When we postpone the harvest, the fruit rots, but when we postpone our problems, they keep on growing.

~The Fifth Mountain - Paulo Coelho

Painting source: UN International children's art competition, Mariam Marukian, 13 years old girl from Armenia

Thank you dear Carmen for your lovely award.

We are all just passing through...

H/T: Darvish

Are you a hero?

I am working on this one, if I can not be one, I am making sure that I will raise two heros for our society.  They are now 9 and 11 years old ! My little one has gone to a 2 day camping trip with his classmates.  This is the first-time he has been away on his own.  He will be home today, I miss my little hero!

Picture by

Gossip!

Indeed, when you don't have ideas to discuss or you can't inspire, move and touch by your own BEING, you gossip!

Social graces! is it dead?

I read a funny article in the Town&country magazine (February issue) about Self-centered people.  Here is just an excerpt for you to ponder on:

"We have forgotten the art of engagement. We stare down, plug in, drop out.  We gaze into our Blackberrys rather than into each other's eyes.  We talk on our cell phones and listen to our Ipods rather than to the people with whom we're sharing space.  We've become just so many planets orbiting ourselves.

Social graces were designed to save us from such isolation.  They require that we direct our attention to the people around us. if we do not regularly practice engagement the habit dies"

I could not have said it any better. Don't you hate when you are talking to people and they consistently checking their text messages or they email? I also don't like when I get invitation to a party via email. What happened to telephone calls or hand written notes? emails are so "soul-less"!

Sorry, I have not been blogging lately...I am juggling too many things right now.   However, I am finishing up a book that I must post something about it soon. 

"There is great virtue in the American way, which expects CEOs to perform on a quarterly basis, presidents and Congresses to reinvent politics in 100 days, generals to wipe out opponents in 100 hours without taking significant casualties, doctors to save life and limb every time, search engines to yield a million results in less than a second, and so on. There is also great virtue in the belief that what is bad can be made good, and that what is good can be made great, and that what is fractionally less than great is downright awful.

But these virtues can spawn vices. One is impatience. Another is a culture of chronic complaint. A third is the belief that every problem has a solution, that trial is possible without error, that risks must always be zero, that every inconvenience is an outrage, every setback a disaster and every mishap a plausible basis for a lawsuit."

This was an excellent article in WSJ, I don't post semi-political articles here, but this is worth reading and just pondering! Read the whole thing, it will make more sense.

Infinite patience produces immediate results!

If I had to choose one New Year resolution, it would be to have an  "infinite patience".  Patience with my children, my husband, my family and my self.  Impatience breeds fear, stress and discouragement.  In this fast paste world, we get used to immediate results and immediate gratification.  We as society loosing the art of being patient, and lose so much because of this.

Confucius ( 551 B.C. - 479 B.C. ) warned us being impatience, about 2500 years ago!

"Do not desirous of having things done quickly.  Do not  look at small advantages.  Desire to have things done quickly prevents their being done thoroughly.  Looking at small advantages prevents great affairs from being accomplished."

Think about it, how much we loose in our life (emotionally and materially) by not having the patience? Hmm, I sure had my share of failures.  Anyway,  I want to leave you with Wayne Dyer's words who says:

" Patience manifests in confidence, dicisiveness, and feeling of peaceful satisfaction.  As you look at your own life, examine how frequently you demand an immediate indicator of success for yourself and other and attempt instead to see the larger picture.  When you are on purpose and see the larger picture, you are able to let go of an inclination to seek validation in the form of merit badges and immediate applause"

May God grant you and me the "infinite patience" for the year 2008.

Free college tuition for the whole town

Oil firm offers to pay college tuition for all students in town for 20 years! Can you imgaine that? It's great to hear this stories, too bad main stream media doesn't bother to cover it. 

Executives of Murphy Oil Corporation thrilled their hometown of El Dorado, Arkansas when they announced to students in a packed gymnasium their intention to offer college scholarships to everyone graduating from El Dorado High School over the next 20 years. The $50 million fund will dole out college money for any institution in or out of state equal to the tuition at an Arkansas public university.

Read more of this inspiring news and see some of the videos here.

Teach them HOW to fish

Peer-to-peer lending lets you invest small amounts directly in a particular entrepreneur in a third world countries. This is not a charity but capitalism at is best - making small loans to the working poor to help them establish or expand businesses. I am a firm believer that in order to truly help others we need to help them how to do business on their own.

Kiva is an organization that is using the power of the Internet to facilitate one-to-one connections that were previously prohibitively expensive. 

Stop giving them a fish, teach them how to fish and they will never be hungry again!

Whining kids, if uninterrupted, will grow into whining adults. Behind every nagging husband and moaning wife is a parent who gave in to a winner.

Have an awesome 2008!

 I had a great New Year's eve, surrounded by my family and my two sisters. We were at a ski resort sitting around the camp fire (temperature: -2 F) and watched the most beautiful fire works as we ended the 2007.

Looking forward to an awesome 2008, full of inspirations and miracles!