Gratitude Day 105 - Simplicity

Number of times I switched the bracelet yesterday - one, or maybe two!

Dear Friends,
As today's style setters would point out - sometimes, less is more!

This morning, I don't see the need to analyse or philosophise! (Maybe because I'm exhausted!)
Last night, some very simple pleasures came my way; 
-a free hour to clean my classroom 
-a delicious meal, provided by the Parents' Association, with my colleagues 
-my students' flawless performance
-a C&C (coffee and chat) with a very good friend, after the concert 

On Monday, I shall return to my observation deck and dig a bit deeper! For now, I'll just say TGIF!
Have a blissfully simple weekend everyone!

Gratitude day 104 - Touch

The number of times I switched the bracelet yesterday - two!

Dear Friends,
My theory of equal distribution (the five senses) made me realise I suffer from sensory deficiency. 

I prefer to write cheques to paying my bills at the bank. I prefer counting bills at the cash register to paying by plastic.

As shoppers all over the world would attest, our eyes and ears are not as reliable and trustworthy as our sense of touch! And yet, Touch - the ultimate proof of physical existence, has become our most impoverished sense.

Tapping on or scrolling down a screen, is far less fulfilling than turning the pages of a book, or moving an ink-pen across crisp paper, listening to the swoosh sound it makes. 

"Touchtone" phones are not as engaging as the rotary dial phones were - keeping us on a short leash with their curly cord!

I confess, I do use and appreciate modern technology every single hour of the day. I cannot imagine my life without it!

However, if I had the capital, I would build a tactile museum where people with sensory deficiencies like me, could spend hours sharpening pencils with knives, eating with their fingers, walking barefoot, or testing the steadiness of their hand by gently dropping the needle of a gramophone onto a turning record.

Imagine sitting at a typewriter again, swinging the carriage back and
forth at the sound of the "dring."  Imagine turning the "handwheel" of a manual
sewing machine, with only one available hand to adjust the fabric.

I am very grateful for having had the opportunity to experience life 

at a time when we were more in touch with Touch. 

Have a touching day everyone!

Gratitude Day 103 - Life

Number of times I switched the bracelet yesterday - more than once!

Dear Friends,

For the longest time I didn’t know what to say to grieving people because I didn’t know how they felt. So, I would mumble a soft “my condolences” and walk away fast.

When my father passed away, I took offence to what people said to console me. I was not going to miss him less because he was old and sick!

In the past few days, a dear colleague lost her mother; another dear colleague lost her grandmother. Both Angels, God bless their soul, will be greatly missed by their families, especially at Easter.

I would like to dedicate today’s posting to Life, and to my grieving colleagues.

I pray for them both - to be strong, to be patient. Most of all I pray they recognise that it was a blessing to have had their loved ones in their life for as long as they did. I also pray they are grateful Death observed the right order - these are privileges denied to many. 
Have a reflective day everyone!                                                                  

Gratitude Day 102 - Equal Distribution

Number of times I switched the bracelet yesterday - zero! I found out when I look better,
I complain less!

Dear Friends,

I find hand-to-mouth habits harder to break because they are 

easiest to satisfy.

My scientific magazines tell me the key to being healthy is 

moderation. I think it’s more a matter of “equal distribution.” 

If I nourish all my five senses equally throughout the day, my 

sense of taste does not take over my life at night. Since I’ve introduced 

my ears to MP3 on my daily walks, I don’t open the fridge door as 

often as I used to.  

Please put my theory into practice and let me know whether I’ve 

cracked a code or I’ve just stepped out temporarily, and shall return to 

the binging zone, as soon as “stress” pokes in its head again!

Meanwhile, I remain very grateful to my “equal distribution” theory. 

I just might manage to lose these last couple of kilos.

Have a nourishing day everyone!

Gratitude Day 101 - The Return of Spring

Number of times I switched the bracelet on the weekend - zero! It was a good weekend! 


Dear Friends,
I'm so grateful Spring decided to return to Toronto! July in March was a bit unsettling. I was beginning to wonder why I was still going to school! I believe students were wondering the same about themselves!


Furthermore, the hit wave was confusing the shopkeepers. Some were about to replace the chicks and the bunnies in their windows with little red and white flags, in preparation for Canada Day! 


By the way, I'm very grateful to retailers. How else would I know what day of significance was coming up? I'm not done celebrating one, they announce the arrival of the other! 


