Living a Life.... Living My Life .....

“It is a sin to live”! Perhaps no one has ever directly said that to you! But think about it for a second! How many things in life you enjoy that is considered a sin from a religious person’s point of view???

I have had my brain strangles by some odd thoughts recently; well not quite odd! Just different from my way of thinking! About future and about what I have to make of it!!! Well what do I have to make of it?!! I have spent a while thinking about it! My aunt asked me what’s my 10 years plan a while back and my answer was: a secure job that pays quite well so I can live easily and make my way towards having my own company! Be known for what I do! And a few more things which did not sound so important at that time!

But a lot has happened since, and now thinking back, I am a little sad about my point of view then! I have seen so many people around me, living their whole life to make a life that they can enjoy when they are older, having a good house, having a good job, earning loads of money. But this was not all possible except by spending all their time working and working! Sadly mainly because we live in a capitalist world! They had the hope of living a comfortable life when they are older, but it just became impossible for so many reasons!

Now my perspective!!! I don’t want my share of life to be like that! I want to live a life that I can live! I want to have the good things in life! Good things that make you happy from inside and not from outside! I want to live a life that makes me happy! And fortunately I have realised that I cannot live that life unless I live it for now and not live it for the future!

“We spend too much time living in the ‘what if’ and need to learn to live in the ‘what is.”

Rev. Leroy Allison

Well I want to always have a home! And by a home I don’t mean a place, I mean a thing! Somewhere that I can rely on! When everything is wrong, I can just go there and know that I will feel better there!

I want love, I want to know that that home has someone that I belong to, It can be a child or it can be a partner, it can be my parents! (Hopefully not cats though)

I want to go around the world on adventures (this may sound to people reading this in a few hundred years or sooner, when they go to other planets, but yeh, it is a good enough dream for my time).

I want to do things that take my breath away! I want to keep being reckless as some people call it! There is a symbolic saying about what we do in life: they say when a boat moves forward, it does not leaves ripples at its back and it may cause a revelation under the water, but it sure will not stay that way and its only a matter of time until they fade away ( unless u take pictures of it and hang it on your wall so you always feel bad when you look at them! Your choice really) or you can let go and feel free of it!

Of course I want a job and house, but I have learnt this in life, that when you have a family, it does not matter how big or small your house is; because when your family supports and loves you, everything is fine!

My advice for you:

Make love, be reckless because nothing lasts, love everyone and forget easily.... make a home, not a castle that you barely can call it a house, let alone home..inspire people with whatever it is you do! and have faith! Not necessarily in something called God, but have faith in nature! Nature can be cruel but its like that mother that gets angry at you, only to make you learn and become stronger and then make more love, because that’s where it all began!

“Your body is free but your heart is in prison. To release your heart, you simply reverse the process which locked it up. First you begin to listen for messages from your heart—messages you may have been ignoring since childhood. Next you must take the daring, risky step of expressing your heart in the outside world. . . . As you learn to live by heart, every choice you make will become another way of telling your story. . . . It is the way you were meant to exist. If you stop to listen, you’ll realize that your heart has been telling you so all along.”

Martha Beck, "Finding Your Own North Star

Love & Peace

Rona Sinni

MY DRUNKEN LOVER ....

Onceagain I want to write something perhaps not very different from what we knowand what we always hear, but its again one of those things that is required to be said over and over again! Its about another one of those feelings that has its own properties. I know the chemistry behind it (like the actual one, withscientific reasons etc) but to be honest, I think science sometimes destroys the beauty of things if we think about it too much! So at times, I decide to ignore it, even though I am usually the most logical person around.... It canbe annoying sometimes.

Anyways....I am writing this not because I am in love, but because I have seen a film thisafternoon with my favourite actor in....And just the way he acts, it makes mefeel like I am in love even if there is no one around to love at that moment.  There is that sentence from Marie Curie that says:”nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. “ ...

Perhapsif we understood love, we would try to get a grasp of it and make it go ourway.

Butwhat is love?!!! The Persian poet Hafiz, many times in his poems references tobeing in love, by describing it as being drunk after drinking wine, and everytime he talks about it, he asks the bearer provider to pour him more wine andmake him more and more drunk.

