Archive | August 2016

The spiritual climb

Aug29

Our body is an external shell
Our spirit what animates it
Our body matures and eventually declines
But our spirit in on a never ending journey

The delight we take in beauty and art
The creativity that flows from us
The compassion we feel for others
Our patience and perseverance
These qualities of our spirit never age
If anything they flourish in time
Experience polishes them
And makes them shine

Age is an expression of the days we’ve lived
But as far as our inner attributes are concerned
Age does not lead to decline
On the contrary
We can continue to climb
August 29th, 2016

Collage of me

Aug25

Collage:
Different colors , textures, and shapes
Put together in harmony to create beauty

My life is a collage of sorts
Various countries, languages
And cultures have shaped me

The base of this collage is created
With earth tones
Colors that stand for the desert, the valley and
The bare mountains of Shiraz
The city of poets, roses and nightingales
The city I come from

Over the earth tones are other colors
That represent the rest of my life
The countries I’ve lived in
The languages I speak
And the different cultures that have influenced me

And though these parts seem distinct and disparate at times
They create whole that is the collage of me
A collage in which
Eastern and Western culture are intertwined
Its hallmark is diversity
Its message, love

August 2016

Bitter medicine

Aug24

Sometimes we see pain as an anomaly
As something that gets in the way of our ‘happiness’
Or we see periods of pain as lost time
As a detour on the way we were headed

We don’t want to be in pain
Or see others in pain
I think that’s normal of course
But pain seems to be unavoidable in this life
And even necessary for our growth

Pain, like a violent force
Shatters the ego
Our image of ourselves
As in control and self sufficient
Breaks down
Sometimes we glue the broken pieces together
Only for it to break one more time.

Pain is a teacher as well
It helps us learn to reach out to friends
To trust in them
Pain shows us we need each other in our lives

Pain helps us better understand the suffering of others
The depth of their despair
It causes us to try to find a way to help
Those in distress

We were created to endure pain
That’s the mechanism by which we grow
Some soul searching is required of course
We need to play our role in this growth

Like bitter medicine
Pain has good results
And in any case
There is no way around it
In our lives

August 22nd, 2016

Tidying up

Aug21

Papers, papers everywhere
Some on the couch, some on the floor
Some on the table in front of me
Some in the dining room

Keep, recycle, file
Recycle, file, consolidate
Then, find proper places for them

Faded files
Empty files
Files that can be gotten rid of
Files that have grown thick over the years
With papers going back more than ten years
Paper clips
Old binders
And oh, the note book I thought I had lost!

This kind of work needs concentration
The right mood
And perhaps certain stars need to align
That’s why I don’t do it often
I like to blame it on the stars!

And once you start in one area
You end up in another one and another one
Tidying up things
You were not even going to touch

After a couple of hours
My brain feels on fire
And my eyes feel like they are crossed
I decide it’s time to stop

This is not one day’s work
But I’ve made a good start
And will I be cooking tonight?
I think not!
August 21st, 2016

Easier said than done

Aug11

Emotional upheavals come our way
There is no way to avoid them
Then we have to put long term serenity
Over short term happiness

This is a difficult proposition
Status quo and temporary joy
Have great allure

The human spirit has to rise to the occasion
Flex its muscles
And accept the pain

Of course, all of this is easier
Said than done
August 11th, 2016