Annie Q Syed

My list is inspired after having read and digested Martha Beck’s astute and insightful list. You can read the elaborated version here, but in sum she suggests unlearning the following life lessons:

1. Problems are bad.
2. It’s important to stay happy.
3. I’m irreparably damaged by my past.
4. Working hard leads to success.
5. Success is the opposite of failure.
6. It matters what people think of me.
7. We should think rationally about our decisions.
8. The pretty girls get all the good stuff.
9. If all my wishes came true right now, life would be perfect.
10. Loss is terrible.

Building on the aforementioned, I am unlearning:

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An almond seed with sprouts that I found near my parents' farm house. The pollination of California's almonds is the largest annual managed pollination event in the world, with close to one million hives (nearly half of all beehives in the USA) being trucked in February to the almond groves.

The word soul comes from old English word “sawol” which used to stand for “spiritual and emotional part of a person, animate existence.” Sometimes said to mean originally “coming from or belonging to the sea,” because that was supposed to be the stopping place of the soul before birth or after death.

The Arabic word for soul is Ruh or Ruah (pronounced rhhhhoooooooooo). It is the seed within ourselves that we must develop and nurture. It involves giving and learning. My father  has always said that the reward for developing your Ruh is in this lifetime –you don’t have to wait to go to heaven or an after life to see what you are reaping for what you are sowing. It happens in this lifetime NOW.

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Disclaimer: Although there exist exceptions to all types of generalizations and stereotypes, they remain exceptions; therefore, until the exceptions stand out to the extent that they defy the rule, the majority determines the actuality. That being said, I am grateful to know some anomalies who also happen to be my friends who are exceptional beacons for their communities and countries. Moreover, this article is at best a prologue to a possible research paper in need of further substantiating research.

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Where? What? When? How? Next?
Shedding light onto the most recent frequently asked questions from my closest friends to every other person…

Being temporarily back in NYC for the last two weeks I have had to accept (again!) that I remain and will remain childishly enamored with the City, not to mention I miss the amazing people I call my friends and every nook and cranny of my neighborhood. Frankly, I don’t think I can ever “leave” NYC–it’s a lost cause; I am obsessed with the city. However,  Africa and Asia are not a phase, an escape, or motivated by a desire to “save” whatever is going on there–much work needs to be done in the United States as well.

Aristotle advised, “Where your talents meet the needs of the world, therein lies your vocation.” I curse you, Aristotle! What if you have more than one “talent” and what if that too is not up to your fullest potential…

Well, instead of Aristotle, my mother responded to my fistful of scowls at Artistotle’s spirit roaming around laughing at us from above and underground, “Good thing the world has more than enough needs.”

I have accomplished a lot in this time off even though I don’t have much to show for it right now (most of it pertaining to my three manuscripts). When I embarked on this road I did not realize the most rewarding fruit of my decision will be that I will never be on autopilot–not even by mistake! Choices have a way of making roads lead onto other roads and before you realize fifteen, twenty, thirty years have passed.  It is not about the right or wrong choice as much but being conscious of the choice. Most destructive are those choices which we make when least aware of our intentions.

I have until July to integrate a few ideas while I continue to play twister on the globe. I am eternally grateful for my friends; I am very lucky and blessed to have their unconditional support, humor, love in this process. And of course without my family (in spite the number of times my parents and I clash and there are more such times when you decide to stay at home longer than a certain period) I couldn’t even dream my dreams.

Read Part 1 of 4.