#MahsaAmini

I'm writing for the thousands of people, mostly women, who get beaten, raped, and murdered every single day by the savages who call themselves the morality police, a branch of the corrupt government police supporting those who invaded Iran nearly forty-four years ago and have reigned over the country the last forty-three years.

Mahsa Amini was just one of these girls. This twenty-two-year-old had come to Tehran, the capital of Iran, with her family, to visit the city. The morality police arrested her and told her family she would be released after a re-education. She died in the hospital because of her injuries less than three days later.

In Iran, every single day...

women get brutally beaten for not covering their hair properly or for wearing makeup, or clothes the morality police deems inappropriate, or nail polish, or even a smile; 

gay men get hanged; 

anyone who speaks up against anyone in the government gets sent to prison and no one ever sees them again;

lawyers who defend anyone who has been wronged by anyone with ties to the corrupt government get arrested;

any person who expresses their thoughts in any way gets taken away and killed;

...

These things happen in Iran every single day. 

Mahsa Amini is a symbol. Her death on September 16 sparked a revolution in Iran... for life, for women, for freedom. And more people are dying. This time, people may not back down until they take back their country from these murderers. Thousands of people all over the world have been protesting against this corrupt regime, supporting those who are fighting inside the country.

So... Mahsa Amini... Say her name. It's not about one girl you or I don't personally know. It's about all the women in Iran. The women in Iran are strong. For forty-three years, they have quietly resisted. Today, they're done being quiet. 

#MahsaAmini

Book Review: Get Thee to a Bakery

I finished reading Get Thee to a Bakery by Rick Bailey. I enjoyed this collection of anecdotes, many of which I found relatable. What's not to like? Music, food, words, ..., and life in general. I liked Bailey's writing: simple and beautiful. I recommend this inspiring book with five stars and look forward to reading more from this author.

A Strange Month

August turned out to be a strange month for me. Things were going well the first few days of the month: My classes at Indiana University ended well, my car recovered from surgery, and I felt excited about my return home. 

I knew a lot of work was waiting for me at home: I needed to clean everything because I had activated three bug bomb foggers right before leaving, the sunroom still needed to be built, the frame of the old cabin still had to be removed, and I wanted to paint the floor of the cabin. All this was physical work, though, and I looked forward to completing all these tasks. 

I arrived home late afternoon on Sunday, August 7, to a dead plant on the porch. I had left my jasmine outside so that my neighbor could water it. There were two jugs containing questionable liquids next to it. I smelled them: One was obviously bleach and the other I couldn't tell. My neighbor said it was Miracle Grow. I asked why there was bleach near my plant and he said he didn't know. 

Inside, I scrubbed a small area of the floor near the door, where I made a temporary bed for the dogs and myself to rest that evening until I could work on cleaning the rest of the cabin in the morning. 

The next morning, I started cleaning and unloading the car at the same time, and since I moved things around to clean under them, I began to paint the floor, little by little, waiting for one part to dry before moving things back and painting the section next to it. With high temperatures outside, I didn't paint too much because I didn't want the smell of paint to bother us. The dogs and I went for short walks, and I even let them stay cool in the car with the air conditioner and music on while I applied a second coat of paint.

It took two days for the bedroom to be ready, and we could finally sleep comfortably in our beds. I continued to close off small sections of the floor and paint them. The dogs and I continued to go out for fresh air.

As I went in and out of the cabin, I noticed the large windows I had left leaning against my small shed were both broken. It looked like someone had just kicked them really hard. I hoped whichever one of my neighbors had done this felt better now. I would have to buy new windows for the sunroom. 

I decided to not pay attention to the negative stuff and go online to chat with someone I considered a trusted friend, just to remind myself that I can focus on good things when something bad happens. This trusted friend sent me pictures she had taken of me after I had specifically asked her not to take my picture. This upset me much more than seeing the broken windows had. Maybe she thought she was being funny, or maybe she did it to hurt my feelings... Whatever her intentions were, I felt betrayed. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that no matter how much I loved her, I could no longer be myself around this person. 

As I continued to clean the cabin, I noticed other things that had gone wrong during my absence. To make things worse, some mail I was expecting never arrived, a few of my book reviews were deleted, new people I met online deceived me with their lies, my friend's sister died, my laptop completely stopped working, and I found out I have several new health issues. 

I am still trying to find the lesson, or lessons, I am supposed to learn from these incidents that occurred one after the other in one month. I'm grateful to be here, to have my dogs by my side, to have a shelter, and to be able to manage. I hope September will be kinder.

Book Review - Tripping

Ilya Gutlin, a traveler, takes us with him to the "university of backpacking," where he learns about one culture after another as he crosses cities, countries, and continents. In his memoir, Tripping: Diaries of a Travel Junkie, a must-read, the author illustrates his encounters so vividly that the readers feel his experiences are their own. I recommend this book to anyone who loves traveling, is curious about other cultures, and enjoys good storytelling. 

