Happy Nowruz

I am not able to celebrate Persian New Year aka Nowruz with my family this year because I'm taking care of my dad who is visiting from Iran and has the flu. But no worries.  Nowruz lasts 13 days and I have plenty of time to enjoy it. 

Persian new year reminds me of brand new clothes - velvet dress, lace pantyhose that itched my legs and shiny patent leather shoes that my mother bought me every year. It reminds me of the lovely aroma of Haycinth, the beauty of tulips, gold fish, colored eggs and yummy sweets.

There are so many traditions connected with  Nowruz that I could  easily write an entire book about it.  So, I will not try to tackle it in my blog except to say that Persian New Year has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with giving gifts to children and young adults, dancing, singing, laughing and eating with family and friends. 

So, here are some photos reminiscence of my childhood years and a brief video about this 3000-year-old celebration. Happy Nowruz to everyone.  

There is no time for death

I’m to go to a funeral. It’s for someone I really care about. It just happened so quickly right when I was trying to get all these things done before my father comes into town. I really want to spend time with him and so I need to get a bunch of stuff out of the way.

When I heard that she passed away, I got sad. I cried and remembered my mom passing away not too long ago. Then I started thinking about how I was going to find the time to pick out a basket of floral arrangements, look up two addresses on the mapquest on how to get there (I hate the GPS. It always gets me lost. Mapquest has worked for me 99.9% of the time), and spend more than half a day at the memorial and reception when I have so much to do.

Shame on me right? Of course I want to go pay my respect and mourn with the family. So, why the tug and pull? I know that nothing is real and meaningful in this life except the relationships we build with one another, but even then, it is so easy to get lost in the game we call life and lose all perspective.

I start to think about my own mortality. When I’m on my deathbed, will I be saying, “Not now. I don’t have time. I have so much work to do?” How ridiculous am I to think this way. I just have to keep reminding myself not to get caught up in unimportant temporary tasks. 

Nothing in this life is real except for human connections. Everything else that surrounds it is just fluff. So yes, from now on when there’s a funeral, I must slow down and make time for death just the same way I make time for life.

Meow Meow... Aaaah... Books

These lovely photos are by Libreria Fogola Pisa.