“Thecorner of the tavern is my altar, where I pray
at dawn, the mantra of the Old Magi, I say.
Fear not if the harp plays not at sun's morningascent
my morning cry of repentance is the music I play.
Thank God, free from beggars and kings, away, Istay;
Homage, to the beggar at the door of the Beloved,I pay.
For Thee, in the mosque and the tavern, my time, Ispent;
By God, from this intent, I never ran nor walkedastray.
Only, Angel of Death's blade can uproot my tent
running from love and grace has never been my way.
From the time that I made my search for Thee myintent
I lean upon the throne on which the sun may lay.
Not your fault was the sins that were put intoyour clay
nonetheless accept them, Hafiz, and good tastedisplay.”

Hafiz

Ghazal53

DivanHafiz

Idon’t know if you have read my “Leily and Madman” post, but I very much like torefer back to it. When the king found out about Madman being so much in lovewith leyli, he asked his people to bring her in, so he can see what is it abouther that made Madman to be so crazy for her. When they brought her in, heturned to leyli and said: “Madman became crazy for you, but you are not anybetter that the other pretty people”, Leyli answered back” It is because youare not Madman”. This is the bright red point of the story. You are not mylover and you are not looking at me through his eyes.

Ivery much like to think that this is what love is, but then again I look aroundme and I see everyday many people around me saying they love someone for manydifferent reasons other than this. When the eyes give order to the brain andnot the other way round, they fall in love with someone because of what theysee and they don’t see the person ina different way because they love them.

Fallingin love is not about having someone to fill the empty space next to you whenyou feel alone, but it should be a reason itself.  To love someone and then the hole will befilled. Loving is that feeling, when the person you love talks, you feel theworld has gone silent and no one else is around. The moment you feel when theperson you love looks at you, you want to melt. You feel nearly unconsciousconstantly. You are so drunk on his love, that you are paralysed and unable todo anything else. The moment you want to just put your hands behind your headand stop breathing for a second and then take that one deep breath and sigh everytime you think of them. Every time you look in their eyes, it is not to gettheir attention, but it is because you want to drawn in them.  Every time you drawn in their eyes, you don’t wantto leave there .... . You have thirst for their lips, and its not to calm youdown, but it’s to get you deeper in love with them.

“Iam drunk with Love, bearer, bring me some wine
This feast without a full jug, will run down anddecline.
Describing that beauty, neither seems right and nor fair,
Musicians play on, and wine-bearer bring me wine.
My stature is now curved, and your rivals from nowon
Won't tempt me through this door, with no otherwill align.
In my longings for Thy face, I, and hopefuldesires,
In hope of union, I, fancy, and dream combine.
Intoxicated with those eyes, where do I find mycup?
Lovesick with vision of those lips, of answersthere's no sign.
Hafiz, in search of the good, why put your hearton the line?
How can you quench one's thirst, through a miragethat may shine?”

Hafiz

Ghazal432

DivaneHafiz

I lovehow Hafiz does not think there is a difference between lust and love; you mayhave lust without love, but you can’t have love wit out lust.

“Othou, who considers separation of lovers fair
Keep lovers away from your side with your glare
I am thirsty in my desert, lead me to clear waters
With the hope of God's mercy, this path of yoursyou forbear.
You stole my heart, dissolved my soul, but
Better than you have treated me, of the otherstake care.
When my foes drink their wine from my cup
I cannot accept it, if fair you declare.
Listen fly; Phoenix's flight-path is not your air
You ruin your own name, and us you tire and wear.
Through your own deeds, you are now poor & bare
From complaints & your cries, I beg you, usspare.
Even kings, through their service fill their chair
Hope for nothing, if you will not do your share.”

Hafiz

Ghazal449

DivaneHafiz

Love& Peace

RonaSinni

Point of View OR Way of Understanding.....

*CAUTION: THIS POST IS A TOTAL MESS AND ESSENTIALLY MY THOUGHTS FLOWING ON TO THE PAPER*

“Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.” 
Henry David Thoreau 

As William Safire says: ”If you re-read your work, you can find on re-reading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by re-reading and editing. “. I am a little conscious about this at this moment of time. Afraid that some of what i am writing may become repetitive. So I decided to think about it and see how I can avoid this?! Well of course Safire gave me the first clue, but then what?! Well then I remembered something by Muhammad Ali, he said that:” It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.”  And I remembered that is what I want to do; producing positive thoughts that can only be believed by understanding them and by repeating them for ourselves.

