Strengths Finder

My new manager at work made me take this Strengths Finder assessment test. She also gave me the book. The assessment of about 120 phrases one has to answer indicating how much the phrases resembled the person, using descriptors such as "Strongly Agree" "Agree" and "Neutral." The following were my top 5 strengths:

Learner
Achiever
Input
Maximizer
Intellection

Each of these strengths has a description in the book and afterwards for each strengths suggestions are given in what one might excel in or how one should attempt to perfect the strength. When I started reading the description of "Input," the description went something like, "you are a collector you collect things.." I was shocked at that point because it seemed like a stranger was telling me true things about me. Yes, so I am a collector, of books, a collector of postcards and a collector of interesting quotes. And therefore, I would like to share the following quotes.

"Life is a deep sleep, of which love is a sweet dream."

Dr. Chopra says his mother told her two sons that they have two girlfriends-
The goddess of wisdom and the wealth. If they woed the goddess of wisdom, she told them, the goddess of wealth would get jealous and pursue them.

"The superiority of the learned man ove the mere pious is like the superiority of the moon when it is full over all the stars." -The Kuran



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Updates

I feel as if I have not written a long time. But when I logged into the website I saw that my last post was October 25th. So it has not been really that long.

The reason I guess, that I have not written is that I have been busy and also have not been inspired by much lately. I finished the book I was reading (The Road to Mecca) which was very interesting and inspirational. Now I am reading Dr.Chopra's new book "Reinventing the New You, Resurrecting the Soul." I am not far into the book and have not come yet to anything that grips my attention and takes my thoughts away.

I don't like to write to much about myself here, my true feelings I write in my diary. However, here are a couple of superficial updates in my life.

First, I landed a new job at my company. My responsibilities will be very interesting and challenging. I will be a clinical monitor and will be responsible for about 5 to 6 sites across the country. I am working on a study that is top priority to the organization, thus there is visibility at all times. Since I will be managing sites I will also be doing up to 50% of travel. With a minimum of 25%. I am not sure whether to be excited about that or not. Since I have never travelled for business before and that is still going to be the priority of course during those travels. In January in fact, I will be flown to Florida for some training that I missed two months ago when it was taking place in my company. I might get a couple of sites to manage that are located in California, which will mean travelling over there.

Second, as I might have mentioned or maybe not, I have now officially moved to my new apartment and I am loving it. I have not completely settled yet as I need more furniture.

Third, thing that is excited and thinking of it now, I should have included in as No.1. Is that Alaa, my ex might just might be coming here for New Years. He is working in Syria right now and when he returns to Cairo he will go to the American Embassy to see whether they will grant him a visiting visa. I really really hope they do. I want him to come and I missed him so much! He said he will go as soon as he comes back and if they grant it he said he will get the first flight. I have not seen him since Summer of 2007. The other day we spend over 2 hours talking on the phone and could have talked even longer had not the money run out on my second phone card. I hope and hope and hope everything goes well. That would be amazing.

The other thing that is kinda cool is that next week, Saturday my sisters and I will be going to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. All three of us have never gone together before to a concert. Well, we have been to Bosnian concerts but nothing like this. And I am looking forward to it.

Reminiscences

Sometimes I, like many others, like to reminiscent about the past. When you have been keeping a diary since the age of twelve that helps with recalling memories and taking yourself to a distant past that gives you joy and makes you smile. This is how I felt today when I read a passage of my diary written on Tuesday June 26, 2007, about my second day in Egypt.

"I am in the land of sand and palm trees. Out of the airplane I could see a couple of white-brownish apartment buildings and sand. No green could be seen our of the airplane. In the plane they told us that it is pretty hot out there. Well, the weather was 104 F which is about 40 C. The highest it has ever been so far this year, Alaa tells me. I land there and my suitcase is not there. I dunno but it did not arrive with Air France as I had expected. It took me awhile to explain to the Arabic person, Reymond is his name, that works with Air France. Although his English was good. That was yesterday at around 7 or 8 pm. This morning I called them and they told me, my bags arrived with Lufthansa and that they will deliver the bags today's. I gave them the addressee to Alaa's parents house. Within about 4 hours the bags arrived at his house. And he went to his parents house to get the bags. I am waiting here for him at our apartment for the summer in New Cairo.