I'm particularly grateful for this morning's temperature (0) because I got to dress from my recently purchased Spring Collection! It would have been such a shame to "postpone" my mid-calf tan boots till fall!
Have a beautiful springy day, everyone!

Gratitude Day 100 - Happy Anniversary

Number of times I switched the bracelet yesterday - one!

Dear Friends,

Today my gratitude log gone blog is one hundred days old! Allow me to celebrate the occasion (extensively) by telling you how Gratitude and I became friends. It’s a long tale. Consider this posting the celebratory weekend edition!

The Islamic Revolution had wiped out my life as I knew it. The Shah’s regime had fallen, and his subjects were captured. Terror reigned in the capital and people were being executed right and left without trial.

All of a sudden, the dreaded Fridays at my parents’ house stopped being boring because my father was not there any more – he was in prison, amongst thousands of innocents.

That’s when I cut a deal with God. I was going to befriend Gratitude and he was going to return my father to me – alive! He kept his end of the bargain, and so did I - for a while! 
A year after my father was released, we fled our country. The memories of the dark days and the sleepless nights started to fade. As uncertainty, immigration, isolation, unemployment and troubled marriage took centre stage, being safe lost its lustre. There was nothing left to be grateful for. The same "short term memory" that pushed my life forward, helping me to forget my pains, losses and traumas fostered my ungratefulness.  


Gratitude is about respect and appreciation. 
As the years passed and my life underwent major changes, hardship gradually loosened its grip. I realised that it was not God’s fury that had placed me in the middle of a revolution, but his generosity that had saved me.  

As in the past thirty-five years Life and I have continued our "Dance of Gains and Losses," I finally came to recognise the value of my blessings. This time, I opened my heart to gratitude in appreciation, not in desperation.

I have learnt to see the good even in the bad because I know worst can always be worse. I try to live according to the Buddhist concept of Impermanence. It’s the knowledge that all might be taken away from me that makes me grateful for every blessing I posses - not the fear of it. 

Have a wonderful weekend full of blessings, everyone!

Gratitude Day 99 - Bug-Free

Number of times I switched my bracelet - innumerable! Just one of those days!

Dear Friends,

The best part of staying at someone’s place for a few days is that you don’t have to ask yourself: “What shall I eat for lunch, or dinner?” You eat whatever they put in front of you! Over the holidays, I did exactly that! I ate what my sister put in front of me, and some! Thus now, every afternoon, I have to hit the exercise room and the swimming pool in my building!

Yesterday, I noticed a new sign on top of the old “Please wipe off the equipment after use.” It read: Please remember (the word remember in bold characters) to wipe off the equipment after use.”

All of a sudden it dawned on me that not long ago I was in Cuba where food is prepared and served with bare hands, and if something falls on the counter, it’s put back on the tray with bare hands as well!

Although many frowned, no one got sick.

What’s this preoccupation we North Americans have with germs? And yet we are far from being super healthy!


Very soon, either we will have somebody walk behind us to wipe and disinfect everything we touch, or we all will be asked to wear latex gloves!

Grateful for having kept some of my “developing country” mentality, I took one last look at the two signs, shrugged my shoulders and left.

I don’t wipe off because one, I'm not bugged!  Two, I can live with other people's bugs till I wash my hands. 

Have a germ-free day everyone!

Gratitude Day 98 - Human Logic

Number of times I switched the bracelet yesterday zero - too busy!

Dear Friends,

For the last couple of days, I have been preoccupied with cans and can openers! Which do you think came first?

Either way, I concluded that both can and can opener represent human’s ironic sense of logic.

It seems that “evolution” is based on humans finding solutions to problems they create themselves. How else can you explain the invention of the can and the can opener? Why would mankind create a tool to make incisions in a non-existing object? You say, cans existed before the can opener. Why would humans lock up their precious food without having a tool to help them access it easily? See! Logic doesn’t seem to be mankind’s strongest suit.  
It’s highly unlikely that mankind invented the two simultaneously, but I suppose it’s worth looking into!
Did this come across as a complaint? I hope not. I was just stating a mere fact! 
Meanwhile, I remain grateful to both the can and the can opener! 

Have an easy day everyone! 

Gratitude Day 97 - Norouz

Number of times I should have switched the bracelet had I not forgotten it at home - many! First day back, had to catch up with everyone!  

Dear Friends,

From the culture I rejected long ago, I have kept only one tradition – Norouz. Today is Norouz (new day) - the Iranian New Year. 

