After 7 days of having no electricity due to Mother Nature's demonstration of power last Friday, I was left feeling incapacitated at first... empowered as time past. Often, our lives center on work and the technology that drives it. Loss of power forces you to look towards solutions that give you a sense of control. Family becomes a priority from their care to their entertainment. Days become a means to reconnect with life and nature. Friends become an invaluable source of comfort and support especially when there are no immediate family members near. Lesson learned, there may come a time when outages cause you to reevaluate how to get through the day, but ultimately we must realize that the power lies within ourselves always. Keep the light within yourself continually glowing!

The interesting dilemma of summer vacation...who's really on vacation? I feel like I work all school year long and then it's "summer vacation"! I should be screaming, "Yeah!", but instead I feel liking screaming "ugh"! I'm thrilled to be around the children more, but where's the vacation part for me?

Work continues, but now the distractions of the day have increased. Trust me, entertaining four children isn't always easy and camps can be OH so very expensive! Put in perspective, however, worth it at times!

Children gauge their time as if it is infinite where as adults we know it is finite. Trying to make the most of it often being the challenge as mornings quickly slip into night and the cycle starts anew. I find myself continually saying "cherish these distractions; the noise...before you know it, the children will be grown and on their own adventures!" I'm a firm believer that my role is to build their foundation so that they can fly and soar from the rooftops if they so please, but seeing how quickly my first born has grown...it is only a matter of time when I'll be waving bon voyage!

I digress. I started this entry laughing about what summer vacation means to me vs. my children. While they enjoy that they can stay up late, I pray they stay quiet enough for me to get my 6 hours of sleep. When I get up in the morning to face its challenges and facets, I am greeted by all 4 children rearing for me to plan their day's adventure...now try waking those same 4 kids on a school night having gone to bed at their appropriately scheduled times! Forget it, the alarm goes off and they groan and pull the covers over their heads. Am I crazy or shouldn't they be sleeping in now that it is summer time. Why the burst of energy while I try to enjoy my morning cup of coffee in peace?

I guess trying to make heads or tails out of this is probably as futile as trying to stop time!

On a day when the weather outside is beautiful and all should be right with the world, I have spent close to an hour with Cynergy Data, my company's merchant service provider, discussing why a $200 penalty fee is unfair. A fee, by the way, that I only became aware of today because I called to answer a letter they had sent me. Response from the top management was, you should have been aware that you were penalized. How can a person keep on top of these penalties when on your bank statement all that it says is the name of the company? Or when a statement comes and it is full of numbers and abbreviations?

Being overly sensitive, I had to stop and look outside my window again to realize all IS alright with the world and that it IS beautiful outside. I have run my company for now 8 years, always putting the customer first; choosing to produce in the United States to help my country's economy. In the end, where I think we fail as fellow human beings is the desire to truly help one another. To evaluate what is important...keeping a customer or the $200?

Maybe I am naive, but how can a person survive with all the obstacles placed upon them by the economy and the big companies just looking at the bottom line? I think it's time for more people to look outside their windows and take a deeper breath of not just fresh air, but humility and honesty. Maybe then every day would be a beautiful day...rain or shine!

It has been quite a while since I have written. Life, children and work have gotten the best of me it seems, but that is no excuse. As I look at what has transpired since my last posting, I realize that the most significant things have been my children coming into their own personalities and challenging the path I had so carefully (in my mind) laid out for them.

My fourteen-year-old daughter has more to say about life than she did at ten. Even my sons have different life choices they are making. When I challenge their views, they often come back with logical responses...making me question my original thoughts. Topics from music to TV to movies to clothes and friends not to mention school are more in their hands than mine. Our wonderful world of technology has made everything so readily accessible to my children. My five-year-old can use my iPad more efficiently than I! It is amazing and scary.

So where to I go from here? I can't change my belief system on what is right, wrong and acceptable, but I can open my eyes, ears and even heart to listen more carefully; to talk more openly; to guide more perceptively.

Children growing up is a fact, but HOW they grow up to be responsible and humane beings is a choice.

Daughters and Sons

As I embark on a new adventure, having a soon to be teenager, I can't help but reflect on where the time went and whether or not I paused enough along the way to enjoy the little moments before she grew into this young woman today. Did I listen to her enough? Did I hug, love, kiss, smell her enough? Now she's "too old" for all that and I have to dig deep into my memories for those sensations and smells.

