Struggling to express

If you get me talking about Armenia, I won't stop. And if you try to tell me things about Armenia that aren't true, I'll tell you straight how it really is - that's what comes from living there for six months.

Unless you've really been there, or even lived there, you really have no idea how much it can move you, how it can imbed itself in your heart, so deep that you can never remove it.

These days, living away from Armenia, I struggle to express my passion in writing. But, oh, when we lived there - I took a notebook everywhere because words would poor into my mind and out my pen a hundred miles an hour. And when I'd get back to my computer, my finger tips would hardly touch the keyboard as sentences seemed to put themselves together - as if Mother Armenia herself was writing through me.

A funny thing happened last night. We were at Carols at the kids school. I went to buy some things for the kids and spoke using as much Armenian as I know - the stall holders were baffled and couldn't quite believe their ears. I couldn't help but shrug and think - we're at an Armenian school function - where else are we going to speak Armenian at a function?!

If you want to feel truly Armenian, the only place on this Godly earth that you can is in Armenia, where you breath the air and gaze over the Great Mt Ararat as Armenians did 3000 years ago. You walk on the soil where Armenians fought, lived and died. Where you're amoungst Bibilical history that rivals Jerusalem (the Garden of Eden and Noah's Ark are both said to be in Armenia).

...and the dream continues...

I always love talking with my husband. Especially when it's about our future, our dream. It's also the thing I miss the most when we're apart. We can talk for hours non-stop, about our plans, business, the kids, travelling....anything really. On our first date 18 years ago we were together until 2am talking.

So last night we were talking about our dream and plans. We made an approximate date for moving next year, a goal to work towards.
The Hovivian Foundation has now been started, which is really exciting, even if the projects don't get started for another year or two, it's started.

When you dream about something for years, and then you begin to get prepared to fullfill the dream it is one of the most exciting feelings.

Chocolate - Armenian style

There was a report on the local TV station news here during the week - one that had our family going "ssshhhhh" and turning up the volume.
Last weekend the Guinness World Records certified that the largest bar of chocolate was created by the Grand Candy Factory in Yerevan, Armenia!

The bar of dark chocolate was made with cocoa beans from the African nation of Ghana. It weighs 9,702-pounds, and measures 224 inches long, 110 inches wide and 10 inches thick.

The chocolate will be served to the public next month!

I've been to a Grand Candy store in Yerevan - they're really great and their Armenian Delight (as opposed to Turkish Delight, which is a copy) is absolutely delicious!

Totally obsessed

Goals are such flimsy things. They can be made easily, and just as easily forgotten. I had a goal when I was a child, to be as tall as my 6ft brother, much to my parents dismay (it would be harder to marry off a very tall daughter!). I spent many days measuring myself and stretching so I could reach my goal.

I’m the type of person that writes down goals. I read somewhere that it helps to make them happen if you write them down (they appear less flimsy that way). So as you walk through our home you will see goal notes on the walls. The one I have in the kitchen reads “10 kgs in 20 weeks, by August 28”. I wrote that goal 18 weeks ago, when, after having baby #4 I felt I was ready to start my weight loss schedule again.

I have been successful before with loosing weight after having babies. After #1 I took my time, was casual about it and didn’t have a definite goal. After baby #2 I was slightly obsessed with losing weight and being fit again, so six weeks after giving birth I began my journey, with the goal to lose it by our son’s christening, six months later. I achieved this and got quite obsessed by it in the last few kilos. By husband actually suggested that “that’s enough weight loss now.”

Come along baby #3 and I was so eager for my six week check up to get the go ahead with getting back to my weight loss and fitness. I didn’t have a goal this time and it took 15 months after the birth to get back to my usual self. To lose those last few kilos again I had to be obsessed. But I managed it, and then got pregnant again!

So now I’m up to post baby #4, which is our last baby. I asked the physio in the hospital (after giving birth) exactly when can I start exercising! Now, I’m two weeks away from my deadline. My weight has been dropping off, I’m on my way, despite a few slip-ups and not finding the time to exercise until recently when I decided to put myself first (as a mother that is so hard to do!). The past week I have been obsessed about it, so I guess that means I’m going to reach my goal.

There is no doubt in my mind what my obsession to be fit, slim and healthy is due to. Besides wanting to live a long active life, I have a fear of being overweight/obese like my mother and sister. At the age of 18 I went to the doctor in full health just to ask her what could I do so I don’t end up overweight. She advised exercise and a healthy diet. 

I never did reach my goal to be as tall as my brother, but I think that has more to do with it being out of my control!

Photos of Life

I was going to blog about the biggest news in Armenian football for a while - that French-Armenian football star, Youri Djorkaeff, would like to coach the Armenian National Football Team, but more about that in a later post, because I found something today I wanted to share.

I came across this video on Facebook. It is quite well done, and it really shows the cycle of life. It provoked me to think about life as a whole, you are born, you live, you die. What will I be remembered for? Will I be remembered for doing things about the things I feel passionate about? Will people in the world know what I was passionate about? Will I just be another person who lives their life and dies without making (what I believe to be) a difference in the world?

Makes me want to, more than ever, do my dream.

What will you be remembered for?

What would you do if.....

Since money has such a great influence in our lives in this society, sometimes when my dream seems so far away, I ask myself what I would do if money was unlimited.