Today I want to talk about point of view....last week I had a conversation with a friend which started up from a very funny statement that I made about pigeons and him trying to convince me that I may be wrong! His way was that of convincing me that I need put myself in their shoes and think as them! why would they want to fly into my face?!!! This is looking at a problem from another angle. This other angle may not at all belong to someone else, but it helps you to see the world more clearly! Simple example: just think of how much easier it is to feel things that are in 3D and how much more they are understandable when they move in the other dimensions (or just the 4^th dimension, time!)

To write this piece I decided to change my normal place of sitting and writing! So I am sitting on my study desk (literally on it) in the corner and I have my laptop on my bed desk and I am writing this for you! Its an amazing experience! I am hoping that the glass on the desk does not break and injure me! But i guess that just makes it more exciting!

So back to the main topic....POINT OF VIEW.... so I want you to read the sentence below and then I want you to think about it and then look back at the second paragraph of this piece and try to figure out why I disagree:

“We will act consistently with our view of who we truly are, whether that view is accurate or not.” 
Tony Robbins

How can you ever have a clear view of the things around you, if you only look at them as who you are?! How can you improve and how can you understand others and communicate with them?! we all fall for this at times; the moments we think we are right and no one else is...I typically do this for my religious views ( which is none) and I think people who believe in a religion are just not very clever or educated in the field. I simply say that because I studied and then came to the point of no religion. But many people just follow their parents and they never want to think otherwise. I guess that is just because it scares them. But then again, think of the Nietzsche’s theory of truth or untrue that I keep on talking about: HOW DO WE KNOW SOMETHING IS FOR DEFINITE RIGHT?!  Well I hate following people’s path, I rather be more adventurous, but this theory just makes stuff more adventurous.... in the very same paper where Nietzsche explained this theory, he also explained that the way we can handle this is to study and make decisions based on what we think is right. Yet again, how can we rely on someone else’s studies and scientific facts? To be honest this theory changed my word both in a good way and a bad way...bad way being that I lost trust in everyone’s point of view. So the dilemma raised: to look at all different point of view or only rely on what you yourself think is true?!

“There is nothing insignificant in the world. It all depends on the point of view.” 
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Lets go back to the pigeon example, if i think that every time one of these birds flies into me, it is going to attack me am I right... or do I have to think of what the bird is actually doing based on my friends observation and believe that i am wrong.

Both ways I am analysing what I think, one relying on my own thoughts and the other, relying on my friends thoughts. Both of us may be right and both of us may be wrong. What would you do?!

In fact what would you o if you were in my shoes?!

Peace & Love
Rona Sinni

NOROUZ - PERSIAN NEW YEAR

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL IRANIANS AND EVERYONE WHO CELEBRATES NOROUZ
IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS PLEASE DO WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW IF YOU HAVE TIME:
http://youtu.be/pFLyPC0BLP0
THIS CULTURE IS WHERE I GET ALL MY LOVE AND PEACE FROM....
LOVE YOU ALL
WISHING YOU AS ALWAYS LOVE & PEACE IN THE NEW YEAR
RONNA SINNI

Is it Equality or Fairness ....

“Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - it only guarantees equality of opportunity.”
Irving Kristol

So as always I this thought generated from a TV programme that I was watching! Sometimes I think I over analyse them, but who says it is a bad thing?! It is important to analyse what you see or you will constantly fall for the same “boxed up” ideas that the society gives you, and I believe this is a crime!!! A crime to bring up people as non thinkers! Anyways, I won’t get too carried away... It was a very basic part of this film, where the guy acting as a TV presenter asking people “If everyone is equal?”

“So is everyone equal?!” I asked myself! Thus this post will be a report of what I think and I will do my best to keep the thoughts of great minds out of it and I will talk about what they think later perhaps. And what does equality mean?! So the dictionary said:” correspondence in quantity, degree, value, rank, or ability.” I keep on going on about equality and how I wish it will one day come true! But the reality is that I and perhaps many of us use this word in a different context as we use many other words with a wrong meaning in our everyday life and we know that others should understand it in the way we do! But I don’t think if I could look at it the same from now on! Equality can be of what is applied to everyone! For example the laws are the same for everyone, but it is actually our actions that make us different from others, therefore we are not equal anymore. In normal terms the word fairness is used for what I described above. As fairness is:” the state, condition, or quality of being fair, or free frombias or injustice; evenhandedness: I have to admit, in allfairness, that she would only be paid for part of the work.”  I think the difference is clear now! What we actually are looking for is that fairness!

