I was sleeping in my bed I could feel everything around me. But at that moment my body turned into stone or perhaps iron, no perhaps someone was sitting on my chest and didn't let me breathe. I thought I was going to die. At that moment I really wanted to wake up and move but I couldn't. I decided to call for help. My soul came out of my stoned body. It stood in front of my sister's bed calling to her "wake me up please Tary, wake me up" it seemed she couldn't hear it." Wake me up" it shouted this time. My soul picked the cell phone and thrown it at her in order to wake her up, it seemed that she was dead. The soul found it useless and returned to my body. Now it was the time for my mind to make a decision. "There is no reason to wake up when the body has turned to stone, go back to sleep". I tried to relax a bit, then I felt a shocking shake in my body and I couldn't breathe. It was killing me. The only way was to start moving. I started with my finger. I used all of my energy to move my right index finger it was as if I was moving a rock or a mountain. I made it I moved it. In that moment I felt someone has thrown me into my bed. I could feel beads of sweat running down my face. I looked around, I saw my sister deep in sleep. I still don't know how to get rid of this kind of experience, which experts call it sleep paralysis.
What you read above was my first experience of sleep paralysis. Till now I have had more than 50 experience of SP. I have found out that moving my eyes helps more that moving my finger. Remember if you sleep in a supine position the chance of having SP will increase. If you have experienced SP please share it with me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis
http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/prevent.html
March 20, 2007
March 18, 2007
A Letter to GOD
Dear God,
As a child I always had hundreds of questions about the universe and this world, I always wondered where this universe ends and how those shiny stares were created. But now as a 20 years old girl I ask myself how human have been created. I look at the world and all I see is war, misery, injustice, and corruption. In contrary to many people I don't believed that you created us to suffer. I believe we are here to LEARN. I think we still have some problems with the concept of Humanity, Love, life, and many more. (And that's why we are suffering from injustice, war, and such) Well, in this year I ask for LIGHT to over come the DARKNESS. I ask you to help us to learn how to love, how to live and to help one another. I will end with this poem of Sa'di to remind myself of humanity and love.
The children of humanity are each other's limbs
That share an origin in their creator
When one limb passes its days in pain
The other limbs cannot remain easy
You who feel no pain at the suffering of others
It is not fitting for you to be called human"
NOTE: I have omitted some part of the letter because it's personal. If I share it with you it will put me into trouble.
March 14, 2007
Norouz
The whole family was sitting in front of the table. They were looking at the o'clock from time to time, feeling something in their hearts, a kind of joy. Girls with make up and boys with a smile on their lips as if they were all waiting for a big ceremony. The girl was looking at mirror on the table. She was thinking about those people (in the long great history of her country) who had sat in front of Haft_sin table. Like everyone else she was quite proud to be an Iranian.
….yes this is how Iranian celebrate their New Year (Norooz) on 21st of May.They all gather in front of a table which has the Haft sin in it. Haft_sin (seven "s"s) and they prey to have a good year. Haft sin consists of:
Samanoo: It's is made of germinating wheat and it's really sweet.
Senjed: It's a sweet fruit.
Gold Fish: Hoot (fish) which is the sigh for Esfand (the last month of year) is placed on the table to show the changing the month of Hoot (fish) to Farvardin (first month of the year and also symbolizes life and rebirth of nature.
Apple: It is placed on Nowrooz table to signalize giving birth and fertility of earth
Coins: It show that people are asking for a good financial year.
Sabzeh: People grow greens few days before New Year and they place it on the haft sin table.
Holy Book (Quran)
Orange: Orange being round represent the glob and some people put orange on a blow of water and when this orange moves in the water it shows the rotation of earth which is the cause of all the coming new seasons.
Eggs: It is placed on the table of nowrooz to signify fertility.
Somagh (samuc), serke(vinger), seir(garlic) are other s's of haft sin.
Visiting the relatives in the begging of the Year:
In the first 12 days of the New Year (usually before the holiday is over) relatives visit each others. It is always the youngest who visit the elder ones first. (Children visiting parents, nieces visiting aunts…..) And than the elder ones would visit the youngest.
Siezdeh bedar (spending the thirteenth):
In the thirteenth of Farvardin (first month of the year) people go outdoor to spend their sizdeh.
They try to have fun and be happy on this day. People believe that 13 is fateful so they all try to spend the day out and throw away the bad luck of the day outside. People make wishes and than they tie a knot on their sabzeh they believe by doing so they will reach the wishes till the end of the year.
….yes this is how Iranian celebrate their New Year (Norooz) on 21st of May.They all gather in front of a table which has the Haft sin in it. Haft_sin (seven "s"s) and they prey to have a good year. Haft sin consists of:
Samanoo: It's is made of germinating wheat and it's really sweet.
Senjed: It's a sweet fruit.
Gold Fish: Hoot (fish) which is the sigh for Esfand (the last month of year) is placed on the table to show the changing the month of Hoot (fish) to Farvardin (first month of the year and also symbolizes life and rebirth of nature.
Apple: It is placed on Nowrooz table to signalize giving birth and fertility of earth
Coins: It show that people are asking for a good financial year.
Sabzeh: People grow greens few days before New Year and they place it on the haft sin table.
Holy Book (Quran)
Orange: Orange being round represent the glob and some people put orange on a blow of water and when this orange moves in the water it shows the rotation of earth which is the cause of all the coming new seasons.
Eggs: It is placed on the table of nowrooz to signify fertility.
Somagh (samuc), serke(vinger), seir(garlic) are other s's of haft sin.
