When a childhood friend gets married… Utmost happy and sad

Photo Ani Babayan

“As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent (Socrates).” In my case — it’s the second, in case of most of my friends — it’s the first, although they have found such good and caring better-halves that I doubt they will ever regret being “chained” by marriage.

Some love is just a lie of the heart…

Some love is just a lie of the heart
The cold remains of what began with a passionate start,
And they may not want it to end,
But it will it’s just a question of when,

How to achieve peace within?

Photo by Ani Babayan

I have been thinking over this for so long that I arrived at this.

A few years ago I used to think that peace can be attained and maintained through apathy and indifference. If you act indifferently toward something, then you will achieve peace, but now I am asking myself — can you act indifferently when you are not indifferent? Of course, no. So now I have realized this — the only way to achieve peace is to realize the temporariness of everything around us.

Yereruyk Basilica in Armenia: Ruined but still holding some magic

Trip to Yereruyk (Yererouk) Basilica was one of the most thrilling ones in my life. This Basilica is located close to the Armenian-Turkish border, so close that the visitors can cast a look into Turkey, or better to say historic Western Armenia.

The name of the Basilica — Yereruyk is said to come from the word “երերալ,” which is translated as “sway” into English. It is said that back in the ancient times, when the Basilica was in its full swing it seemed to sway from afar, and that is why it was named so. Another explanation is that lamb or rooster sacrifices (known as matagh in Armenian) were performed there — they were put on a tray and swayed above the altar. I prefer to stick to the first explanation.

Thought/question of the day: We all are killers

Photo by Ani Babayan

A recent thought that has occurred to me is — if we don’t kill a person but kill another living being does it make us a less killer than the one who kills a human?

Who said that humans have more right to live than the animals, birds or insects? How many ants do we kill while walking? How much grass do we tread while running? How many trees do we cut a day? How many flowers die every day just to make a girl smile?

What if we could control our memory?

The truth is — to a certain extent we are our memories and very often our memories define our approach and attitude to things and people around us. Memories have powerful impact on our day and the more we have and the more we remember the more affected we are by them.

Photo by Ani Babayan

Memories are like a voice within — the bright ones are like a good word addressed to us that rejoice and make us smile, the dark ones are like a curse that spoil the mood and sometimes it takes longer than just a day to overcome them

Don’t raise children in “unhealthy families”

A small world in this big world — a world which two people create and where two people act as guards and guardians until their chickabiddies are old enough to open the gates of that world and start their own. That beautiful world is the family.

Time and again I have said that I am a most lucky person who has been raised in a wonderful family, which perhaps has not been able to provide every piece of the material aspect, meaning for example, a two-wheel bicycle (although I had a three-wheel one :)) or roller skates, mainly accounted by the hard times Armenia was going through after it gained independence, but they gave me the first and foremost thing I needed as a child — love. And as the wise know, where there is love, there are lots of other things as well, including care, respect, lots of games, smiles, etc.

Would I ever want to have another mom or another dad? Would I ever want to be raised in a different family

Vision for future or absence of it

I remember around a year ago we had a meeting with one of richest Armenians in the world. A short talk with him was enough to understand that this person has not only focused on making money but also on retaining and improving his human aspect.

Without any wish to cite his ideas that reflect pure wisdom, there is one thing that has stuck on my mind. He said that in our life we should focus on the long-term goals which might as well include short-term ones. What he recommended was having a clear idea of where we want to see us 15 years down the road

Purifying the soul

The coming two months will be quite challenging for me, a challenge I am undertaking quite consciously and with a strong wish driven from within. It will be a short period of self-exploration, of getting rid of ghosts around me, of facing my mistakes and correcting them, of confronting my fears and overcoming them, of forgiving myself for certain things and doing my best to forgive those who have ever hurt me, of forgetting the worst of nightmares and ignoring the artificially imposed

Quit relationships in which…

If you are reading this, then you must have some good cause for it and if the cause is that the content of this post refers to you too, then I am very sorry for your bitter experience and let me give you a hug for a better future once you give up on a certain person a.k.a. your love.

Photo by Ani Babayan

Being in a stormy relationship and still choosing to remain by his side, I did not spare me, including my life. One day one of his friends asked me “when are you going to marry?” I said “we are not going,” she said “why?” I said because he is not mature enough to know what a family is and what it is to be a man, a husband and a father.