This opens up my mind to endless possibilities, it excites and ignites all those things that I deeply desire to do, but stop myself thinking about because of money. It can also help set goals, all be it very long term goals.

So what would I do if money was unlimited?

I would:

- renovate all the orphanages in Armenia, including new floors so the icey winter wind doesn't enter; make sure every one of them has heating, uninterrupted, in the winter; repair all the holes in the roofs; furnish each one. Also implement a committee who are the 'follow-on' after the orphans turn 18, so they are not shoved into society without guidance and counsel.

- reconstruct and repair all the highways leading to villages in Armenia. Those villages are such an escape and have their own whimsical beauty.

- build a handful more of 5 Star hotels in Yerevan, Armenia's capital.

- set up a funded committee that looks after all the tourist sites in Armenia, like the many churches, so that these places can be cared for as they should be. They are ancient, they are treasures (and I love them!!).

- following on from the above two, conduct a worldwide Armenia tourism campaign, like nothing that has ever been seen before, including television commercials, free holidays for travel agents and more. It would encompass the facts that Armenia is a spiritual land, filled with beauty beyond your dreams, with such a friendliness you won't find anywhere else. You will find it hard to leave, and when you do, you will start counting down the days until you return.

Armenia is so beautiful that it should be shared with all the world. Everyone should visit it at least once, to breath the air and feel the soil underfoot.

It's free to dream.

What would you do if money was unlimited?

At peace

When I was a child we had a small picture in our kitchen. It was of Jesus and it read "He is our Peace." As a child I always thought they had misspelt it and it should have read "Here is our Place." How the child mind works!

It's been quite a few years now that I have been conflicted and even guilty about where I feel at peace. I don't mean the place, like the church, the hairdresser etc, but the place where you feel it when you walk on the earth, when you breath the air, when you smell the surrounds.

From my experience, you don't choose it, it chooses you. You don't plan it, aim for it or have it as a goal - it overtakes you.

Gradualy I am accepting where I feel at peace. I was almost relieved when Prince Harry recently stated that he feels most at peace in Africa. It gave me the feeling that I wasn't alone in feeling at peace in a land that I wasn't born in, a land that I didn't grow up in, that I had no connection to until my adult life.

I did months of research, read countless blogs, looked at many photos and listened to a lot of talk about Armenia before we went there. But nothing could prepare me for the overwelming feeling I had when I put foot on its soil, breathed its air and absorbed the live culture.

Armenia is where I feel most at peace.

Your Calling

I was going to make this post about Armenia and my love for it, but the hot topic of discussion at the moment for me is ‘your calling’.

It all started with a discussion about image.
As I look around I see a lot of people who spend their life trying to ‘catch up with the neighbors’, trying to impress their friends. Name drop at every opportunity (and even when there is no opportunity).

We all know that money is power in this world we live in. Most likely that’s why so many people want it (money) and try to accumulate things with it, so they can be seen as ‘having money’.

So what does money and image have to do with your ‘calling’?

I guess that’s my point really. A lot of people seem to be content with having the ‘car/s, house, holidays’ life. Just living, really. Now, if that’s what they feel their calling is, then good luck to them! I find it hard to believe that God put the majority of people on earth, in this day and age, to just live.

I recently watched an interview with Alberto Cairo who is known as the ‘Angel of Kabul’. He left his very comfortable life in Italy 20 years ago to go to Afghanistan and open the Red Cross Orthopaedic clinic in Kabul to help people walk again after losing their limbs from land mines. Now 20 years later he is still there, still working, he’s trained Afghanis in his profession, helped educate some and is one of the happiest people I’ve seen. You can read about his story here.

Cate Bolt is another who has dropped out of the corporate life to pursue her calling. She’s an Aussie mum doing extraordinary things. You can read her story here.

A scene from the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding comes to mind – when her mother says to her that they fled from the war in Greece and came to America so that she could have a good life. That was then – this is now. Is it really enough in this day and age, in the Western world, to just live? Just work, just eat, just watch tv?

Maybe the people I see just living haven’t found their calling, maybe they never will.
You know you’ve found your calling when you’re obsessed by it and when it’s so deeply lodged in your heart that you can’t ignore it or remove it.

For me, I live every day thinking of Armenia. To return, have a business that will support our family to live comfortably and to do our dream. To once again pursue our goal of owning and managing a ‘Westernised’ Premier League football club and to set up the Foundation which will have so many ways of helping those in need in Armenia – the orphanages, the young people with dreams and aspirations but no money to pursue them and so many more.

All this takes money. So I guess that’s the connection!

Our journey has been long and hard. Six years on, but I know one day we will make it a reality.

One of my favourite quotes is from the kids movie Robots: The dad tells his son “A dream that you don’t fight for will haunt you for the rest of your life.”

Have you found your calling?

A change of pace

I originally started this blog as 'All Things Armenian', to share my passion for Armenia. I haven't had the time to post much in the past, but I've now realised how much I miss writing. So I've decided to make this blog about my journey - my life, my loves and everything inbetween.

I'm passionate about many things, I have certain views about things and (after support from people close to me) I now feel it's time for me to share these.

I guess it's part of maturing, to be able to stand up and say "This is me", without being concerned what people think.

So, this is me.....nervous and excited at the same time.