Book Review

 

Darren Hardy

“Starting is not most people’s problem, staying, continuing and finishing is.”
Darren Hardy

Book Review

 

Martha Graham

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul.”
Martha Graham

 

From Canada

 

2023

 

Percy Bysshe Shelley

“Our sweetest songs are those of saddest thought.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley

Relax

(I got this super cute greeting card from Trader Joe's.)

 

Memoirs & Anthologies

 my #books (by Afarin Rava): 

📚#memoirs

📙Languages & Life Lessons (2021)

📗Reflections (2022)

📕My Guest Book (2024)

📚#anthologies

📓Dear Twelve-Year-Old Me (2023)

📔Dearest Devised Darling (2023)


#NewRelease: My Guest Book: à la Rumi
https://www.amazon.com/My-Guest-Book-%C3%A0-Rumi/dp/B0CRYZHKK3

Rosa Parks

"We will fail when we fail to try." 
Rosa Parks

About Rumi - Part Two

Although Rumi died more than seven centuries ago, he still has a strong following, and not only in Iran but all over the world, because of the universal message of his work. 

In the United States, collections of his writings frequently top bestseller lists; recordings of Rumi's poems have made it to the USA's Billboard's Top 20 list; various versions of his love poems have been performed by famous figures like Madonna, Goldie Hawn, and Demi Moore in a CD titled A Gift of Love and produced by Deepak Chopra; and, in 2007, Philip Glass composed music to accompany Rumi's poetry in Monsters of Grace, a chamber opera specially organized for the 800th anniversary of Rumi's birth. 

The Sufis' dance of the whirling dervishes is a form of religious ceremony, Sama, which aims to abandon egos and personal desires and attain perfection, or reach God. This dance, still practiced by Sufi dervishes of the Mevlevi order, traces itself to Rumi and follows his teachings. They do this by listening to spiritual music, focusing on God, and spinning in circles.

Many of Rumi's admirers and followers visit Konya, Turkey, which houses his mausoleum and where the annual whirling dervish festival takes place. 

About Rumi - Part One

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī Rumi (1207 - 1273) was a thirteenth-century poet, theologian, and Sufi mystic from Iran. Most of his works were written in Persian, but he also wrote in Turkish, Arabic, and Greek. 

His full name is Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, and Rumi is just kind of a popular nickname, literally meaning "Roman" and given to him because he spent so much time in the Eastern Roman Empire.

He is also known as Mawlana in Iran (various spellings of this word exist, depending on the way people in different countries pronounce it: Mowlana or Maulana or Mawlana or Mevlana), which is a term of Arabic origin meaning "our master." 

Until his late thirties, Rumi was a traditional religious teacher. Then he met a wandering dervish by the name of Shams Tabrizi, who became his friend and mentor... and changed the course of his life. Rumi mentions Shams Tabrizi in his poems and describes his initial encounter with this dervish: "What I thought of before as God, I met today in a human being."

Rumi is best known for his epic poem Masnavi. 

The Breeze...

Sometimes, ideas come to me in a dream. I get up, suddenly aware that I may forget the idea, and write it down in my notebook. I usually can't go back to sleep after that, and I remember Rumi's “The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep.” So I step into the day... and sunrise and hope.

Books

 

Dalida

Today, Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti, known as Dalida (January 17, 1933, Cairo, Egypt - May 3, 1987, Paris, France), one of my favorite French singers, would have celebrated her 91st birthday. This talented artist understood five languages and sang in eleven languages: Egyptian Arabic, French, Lebanese Arabic, Italian, Spanish, German, English, Greek, Dutch, Hebrew, and Japanese. 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkezPydZpc2tgsx39_4zZgiPhuUcLKzA7

Book Review

 

Style

I still don't know what to call my "style" of writing in My Guest Book: à la Rumi.
If I find a word that covers the ideas of some prose, some poetry, some concepts, some journaling, and some words, I can finally name or at least describe the style of my writing in my book. For now, I can only call it a memoir. 

I received a message from an acquaintance who read My Guest Book. In her unofficial review, she congratulated me: "It's excellent! Well done!" This made me so happy because I know she reads a lot. I asked her, as an avid reader, what she thought of this book in terms of style, and she replied: "Kinda poetry. Not completely. Kinda journal. It's just an expression of personal reality." And I believe this sums it up really well... until someone comes up with a better description for it.

My 2023 Guest Book

Rumi says, “Whatever passes through your heart from the invisible world is just a guest, so entertain and welcome it.” 

My new memoir, My Guest Book: à la Rumi, is a record of the guests I entertained in 2023.

Subtitle: à la Rumi

In the subtitle of my latest work, My Guest Book: à la Rumi, the à la part, literally meaning in the in French, implies "in the manner of" or "in the style of."

I decided to give this memoir the subtitle à la Rumi because I refer to the Persian poet and philosopher — Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī Rumi — who, in his poem "The Guest House," suggests treating every thought and emotion as a guest, honoring and entertaining it. 

Sallie Moffitt

"The areas where women have the most freedoms are the areas where everyone thrives. A woman’s quality of life is a good measure of how well that culture is doing. Restricting women’s rights hurts everyone."
Sallie Moffitt 

Concepts?

My new memoir, My Guest Book: à la Rumi, isn't like any of my other works. It started as a regular book (prose) but took a detour during the editing phase, and I went along with it. Everything changed entirely, and it became this book. It's not poetry (I am definitely not a poet), and it's not "just" words. Should I call it a book of concepts? 

My Guest Book

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CRYZHKK3

 

Rumi

“Whatever passes through your heart
from the invisible world
is just a guest,
so entertain and welcome it.”
Rumi - "The Guest House"

A Reading

...or two:

https://youtu.be/JHEXIJHNfLg?si=7ZG8M3qoW3TVw_k0

https://youtu.be/QZBnfV1B4Uc?si=JrI_I-Z3vgrhKPO8

Roy T. Bennett

“When you do the right thing, you get the feeling of peace and serenity associated with it. Do it again and again.”
Roy T. Bennett

Weekend

 

Gumshoe

Why "gumshoe"?

This nickname for a private detective refers to the soles of shoes made with gum rubber toward the end of the nineteenth century, allowing private eyes to move around quietly. As a verb, to gumshoe meant to sneak around.

Roman Payne

“What is a Wanderess? Bound by no boundaries, contained by no countries, tamed by no time, she is the force of nature’s course.”
Roman Payne

A Memoir

Counting down to the launch of my new memoir...

Emile Zola

“We are like books. Most people only see our cover, the minority read only the introduction, many people believe the critics. Few will know our content.”
Émile Zola

Happy 2024!