“Fairness is what justice really is.”
Potter Stewart

Equality in terms of today’s society does not have a meaning really! An educated person and an uneducated person are not the same, however they are not any better or worse, but they are not similar, because of the way they have approached their way of living! However the educated person can be corrupted and the uneducated person a person who gives so much to the society! There is no irony! You cannot compare people as general thus we cannot say everyone is equal! We were of course born equally free, but not even the same way!

Maybe that is why people struggle with this issue! How can you think of everyone being equal where they are not! BUT we can treat everyone with fairness! People see the reaction to their action, only those whom really stupid will treat people differently with not measuring the person’s conditions!

From the eyes of law, with that beautiful scale representing the actual equality this becomes clear! And law is only one scale of measuring the differences! Bad people and the others (Who may not be the best people is other contexts but not bad in terms of law”. The job a person has or the way they dress up however does not make a person bad or good! It’s all about the attitudes and deeds! These are what I am pointing at now! We are not equal, but there is not a scale to measure it in details except the judgmental brain of ours! And where it goes wrong is where all problems rise from!

The point I want to make is:” we are not equal or the same in any category, but everyone has the right to be treated by fairness based on their deeds” the appearances does not make us better or worse than the others, it not the skin colour or sexual orientation...it is not the way we talk or how much money we have...it’s not about how much we know or how good looking we are! None of these makes us better or worse than the others, but we are not equally the same! We are different but we deserve the chance to be recognised based on our deeds and therefore treated based on that! Respect is the first step towards fairness! And love is the next step!

“Fairness is not an attitude. It's a professional skill that must be developed and exercised.”
Brit hume

Love & Peace

Rona Sinni

A diary of my love for you .....

“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies”

Aristotle

So I was writing a love story, when I realised all we hear about love these days are these love stories that end with a happy ending! I guess that is what we all love to hear, but I don’t like falling for the clichés, hence why I decided to write something different! Perhaps a very familiar perspective, but where it is your decision to make up the rest of the story in your minds! A one direction love is not something that belongs to the films, because it gives the writer the difficulty of picturing what is going on in mind of the individual, and perhaps makes it ever more difficult to give it a happy ending. If there is such a work or if they ever make such a thing, it must become a master piece! I don’t want any of you to think that I don’t believe in love with happy endings(yet there is no such a thing as an ending to any story, it’s usually our minds that would like to put an ending to a good story, to keep it in our minds that way and always be happy about it). I guess the other post of mine “Leili and Madman” made it clear that I still believe such love can happen, something that after ages, people still talk about, a story written by a great writer or a film made by a great film maker can stay in our minds forever, and sometimes act as rays of hope in a dark tunnel called life.

I don’t know if we should call it a game of chances or destiny, but I know many people who never found love! With the theories that we have made for ourselves, how can this be possible?! Are these theories made by our imagination, or optimism?! Is it the hope that keeps us going?!

Because i would not understand a person who would ever say they don’t need love! As once I read somewhere that “A man who says, he does not trust love anymore, love loses its trust in him”. So what is that little factor that stops us from finding it?! IF there is love, then what is it, except LOVE! Does anyone have a true understanding of it?! Is it stupid of us to fall for the theory of existence off love? Or is it a reality that we don’t know much about?!

I don’t want to diss the amazing work of scientists, but all these money spent for finding out where we come from and where we go, why there are so little information about love?! Love being the reason why we live and it being the path between the existence and the ending line!

I will let you all to think about these things in your own time, considering I don’t have a clear vision about love myself! It is a lot of questions that my answer to them changes as I grow every second. I however decided to write something about the third parties! The ones whose thoughts are unheard! This could not come out as any other way rather than a page of a diary or a person who does not wear his/her heart on his/her sleeve! I will not overcomplicate the writing; I very much like to keep it as simple as diary is written in....

“Love is the irresistible desire to be desired irresistibly”

Robert Frost

“How would I go any further like this? I have realised that sometimes keeping a secret is the best way of saving some things, only because you know if the truth comes out, you will lose that minimum that you have settled for...a friendship, the companionship of him, the little sensation you get when he smiles at you...That little simple secret that keeps this deem light burning, yet burns you from inside so hard that one day you are unable to breath and then it’s over! Or is it EVER over?!