From jumping over flames on the last Tuesday of the old year, to staying out all day on the 13^th day of the new year, I take a tremendous amount of pleasure in observing it all!

This year I have more cause for celebration – my two granddaughters are with me. Although they are too young to grasp the meaning of this ancient Persian tradition, I’m sure the sweet aroma of rose water, cinnamon and cardamom in baked goods, and the perfume of hyacinths blended with the distinct scent of wild rue that I will be burning to send the evil eye packing, will be stored somewhere in their olfactory memory box.

One day, they will tell their parents that they remember Grandmali holding a handful of esfand over their head while saying a prayer, and then tossing it into the flame of a single candle.

Rubbish - their parents would say - you were too young to remember your first Norouz with Grandmali! 

And I will be somewhere up there, smiling down at them, like my father is smiling down at us today. And so, traditions will live on, and with them the memory of loved ones who are gone.

Have a beautiful, memorable first day of spring everyone! 

Gratitude Day 96 - Superiority, Evil Eye, Truth

Dear Friends,

Welcome Back!

My stay in New York was pleasant, as anticipated. However, I'm grateful to be back. As Russian intelligence puts into words; It's good to be a guest, but it's better to be home! I seriously can’t imagine living a different life. I even like my age. I’m grateful to its definition of wisdom and freedom.

Although I didn’t have my purple bracelet with me, my conscious kept me aware of perilous intimate conversations that usually lead to slippery slopes of complaining and gossipping. 
Aside from keeping tabs on my own grumbling, I also observed others in their complaining habits. I detected two more reasons why people complain – to establish their superiority, to keep the evil eye away!

Snobs are chronic fault-finders. They believe their approval of what ordinary folks accept and enjoy places them at the same "common" level. Thus, they complain non-stop! 

My sister, on the other hand, complains to keep the evil eye away! She figures if people leave her sphere feeling sorry for her, she will be safe. But, if they should part bursting with envy, she will pay for their pettiness by losing her blessings!

My second husband used to exaggerate his well being! He believed those who loved him would be happy for him, and those who didn’t like him would eat their heart out!
I like to tell the truth, and let the Universe take care of the rest.

Have a truthful day everyone!

Gratitude Day 95 - New York, New York

The number of times I switched the bracelet yesterday - once!

Dear Friends,

Once again, “Bonnes Vacances" is here! New York, New York, here I come!

This vacation is not about mojitos, dancing till dawn or midnight hot tub invites! 

This is the kind of holiday where I will be wearing seven hats at the same time; 

mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, sister, sister-in-law, aunt and the inescapable 
ex-wife! I’ll certainly lose my head in all these hats, but in a different way than 
in Cuba!  

I will be grateful to my nieces for asking me to go shopping with them. 
I will be grateful to my son and daughter-in-law for asking me to sit with my granddaughters for a few hours. 
I will be grateful to my sister for suggesting the two of us should leave everybody behind and lunch in Manhattan by ourselves. 
I will be grateful to my brother in-law for wanting me to cook his favourite Iranian dish. And I will be grateful to my ex-husband for accepting that me being “alone” doesn’t mean we are getting back together!

As far as the purple bracelet goes, let’s just say "What purple bracelet?"
One of these hats bound to be too snug or too lose!
I figure, as long as I don’t totally lose sight of my “pledge,” I can afford to slip out of the waggon for a few days!

Have a marvellous week everyone!

Gratitude Day 94 - Two Cents Worth

The number of times I switched the bracelet yesterday - Zero! I'm saving my points for the upcoming holidays!

Dear Friends,

By what I have been receiving lately in my "Inbox," I would say the culture I was born into is a cynic sorrow worshipper!

(This is not a complaint, merely an observation!) 

Yesterday I received a (miserable) compatriot's "two cents worth" that is circulating the net with pride! 

Good Luck knocks on your door only once!

Bad Luck doesn't let go of the doorbell! 

Misery has its own key!

I suppose this is the Iranian version of “When it rains, it pours!

As if this was not beautiful enough, here is another precious nugget;

Put to rest your watches and clocks,

What's the point of keeping track of this meaningless life! 

Wow! Profound! I hope the intensity was not lost in translation! 

Then, friends wonder why I have minimised my contact with the Iranian society!

I’m so grateful the glum compartment of my brain does not have this kind of depth. Delete!

Have a joyful day everyone!

P.S. Yes I know, sarcasm! I already switched the bracelet!

Gratitude Day 93 - Time

The number of times I switched the bracelet yesterday - Zero!

