Reset

Shaghayegh Kamali performs Korashah (The Prince), a sweet Bakhtiari ballad, composed by Siavash Beizaee in Germany, March 2008.

It's Friday. I finish another week of intense activity and emotions. Reacting to some undesirable news and stimuli, I experienced stress, worry, anger, and fear, emotions I don't normally feel these days...well maybe the stress, but not the rest. It is always challenging to be a single mother, but sometimes those challenges become a little bigger and more difficult to handle. On the upside, I also experienced some unusual positive emotions. I spent time with my young friend, Maryam, who is expecting her second child any day now, and it was exciting to be in the company of the hope that surrounds an expectant mother. Now, by Friday evening, everything has settled down and I'm back on track of life as I like it and understand it. Relief.

Did I tell you Iden left us a couple of weeks ago? I miss the young man. Tonight my sons and Paul are watching basketball and eating the dinner I just made for them. As I let the stress of last week roll down my shoulders into my fingertips and from there trickling onto the floor and out of me, I hear them cheering and laughing. That's a really good sound. I will not worry about how quiet this same house will be in a couple of months when my older son, too, will go to live in another university town. I am done with my worrisome thoughts of this week.

I am going to embrace my loved ones this weekend. I'm going to pull up a chair next to my family and just sit there looking at them and listening to them. The cell phone is about to be turned off and the home phone unplugged--the computer, maybe! You should try it, too! Go sit and watch people who matter to you talk and interact and eat and move about. Listen and see what new things you hear. Be kind to yourselves and to others and if you feel compelled to do something, let it be to hug and kiss and coo. Enjoy your weekend and be good y'all.