Nowruz 2026

It was supposed to be two weeks of Persian New Year celebration, but things took a different turn with the US-Israel-Iran war, and a funeral that I had to attend.

 

The day was sad, but not all of it was sad. It forced everyone who attended to take a pause, to slow down, and reflect on all the people who have come and gone as we walked past the graves that looked like stepping stones from far away, embedded in a field covered with grass. The sun was out. A welcomed breeze swayed its way through. The smell of fresh dirt lingered in the air.

 

It was a reminder of our limited time. No one has control over when they are born, and when they pass away. In fact, no one has control over anything. You can plan, but plans don't pan out. Maybe we live for the unpredictability of life. Perhaps if we knew exactly how our lives would unfold, we would go mad, and not want to live. But then again, if we knew exactly how our lives would unfold right from the start, we would make different choices, and our destinies would become completely different.

 

Sometimes, I equate life to a scene in Harry Potter when Ron must play the chess game whether or not he likes it, until he gets an outcome of life or death. But he hangs on tight because he chooses to live. In life, some people don't choose to live. There is a deep moral deficit in our world that pushes humanity to question the purpose of life. But there are those who say that you only see what you focus on. And that there is so much more to what we perceive.

 

My thoughts turn back to the funeral. The people buried there had similar cares as the rest of us when they were alive. And all the things that they worried about, all the things that kept them awake at night, none of it mattered. One day they were here, and the next, they were gone. As I stand toward the back next to my brother, he points out the grave of a 25-year-old girl. We both shake our heads.

 

I watch a casket lowering device pour dirt over the coffin as I think about the kindhearted person buried beneath it. It's hard to find many kindhearted people like her nowadays. The day she passed on, she was happy, looking forward to go out with us to celebrate Nowruz. And the next minute, she had a heart attack and died.

 

I realize that there is more to what we perceive. Our bodies are shells that we shed as we evolve to I don't know what. And it's the memories that stay behind in the minds of those who know us that keep us alive until one day, they too will be gone. Life is complex, and this funeral brought up so many questions that still linger on my mind.  

 

 

Timing and missed connections

 

(photo Credit:Giallo)

Yes, this blog has been retired, but every now and then, when I'm in the mood to ramble, I'll be here. 

In this digital age, we have so little privacy, and everything about us can be found online. Some of it has to do with the fact that we want to share everything. Maybe we want to show our authenticity and let the world know that we have similar struggles. This is all good and fine, but sometimes, I like to keep a few things private. So I journal.

I couldn’t sleep last night. I finally pushed myself out of bed at 5 a.m., and grabbed a notebook to journal. I was really surprised that I had missed discarding some of my thoughts from 2017-2018. As I paged through my past struggles, I realized that I have been making improvements in many areas of my life, but I still have some unresolved issues. I started to work on these challenges a few weeks ago, before I became aware of these forgotten pages. I guess that’s a good thing. It means that when I journal, my brain starts to work on doing some house cleaning. What I do have a problem with is why did it take this long to start resolving my other issues? Perhaps, what I should have done was to keep my pages for a few days, reread them, and make a list of things that I wanted to change.

(Photo Credit: DOM J)

And this brings me to this point – Timing. They say that Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. If you are not prepared, then you miss the opportunity. It’s best not to put things off and be ready for all the great experiences that the universe will bring. Life is all about timing. If the timing is off, then things will not work out, and we miss having an amazing experience. 

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.

The Nostalgia of carefree lazy days

Photo contributor: Rosemary Ratcliff


Today was neither a good day nor a bad day. It was just a day. A day to reflect on life, love, family, work, leisure time and being just lazy. I haven’t had any lazy days lately – no time for it. Although I have had lazy moments, but it’s not easy to enjoy lazy moments because I keep looking at the clock to see how much time I have left before my next task. I find that the older I get, the more complicated life gets, especially since my elders, once middle-aged are now moving into a the senior citizen category with aches and pains and many complaints. As I watch them complain, I often wonder about my own mortality. Will I become like them? How much life I have left ahead of me and will it be a quality life or will I end up in some nursing home?

When I was a child, these thoughts never even entered my mind. I used to watch my grandmother write and recite poetry, sew and Iron. Sometimes when she didn’t feel well, she’d sit in a squatting position. “What’s the matter with grandma?” I’d ask my mom. “Her stomach is bothering her,” my mom would answer. And perhaps I felt bad for a minute before my brother would whisk me off to play hide and seek. I was completely in a different world, oblivious to life’s tragedies and disappointments until after college when I was running a retail store and the responsibilities kept piling up.

And responsibilities don’t always bother me. I like being busy and having lots to do, but I also enjoy having quiet time. So here I am today missing my carefree days and wondering if I will get them back. 

Life is a gift

I found this poem by Mother Theresa and wanted to share it.

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is a beauty, admire it.
Life is bliss, taste it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, …. do not destroy it.
Life is life, …. fight for it.