All those moments you are looking for all those possible millions of reasons why this is not right, why you should stop the way you are feeling...then every single reason turns into a smile on your face reminding you of all those reasons why you DO feel this way... .

When you are so convinced that this is wrong and it will never work out, but yet you keep going on and on, not letting the light to turn off! Darkness means being lost and I don’t want to be lost! Without this, without love, I am lost! Many people come and go, many days come and go, yet this is the only shining light, and I have decided to keep it this way... every day hopping for a miracle! But i know miracles don’t happen that often! Miracles belong to the stories and I am stock in the reality... the reality that is darker than when I close my eyes and dream...! Love is blind, because in all that darkness all you see is the beauty, and the ugly is lost.... I have found my killing happiness in darkness, and this shimmering light is nothing but pain, a joyful pain that I accept to keep inside forever... what they can’t take away from me is what I grow in my mind....my dreams are mine, where I can control!!!! Reality is only that crazy driver who doesn’t know where he is going... it could only end in an accident. My world, my love is made of these twisted strands of reality and dreams, and I can’t change anything...”

“Falling in love is not at all the most stupid thing that people do—but gravitation cannot be held responsible for it.” Albert Einstein

Love and Peace

Rona Sinni

Nostalgia.....

The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

This is written for my Iranian friends especially, yet you are welcome to read. The only thing is that Iranians probably feel more connected to this note. I just felt rather nostalgic and thought its a good idea to write about all that I miss about the past.

I believe that past should never be forgotten; I remember this book that we had in the bookshelves in our house called: past is the light for the future (This is a translation and I don’t remember the name of the writer, I shall ask and inform you in the near future). Well I could not agree more. Perhaps sometimes remembering the good times from the past can make us feel a bit out of the place, maybe because it feels like something that feel we belonged to, and it is not there anymore, like when we lose someone close to heart. A place that was always there and the very next moment is not anymore, like when lights go off and the darkness becomes your new nest and what can be more scary!!! But past was what made you become who you are today and this very moment is the past that will make your future; only keeping this in mind can assure a better future, a future so virgin... . Every now and then is good to sit and remember all those little things that happened. I personally think I am getting Alzheimer’s to be honest. Sometimes I look back and I can’t picture the streets that i grew up in. The houses that I visited and the people that I loved! But this past belongs to me, and it’s what makes me smile sometimes, like the stupid things that i have done and the things I have said or heard, people who i have loved and the people who I disliked for asinine reasons. So let me remind me and perhaps some of you about what we have missed...! I guess even if you have not experienced the same things, if you read this, you can remember your own past and things you used to do...! Just remember LIFE IS WONDERFUL, and i literally mean full of wonders!!!!

The best way is to start this with : I remember... and let your thoughts flow... your passion for that little mean yet very cute thing that you have...the past. I don’t remember if it was a maths programme or a philosophical one, but this guy was talking about the ripples you make in the water when you are in a boat and moving forward...how shallow they seem and how they deep they are...but also how short term... your past makes you move forward but it has no direct effect on it...!

I remember the day we moved into our new house when i was rather young, perhaps just less than 5 years old...the little Lego puzzles bought for me from the child and teenagers institute. Playing with them in a chaotic house filled with unpacked boxes, while my mother was sleeping on a coach, waiting for my ad returning from his work and my beloved sister from school, how young my mind was and how much i adored those colourful Legos. I remember I used to love to go to my grandparent’s house to play with them with my cousin who was alot older than me. She was a truly inspiring person, every moment that i spent with her i learnt a new thing and most importantly learnt  to be creative. Waiting in the waiting room of a dentist showing me a almond in shell and trying to make think of things that it was similar to, and my young mind trying to figure out what was going on in her mind... she has her own wonderful daughter now and i can imagine her being a lucky one, having such a great mother. All those books and games that my parents bought me to learn more and learn more and learn more to come to where i am.

