Ethiopia.. a trip to remember! (1)

Date: Saturday, July 7, 2012

Time: 17:35 Cairo time

Location: Cairo’s Airport

Purpose: Transit for Addis Ababa

I am in Egypt and it is real..This is the first time I leave my home country Tunisia and everything was just terrific. Just few hours ago I was in a plane for the first time and guess what?? I did not get scared.. I enjoyed every moment. Well I needed to remind myself from time to time that this is really happening!

 It is fun to be here, even though I will stay here just for some hours  and I can say that this trip is extremely amazing !

While I am setting here in the Egyptian airport next to my friend Ahlem on a coffee and restaurant (she told me to mention her salad when talking about her.. more precisely her Cesarean salad I tasted it is very delicious !!!  whom I met in Carthage airport) I have this strange feeling I wanna visit Egypt.. I wanna enter the country I can see Egyptian sky and land and I saw Cairo’s buildings but I will be back I just feel that !

But for now let’s focus on Addis Ababa! Well when I was a little kid I have always thought about travelling into Africa… I live in Africa actually (in north Africa Tunisia) but that is not at all real Africa.. I wanned to see jungles waterfalls and African people (native people) native nations..

Yes I am in my way to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), yes I am in my way to Africa.. I heard a lot of comments about my trip and how crazy I am to accept this opportunity.. It is an opportunity and I caught it.. it is a golden one and I am so excited I did accept it! I am not stupid to say no to an opportunity to be in this magic and different world AFRICA!

I walked Ahlem to her gate to go to Dubai! Only when she left I started to feel that the real trip started! She was a good company but she traveled before knows the airport and was helping and giving me all the information I needed -but only when she left and I was by my own heading to G5 my gate to the plane for Addis Ababa- I felt that the adventure is on!

Once I was there in front of the G5 and just after few minutes, a girl came and started to talk to me in Arabic a strange accent most likely Lebanese. She was Ethiopian and travels a lot to work in Lebanon I started to talk to her about Addis Ababa, the weather the hotel.. and I asked her for her name Harag cute.. I said “what it means?” she asked me if I am Muslim or Christian? I said Muslim she said I am Christian and my name means thecross I think it was cute..

Here is my friend Harag :

This is Brokly her friend:

She wanned my phone number I gave it to her and she gave me Harag’s number ..she wrote Harag’s name for me as she is the only one among the three of them that writes in English and their third friend asked me If I can speak Arabic I don’t know why I answered in French “je suis arabe” STRANGE! And if I want to say yes I usually say “SI” All languages mixed up in my mind!!!!

Well after that we went to the plane, my seat was 23 C and it was a cool trip I watched the movie “Journey 2: the mysterious island” on the plane and after almost 3 hours 40 minutes I saw the capital Addis Ababa SO gorgeous a lot of lights J loved it!

Addis Ababa HIT ME !

PS: I still cannot believe this is happening to me

HD life !

On my way to work today, I heard a spot on the radio about HD devices and I wondered what a coincidence?! WOW, in my life now, I feel like I am using some HD technology, a kind of clarity is pumping up every single day.

I can see clearly now using my ‘3D’ glasses, life is always beautiful but it is certainly related to people’s attitudes. After months I spent conditioned with what people do or say, I am now free, I read a wonderful post about “karma it says that how people treat you is their karma, how you react is yours.” True!

Suddenly, I realized that it has nothing to do with me, it is the karma they choose to send into the universe, they want to send kindness or harm to the outside world and then I can react the way I want to be treated not the possible reasonable way ‘anger or revenge’.

It is their karma and sooner or later they will get it back (what goes around comes around).

I can choose my karma freely; I decide how it will be and how I make it.

Another clarity point: time management skills that I have been reading about lately are extremely astonishing. Well, I know that time is an illusion and it does not really exist ( I have even written an article about that).It is better to discuss tasks and activity management instead of time management. That combination of fun and productivity and slowing down while doing more are another 3D glasses that I am using now J

Those 2 principles are my way out of my “foggy” life where my conditioned emotions deprived me of my ability to clearly see how amazing and perfect my life was, is and will be.

On my desk at work I put a card in which I wrote “I am awesome and so sweet and special”.

It is just a quick reminder that I deserve to be here on the earth and that it is not about what or how they perceive me, but how I choose to treat myself and treat people.

Falling is not a popular choice!

In another life I would love to be a butterfly. I know it lives for one day, just one but it really lives, it celebrates its colors, flies from a flower to flower and embraces that magic of the world.

I have always admired butterflies, unlike flowers stable and sure, butterflies are free and limitless. They whisper to each flower the reason for which they have been created. It flows like a beautiful summer breeze and never regrets a mistake. What else I would ask to have but freedom? Freedom from the past, mistakes and people’s opinions. What else I would ask to have?

I like butterflies as much as I like books, they inspire me, I know that Osho said you don’t have to look for your inspiration outside yourself, but they do inspire me. I believe in book therapy, words are powerful I know that and what books are but words?

The other time I was at work standing up to go out for launch and it hit me. It always does by the way J it is one life (for the butterfly one day) so why we keep avoiding living? Why we are too afraid to live to fall from the edge like Celine says? We don’t know what waits for us maybe “a solid ground, a hand to hold, or a hell to pay.” Anyway, falling itself is an accomplishment. If studies claim that only 3% of earth’s population is happy and successful, falling seems not a popular choice.

But they always fall, butterflies never miss a flower an opportunity to experience “life”. They just have one day, but they don’t hurry up, they don’t worry they just accept the moment and are always ready to fall.

