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Happy New Year! I know beyond all doubt that 2015 is going to be the greatest year of my life!
This year will be filled with positive changes because I am totally committed to making it so. I love who I am, and equally love the new me I am creating for 2015. This year I plan to do at least one thing every day that will move me closer to my goals. This is not me being full of myself, it’s what I have been slowly trying to incorporate into my life. I feel that positive affirmations keep me in a happy place and create positivity in my life. I can easily slip into old habits but I choose not to. I affirm my life every day, in order to create the future I desire. I make time to do the things I need and want to do. I am created by God and I know he wants me to become the best me. I believe that he has the power to give me all that I desire to be.
My eight-year-old daughter and I began this year with a bang! New Year, new look, new ways of doing good in this world. We can each contribute something good that will effect others positively. I know that my life is going in the right direction when I do something that serves others. It just feels right. I grew up with amazing parents that instilled this in me and I want to make sure my daughter gets the same message growing up. It feels much better giving than getting.
On New Year’s Eve, my daughter gave something very precious to her. She chopped off ten inches of her beautiful hair to donate to locks of love. It’s an organization that provides hairpieces to kids in the US and Canada suffering from long-term medical hair loss. For a little girl that really loved her long hair it was a great sacrifice. But we spoke about it extensively and she was growing it long for just this purpose.
Nevertheless, the actual act was difficult. I’ve never been so proud! I cried while she stood bravely at the hairstylists and got her ponytail chopped off. I asked her if she was OK and her response made me cry even more. She said, “Sure mommy, it’s no big deal it’s just hair. It will grow, I don’t mind looking like a boy to help another child feel better about themselves. It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make!”
Wow! That alone made my year! The minute we walked out of the place she looked at me and asked me how long it will take to grow her hair out again? She said, “I really hate my short hair but I guess I can take it for a while. I’ll grow it out super long next time so when I donate it again it won’t be so short!”
I have the best little girl in the world! She is beautiful both inside and out. She has a heart of gold. She is filled with goodness and compassion. I am so thankful for her. We are so blessed. She is the best gift we have ever received!
I wish you a beautiful, blessed New Year. Now get out and do something wonderful for someone else! It feels amazing.
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“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”
― RumiThese little girls will be able to stay warm in the bitter cold winter of Afghanistan. They will also be able to learn skills that will help their future. You can help them and over three hundred more children by logging on to this website and donating what you can. After you donate, please help by sharing this: www.igg.me/at/Afghanistan
Ring in the New Year by thinking positive, doing positive deeds and helping others. We only have sixteen days left to impact the lives of over 500 underprivileged children in Afghanistan with the Winter program.
There are already 200 little Afghan girls registered in the program. Each one of YOU can make a difference by donating.
Log onto www.igg.me/at/Afghanistan and give what you can.
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I love the holiday season. Perhaps it’s all the lovely lights and decorations that are everywhere. Maybe it’s the festive music, the hustle and bustle, or maybe it’s just getting together with loved ones. It’s all really very enjoyable to me.
It seems like we are all running around getting our last minute gifts for the special people in our lives. I must admit, I love getting gifts. I appreciate things of beauty, luxury items, amazing trips. They are all really appealing to me but they don’t fulfill me. They add to my life. My relationships bring me happiness. When I get a gift that’s thoughtful by someone I love it means the world to me.I think very hard when I buy a gift for someone I care about. Recently I bought a little leather rocking chair for my nephew. It’s not something I would necessarily buy, I would much prefer to get him a chair that has some sort of sweet little stuffed animal concept to it. I bought the little leather rocking chair instead because that’s what brother had been talking about since his baby was born.
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Making my brother happy is a gift in itself.
Last weekend he took my daughter out to brunch, just the two of them. It was really the first time he had spent alone time with her since he got married almost three years ago. That bit of time with her was such a beautiful gift. To give her his unconditional attention made her feel loved and special. The relationship that they have is a gift more special to her than anything one can buy. I know she will grow up and cherish that relationship.
It’s always been important to me to love and to be loved. Relationships have such value to us all. How we treat one another, how we listen to each other’s needs, the time we make to spend with one another, what we do to respond to each other makes or breaks our relationships. Having positive, loving relationships enhances our lives.
Sometimes relationships end, no matter how much we try. All we can do is to communicate our needs. If it’s met with a response that addresses our needs then that’s a relationship of value. If it is ignored, it’s no longer a relationship that adds value to our lives and we have to move on. It’s a sad occurrence but it’s a part of life.
Nevertheless, the most beautiful gifts we have are our relationships with our families and our friends. While you run about looking for that perfect gift, remember to give to your relationships. Give the gift of time, a smile, a kind word, a helping hand, a call just to say I’m hello, a shoulder to cry on. Those are the kinds of gifts that really matter. If you are out buying a certain gift for your loved one, make it a thoughtful one.
I hope you cherish and enjoy your gifts.
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It’s a wonderful time of the year, filled with family, friends and holiday cheer. All of us are busy running around shopping for gifts for our loved ones. We love to see the excitement on our children’s faces as they open up their gifts. It’s also a great time to teach them to give to others. I always speak to my daughter about how fortunate she is whenever she complains about something frivolous. Being an Afghan-American, I constantly speak to her about the children of Afghanistan and how much they are suffering. They would give anything to live in a comfortable house, have something to eat every day and be loved and taken care of.
Recently I told her about my friend David Mason and how he lives every day of his life giving to the children of Afghanistan. I met David almost twelve years ago when I took a trip to Afghanistan. He had left his career as a dancer in Denmark just a year before I met him and began the Afghan Educational Circus for children. Thirteen years later he is still living there. His circus, performs live shows for millions of children all over the war torn country. His performers get a sense of accomplishment and at the same time help put smiles on the faces of children that have grown used to death, destruction and poverty. His theatre pieces range from teaching good hygiene to landmine awareness to peace education.
The MMCC (Mobile Mini Circus for Children) are trying to organize a winter program for over 500 underprivileged children this January and February in Kabul and Bamyan.
For those two months, the children will be safe from the cold and bitterness of the winter. They’ll learn English, computers and different artistic, social and life skills. That’s something that they then can take back to their families and communities.
If everyone who reads this blog makes a small donation toward the winter program we can make a significant impact to over 500 children in Afghanistan. Every year many children freeze to death in the country.
Log on to this website and give what you can to raise money for this very worthy cause. Not many of us can be like my friend David. He is a very special kind of human being. Every single one of us can make a difference.
Get into the giving spirit and help a child in need. Just log onto www.igg.me/at/Afghanistan and give what you can.
https://www.indiegogo.com/project/cheerful-snowman/embedded
For more information on David Mason’s Mobile Mini Circus for Children, just log onto www.AfghanMMCC.org
Your children will learn to be compassionate and giving human beings by following your lead. They mirror us in every way.
Happy Holidays to us all. I’ll use a quote from Wayne Dyer, a man I admire and am lucky enough to have met several times. “We need to see that we are a collective, thinking of ourselves as separate from others, we lose the power of our Source and diminish the whole of humanity.”