I remember playing with dolls with my sister, but our favourite game was drawing people ona pieve of paper and talk instead of them pretending we are in a party with a lot of people. Sounds so silly, but at the time i couldn’t wait for her to come home and play this game with me! My two friends who i found going to primary school, Yalda and Sadaf! Two beautiful sisters whom i spent most of my time with. We used to play in the house pretending to be what we wanted to be...life was so easy then. I always wanted to be the architect and Yalda always wanted to be everything, and sadaf was always the teacher! Ahhh, good days gone by like the wind...! I remember playing in the streets, drawing on the floor with pieces of chalk, every morning in the school, or after school on the roads! So much fun!

Every Friday morning, having a family meeting in my parents bed, laughing and laughing, playing games! Thn the fresh breakfast that my dad have had prepared for us. Ah, i still can smell the bread. And then the rest of the day spent at my grandparents house with every single member of the family....more than 20 of us, just enjoying life like it could do no harm ever....! the amazing food that the grandparents prepared and then all sitting around the sofreh and eating it.

The school days and the homework’s that i would not stop doing and then having lunch! I was a geek from the start i guess!

My cousin Padideh used to come around a lot when my dad was away on missions and she always had something for us! Snacks or present! And i was jealous of my sisters presents every single time!

Every night my mum was singing to us, or when we were older, my sister reading to me before bed. When we stayed at my grandma’s house for nights, my dad used to do it, all the kids sleeping on the floor in the living room, and my dad telling us stories about this guy who ate so much that he bursted! It is still funny when i remember. Or my grandma telling us stories to make us not to be scared of the dark anymore.( I shall remember to tell you these stories, they are actually scary but fun).

The huge pencils that my ad used to buy us, they had spirals on them, so when you spin them, it looked magical! The cartoons and the films from those days...! What can i say..AMAZING...specially the Japanese anime called footballers, me my sister and my second cousin Sadaf, were in love with it. no wonder i love football now. I remember the last son in law of the family had the duty of cleaning the table, while everybody in the kitchen was doing the washing up, i still feel sorry for Pirooz and Amir, they had the longest period of duty, because not many people got married after them for a while.

I changed so many schools, and in every one of them i had such amazing friends. Trustworthy or not, still friends...!

The cheeky sneaks after school to hang around and have some fun! We all know what i mean if we brought up in Iran, so not much explanation required there.

Climbing the bed in my grandma house to reach her sitting at her table to kiss and say hello, or the the afternoons after school I bought snacks for me and grandpa to eat and watch cartoons together(our favourite was Ariosto Cats)

The language classes that we were made to go to for hours on Fridays, and the alloche and fun gums that we bought. The times my dad came back from mission and bought us all my mum have had forbidden us to buy!

All those wonderful times, that are so many that if I want to keep going, will make a book, made me and my life! All those memories...!

Remember those memories of yours, both good and bad moment and worship them! life may be short but every moment is a sequence on the little shiny skirt it is wearing that gives a glow and makes it even more beautiful when looking at it from far!

Remember, as my aunt Padide always tells me: “you don’t have to live the length of life, you only have to live its width at the longest to enjoy it”

LOVE YOU ALL PEOPLE.... KEEP SMILING!

Study the past, if you would divine the future.
Confucius

Love & Peace

Rona Sinni

listening to:

1.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlMSSnru8pM&feature=BFa&list=FLk89UKVLRBivipbQhJgX-Lg&lf=plpp_video

2.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGaX_mF-8FA&feature=BFa&list=FLk89UKVLRBivipbQhJgX-Lg&lf=plpp_video

The Ashes of War....

"I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war."

Albert Einstein

So I thought today I will write a little about war, but I don’t quite want to talk about why they start it, and it must be replaced by peace and who starts it etc, as people usually write or talk about it. but I would like to talk about how I think a “war at peace” is still an ongoing war. No matter how many peace treaties are signed, or how many times they say that it is over, but this is so untrue! The fact that we still celebrate the day war was over in our countries, and instead of celebrating it the creation of peace, we celebrate the win, well I guess that explains it all. There are several things that I need to talk about. Such as a book that I am currently reading which made me write this, and a film that I have seen recently plus things that I have heard around!

I guess I shall start from somewhere, but just now I remembered this sentence I read a while back from Mother Teresa; “they have had asked her, why she does not join the anti war protests, her answer was, if you were protesting for peace, she would join, but not for anti war protests.” I mean, we just have to think one second about what she meant. Yet I am quite sure as per we all may have different views on what she meant! (So feel free to leave comments about what you think she thought, I would love to know.”

