with someone else. If you are responsible in hiring people, treat them with respect. Don't let them wait for you. Help them to move on.

I remember once when I was in school, couple of friends suggested skipping the class and going to see a movie. Of course the nerd in me couldn't handle the stress of missing a lecture. So I announced that I wouldn't go with them but I would gladly go to class and share my notes with whoever likes to have them later. I don't recall the content of that lecture nor do I recall the course but I never forget that I didn't watch 'the Banu Ordibehesht' with my friends.

My sister gave me this book by Klauser 2 Christmases ago. I finally picked it up today and I'm on page 50 now. It is an easy read and I am wondering why I didn't read it sooner. The whole concept and the idea of the book is not new to me. I heard it before. If you have a goal or if you want to get some thing in life, write it down and it will become true. Once I wrote a list while back, when I lived in Vancouver and I forgot about it. Couple of years later, when I was going through my stuff and decluttering  for my move, I came across it. I went through the list and I realized that one of the items in the list was 'to live in a place with wood burning fireplace'. At a time, my tiny little apartment had a fireplace. Recently, I  have come across many bloggers who blog full time and earn money; this is their job. I have to admit, I envy them and wonder how they have become so successful. Many of them are full time moms. They have either published books or got a contrac...

Denying emotions, over thinking, and over planning everything is my motto!!  However, this is what I have learned; the best thing for doing something is not to plan for it. I applied for a job and went for the interview without thinking about getting it and being emotionally invested in it. I got it and then I realized I had to move for it. I have been packing, weeding, and organizing .... . I like my current job and although my living situation has not been ideal in this city, I was okay with it. This is my last week at work and in this city and I can't hide my excitement. Maybe that tells me, I have not really been happy here and I should have done this long time ago.  

زندگی یعنی چه ؟ روزی از گلی پرسیدم : زندگی یعنی چه ؟ گفت زندگی چیزنیست جز بوی خوش و عطر من از سنگی پرسیدم زندگی یعنی چه ؟ گفت : زندگی چیزی نیست جز استواری و قدرت من از رودخانه ای پرسیدم زندگی یعنی چه ؟ گفت زندگی چیزی نیست جز طراوت و پاکی من از انسانی پرسیدم زندگی یعنی چه؟ گفت زندگی چیزی نیست جز مهر و محبت درون من. زندگی هنر بافتن پارچه زیبایی است - زندگی دوختن شا دیهاست و به تن کردن پیراهن گلدار امید. مجتبی کاشانی I had this post written on May 2010 but I never clicked publish! and this is a sort of translation of this poem: What is life? Once a flower was asked: What is life? She said: life is nothing but my fragrances and perfumes A stone was asked: what is life? He said: life is nothing but my solidity and strength A river was asked: what is life? He said: life is nothing but my freshness and purity A human was asked: What is Life? He said: life is nothing but the love and kindness in me. Life is a beautiful art of weaving a...

Last night, I prayed to God. I have not done that for a long time, embarrassed to confess. However, when you see yourself completely helpless, that is what you do. You reach to something bigger than you, bigger than life itself. It is another very stressful time. But life has shown me that this shall pass too. Let’s hope for the best and brighter days. The fact that you are afraid of doing something should not stop you from doing it. You need to take some risk if you want to see change in your situation. Things are going to a right direction even though it is not ideal. You need to put your brave mask on, be determined more than ever in your life, and go for it.

I came across this great blog post, 12 Things Happy People Do Differently . I wrote up a summary for myself below. Express gratitude: “that’s without having to go out and buy anything.” You already have what makes you happy. Cultivate optimism: “People who think optimistically see the world as a place packed with endless opportunities, especially in trying times.” Avoid over thinking and social comparison: these are actually too different things! - I am the queen of over thinkers, sadly. So I spend countless hours, wasting my time, thinking about something that might not be right or might never happen. - You don’t want to be Kanya West and indeed you are noting less that anyone around you. No one’s life is prefect even if it seems prefect. “Comparing yourself to someone else can be poisonous.” Practice acts of kindness: I say practice acts of kindness as long as you are kind to yourself . If in order to say YES to someone, you have to say NO to yourself.... DO NOT DO IT! If ...

I always feel more comfortable among a multicultural group of people. If all are Iranian, I feel something is missing. If everyone is from Canada, again, I don’t feel at home. I guess it is because most of the time I spend discussing how everything works in different cultures; talking about interesting expressions and slangs other culture might use; and what costumes are appropriate. One of my favourites is having an angle’s stomach. This is a Tunisian expression meaning someone who does not eat much. I always imagine angles to be those huge white creatures but apparently they can be small too.