Is it, however, too late? No. I'm so grateful for these children. For the sounds [please translate as noise] they make; for the arguments I have to help resolve; for the bonds they share with one another and with me; for the love they have shown me; for the grace they show others. For being in my life and allowing me to be their guide.

My entry today is long overdue and may seem short, but there isn't more that I can add to a simple thought...and that is treasure every moment, sound, smell, and touch. Take the time to listen and to love unconditionally. Nothing in life is as important as your children and loved ones...everything else can wait because God knows and has shown, time does not stop.

Enjoy your children's adventures and make them your own; who knows, it may keep us young too!

Dash

Tonight a friend forwarded a link to me that I found quite poignant. It was about a person giving a friend's eulogy and referring to the person's birth and death dates as important, but not as significant as the "dash" in the middle.

It is so true...how do we want to be remembered? What do we want to accomplish during our brief time on this earth? What are we "dashing" through life for when in the end it is how we lived and how we set examples, showed loved, showered affection, bestowed kindness that mattered...it is that "dash" on our tombstones that signifies a life's efforts.

With the embarking of this New Year, I have had so much to think about and so much to be grateful for; in the brief few weeks of this New Year I have seen a friend survive a stroke and thanked God for her miraculous ability to heal and to heal those of us around her. I told her, "you dodged a bullet!" In reality, however, her "wake-up call" was for all those who surrounded her. I am so grateful that her "dash" is still just a dash and that there is not date to follow it...and I pray there won't be one for a very very long time. I pray that her moment of pause and reflection stays with not just her but us all. Whether you are raising children or have seen them grow; or if you have no children, but care for friends and loved ones...to take a moment and realize that this life is precariously brief and preciously so.

Stop, don't dash through life...live and live well so that when your loved one(s) are saying your eulogy they can refer to the dates between your birth and death...to that "dash" as a gift to not just them as your friends, companions, husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, but to humanity as a whole.

May you all live long, happy, healthy, loving and productive lives.

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Holiday Spirit

It has been well over a month since I last wrote...so caught up in life's adventures. I noticed that the 17th of November was the last time I wrote. I started to reflect on what has transpired since then...Thanksgiving, children's schoolwork, children's holiday programs (please multiply the latter two by 4 since I have four children), holiday guests, preparing for Christmas and more, yes more, holiday programs performed by very talented individuals if I do say so myself!

As much as I enjoy the idea behind the holidays like giving thanks and celebrating survivals, victories, families and births (depending on your faith), I wonder if the deep rooted meaning of all these combined faiths' reason for celebrating somehow got caught up in commercialism with the passage of time? Actually, I don't wonder, I know. When my son can see a gift in the back of my car and look into it and say "mom, that's not what I wanted." Instead of, well first, he shouldn't be looking! Second, he should have said, "hey mom, thanks...couldn't help myself but peek!"

As many of you know, I am Zoroastrian. I hear so many of you saying "what?" and it is no wonder. It is a dying faith, but if you look it up you will see it's historical significance. In a nutshell, it was the FIRST faith to say there is only ONE God. It's teachings are simple, to "do good, say good and think good." Our major celebration this time of year, as is true for most Iranians, is Shab-e Yalda (literally "night of birth"), the longest night of the year - a celebration of the winter solstice where families gathers to share in fresh fruit and nuts; a reminder of their thankfulness for the harvested crops that they were still able to gather during the winter months. From this night forward (Shab-e Yalda), days become longer and the "birth" of more light (longer days) meant more potential for survival. The next celebration to look forward to was the spring solstice where everything is renewed and the earth as awakened from its winter slumber.

So if we look back at history and see that religions, faiths as I prefer to say because I believe that all of us share one God, celebrated for a purpose and gave "gifts" of nuts, fruit, food, friendship, oil for light as gifts of thanks...where and why did humanity deviate from that path.

Well, to those of you who are reading this...even if it is only myself...I am old-fashioned in so many ways and pray on a daily basis for humanity to return to humanness. My favorite artist/singer/"spiritualist" who I miss to this day is John Lennon so forgive me for quoting his lyrics because as I walk the malls or listen to the radio, in my mind, this is the only song playing:

JOHN LENNON
"Imagine"

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one