The book that I am reading now is called: “ A soldiers legacy” written by henirich boll, the nobel prize winner. Indeed it is an amazing book. It set in 1943, and it is about this soldier starts writing to the brother of his dead friend in war, and this person who killed him, who actually is close neighbours of the dead man. Indeed, the war happened in 1943, but the story shapes in the future of the war and what it has done! Both while and after, the writer beautifully displays the depressed and gray areas of the remains of the war, or in cases the dark sides left. It is a beautifully pictured story using words as almost every great writer does it.

My father has been in war for 8 years of his life getting injured and fighting, and the outcome was “OH WE WON”! I mean, I most certainly appreciate the fact that they have defended the country, but it still hurts me to think about why it starts. But as I said, I don’t want to talk about that! So here we are, at this moment! Just imagine your country, and as most of the countries have been in war, look at how you celebrate it now. We still celebrate it as the day we won it, although we might be opponents. Like French and the British and we both think we won. Well people, I say this is wrong, because even when we are in peace, we still feel we are better than the other and this feeling, as I have always told people, brings hate!!! Every time, you look at someone from up high, s/he will grow a little hate inside for you! And this is all war does. Look at where we are now. Take my own country for an example, we finished war more than 30 years ago, and we still hate the Iraqi’s for fighting with us. We went into war with Arabs, so far away, we can only read about it in books now, and we still dislike each other! So does this at all, sound like peace to you?!! These flying ashes of the finished war, burning more than the war burnt us itself. Let alone the damages it brings into our lives! Damaging, our health and wealth! We feel the glory deep inside when we talk about winning several wars in the past, but I think if we look deeper, we can clearly see, that we are destructed by all means! We have forgotten that its not us, but it is our governors who start the wars! And we have not got much to decide about!!! We lost our family and remain in pain for nothing1 for finally reaching the “Peace” that does not exist?!!

This is a very small insight that I have against war.... these are the burning ashes, burning like a red hot cigarette with the scar remaining forever!!!! 

"All war is based on deception."

Sun Tzu

Love & Peace

Rona Sinni

The Legend OF "Leyli & Madman"

“Dearest heart, if I had not given my soul to you, it would have been better to give it up for good, to lose it forever. I am burning in love's fire; I am drowning in the tears of my sorrow. . . I am the moth that flies through the night to flutter around the candle flame. O invisible candle of my soul, do not torture me as I encircle you! You have bewitched me; you have robbed me of my sleep, my reason, my very being.”  

Nezami Ganjavi, From Leyli va Majnoon-adapted by Colin Turner and published by Blake in London, 1970

So today I had time to watch a film called Majnoone leyli (The madman’s leyli). But before I can talk about it I need to explain two things! First of all I need to tell you a story, and second I will tell you why I am writing this! And then I can talk about the film thoroughly.

There is a legend in my country called “Leyli Va Majnoon” or as it is called in west “Leyli and the Madman”!  this story is based on a real story of life of a man called Majnoon in the book and was written by the Persian writer Nezami Ganjavi....! “Leyli and Majnoon" is an immortal love story sometimes compared to "Romeo and Juliet" though it predates Shakespeare in oral tradition by more than 1,000 years. 

Leyli and Majnoon were from the same tribe living in deserts of Iraq! Majnoon was a poet who fell in love with Leyli; he made poems and songs about their love and leyli, although because of the rules of the tribe, he was not accepted when he asked her hands for marriage. Soon after, leyli was married to another man. Majnoon (: meaning madman), he fled the tribe camp and began wandering the surrounding desert. His family gave up on him after a while. People would see him time to time, singing poems for leyli or writing in the sands with a stick. Leyli moved to the modern Iraq with his husband and became sick soon after. She died and was buried. Majnoon was found dead in wilderness near grave of an unknown woman, and he have had engraved three verses of his last poem on a stone near by it.

“I pass by these walls, the walls of Leyli

And I kiss this wall and that wall
It’s not Love of the houses that has taken my heart
But of the One who dwells in those houses”

This is a story about an undying love, which is generally is known as a virgin love, because the lovers don’t ever get married and their love dies a virgin with them.