Dear Friends,

Wow! It's amazing how much time I have on my hands if I don't pick up the phone to chit-chat with my girlfriends! Abstinence from complaining and gossipping makes me do things I have never done before! For example last night I started thinking about the word "time!"

In Farsi, my mother tongue, we use the word (sa.at) for time, hour, watch and clock.

I have no idea how this linguistic fact sets Iranians apart from the rest of the world; I just thought it was interesting!

I remain grateful for having had the opportunity to learn different languages. Now, or at least till Easter, I can spend some of my “alone” time exploring linguistic nuances of the four languages I speak (more or less), trying to understand the culture behind each language.

Have an interesting day everyone! 

Gratitude Day 92 - Daylight

The number of times I switched the bracelet yesterday- Zero! I'm getting better at this! 

Dear Friends,

Being the punctual person that I am, I always think of “time” as set in stone, and yet it's such a flexible commodity.

On Sunday, once again “mankind” will be tempering with time!

What will happen if one day “he” decides that an hour really does have 22 minutes or 199 minutes? We can actually lose our age and whatever nonsense comes with it! I could “suddenly” be dead, or much younger
(in age of course, unless he removes all the mirrors!) 
Imagine living life without measuring time!

In a week-long scientific experiment, conducted in 1979 by Langer (a psychologist), a group of seventy-five-year-old men, pretending to live in 1959, showed concrete signs of  turning back their biological clock, looking on average three years younger than the time they entered the experiment. Scientists saw improvement in their posture, hand strength, eyesight and short term memory. 
It is all in our head, after all!
I would like to see the experiment being conducted with women as well! 
(I would apply in a heartbeat!)
Until then, I remain grateful that "springing forward" will give me one more hour of natural light after work!

Have a bouncy day everyone!

Gratitude Day 91 - Doormat?

The number of times I switched the purple bracelet on the weekend -  Zero!

Dear Friends,

On the weekend, while I was "downtowning" in my new cool look, I realised there is  another genre of complaining that experts have forgotten to discuss– petty complaining!

Petty complaining involves seeking relief from an "unfair" or uncomfortable everyday situation like asking for a better table at a restaurant, sending back the cold food, returning a damaged item to the store, etc.

Verbalising our “suffering,” is to stand up for ourselves. Being accepting of every situation and everyone’s behaviour has a synonym – doormat! 

The success of petty complaining does not solely depend on the situation or the people involved. It also depends on our choice of words, tone of voice and degree of personal charm! The more charismatic the complainer, the more effective the complaint! 

I’m very grateful that no "discontent" crossed my path on the weekend. I don’t know what would have been more shameful; switching the purple bracelet back and forth or becoming a doormat!

Have an honourable day everyone!

Gratitude Day 90 - Viva Shoptherapy

The number of times I switched the bracelet yesterday - Zero! 
Actually, I had forgotten to put it on in the morning, but I'm positive
 I did not complain or gossip!

Dear Friends,

Three "Cheers" for shopping extravaganza!

Last night, I came to life again! 
When I returned home from my shopping spree, I 
spread out what I had bought, what I had kept and started 
mix-and-matching. I was having so much fun creating 
different "outfits" that I forgot to feed myself!


This morning I look so rejuvenated, as if I had Botox treatment, with the “surprised” look and all! It’s astonishing how fast a few 19.99’s and a couple of 29.99’s add up to a few hundred dollars!   

Nonetheless, I’m very grateful to fashion designers, store buyers and the ongoing sales! Of course, my ultimate gratitude goes first to my credit card and then to my salary that will eventually pay for my new cool look! 

Have a cheerful weekend everyone! 

Gratitude Day 89 - Yoga in Shapewear

The number of times I switched the purple bracelet yesterday - 2! I was vexed!


Dear Friends,
Yesterday, I was professing that sometimes we have to give up comfort to feel better. Well, the fashion industry, a few steps ahead of me (rightfully so), has come up with very chic control top yoga pants 
"-so you don’t have to suck it in when you OM!" 
And I thought Yoga was all about the union of the mind and the body. I suppose there is no reason why we can’t get in touch with our soul in style! Although, if all "yogis" are busy looking for their inner peace (what they should be all doing), who is left to disapprove of our belly?
I’m very grateful I don’t do Yoga; otherwise after reading the captions under "Flattering Gym Gears," in Oprah’s magazine of all places, I would have been too uncomfortable - with or without the black and purple "shapewear" yoga pants!  
Have a harmonious day everyone!