Christmas Hanukkah Yalda

Since Christmas coincides nicely with the longest night of the year that we celebrate as Yalda we decided to give Yalda cards for the holidays this year and hopefully for the years to come.

I have realized that Hanukkah is being advertised and celebrated more publicly these days. I think it rhymes very nicely with the festivities of the Christmas Holidays. At around the same time we Iranians celebrate Yalda, the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. We celebrate the light conquering the darkness. We recognize that even though till then the length of night was increasing, from then on the length of the day increases and spring is in sight. We cherish how darkness, even though trying, can never prevail. We celebrate the hope and beauty of light.

It is as if we are keeping all these meanings and celebrations to ourselves. It is indeed a Persian celebration but how nicely it alludes into the spirit of Christmas and Hanukkah.  Yalda is more ancient than them both and  I think Yalda can very well be recognized more widely.  How about giving away Yalda cards for the holidays?

Imagine a card with the pictures of pomegranate and Hafez and Shahnameh poetry books and nuts in the middle of red and green cards of Santa Claus and blue and white cards with Menorah.  It will be festive, peaceful, united, and global. It will be understanding and accepting. It will expand horizons and exude friendship.
I wish you all happy holidays in advance!
 

http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/Celebrating_Yalda_2.htm

Add http://live.longhill.org.uk/?p=7193

http://www.localnomad.com/en/blog/2012/12/05/why-decorate-the-christmas-tree/

The Image of the Path

A friend was talking about the book Life of Pi.  He was surprised to find a few chapters of the book dedicated to the main character's (Pi) encounters with the religion of Islam.  He had found it interesting how the man who was introducing the faith to Pi was telling him that God was everywhere and was resembeled in everything.  My friend thought I had a similar vision toward things around me to which I made no claim.  He also said that one wont find similar sentiment toward God in Christianity.
Since this discussion, I cannot stop but wonder, how is it that this is not the image of the path in the eyes of an ordinary person?
An ordinary person for whom the media is the main source of information wont see anything but savage and opression in Islam.  I was thinking how even in the movie Life of Pi, Pi's contemplation in Hinduism and his encounter with Christianity was vividly shown, but the story about his encounter with the muslem old man who eventually allured him to accept Islam was completely cut short to only a few seconds.  Perhaps the producer was concerned with the public reaction if he stayed true to the book and showed the beauty Pi had seen in the path.
"We Prayed together and we practiced dhikr, the recitation of the ninety-nine revealed names of God.  He was a hafiz, one who knows the Qur'an by heart, and he sang it in a slow, simple chant.  My Arabic was never very good, but I loved its sound.  The guttural eruptions and long flowing vowels rolled just beneath my comprehension like a beautiful book.  I gazed into this brook for long spells of time.  It was not wide, just one man's voice, but it was as deep as the universe."
There is beauty in the world.

The Fire Within

It burns but just the soul.

It has always been yet, except only for one or two people, no one cared to understand it. After all, it was burning, and it will burn. There apeared the risk.  It was intimidating.  Hence, keeping the distance, ignoring it, putting it off.  

As life happened it covered and faded its presence but never chilled.  It was just not to be revealed.  It silently exists.

Notes from a Woman with a Bump - Coping

There are nine weeks remaining to my due date; I love having her within me for another nine weeks.
Yet I feel exhausted in my body lately.
I am trying to observe me and the changes within me, both emotionally and physically.
I am loving and nurturing my baby.  I try to talk to her sometimes and recently started reciting the holy verses to her.
I try to meditate, even if for two deep breaths.
I try to eat natural and that makes me feel good.
I am adding flower essences (rose or orange blossom) to my ice cold water and really enjoy the soothing sensation flowing in me.
The most challenging exercise in my coping is to not get angry.  I am observing this feeling and try to remain calm through it.
I am trying to finish my work commitments sooner, just in case.
There is still a lot to be done at home in preparation but I try to take care of them one by one.  Mainly, I am working on a couple lists.  But hopefully will find the time to execute them.
This pregnancy is allowing me to observe more consciously.  All is calm...