Visiting the relatives in the begging of the Year:
In the first 12 days of the New Year (usually before the holiday is over) relatives visit each others. It is always the youngest who visit the elder ones first. (Children visiting parents, nieces visiting aunts…..) And than the elder ones would visit the youngest.
Siezdeh bedar (spending the thirteenth):
In the thirteenth of Farvardin (first month of the year) people go outdoor to spend their sizdeh.
They try to have fun and be happy on this day. People believe that 13 is fateful so they all try to spend the day out and throw away the bad luck of the day outside. People make wishes and than they tie a knot on their sabzeh they believe by doing so they will reach the wishes till the end of the year.
Char shanbe soori
JUMPING OVER FIRE:
In the evening of last Wednesday of the year people celebrate the red Wednesday. In sassanid's period people used to make fire and danced around the fire and showed their happiness. They never jumped over fires since they found it disrespectful. But now in Iran people burn some wood and they jump over it at the time they sing "Sorkhye tou az man zardi man az tou" (addressing the fire) meaning give me you redness and take away all my paleness and yellowish look. By jumping over a fire the taking its energy and redness they would start a healthy year.
SPOON BEATING:
In the evening of red wednesday girls wish for something then they stand in front of houses .Only by beating (they are not allowed to ask for food orally) on their pot and plates they ask for something to eat (nuts, food, or sometimes money) they can only perfume that beating action in front of seven houses if in the end they were not able to collect anything their wishes won't come true.
Translated by Raheleh
If you want to see Norooz recipes visit:
March 10, 2007
Persian Poets
I have decided to write about two famous Persian poets. I hope next time I would be able to write also about Rumi and Khayyam.
Hakīm Abul-Qāsim Firdawsī Tūsī Ferdowsi Tousi:
He is a famous figure in Persian literature. He was born in 935 in the province of Khorasan (the north-east of Iran).He wrote Sah'nameh (shah: king, nameh: book) which is a national epic in verse.
He is a famous figure in Persian literature. He was born in 935 in the province of Khorasan (the north-east of Iran).He wrote Sah'nameh (shah: king, nameh: book) which is a national epic in verse.
He spent nearly thirty years for writing this great book. Iranians have been reading this masterpiece for over a thousand years. He says " I suffered during these thirty years, but I - the Ajam(non Arab) - have revived the Persian language; I shall not die since I am alive again, as I have spread the seeds of this language ..." many poets tried to write epics like Shahname but non of them could achieve Fordowsi's style and language.
One of the popular characters of shahnameh is Rostam who is a mythical hero he is able to do lots of extraordinary things. He appears in my stories such as "Haft Khan","Rostam va Esfandiar"and "Rostam va Sohrab. "Rostam and Sohrab" is a tragedy in which Rostam not knowing Sohrab's identity Rostam wounds Sohrab and in the last minutes he finds out that Sohrab is his own son.
One of the popular characters of shahnameh is Rostam who is a mythical hero he is able to do lots of extraordinary things. He appears in my stories such as "Haft Khan","Rostam va Esfandiar"and "Rostam va Sohrab. "Rostam and Sohrab" is a tragedy in which Rostam not knowing Sohrab's identity Rostam wounds Sohrab and in the last minutes he finds out that Sohrab is his own son.
Khwajeh Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi
He is the most famous Persian poet. He was born in early 13th century in Shiraz. Hafez means "Knowing by heart" because he Knew Quran by heart they called him Hafez. (Some say he was really good at learning anything by heart) 
He has used many poetic devices to expresses spiritual feelings of a mystic. Ambiguity is the main feature of his poems which makes it hard for ordinary people to find the meanings in poems. It is believed that the governors in Hafez period were against mysticism and this made Hafez to give an ambiguous tone to most of his poems.
In one of his poems he says.
Am I a sinner or a saint,
Which one shall it be?
Hafiz holds the secret of his own mystery...
In my view the music in Hafez poems is unique. This music can be noticed even by a non native. In most of his poems he decries Zahed (ascetic), sheikh (religious leader), and vaiez (preacher in mosque) wisely. Because he believed they had a real shallow understanding of God and religion. So he mocks them by using verbal irony and sarcastic language.
In one of his poems he says.
Am I a sinner or a saint,
Which one shall it be?
Hafiz holds the secret of his own mystery...
In my view the music in Hafez poems is unique. This music can be noticed even by a non native. In most of his poems he decries Zahed (ascetic), sheikh (religious leader), and vaiez (preacher in mosque) wisely. Because he believed they had a real shallow understanding of God and religion. So he mocks them by using verbal irony and sarcastic language.
have learned so much from God
That I can no longer call myself
a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew.
The Truth has shared so much of Itself with me
That I can no longer call myself
a man, a woman, an angel, or even a pure soul.
Love has befriended Hafiz so completely.
It has turned to ash and freed me
Of every concept and image my mind has ever known.
That I can no longer call myself
a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew.
The Truth has shared so much of Itself with me
That I can no longer call myself
a man, a woman, an angel, or even a pure soul.
Love has befriended Hafiz so completely.
It has turned to ash and freed me
Of every concept and image my mind has ever known.
His Divan (collection of his poems) is really popular among Iranians. For example in shabe yalda (one of the Iranian's customs) relations gather and they read Hafez.12th of October has be called the Hafez day in Iran.
Hafez-Goethe memorial in Weimar.
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Note: they had written thousands books on Hafez and Ferdowsi so what you just read was a drop from an ocean.
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