The Process Of Learning life!

I am impressed, it always impresses me! The human mind is absolutely stunning! So many times, I just wonder how it evolves, “forgets” about hard memories and keep tiny little details about some stupid stuff from your past. Today, when I was in the Italian class, I wondered while looking to the professor: how I wouldn’t be able to understand anything of what she was saying, a few months ago. My mind was able to put together letters, words, and sentences, and every time I write or talk in Italian, I impress myself.

All the new things that I have learnt recently reminded me of the beauty of any learning process. To learn is a pleasure itself. Putting things together, decoding data that you have never thought you would be able to understand is fun and so reassuring. It tells me I am alive! I am evolving, I am better every new day.

While, I keep learning about Italian, journalism, people, love, principles, I love how every single day adds a lot of knowledge to what I already thought was enough “to be able to live”. Every single day I sleep thinking that I have all what I need to know about life, then the next day I learn something different, new, and more impressive. I know a lot of stuff about LIFE. And even though every new moment teaches me more about it, I still believe that what I know today is totally enough for this moment, I do not need more, and tomorrow I will definitely enjoy my learning process.

PS: I missed blogging so much, but as Jack Canfield taught me in the book I am reading now "The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” I am 100% responsible for not blogging all the last period :)

Me and my Zen Corner

Today, I redecorated my room, I created a Zen corner, where I can spend time with myself. I still wonder why it was very enjoyable doing that. I read a girls' magazine, and I learned some stuff about cooking, decorating and stress management. Then, I played a movie “the roommate”, it was somekinda thriller movie, but I did enjoy it, while eating my chocolate Yogurt. My Zen corner was pink, so adorable and warm. I am supposed to merely spend "Me enjoyable time" there, and I guess I did. It is so much touching and beautiful to connect with your inner self. I guess I have a very cool and radiant inner self :)

It is peaceful calm and happy within me, and all the little things I learned to enjoy lately are turning me into a very double sensitive and caring person and I do like it. I love how days are different and every day is a unique journey itself. Today was FUN, I totally forgot about stress, work, to do lists and uncaring disrespectful people. I was just with me, enjoying my company. I guess so many people will do enjoy it too ;)

Next time on my Zen corner, I will laugh, I will borrow a funny play and laugh. I will laugh on myself, on my life , on the things that seemed important and were not, on people who pretended to be friends and lovers while they were not, I will laugh on my mistakes on my innocent moves, my mean thoughts, and I will laugh loudly all the night!

When being miserable becomes familiar..

"People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh.

It is a habit; mourning? It is! Well when we discuss life choices, we usually ignore our choice of sorrow. It is so much safe to be sad, upset, helpless, miserable and loser. When you are there, you’re there! This is your biggest fear and you are living it and now what?

It is safer, more comfortable, you have been there, you know, you know how to mourn. But, happy? Are you kidding me! All that laughing and smiles and plans and brilliant mornings, promising tomorrows, that is scaring, that is absurd! So we stick with it, we develop a strange habit of faithfulness not to friends or spouses, but to depression, breakdowns, and suffering. It becomes a ritual, we turn into detectors, we detect reasons, imperfections, and anything that would serve that ‘highly depressing self-image’ we feed it and watch it grows. Any new problem, mistake, yelling boss is a proof that what we chose was right!

It is a bubble that grows slowly but surely, till we finally become sadness’ worshipers. We love it, we actually enjoy it. It is safe, attracts attention and caring, and above all costless! It costs nothing to be sad, and costs every single thing you have when you risk it all, and decide to feel happy once in a while.

It is amazing how we surrender to suffering and misery. It is stunning how we escape happiness and abundance. After all, happy people have nothing to complain about, while we hold a long long list ;)

Freedom Forgiveness

There are the rose, the orange, the blue, the green, the black, the white…t-shirts and I have to pick one. Every day, I open my wardrobe and wonder what one can be the most suitable for today? The one that feels comfortable, the one that feels attractive, or the one that feels right; and I usually pick the one that feels me. On the road, there are always trees and there are always faces and there is always me: the same me. The tape is on and all the things that happen suit it flow just as it flows, and time passes so fast, so slowly, so strangely. I was stuck in the middle of something, in the middle of illusion. I was playing the same role, pretending, claiming, but I am now sent free.

One day I picked the orange, I drove a little and I missed it up. I forgot to stop at the right time, I forgot to say the right words, I forgot to wear me just under the t-shirt. I forgot me on the book of last night on the song that says with you I will go. I forgot me stuck in the middle of illusion, I forgot me and I made me lost, I walked alone for some time. But I am back in order to catch me again, I am back to live me again, I am back to be free again.

I forgive myself for being so truthful, I forgive myself for doing the right thing, I forgive myself for being afraid and I forgive myself for being overwhelmed, I forgive myself for being not right not wrong. I forgive the world, the birds, the books, the friends, the light, and darkness. I am free!

One day I chose the green, I walked on the streets, took the metro, a guy was going to fall, I wanted to catch him, he smiled to me he felt it, he felt that I was able to help a stranger as if it were my child. My heart was singing, I write about that, I write about this. All the process of writing is boring, tiring, exhausting. I forgive writing. I love writing. I miss writing. I forgot myself in one the papers on my teen diary. I wrote so sincerely about life, about happiness, about me. I loved me. I forgive me. I am free.

One day I chose the blue, it was early, it was morning. The sun of my heart hates darkness and love is darkness, love is unknown, is scary. How could I fall in the darkness? how could I fall in the unknown? My heart is glad to fall. I forgive my heart and I am free. I fell.