The Answer

"All of your frustrations are due

to your seeking your wishes.

If you didn't, all wishes would

come to you like offerings.

Love all of the Beloved's ways,

and not just Her affection,

so that the coquettish Beloved

would come to you as a desperate lover."

Divan Shamsi Tabrizi 323

Love's Ripening pp. 11-13

Kabir Helminski

Reaching the Unreachable

Last night, I got to attend one of my spiritual circles I had not been able to attend since October and  I learned something really valuable from my companions on The Path.

I was struggling how to "live" The Path of servant-hood, worship, and total surrender living in the 20th century era in the silicon valley of all places with all the egos flying around.  I felt that it could be easy To Be and To Serve, and To Pray while living in a secluded garden and meeting only people of The Path, eating from fresh fruit of the garden, and witnessing the beauty of God in everything and everyone around me.  I had not chosen that life.  But rather this.

In the midst of this battle, I got reminded last night that The Path is not to reach a state of perfection but rather a movement toward it.  That every effort matters, even just to recognize one's nafs, one's ego, in a situation.  There are beauties in the ego; this life is to be lived and to live, ego is needed.  When among people, it matters to try to recognize the Face of God. When among egos, may be it matters to let the heart decide even if the ego acts.

"The star shows the way across desert sands and at sea
fix your eyes on the Star, for he is the one to be followed

Keep your eye on his face
don't stir up dust with discussions and arguments

you'll just veil the Star with that dust
The witnessing eye is better than the stumbling tongue

Be silent so he may speak who calms the dust--
he whose garment is Divine inspiration."

                         Mathnwi VI: 2641-2647
                          Translated by Kabir Helminski

The Career Destiny

My dear R.N. says always that "your career has a destiny".  This is a phrase to pause on for me.  What she means is how the advancement in career does not need our struggle, it happens, after we put some energy and thought into it of course.
It is hard sometimes to think that things have their own destiny.  Life happens.  Death happens.  Love happens.  Separation happens.  And most likely, we had hardly anything to do with them..
Now, career happens too.  It has its own course, and it happens.

To Accept The Hardships of This Era

"Verily, with every hardship comes ease!" 94:6

I have been contemplating on the nemesis of the time.  From the clashes of theories and beliefs to the lies in politics close to home to the straight bullets shot in the head of a fourteen year old to the monetary value of the currency back in the mother land, to the constant unhealthy interference in our food and our drinks and our land.  It feels depressing, pathetic, and hopeless at times.
Yet, it is not the only worst time. Is it?
They say there have been kings who killed all the men in a village.  They tell us about wars that swiped a whole civilization.  There have been dynasties coming and going.  And the men of the world have never been all just, never been all true, never been all man-loving.  There have been families burnt.  There has been drought.  There has been volcano erupting and destroying a whole city at once.
What makes this time any different?
I keep reciting this poem of Hafiz:

جهان و کار جهان جمله هیچ در هیچ است

هزار بار من این نکته کرده ام تحقیق

The world and what is in it are all unrully
A thousand times I have experienced it

Yet. Beauty is.

It is falls.  The weather is changing visibly.  Shorter daylight, stronger winds, dried leaves.  I was standing at the backyard walkout yesterday, listening to the birds chirping.  The grass is still green.
I stopped at the school, and "the queen of the class" came to me and said she remembered me from my last year's presentation in the class.
I talked to my mom and she was full of hope.
I picked up A and he gave me a big hug.
I talked to a dear friend about a work situation that made me feel vulnerable and he cared to listen.
We had a delicious dinner at friends' and enjoyed listening to their parents talking about samanu pazoon and noon berenji.

"Remember, no human condition is ever permanent. Then you will not be overjoyed in good fortune nor too scornful in misfortune." Socrates