... and I knew about it but I didn’t know it was a problem. Brene Brown has a very good sense of humour. She speaks gracefully and makes me want to listen to her forever. I can relate to this talk easily. When she said “you know that how there are people that think vulnerability and tenderness are important and they walk into it, a) that is not me, b) I don’t even hang out with people like that.” I thought that is so me. Connection is the core of life and the reason why we are here. I agree with this completely. She identifies some people, who have strong sense of love and belonging and they know they are worthy of it, as the wholehearted people. What else do they have is the sense of courage. They tell the story of who they are the way they are. They accept imperfections. They treat themselves with kindness and compassion. Then she adds, let go of who you should be for who you really are. Fully embrace vulnerability. Think of it as something that is necessary. Take risk and i...

She said she never felt she needed a man in her life. Her dad was all she needed. He was there when she needed a moral support, encouragement, or just an ear to listen to her conversations.  I think she has shown a lot of courage so far dealing with the whole thing. I admire her as I admire her for everything she is.

"My liberation as a man is tied with your liberation as a woman" and vise versa Tony Porter 

If you live anywhere close to Canada, the terms like ice storm, snow tires, anti-rust coating for cars, and etc... are not foreign to you. Winter is here and before the first snow hits, I need to get my things in order. Last weekend was the day for seasonal change of tires. I needed to get 4 snow tires out of the storage, take them into my car, drive to a place where they could do it for me because when it comes to cars, I am helpless. Watching one neighbour changing his own car’s tires, I wished I had a man in my life to help me out in these situations. I was not very happy to do it myself and I didn’t really want to ask my guy friends to help me out either. Since I really didn’t expect the situation to get any worst, I was just cursing my bad luck. When I got the first tire out and took it to the elevator, I discovered that the elevator was out of order. I ended up carrying all four tires individually to the car, taking the stairs. Lesson learned : be grateful, as long as you are ...

I have the best sister in the whole wide world and one of the greatest personal connection is the bond between two sisters. I am not saying that because we can talk about different people, including actors, without naming them. We simply know who we are talking about  ;) 

After more than one year, I went to yoga again. I really enjoyed it. They always keep reminding you to breathe. Take a deep breath for your mind, one for your body, and the last one for your soul. Then, thank your body for the opportunity to do so.

I can appreciate the life for little but delightful surprises, silly complements, and small successes.  

I told him one of my regrets in life is that I rushed to graduate when I was an undergrad. I even worked every summer in a lab just to improve my resume and gain more experience in my field. I graduated with a very outstanding  resume. I never thought of going abroad as an exchange student just because I knew it would take longer for me to finish. You are still young and you have so much time to be able to consider stuff like this. He didn’t say much but the third person replied. You know it is still not too late for you either. Don’t just sit here and think about your past. In a few years, you might think that you had the chance to travel and work abroad today and you missed it. What I heard resonated with me and opened my eyes to some possibilities that I didn’t want to consider. I shouldn’t just wait for my life to start. It has been already started.

"Wisdom is now so cheap and abundant that it floods over us from calendar pages, tea bags, bottle caps, and mass e-mail messages forwarded by well-meaning friends." Jonathan Haidt wrote that in his book, the Happiness Hypothesis. It is so true but it seems that we can't use this wisdom at all since we are still looking for answers to our questions about life and happiness. Apparently, Haidt has compiled all useful wisdom that we need to know in this book, the Happiness Hypothesis. I have heard many good reviews about this t. It is not self-help book but a combination of ancient ideas and new research findings about happiness from socio-psychological point of view and it is highly regarded by scholars in this field. I will be reading this book and I invite you (if you get the hold of the book) to read it with me if you haven't already. I'd like to know what you think about it. It makes a more interesting discussion.

Be Happy, show up, follow your heart, find a new perspective, have a sense of wonder, find people you love, set goals, help others, dance, pamper yourself, face your fears, go to a museum, exercise, limit television, get in touch with nature, lighten up, get a good night sleep, read books, buy yourself flowers, don't compare yourself with others, don't beat yourself up, be open to new ideas, don't focus on negative thoughts, focus on creating what you desire, make time just to have fun, keep the romance in your life, make a gratitude list, love your mother earth, want what you have, be true to yourself , because life is too short to do anything else. Live your life.