Stepping Into A Roomful of Love

Ghamsar rose farm harvest, Kashan, May 2008. Photo by Sid Sarshar, Where Roses Flow, Iranian.com, May 26, 2008. I wished I were there.

It's Friday. It has been a strange week for me. Some things at work were really stressful this week and some things on the home front were not very happy, either. Then, all of a sudden, I started feeling a lot better yesterday. I found a burst of energy and thoughts and ideas on how to get myself out of the unhappy patch I am walking these days. I found myself surrounded by supportive friends and exciting ideas! For the millionth time in my life, I am grateful for the gift of friends and friendships. The interesting thing about this week was that except for my very old friend, Linda, who has been my friend for the past 28 years, all the other friends I saw this week were men. I hadn't even thought about this until I went to download my camera tonight, and I saw all those kind and friendly faces belonging to my male friends whose pictures I had taken all week long. That was interesting!

I am going to have a relaxing day with my family tomorow. I'll go to visit my younger sister in Sacramento in the company of my other sisters and nieces and my older son. I am going to let myself be spoilt by my family and their love. I miss them very much and it would be good to be away from my daily routine for a day. I recommend a dose of love for all of you, too! You know, as each of you walk into a room with people you love, you have all that you need with you right there. Use your facial muscles for smiles, your arms for tight embraces, your lips for big fat kisses, your voice for boisterous laughter, your eyes for taking in all the beauties of life, your feet to dance, and your words to soothe and calm and coo. Even if you don't feel like doing any of these things, be mild and nice and easy-going you guys, making it a pleasure for others to have you around. Don't think about work, and forget your vows for a few hours. Stay in the moments which make up here and now. Let your mind record the pleasures and sensations of love and understanding. You will need to use those recordings later, on harder days when you have to play them to be reminded of who you are and what your life is all about and what matters the most. Go build those memories this weekend. Have a good weekend you all.

I will reply to all the kind comments this weekend, I promise.

Sohrab's Irony

A few years ago, the Emamzadeh in Mashad Ardehal near Kashan, where Sohrab Sepehri is buried was going through a renovation. As a part of the renovation, the plan was to move Sohrab’s grave from where it was to another spot in the graveyard. In Iran and amongst Moslems, exhuming a dead body from the grave is considered a deep insult to the dead. There was a huge social uproar and the plans were changed to exclude the removal. The reconstruction and renovation efforts went on at the Emamzadeh. One day a truck backed onto Sohrab’s grave, and broke the tombstone. This was so ironic, considering on his tombstone, verses of one of his poems say:

If you come to visit me, Come softly and quietly, Lest the thin china of my solitude Is cracked.

I saw this picture today. A crack through the words "the thin china of my solitude" is visible. I wonder whether that tombstone was replaced and the new one is now also cracked, or this is the original tombstone. Either way, I think Sohrab would not be insulted by the irony. I think he is smiling about it, the optimistic, happy poet of our times. Photo by Behrang Barzin. See more pictures of his trip to Iran here.