Yet another beautiful trip – now to Shahrestanak

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Posted on 30th August 2007 by Bamshad (Bob) Lotfabadi in Archive

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I came to realize more about myself and I decided to write about the lessons that I have learnt so far, both in my beautiful trip to Shahrestanak with my friends as well as life in general during the past while. The following four photos are among the tens of photos we took during the trip. Anyway, here are the lessons:

Andishe - Bamshad - Arastoo

1- It is not good to prejudge people. The best thing to do is to take things as they come your way meaning that you treat people only according to their behaviors at that specific moment. Everyone is different and prejudgment never works.

2- People have their own lives with some strengths and weaknesses that go back and forth in our mindset. I should work on my own positioning in seeing people and living my life rather than pointing the finger of blame toward them.

light

3- Enjoying being with other people is good but only to the amount that you can still feel yourself as a human being calling the right decisions. Being part of a group is great but if you are just acting as if you know what you are doing while you don’t know what you are doing, you are causing disturbance for the entire group. That’s the minimum we should consider in moral values. Just to be “in” the group is not always the smartest act for personal development. On the other hand when you keep your own identity and beliefs and open your mind to new experiences, you can communicate with others and learn from them as an independent intelligent person rather than a copier. The key-words are: Challenging the standards, Taking risks, and Having enthusiasm for healthy development.

4- Don’t take things personally. Trying to think correctly will automatically bring the right results. My example is this one: After almost being forgotten for about 2 hours (the way I saw it, which by the way was just an illusion), my friend came forward to take a photo of me for a certain interesting occasion I was in. I knew that I’m in an atmosphere where I need establishing new friendships and ignoring issues that may or may not be personal. But I chose to reject this. Instead of welcoming my friend’s photo-taking, I complained and asked him to stop it since he had already forgotten me for two hours.
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Ok, first of all I realized how sincere he is and how what I feeling was not right at all. Besides, let’s just say that he had – for his own reasons – forgotten to take a photo. Why would I have to care so much? Can’t I just live my life? The camera is his after all, isn’t it?

Let’s say there is no problem if you are mad about being forgotten. But the real fact is that if you want to establish friendship, you need to do a reality check and find your own logic. Then you can be more relaxed and accept other people’s personal reasons for doing things a certain way.
So after a while I realized I could have been much better off if I’d just forgotten the whole issue of mean and suspicious acts by others and live my beautiful life.

Bamshad.com - Farhad in the path

5- Let’s not believe that when we act excited, we really are “out of our minds” although other people may assume this or signal that that is how you really are. Let’s put positive breaks along the way to prove that to ourselves and perhaps others so that we know exactly where we are standing. I think the best logic is to act fun, emotional, and excited, when you think is the right time and act according to the previously set standards in the society based on the norms. My example includes: the time during the bus trip, and the games we played with others during our stay.

6- When you look deeper you will find many similarities between you and the people around you. Trust me. Every person has an aspect that is similar to at least two or three of your very interesting or bad aspects of life. I should learn to co-work for a better life. Establishing relationships will soften and smoothen the sharp edges of your spirit and will bring you to an equilibrium with yourself, the people, and the world.

7- Let’s be good friends or even fair leaders who will help those who are new to our groups or come to us with a different lifestyle and experience. I love helping and I don’t want to be a person who laughs at those who may have a different mindset or have experienced life differently because in today’s life, only a small percentage of the entire range of human activities is considered bad and wrong. The 90% of all activities are just a matter of opinion and there is no certain good or bad label for them!

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A beautiful trip to “Tangeh-Waashi” with good friends

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Posted on 22nd August 2007 by Bamshad (Bob) Lotfabadi in Archive

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The trip began with our 16- members group meeting at Vanak Square, Tehran, early in the morning, a late Mordaad 1386 day. The mini-van reserved by our tour-leader, Barbad, arrived and we all got on to go to a place which was unknown at least to some of us like me. We arrived after a four hour ride. What a wonderful time we had in the minivan!

From left to right: Farhad, Barbad, Bamshad, Behrang, a good friend, Arastoo

A beautiful place was it! The strong current of the roaring river passed through two walls of tall mountain rocks approximately 5 meters apart. It was a 3 kilometer path from the beginning of our hiking to the water-fall. This not so big but yet strong water-fall ended the river. However I did hear that the river continues behind the mountain and is much deeper in its depth. What wonderful places we have around!

We traveled the 3 kilometer path to the water fall and the same distance back to where the mini-van was awaiting us at around 8:00 PM. From our hiking time, almost half was spent in the water current of the river as it was the only way forward. The village people were trying to help and make some money by offering rides on their mules and horses for those visitors having difficulty with the water. The river path was divided into two sections by a beautiful field covered in greeneries.

The green field at Tangeh-Waashi

Bamshad by a water spring at a shallow part of the river

We stopped for lunch, and of course the one-important task of (((sewing my ripped apart sport-pants!))) The head of the operation on my pants was “Barbadram”. He and his team spent about 45 minutes “trying” to sew my pants while I served “Dough (Iron)” for everyone in order to cover my butt for the delay I had caused ;) ! After we finally started moving ahead, the pants ripped once more to destroy all the struggles and efforts ;) So much for the dreams of going places with them! At this point my good friend Reza came to my assistance by lending me his extra jeans!

