Prolific Living

culture

The Path to Fulfillment: To Have or Not to Have Children

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The Utter Lack of Desire to Have Children

In my life, I have wished for a million things, I have dreamt a thousand dreams; I have pursued hundreds of passions and goals and yet, never for a serious minute in all of my fantastic 30 plus years have I wished to have a child.

Children in Singapore

That’s me. I must be strange. I must be seriously out of the ordinary. I must be an aberration to the norm.

Yet, I am perfectly normal.

I am awfully feminine. I love all things girlish. I love traditions. I am crazy about my husband. I have a great relationship with my family. I had a happy childhood. I have cried at every single movie to ever involve a child and parent tragedy. I adore little baby animals. I like most children and I fall in love with a few. I have all the usual desires and needs of a woman — except the desire to mother a child. [Read more…] about The Path to Fulfillment: To Have or Not to Have Children

10 Smart Questions to Ask before Choosing your Next Language

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Lost in Japan Kanji Signs
Learning is exhilarating. Learning is rewarding. Learning is the best path to discovering who we are. We do not realize this until much later in life and often when we are conveniently out of school and have placed ourselves inconveniently in a rat race for survival but thanks to Google and technology, we can learn anywhere, anytime and on any subject under the sun to our heart’s content.

Learning is at the foundation of cultivating zen habits and discovering our best self in the process. We learn, we change. We learn, we grow. We learn, we realize our mistakes. We learn, we appreciate. We learn, we can teach others. We learn, we do things better. We learn, we open to new experiences. We learn and only then do we live fully.

And we don’t learn, we age. We don’t learn, we slow down. We don’t learn, we fester. We don’t learn, we forget. We don’t learn, we lose excitement for life. We don’t learn, we lose purpose for living. So never, ever let the wheels of learning stop from turning.

Speaking of learning [Read more…] about 10 Smart Questions to Ask before Choosing your Next Language

A Visual Journey on Why you should Embrace Travel in your Life

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Tell a story without so many words for a change!

There is the newest challenge yet from my spouse. An exercise in brevity and a tall order to my devotion about writing my epic blog posts but variety is the spice of life and so I am up for the challenge. Thomas Jefferson once said: “The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.” Where words are scarce, I shall rely on the beauty of photography to tell my story.

Should we have a reason to travel? Why, do you have a reason to breathe, to live, to get up in the morning and face your days? You travel to be somewhere else and yet in that place, to find a sense of home and belonging, to explore the fabulous world we live in, to meet your other self, to step an inch closer to another culture and another people, to embrace Mother Nature in its stunning glory, to find out how you get on with your sweetheart, your life companion or most significant of all, just with yourself, to grow, to be fulfilled for months and sometimes years later from memories that you create, to share your stories with others, to open doors that no fantasy or reverie can lavish upon you because this earth is better than any dream and filled with more promises than any heart can behold. So get up, pack your bags, do away with your excuses, put an end to the waiting, pick a destination, and TRAVEL. [Read more…] about A Visual Journey on Why you should Embrace Travel in your Life

A Transfer of Passion: How I Fell in Love with French

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French Dictionary Quote
Sometimes, a small action on the part of one can instill a lifetime of pursuit and passion on the part of another. The occasion may come about as ordinarily as is passing of the hours in a day and this transformation of grand measures may be as transparent as shining glass between the two people in question. Yet the powerful impact of this small action is undiminished. The small action on my mind is my grandfather’s last conversations with me in Turkey and this gift of a lifetime was the transfer of his love of that most exquisite language of all, French, to me.

During Iran’s better days, I had been admitted to the L’École Française in Tehran at the ripe age of 3 but then the 1979 Iranian revolution came about and put a damper on my education by shutting down anything foreign, civilized and educational. Revolutions of this kind are a master at ruining dreams and plans. It is thus that my mom’s dream of me learning to speak French early on with a Parisienne accent went up in flames overnight.

She may have managed to get over it. I did not. [Read more…] about A Transfer of Passion: How I Fell in Love with French

The Power of Traditions, Iranian Culture and Stories from a Cup

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If you ever leave your home country for another, you will no doubt gain a world of experience and adventure but you will still have to make some sacrifices, no matter who you are and whence you come. Let giving up your traditions not be one of those sacrifices!

Japanese coffee cup

Ah traditions! It may be the one thing of which Iranians have no shortage.

There is a tradition surrounding nearly every act and way of performing the ordinary stuff in life. There is a tradition on how to handle a compliment so as not to be jinxed yet remain polite and gracious in the process.

There is a tradition on how to accept food offered to you as a guest by resisting it the first 3 times you are offered, only to politely accept on the 4th occasion. There are no less than 200 traditions [Read more…] about The Power of Traditions, Iranian Culture and Stories from a Cup

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