Archives

Agency

Apr24

image

Why don’t you do things this way?
Why don’t you wear that?
Why do you take life so hard?
Smile and relax!

We have a lot of advice for everyone else, it seems

And some of it comes from a place of
Compassion of course
But to accept someone as he or she is
That is love that’s mature

It says you don’t need to change to please me or anyone else
You need not improve to be acceptable
You are loved as you are
I respect your choices in life

To respect others’ choices
Especially those we don’t agree with
Is not easy

But when we do
We are sending them the message
That they have agency in their lives
Their decisions count
And they are free to choose their path in life

April 2017

Trust

Jan26

Revealing what’s personal
Takes guts
You have to be secure in yourself
Not afraid of being judged

Opening up
What friendships are based on
How we develop trust

Revealing what’s personal
Was so hard for me
For so long

But over the years
One step at a time
I’ve arrived at a place
Where I can share personal things
With those I choose to trust
One still takes a risk
But without deep friendships
Our lives would be so dull

Loneliness, lack of support
Not having those we can lean on
The disadvantages of not
Taking this risk

I’m glad my journey has brought me
To a place
Where I can confide in my friends
January 23rd, 2017

The flame within

Dec12

What is it that ignites your passion?
What is it that makes your heart sing?
What is it that brightens your day?
What is it that awakens your senses?

We start searching for our passion
When we are young
Sometimes we recognize it right away
Sometimes we find it but we forget
Sometimes we don’t pay it enough attention

But this discovery is important
Without discovering one’s passion
There is no joy
No motivation
No ziel and enthusiasm
No direction

Without discovering one’s passion
We’ll live ordinary lives
We’ll mark time
We’ll go through the motions of life

But as soon as we discover
What ignites that fire within us
The world begins to sing
The colors seem brighter and
One’s energy expands

It’s then that we can create beauty
Promote harmony
Make new discoveries
Develop our gifts
And serve our fellow man

That little flame is so powerful
It can start wild fires

December 11th, 2016

Collage of me 2

Nov21

We search for our identities
Especially when we are transplants in society
We try to find out how we fit into the world
To what cultural group we belong
What values we espouse
And how other people see us

What if such a rigid identity is not to be found
We are all born with intrinsic personalities and abilities
After that, our experiences, our education
And our efforts make us who we are

Our ‘self’ is fluid
It changes as we learn and grow
Our experiences shape us
And this will continue all our lives

I find this liberating
Because now I don’t have to find out
Where I fit in, to which group I belong
Who accepts me and who does not

I am unique
As everyone else is
I am who I am because of the places
I have lived
The languages I’ve learned
The books I’ve read
The people I’ve met and befriended
Where I was born factors into this too
It’s one of the many things that makes me me!

I am Eastern
I am Western
I am Persian
I am Canadian
I value art and poetry
I value friends and family
I value honesty, compassion and equality

I’m an adventurer
I am a rebel of sorts
I am curious
I want to learn
I live and write in English
More than in my mother tongue
But there is no discrepancy in all this
They all make up the collage of me

November 11th, 2016

Ephemeral

Oct16

I try to capture the beauty of nature
Because it’s ephemeral
It will be gone soon

I have to keep a record of it
Share it with my friends
And savour the beauty until it lasts

Joy is similar
It comes with gifts and cheers us up
But I know this feeling is temporary
It’s inevitably followed by sadness or
Contemplation of the serious issues facing us

Sadness is similar
It doesn’t last
But somehow during the sad times
It’s no consolation to know that it will pass
The pain is real, the sorrow is real
And that is my reality then

I try to console myself and remind myself
This too shall pass
Yet, the shadow that the sorrow has cast
Remains, and I have to deal with it

We wouldn’t call it sadness if we were able to
Transform it into joy with our thoughts
Yet there are people who deal with difficult
Situations better
And that deserves admiration and respect

Theses are people I look up to
From them, I try to learn
The secret of remaining thankful
During difficult times

Such people have a different understanding of life
Their vision sees into the future
They don’t equate discomfort and challenges
With sorrow and pain
They find a way through the pain

Their circumstances don’t change
But their perception of the situation
Allows them to rise above it
See it in a different way
See the end in the beginning
And the beginning in the end

October 15th, 2016

My book of poetry is available on Kindle now

Sep3

I’m happy to let you know that my book, Feeling Fortunate but Awful, is now available on Kindle and at a very reasonable price. Besides the subject of depression, the other topics I write about are: the value of authentic friendships, the importance of self-care, the role trials can play in our growth and development and the importance of creativity and spirituality in our lives.

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

Questions

Jul14

 

When the doors close
Turn around
When the road is blocked
Choose another path

But what about perseverance?
What about persistence?
What about that?

The line between attachment
And detachment
Becomes blurry in an instant

What is stubbornness?
What is persistence?
When should one let go?
When should one move on?

Life’s a puzzle
And sometimes a maze
With big question marks
Around each bend

Give up on the idea
Of an easy life
Where things are straight forward
Where answers are found

September 20th, 2007