Reading & Writing

I'm home after a seven-week absence. I traveled to Indiana to teach four six-week ESL classes:
Structure in Use 3, Structure in Use 6, Reading 7, and Writing 7.  

In my writing class, I had seven students. I gave them a huge project on the first day: Each had to publish a book on Kindle. I explained that every assignment in the class would help their final project. By the last week of class, all seven students published a very short Kindle book. 

Here are their blurbs:

In Nourishing Experiences: Volunteering, the author takes her readers on a short trip across three different volunteering experiences and explains how volunteering offers us a different perspective of socio-relational dynamics and how it helps us to improve the lives of not only others but also ourselves by connecting with our inner child and exploring new sides of ourselves.

In Failures as Teachers, the author explains his causes of failure in various situations and how he learned from his mistakes. This book helps readers use their past experience of failure for the betterment of their future life.

In Expectations: Sadness and Anger, the author speaks out against the stresses of ordinary life, describing his own stressful situations, and provides advice on how to live a more stress-free life and how to know oneself better.

The book Understanding Others is about one Japanese girl’s experiences in intercultural environments. She shares her experiences, creating new perspectives for people who don’t know about other countries’ cultures.

In his memoir Adventures & Advantages, Pedro writes about the sequence of events that took him to six different cities in the last eight years and how living in each place helped him gain new perspectives and achieve self-improvement.

In The Power to Change, the author gives readers a clear understanding of their capacity, encourages them to believe in themselves, and leads them to find their own way to success.

The author uses her own experiences to explain, in a simple way and with clear instructions, the path to becoming a lawyer in the United States. How to Become a Lawyer… Again bridges the gap between practicing law in a foreign country and pursuing that practice in the United States.

When I first told them about the final project, these students, all international students from various countries learning English as a second language (ESL), didn't believe they could write a book. Some did better than others, of course, but they all did it. They are now all published authors, and I am so proud of them! Two of these students have shared with me that they will use their published Kindle book as a base and continue to develop their writing until it's ready to publish as a paperback.

House Versus Home

A house is a building that serves as a shelter for animals, including humans; it's a living space, a place of residence. It can be made of brick, stone, stucco, wood, block, glass, ...
The word house is a concrete noun; it can be felt with the five senses. What about home?

The word home can be used as a concrete noun in some of its definitions, but in comparison with the word house, it is an abstract noun; it cannot be felt with the five senses. 

As with most abstract nouns, home can mean different things to various people. To me, home is where I feel safe, where I feel at peace, where I get to be comfortable. No matter where I am, whether or not I am in my house, my furry companions are my tiny social unit, my family, and when I am with them, I feel I am at home.

I just read another thought-provoking article by Philip Anderson, a remarkable lesson on perspective and gratitude:
https://www.independentliving.co.uk/philip-anderson/seeking-refuge-yearning-for-home/ 

I wonder what home means to others.

Reflections

When I published my first memoir, Languages & Life Lessons, I wrote this blog post:

I started writing when I learned to write, but I started writing every day in 2016.

It was meant to be therapeutic. I wrote what I couldn't say.

Over 5,000 pages later, in 2019, after I got settled in my cabin in the woods, I started organizing my notes to turn my writing into a book.

This process alone took over a year, and by the end of 2020, I finally had about 200 pages.

The editing didn't seem to get anywhere for a while...

One day, working on the manuscript, I realized this was going to be three books, not one.

When I divided my work into three sections, I began to make progress with the editing.

Languages & Life Lessons (by Afarin Rava, my pen name) is one of those three books, the first to be published.

https://www.amazon.com/Languages-Life-Lessons-Afarin-Rava/dp/B09HG6KHB3

My pen name is the last part of my first name and the first part of my last name:

noosh(afarin rava)ghi

My second memoir, Reflections: A Journey of Transformation, is currently available on Amazon: 
https://www.amazon.com/reflections-journey-transformation-Afarin-Rava/dp/B0B3QDW9C7

I am now working on the third book...

A Few Updates

1) I want to congratulate Chris Palmore. The second volume of his journal, Gratitude Journey, is out today, on his mom's birthday, and is available on Kindle. The paperback will soon go live as well. 

2) I will go on a road trip tomorrow and will return at the end of summer. I look forward to getting away from all the bugs and this heat.

3) I want to thank friends who send me goodies (chocolate, books, cards, and other wonderful surprises). The post office will hold my mail until my return. I won't get my mail until mid-August. If you have already sent me something, thank you; I will get it upon my return. If you haven't, please don't send anything until I get back.

4) I'm very excited: A few book projects are in the works... I will give you more details soon.