Today I am counting my blessings

In the light of awful events around the world that made me angry, sad, worried ... today I decided to take life minute at the time and be grateful for all the good things in my life: my son who makes me proud every day, my husband who supports me unconditionally,  my parents who love me no mater what, few good friends, health, roof over my head and you people who read my blogs even when my ranting.
It's a nice sunny day, here in Sarajevo and I will go for a walk with my family, enjoy the little things and smell the roses.

Global politics, incompetence unfolding ...with terrifying consequences

Bodrum, Turkey, Mediterranean coast and a body of a small child washed out on a shore. Three year-old and his five year old brother died as they tried to escape horrors of war back in their country.
Nobody wanted them, they were not human beings according to laws of political system, and in odyssey of going back and forth, they lost their young lives.
Horrific  images lately: refugees made to kneel for train ticket in Hungary, placing numbers on arms of poor people in Republic of  Czech, having them put on old trains and "shipped" to camps again in Hungary. ...
Where are we heading as human beings?  If I was religious, I would say straight to hell.
History keeps repeating over and over again and we never learn and forget so easy.
So I will say goodbye little ones and rest in peace. You are in a better place I am sure. Forgive us for being so indefferent, so prejudiced, so ignorant and not caring.

Karate - how it made us better

When my son was 7 we decided to enroll him in sports for all known reasons: physical activity, health, hanging out with right crowd etc.
And we started a quest: what sports is suitable for him and what does he like?? Soccer, basketball, swimming, skiing ... until we got to martial arts. That was it. That's when his eyes sparked and we knew we found it.
First training I remember with smile as we watched it from around the corner so he was not able to see us: at first he was in shock as he didn't expect warmup exercises for 20 min (running, stretching, pushups, squats ..). He was not impressed with that! 😂😂😂. And then came the first karate move and his face turned into giant smile. Yep that was it.
Mind you him and the rest of the kids quickly learned to respect sensei and each other and 6 months later, they acted as one and breathe for each other.
Self confidence sky rocketed, grades got even better and so did the social skills. Overall - the quality of his life improved.
Those were beginnings - he still loves it 4 years later and he is a proud brown belt. How we get to that point. I will explain some other time.

Fast getaway

From a city heat, asphalt and crowd. Everybody is honking their horns, it's burning up and down, so I decided to escape for an hour or so. Not that far either. Nice little woody area along small river, shade, breeze, birds and a glass of wine. Doesn't take much to make me happy.
And remember age is not important ...unless you are a bottle of wine. Then it matters 😉.

Indoctrination v Loyalty

I have a feeling that lot of people mix up loyalty with indoctrination. So here are some of the definitions:
Indoctrination - teaching ideas and opinions of a particular group.
Loyalty - feeling strong support or allegiance to something or someone.
Sadly, there is more indoctrinated than loyal people in my experience. After few min of conversation I am able to tell where that person works, party affiliation, government or business employee etc. I am just a layman and it's sad.
Indoctrination is embedded and hard to shake off, loyalty is chosen and hard to come by.

Explore and discover - Adriatic

Traveling is the best teacher. It feeds your soul just like the good read does. This Adriatic blue always calms me down, always relaxing, the clear water, the seagulls, smell of pine trees ... and for a bit, time stops. Worries are gone and you are in the now.