Prolific Living

life

36 Lessons on Building Lasting Friendships

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“Understand that friends come and go, but to a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps between geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.”

A brilliant quote from Mary Schmich (later used by Baz Luhrmann in a song)

Gorillas eating coconut

A pink poster of this famous speech hung in my bedroom and later in my dorm room for years. Through my first apartment and first house, with all my hard and fast rules on not collecting junk, I held on to this poster. When my taste for wall art changed, I moved it inside my closet and kept it still. When it comes to brilliant living advice, I have yet to stumble upon truer and simpler words than those uttered in this speech. How is it that I memorized the speech word for word but [Read more…] about 36 Lessons on Building Lasting Friendships

In Search of Lost and Forgotten Memories

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How is it that some of us so clearly remember memories from the earliest years of life on this earth while the rest of us struggle in vain to find a shred of anything that would awaken those sleeping beauties and bring them to the surface to let us to rejoice in?

I have been aching to remember my childhood in more depth and detail. Why the yearning and why now, I wish I knew. All I know is that I “rank at the bottom of the class” while my girlfriends remember vivid details of our days in Iran. A Los Angeles reunion after 26 years proved this and for the life of me, I cannot shake it off. Whatever happened to my beautiful memories?

“How can you not remember this incident or that person?“

Believe me, it’s not for lack of trying or desire. Or being a forgetful person in any way shape or form.

Foliage and Memories with a Wish

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Slow down to Get Ahead: Think before You Act

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Why do clumsy accidents happen to good people?

This morning at 5am, I am standing at the expert traveler security line (the TSA‘s fancy privilege for frequent air travelers – and of course I consider myself one but read on for the irony). One wrong move in my haste to get through the security X-rays and over the clamor of people behind me, I hear Coco, my darling MacBook Pro, fall to the ground! My heart drops way low into my belly and I am gasping for air. What in this world have I done? Thankfully, the extra cushions with which I had housed her protect her life and the heavens spare me an emotional and financial disaster this time.

Slowing Down in Montreal Canada

During an otherwise uneventful bath on a winter evening, in one swooping and regretful motion, I manage to drop my Blackberry into a tub filled with nothing but bubbles and hot water. Think “submerged” for a sensitive electronic device. Think panic and desperation and a dead smart phone. [Read more…] about Slow down to Get Ahead: Think before You Act

Keys to Total Bliss: Fusion of 8 Self-Improvement Habits

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The day that I stop improving upon the self is the day that I stop living.

On a Rock in the Ocean in Hawaii

My problem has never been the lack of motivation in improving myself. I find myself drawn to self-improvement as bees to flowers or water to shore. No, my problem is bigger. It is the ever-present overwhelming feeling of just how in this world and life am I going to sufficiently improve upon myself. It is an obsession with self-improvement in more ways than I can possibly make time and effort to pursue. It is a sense of urgency to embrace life in its fullest and to be in my most ready form to do so – and for that, I need to living and breathing the better version of myself every passing day. [Read more…] about Keys to Total Bliss: Fusion of 8 Self-Improvement Habits

Understanding the Invincible Bond of Childhood Friendships

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Searching the Ripples of my Mind for Childhood Memories

“Do you remember the time in school when…”

Childhood Friendship Bond

The place is Razi Elementary School in Iran. The time is in the early 1980s. The question is posed by a long lost childhood friend who found me by sheer accident on an otherwise ordinary Monday and has since turned my life inside out with indescribable joy and bliss. To my own disappointment, I did not have a clear memory of her and was sure she has the wrong person. Assured by the facts, she came back exploding with joy and stories and no sooner had I read the names of our mutual friends, names dearest to my heart, that tears were streaming down my cheeks. What unexpected happiness to find yourself instantly richer when the dearest childhood friendships resurface after 26 years of separation? [Read more…] about Understanding the Invincible Bond of Childhood Friendships