The flowers in a bouquet, Part II: Family

Parents who devote time, goodwill and commitment from the very beginning and sustain it are the ones who develope strong families! Not to paint up a picture for spectators, but rather for uniting happiness and longlasting bonds of trustworthy love.

These are the ones who understand that families come in all forms, shapes and colours and accept each other's differences instead of tearing them apart in an attempt to fulfill an idolized image. Because, despite the perfect picture families that always seem to loom over us on television, posters and bill boards, there are many more complexities and dynamics to families than the portrayed smiles and laughter.

Therefore since children in a family are like flowers in a bouquet: there is always one determined to face in an opposite direction from the way the arranger desires. The only difference is that a true family will let the fruit of it's tree bloom through unconditional love.

The flowers in a bouquet, Part I: Parenting

A family starts out with the parents, who then brings new life to this world. They are required to provide primary care (necessities) of their child, even by law. Although they should not feel required to, they should genuinely and willingly want to do so. Because if they do not, the more complex secondary care (love, affection, affirmation and stimulation) will be foreseen. Parents who only provide the former tend to be more absorbed in their own lives, thus emotionally neglecting their child. So because the latter is more complex and so many parents in the world fail to provide it, it is only natural if the victim developes complex problems later in life.

"If your child is on the line. You never surrender!!"

The Suicide Tourist

Some call it assisted suicide. I call it honorable death!

In a documentary film called The Suicide Tourist, there was an admirable man called Craig Colby Ewert suffering from ALS, which was to fully paralyse him. He looked to be liberated but tone about dying was so very saddening, unhappy and fearful as he was to do something that would not have been his choice if he had other options. For his assisted suicide, he had asked to listen to Symphony No. 9 by Beethoven and you could see how he struggled to get the oral solution down as his eyes filled with sorrow about leaving.

This is real honorable courage, which reminds us that we fight death for a living every day, that we only have this second and therefore must not be faint-hearted.

Some of his words of wisdom:

"If I go through with it, I die as I must at some point. If I do not, then I choose to suffer and inflict suffer on my family. So it is either Death or, suffering and Death. Plants they are dying. They will be comming back next spring but I probably will not. I end this journey but I will start the next."

The bittersweet life

Don't ever give up

if you still want to try.

Don't ever wipe your tears

if you still want to cry.

Don't ever settle for an answer

if you still want to know.

Don't ever say you don't love

if you can't let go.

Life is a great school and teaches us lessons that could never be learned, by the soul, in any other way. We come here to experience both love and loss. Whatever is sweet in its happening, will be bitter when it ends or changes. Sadly, this is the reality that many people settle for, without a single thought on mounting it, when it is the steps you take afterwards that are the ones that determine what it turns into. That is what being courageous is; Courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to move forward despite fear.

At the top you will fly

The surest way not to fail is to determine to succeed

In the United States of America; no matter what your background is, what country you are from, what income background you are from. No matter what, you can be anything you want to be! Whether it is a goal or visionary dreams, the American dream lies within all of us. But what most people do not consider is that it is so easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you.

For many the dream is the pursuit of a higher education, which is also encouraged (as the sallary is twice as high as opposed to one who only has a high school diploma). But for many, student debts serve as a road block that obstucts them from pursuing this dream. It is seen as an immense burden when in fact the big problem is that the mentality goes wrong. In this case, the word debt should be dismissed and replaced with loan, because debt holds a pressuring negative connotation while loan does not! As such, it should rather be seen as the investement and achievement of a lifetime, a blessing to be able to live the dream.

Fighting the unbeatable foe

To fight the unbeatable foe

To run where the brave dare not go

To love pure and chaste from afar

To reach the unreachable star

We are all storytellers, that is what we are all here for.

Through flickering lights, sometimes one can get to talk to millions of people at a time, if one is lucky enough. But I would have done it on the back of a wagon in Shakespeare's times too.

I would have been in the wagon that is mentioned in Hamlet.

When you grow up in a suburb, a dream like mine may seem vagely ludacris and completely unobtainable but it is directly connected with those childhood imaginings, and for anybody who is on the downside of advantage relying purely on courage;
- it's possible.

If the eyes have no tears the soul has no rainbow

When lucky numbers in the rainbow end,

bad luck is my only friend.

How is it that everytime undeniable strokes of good luck occur, people tend to see purpose in it, thinking it has a higher meaning whereas when something unfortunate happens people are quick to feel they are doomed with bad luck? The truth is that cognitive biases make this possible and it seems as though the fine line between the two is thin, just as with other opposing superlatives. See, if you believe and dream it, then you can achieve it!

The 'soul' or our 'inner self' has resources we cannot even begin to fathom or imagine. It has the ability to lead us to the people and circumstances to help us succeed, heal, and overcome obstacles.

Because if you think it, want it, dream it, then it's real. You are what you feel.

The fruit of your loins

Here is a piece of an extraordinary speech that lies close to my heart and was held by a very special teacher, friend and supporter; Khashayar Kashefi.

"...For me, it has somehow taken to be a love story and during very few moments I will regret that I started this, my relationship to you.
Sometimes I wake up in the morning, wondering if I was the right one for you... Sometimes I have to shake myself up and understand that you were the right one for me..."

You are the best parent I never had, you are a hero. Without you, I would not even be able to argue for the harmonium in my heart.
I am forever grateful,
Michelle