Alaa is so happy that I am here and he is so so sweet. When I came yesterday his parents called to ask him if I came. Then his Dad wanted to speak to me and he was like "Welcome, welcome, welcome to Egypt. I hope you will have a great time and see the beauty of Egypt," he sounds a bit like a travel agent. Then he said "hopefully your parents can come too someday, we would like to invite them." Today we are supposed to go and meet them all, Alaa told me that they had invited a bunch of his family. I am a bit nervous. I rather first just meet his parents and later on I can come and meet the family. Cairo's traffic is a bit crazy...Once we got to the apartment we went out for a bit because I needed to call my parents to let them know I am here and everything is going good. So we went to the market place there was a small shop, there were alot of men and we told them who and where I need to call. Then they gave me a cell phone. Later on they checked the minute usage and charged me .80cents per minute. But Alaa paid for it. The market place was what I would call "pijaca." It was like 10 pm at night. People were buying fruit and vegetables. There were many cafes in which mostly older men sat and smoked shisha and watched music videos on TV monitors that were brought outside. There were some women but mostly men. We walked around a bit. Everything is new to me. I asked Alaa how long everything is open to and he replied that Cairo is a city that never sleeps. The cafes close when there are no more customers. But people are outside always. Alaa came I will continue this later. Thursday we are invited to Zo's birthday and tomorrow me might go to the Pyramids.

Food for thought

The other day I came across this quote and it made me pause for a few minutes.

It just resonated with me.

"When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you get one last look at all you've done... and one last chance to regret everything you have never tried."

Most of us live our lives to the fullest potential, most of us probably will never. How come? If we all live in America, in the land of opportunity what personal characteristics and circumstances inhibits some from reaching that fullest potential?

No Regret

No Fear

(One regrets a terrible mistake from the past, and that leads one to be reluctant to explore/try similar or even dissimilar new things)

Or is it the other way around?

No Fear, No Regret. Because fear is stronger and it is because of fear that we don't try everything that we wanted. At least that seems to be the direction that collective consciousness is going. I think this quote might just resonate with every individual on a different note.

Good vs. Evil

I guess the most difficult thing when I came to this country was trying to fit into this culture. I believe that one's religion definitely shapes once culture. This is why cultures across the world, from all corners of the earth can find similarities that are particularly strong when bound by the same religion. The greatest difficulty I am having in this part of the world, is this dynamic challenge between the good vs. the evil. This country in particular has this kind of obsession with this concept. In conversations I am constantly finding myself challenging my colleagues, or friends misconception that man can be born evil. That there is such a thing as an evil person. I cannot and will not except that because it goes against everything that I have been taught by my parents and consequently through them by my religion. However, how to express that? How to explain that to someone that wishes to believe and has been ingrained to believe that evil in a person can exist? That has been a challenge. As I was reading the book "The Road to Mecca" I found the following passage that sheds some light on what I desperately try to explain to my christian friends and colleagues.

..."It is on the basis of this conception that Islam, alone among all higher religions, regards the soul of man as one aspect of his 'personality' and not as an independent phenomenon in its own right. Consequently, to the Muslim, man's spiritual growth is inextricably bound up with all the other aspects of his nature. Physical urges are an integral part of this nature: not the result of an 'original sin' -a concept foreign to the ethics of Islam- but positive, God- giving forces, to be accepted and sensibly used as such; hence, the problem for man is not how to supress the demands of his body but, rather how to co-ordinate them with the demands of his spirit in such a way that life might become full and righteous.

The root of this almost monistic life-assertion is to be found in the Islamic view that man's original nature is essentially good. Contrary to Christian idea that man is born sinful, or the teaching of Hinduism that he is originally low and impure and must painfully stagger through a long chain of incarnations toward the ultimate goal of perfection, the Koran says:

'Verily, We create man in a perfect state' - a state of purity that may be destroyed only by subsequent wrong behavior- ' and thereupon We reduce him to the lowest of low, with the exception of those who have faith in God and do good works.'"

p. 147 of "The Road to Mecca"

I just LOVE that recital from the Koran- "We create man in a PERFECT state."