"I believe I can fly!"

There is nothing more joyful than flying freely, reaching the heights,  and feeling the enthusiasm.  The worst thing to me would not be not being able to fly because of an illness, misfortune, accident, or bad luck.  The worse thing would be that someone, something, some rule, put a ceiling above your head, or a cage around you, blocking you ascent!   That something or someone or roadblock, kills the spirit, the enthusiasm, the joy of the journey.  That ceiling, that limitation, that captivity, that cannot be acceptable.   Tell me I have no wings, tell me I am not physically capable, tell me you may starve on the way and may not make it, but do not tell me we cannot allow it.  Sooner or later, I won't have to ask for your permission.

Happy Valentine's Day!

To all my dear friends and readers here, I wish you a happy Valentine's day, filled with health, joy, love, and happiness.  Love is not limited to being loved by one person, or loving someone.  It is much broader than that.  It is a sense of being connected with self and universe, and being at peace with it.  It includes love of life, love of self to always do what is best for our souls, to have self respect and confidence, loving and respecting others, and more importantly allowing ourselves to be loved, letting others we love and care about in our worlds, breaking tall firm walls around us one brick at a time by acts of kindness, exchanges of happy moments, as well as walking through pain together.


Happy Valentine's Day!

Walk the walk

People complain about how lonely they are, how depressed they are, Yet they do not have, or rather they do not make, time to meet old and new friends, travel, or socialize. In fact, they cannot even bare the idea of giving up any of their alone time. People complain about other people, Yet they cannot live without them. Let's face it, We are all happy with things as they are, Or else we would change them. Would not we? Why pretend? Why hide behind excuses? If you like pretending, Be my guest. I do not like playing this game.

Happy 2013!

Happy New Year!  I hope you have all had a good start of the year thus far and in 2013 you be happy, healthy, and getting closer and closer to your personal and professional goals.

While during the last quarter of 2012 I had a slow, a little sad looking, professional life for a couple of months, 2013 could not have started better.  One of my projects had finished in October and I could not get funds for it to sustain it.  There were other things I could do, but they were not like doing what I loved and wanted to do.  There was a gap.  It made me think a lot about direction of my career, my research, my goals.  This gap made me do interviews for new positions in my own organization for the first time after over 11 years!  I knew in my bones, the time for me to lead and manage had come;  The detail oriented focused me, was not happy anymore behind a console coding, writing, debugging, implementing other people's goals and dreams.  I had a thirst for larger impact, bigger roles, for growth, for having others implement my vision and goals and me helping larger programs that I admire achieve theirs.  It is time for me to put all my bossy, controlling, detail oriented, organizational desires into a job where such skills are not only appreciated but required: project/program management!

The gap in my funding, made me think of new possibilities and opportunities that previously I was too busy even considering.  In the past, if such gaps and needs occurred I would just accept or select the most appealing available opportunity that my supervisors or collaborators had to offer.  This time, I applied for technical management positions that I thought would be a good growth opportunity for me. I wrote my own research proposal.  More importantly, I said "No" to my colleagues' research opportunities to make room for achieving my own goals, even if that meant dealing with uncertainty and not looking good for 1-2 months.  The year starts with me being selected for a technical managment position full time and having a research proposal awarded that I will just have to supervise because I do not have the time to work on it myself.  However, I am happy for having this grant because it keeps me connected with research and technical world, and it even gives me more opportunities to practice my leadership and management skills on something I am passionate about.

While I am excited about these opportunities and challenges, I also have concerns.  What if team members do not accept my lead? What if the team does not deliver on time and on budget?  What if I fail?

2013 is the year I try to motivate, lead, manage and achieve results.  Let's see how that turns out.  I am excited!

Cyrus

My little , one and only, nephew Cyrus came to this world yesterday at 2:08 pm, and days get only longer and brighter with his arrival.  Welcome to our world Cyrus jaan.  The untraveled road of life is ahead of you and skies are the limits.  You came on a day that many thought the world would end, but somehow it was just the beginning of your world, and renewal of your parents, big sister, and ours.  Your big sister Jasmine could not be braver and prouder as she was staying home with me and your grandmother, sorting through her items, and deciding which ones to share and give to you as she kept walking in and out of your room, in preparation of your arrival.

Persistent!

She has just met me and after about half an hour of interview, she starts her question by: "it seems like you are very persistent,...."   God, is that so obvious/annoying?  She has not even started working with me.  Some people learn it after at least six months of working with me, and she read me so quickly.  I kind of liked her!

به چه قيمتى؟

و همينطور در دوره زمانه اى زندگى ميكنيم كه قهرمان بازى و قهرمان پرورى ارزش شده است و  خوب زيستن  و به زندگى بها دادن گناه كبيره.