Inspiring cup of tea

If you are a tea drinker, I highly recommend you trying Yogi Tea. Most inspiring tea product I have seen lately. Each tea bag comes with a "food for thought. The one I am drinking right now says, "An attitude of gratitude brings opportunities"! 

Isn't that nice!

Photo source

The spirit of Christmas

Here are some highlights from around the world:

Make space for God, Pope says in Christmas sermon: "Do we have time and space for God? Can he enter into our lives? Does he find room in us, or have we occupied all the available space in our thoughts, our actions, our lives for ourselves?" he said.

Cheerful Christmas in Bethlehem:Encouraged by renewed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, Christian pilgrims from around the world converged on Jesus' traditional birthplace Monday to celebrate Christmas.

To hear Season's greetings in many different languages click here

To see photos of Christmas around the around: Click here

My wish for you:

Wish you a great Christmas spirit and I hope you will have many moments where you will be inspired, moved and touched !

Prayer Dance

Thanks to the information posted on Sadiq's blog , I went to see Dervishes' prayer-dance last night.  It was my first time and  it was absolutely mesmerizing. Dervishes were celebrating “Wedding Night” of the great mystic poet Mevlana Jalaluddin Muhammad Rumi’s, 13th century Sufi mystic, passing from the circle of time.  I learned so much about this spiritual ritual.    Here is a great quote explaining the dance:

"We do not turn for ourselves. We turn around in the  way we do so that the light of God may descend upon the earth.  As you act as a conduit in the Turn, the light comes through the right hand, and the left hand brings it into this world."

~Suleyman Hayati Dede

If you have not seen one, here it is a short video.

Thanks Sadiq!

Who's Scared of the Word 'Christmas'?

I love anything Dinesh D'souzh writes and I am glad the he is addressing this issue, why is it that people are afraid to say "Merry Christmas" during Christmas season and we just go along saying "Happy Holiday"? I am talking about Christians saying happy holiday to each-other! Why would corporations like Nordstrom, K-Mart, Best Buy and Home Depot ban the word Christmas?   Well read this if interested.  Click here.

City walls with poems!

A piece of a Hafez poem, written on a wall in the Corcoran neighborhood of Minneapols, Minnesota. Here is the link as to how they did this project.

Now Can you imagine, more cities would do this? instead of reading useless billboards or have to tolerate Graffiti, we could read poems as we drive by neighborhood? I should go and talk to my city council!

A Sufi Perspective

Watch this Sufi's sermon!

Click here for Shaykh Hisham bio. Don't know about him much but I liked what I heard in that video.

Christmas Around the world

Sorry, I have not posted regularly lately. Thanks for all your emails asking me if everything is ok. Thank you, it's so nice to "hear" from you.

It's Christmas season so I thought you may want to check this site:"Christmas around the world", and check out how each country celebrates this great season.

Christmas season is the festival of wonder and celebrations, regardless if you believe in Christ or not. One of my favorite poet, James Dillet Freeman, had this to say about Christmas:

Christmas is the celebration of imagination, with its power to warm our heart on snowy day and sprinkle glitter on a dark one, to give us the goodwill to wish a merry Christmas though there is not much to feel merry about, to give us the faith to believe that life is not humdrum existence, but is capable of unbelievable wonder, and in the stable that is the human heart God Himself may make His appearance. (excerpts from "once upon a Christmas")

I love Christmas, it's true it has become too commercial. But it's up to us to make it as worldly or as holy...