This story is one of the most popular legends of Iran, and was written in 7^th century. I believe most of the nationalities in the world have stories as such, some may be true like this one, and some may have been made by imagination of the storyteller. But what is so distinguished about this story is the depth of the love and the beauty of the literature of it written by Ganjavi, so deeply interconnected with the literature of Majnoon himself.

“The future is veiled from our eyes. The threads of each man's fate extend well beyond the boundaries of the visible world. Where they lead, we cannot see. Who can say that today's key will not be tomorrow's lock, or today's lock not tomorrow's key?”

Nezami Ganjavi, From Leyli va Majnoon-adapted by Colin Turner and published by Blake in London, 1970

Well, as you all know Valentines is quite close, and I don’t think if i could pick a better time to write this! But the fact is, what motivated me, is the fact that Sepandarmazdegan is close also. Sepandarmazdegan is quite very similar to the St.Valentines day. It’s the day to worship love. It is a part of Esfand mah (the month of Esfand) which is the last month of the year in Persian calendar and the end of winter. In old times, winter was the time to rest after all the agriculture was finished, and as the ancient believed, this all was not possible for anyone if the woman of the house was not always there for the family, to support them and love them to get through the year. So this is the time to thank them! Esfand is the month of women of the house! Sepandamazd is the guardian of earth in Zarathustra and as women in life have the same role, being the supportive and the giving, this is their month! The word Sepandazd is from Avesta (the holly book of Zarathutrians) and it means the patients and humility of mothers. On Sepandarmazdegan, men buy presents for the love of their life.  This is how Zarathustra shows the importance of appreciation of love and women! And this also has a beautiful story behind it, very much similar to the story of Leyli va Majnoon. But i guess that needs to be left for later, because otherwise this story will get too long and boring.

“Every breeze that blows

Brings your scent to me;

Every bird that sings

Calls out your name to me;

Every dream that appears

Brings your face to me;

Every glance at your face

Has left its trace with me.

I am yours, I am yours,

Whether near or far;

Your grief is mine, all mines,

Wherever you are.”

Nezami Ganjavi, From Leyli va Majnoon-adapted by Colin Turner and published by Blake in London, 1970

 So this film was about the antique box which was made and given to the great grandmother of this girl called Parvaneh (: Meaning Butterfly), by her great granddad over 100 years ago on Sepandarmazdegan day. It was a box with the sign of Farvahar on it! (If you don’t know what it is, next time you see me with my necklace on, ask me what it is, because I always wear it, OR in future I will actually put up an analysis of it). This box in a very odd way kept going around and many people got a hold of it on Sepandarmazdegan day. It simply brought people who had true love for each other together and made those who did not realise that they are in a wrong situation.  Some sort of a magical impact. The connection between the stories was most certainly wonderful.

It is quite odd! I just can’t believe how this kind of love does not exist anymore! Or perhaps it does, but it is rather rare! I have the most loving grandparent. My granddad would still remember their anniversary till the last days of his life, and he would celebrate his love for my grandmother in every single opportunity.  It first of all makes me ashamed of myself! I have made some conclusions about it while living my life around people who have had it! First of all, if you find it you must never let go! And nothing could ever end a real love! May it mature or may it die a virgin, real love will never die... Now people do tell me if you think you have it! If you think you have that precious thing everyone talks about but not many have! I would very much love to talk about this more! But I like to leave you here with this thought that what is real love and where do you hold it! Do you u feel that odd feeling of pain inside when you are in love with someone, that deep pain inside that feels so good and enjoyable! the stress, the pain and the passion!

“Time passes, but true love remains. The life of this world is, for the most part, nothing but a succession of illusions and deceptions. But true love is real, and the flames which fuel it burn forever, without beginning or end. “

Nezami Ganjavi, From Leyli va Majnoon-adapted by Colin Turner and published by Blake in London, 1970

“In the garden, the leaves were falling like tears. The flowers had cast off their many-coloured summer gowns and donned the sombre robes of autumn. The silver of the jasmine had lost its lustre; the rose wept petals as it mourned the passing of summer; the narcissus bade its companion’s farewell and made ready to depart. . . As the garden slowly withered, so did Leyli: her spring was over, made winter by the freezing finger of Fate, by the icy touch of life's most trying tribulations.”

Nezami Ganjavi, From Leyli va Majnoon-adapted by Colin Turner and published by Blake in London, 1970

Peace and love

Rona Sinni