Thanksgiving with the Ghahremani's

This year I enjoyed Thanksgiving in Castro Valley outside of SF with the Ghahremani's. I enjoyed many beautiful experiences.

Nosrat ("Victory") Ghahremani, 91 years old, read my coffee cup. If you're unfamiliar with this tradition, then check out this link http://www.psychicsahar.com/artman/publish/article_361.shtml. I wrote her words down. Her insight and intuition were astounding, sagely.

I also learned that when a volume of the great Persian poet Hafez comes out onto a table, one must hold it, ask it a question, then open to a random page. Then the text will speak to you.

Vida Ghahremani (Mayreeg) is writing her memoirs. The first part has been published in Farsi with English translations on the way. Meanwhile she's working on the next segments of her life, a significant historical perspective for artists negatively impacted by the Islamic Revolution. Go, Vida!!

San Francisco Bay Guardian review of the theatrical showcase I'm in :)

San Francisco Bay Guardian

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The Stunning Words of Hafiz

During rehearsal, the director Hafiz Karmali said to his cast, "Words are music on the page."

He is named after the celebrated Persian mystic and poet, Hafiz. It wasn't until I got a book of his that I understand his genius.
A few verses worth sharing:

"When your truth forsakes its shyness,
When your fears surrender to your strengths,
You will begin to experience
That all existence
Is a teeming sea of infinite life."

"The only problem with not castrating
A gigantic ego is
That it will surely become amorous
And father
A hundred screaming ideas and kids
Who will then all quickly grow up
And skillfully proceed
To run up every imaginable debt
And complication of which your brain
Can conceive.
All those worries and bills could turn to
Wailing ghosts and you won't have much desire to sing In this sweet
World."

Who Needs TV?

Taken at Black Rock City; September, 2009.