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Friends

This is a video clip of our trip to Orange County to see Kiosk last weekend. It's called "Having a Biscuit in a Moving Car."

My birthday celebrations are officially over now. This is my last report about it and I promise you won't have to hear about it anymore for another year! My friends had me another birthday celebration today for lunch. It was such an elaborate and fabulous gathering, I was speechless! Wonderful food and a sweet sweet reception, filled with laughter and humor were the order of the day.

I reflect sometimes at the twists and turns my life has taken over the years. Though it has obviously been hard to move on and start all over again, I have left each phase with a heartful of irreplaceable friendships, and have entered another where new friends, as yet to-be-met, have been awaiting me. My young California internet friends have been such an important bridge into the new phase of my life over the past year. For a while, to express myself, I was writing but only for myself. Through their support I found the courage and confidence to share my writings with others and learned to communicate on this new medium, finding new friends and building meaningful relationships. They became my friends and my family all at once, each of us filling the gaps and voids of each other's lives. Their friendship has been invaluable in how I learned to cross the bridge of homesickness, loneliness, and occasional bereavement. Some of them are young enough to be my children, but our relationships are very mature and deep. We laugh a lot and cry a little sometimes when we are together. We talk about life and hurdles each of us has to overcome, and become deeply hopeful for the other's success and achievement.

I feel rich and deeply blessed in how good my life feels these days. A very important part of that life is the friends that surround me now. This is my thank you note to my friends, Leva and Vahid, Mehran, Payam, Reza, Roja and Hossein, Ehsan and Maryam, Omid, Helaleh, Marjan, Jahanshah and Nazy, and of course all the others who come visit me here, whether or not they leave me messages, making me feel a part of a very special circle in this world. Thank you all. You know, it's definitely easier to grow old with good friends!