From Left to Right: Farhad, Reza, Bamshad

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LESSONS LEARNED:

Today was a day full of beautiful moments. One that I will remember as having many wonderful lessons. Lessons of working with friends and far affiliates to help everyone enjoy the wonders of being together. The nature as we know it has many wonders. I also do think that these wonders are not just external but also in the hearts and lives of the people. Most of the time this energy can be released by your positive and well-thought-of attitude toward them. Here are the lessons I learned:

The world is much greater than our daily experiences. It is waiting to be explored. There is power, beauty, flexibility, and calmness in God’s work of nature at large, and locally, in the places we visit.

The most wonderful experience is not found in the place you go. Rather, it is the reaching for the inside of the people you feel are the most ordinary people in your surrounding environment. By doing this, I believe I was able to more or less reach for the experiences of a few of the sixteen people who were camping with me.

The good feelings don’t end when you feel you are out of energy. This end is a beginning to new lessons; So be alert! It is clear that to succeed in what you do, you should go further than your current limits. I did this a little bit and I found myself learning even more. I danced, clapped hands, talked, sang songs, joked around with my buddies, and did what I could to make sure I am having a new memorable time while the rest are enjoying their time as well.

Any light matter is not as light as one thinks. The lightest matters are the doors to the most human relationship with other people. I used to start my conversations with female affiliates on matters that I felt are important and valuable life issues. Or I didn’t start at all. But today, just like the last few months, I took it light, moving and changing direction of the talks as the need came, without any hesitation, and remembering to take things easy and to use my past experiences. These discussions usually lead to the interesting matters that are important to both you and the person you are talking to. What should come your way will come your way – of course with a bit of intelligence. ;-)

As I am a guy, I used to think, that the best relationship is the one made with a female friend. This thought pulled me down! Today I continued to learn to not only value female affiliates but a lot more to enjoy me! My male friends, my surroundings, my own self, and the positive attitude inside the nature brings to you much more than what many young people assume is in the existence of a friend of the opposite sex. A female friend should not be the absolute key a guy would have for truly enjoying life. I do however praise God for His wonderful creation of a creature we call “woman”.

Never worry about what you’re not good at. Do what you do best; focus on your strong points, and you will eventually find the best way to treat the difficult matters in the way you like.

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/Bamshad\

Friends through German Studies

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Posted on 10th August 2007 by Bamshad (Bob) Lotfabadi in Archive

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I like to share my moments while studying German with all of you to see and comment on. I have good friends, and I am proud of them :-)
Let’s start with Baarbadraam. Here is Bamshad at left, and Baarbadraam at right! Nice tie!

Deutsch Sprache
Ich finde mine freunde und freundinen in Goethe Institute sehr interessante. Wirklich interessant! Wir studieren zusammen, lauchen zusammen, und denken zusammen uber die thema. Mein gut Fruende und Freundinen sind Baarbad, Farhad, Sattaar, Mahdi, Ali, Amir, und viele andere gut studente, und naturlich, viele schone intelligante Frauen. Ich moechte meine Deutsch coregieren. Bitte schreiben Sie ein Satz fuer “Comment”. Vielen dank.

/Bamshad\
Bamshad&Barbadraam

My policy for running a better bamshad.com Weblog

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Posted on 7th August 2007 by Bamshad (Bob) Lotfabadi in Archive

Dear everyone and especially bamshad.com post authors,

I have allowed my good friends to participate in the authoring activities on my weblog. The goals and aims of this site are somewhat clear. However I have realized that it has not started on the right path, or at least has not gone the way I was hoping it would. This weblog belongs to everyone but I allow and disallow certain things. Here are my policies:

Things allowed and disallowed:

1- Posts are aimed at any interesting topic in “English” or “German” language only and only on “special” circumstances can we use “Farsi”. No combination of English letters and Farsi language or such work is recommended.

2- The topics, even if written in “Farsi”, should be solid, interesting, and aimed to the growth and development of different readers. If there is something done for fun, it should also have a point. Useless fun posts reduce the versatility and uniqueness of my site. This is the only reason why I allow my friends to be authors of the main posts.

3- No post is allowed to be aimed at personal weblogs or websites. I “only” allow authoring of real posts that make you look like a decent “author”, not an advertiser for websites that may or may not relate to bamshad.com. “That” is only “my” responsibility as the manager. Any such advertisement or link providing should be first confirmed with me, Bamshad, especially those that do the same as my weblog. I find that there is no point in talking about these not-so-strong sites. I would like the links we provide to lead us forward, not to simply transfer us from one weblog to another similar personal weblog.

4- For security reasons certain offending words are erased from all posts. Please let me know if you have any especial concern about this.

Thank you all good readers and authors. I welcome any suggestion or opinion about my work. Discussing things is the best thing for resolving doubts and answering questions.

/Bamshad\