“March 1” – a day to celebrate spring return

On "March 1" some European countries celebrate (un-conventionally) the beginning of spring, when small tokens of appreciation, mostly flowers, are exchanged amongst friends.
Wishing you & your friends share this beautiful custom, meant to harmonize even more your existing relationships.

“Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation.” (Oscar Wilde)

Love is in the air – Happy VALENTINE’s Day!

Dear friends, by this note I’m wishing you a wonderful Valentine’s Day, filled with much love, peace and joy!

LOVE is the bridge between you and everything.

~ A brief historic background ~

       Valentine's Day is named after ‘Saint Valentine’, a Catholic priest who lived in Rome in the 3^rd century. There are many stories about St. Valentine and over time these stories grew into the legend we know today.

       In our days, the Valentine's Day became an annual festival celebrating the romantic love, friendship and admiration. Every year, on February 14, people honor this day by sending messages of love and regard to partners, family and friends expressing their affection.

     While Valentine's Day is celebrated in most countries, different cultures have developed additional traditions for this. The greeting cards especially crafted for the occasion usually are decorated with pictures of cupid, hearts & flowers, while containing few sentimental rimes, emphasizing how special the receiver is, becoming easily recognizable all over the world. With the rise of technology, the Valentine's Day customs diversified even more, but continue to have LOVE at the core.

Alice’s Book Club – WINTER session of 2019

This Friday evening (on February 8’19), I was truly happy to be able to organize a teleconferenced gathering with some of my dear friends in order to cover the winter session of our social book club. Each of my guests were also invited to bring along a freshly made cup of herbal tea to enjoy as discussions would unfold. Joining the debate from the comfort of our living rooms made us all completely ignore the cold weather outside that we are still facing these days (a real winter with lots of snow).   

We started our evening together with a pleasant conversation and then we began the work….reading, commenting, analyzing, debating, sorting, voting, all together made each of us totally forget the time, but at the end we all were glad to choose a beautiful novel for our next book club session, which is scheduled to happen (in person) by the end of spring; we all are looking forward to that with much anticipation...it will be great! 

Needless to emphasize how delightful it is to team up with positive people, willing to focus on beautiful matters. Aside of that, I believe that no matter how much stress one might have at times with work or with the countless aspects of the daily life, it all slips away when you lose yourself in an activity that you really like.  

On the other hand, while at this page, I would like to quickly mention few valid points the scholars usually emphasize in their papers about the benefits of reading (in essence, why it helps to read at least a bit every day):
 - Reading books allow readers to gain better insights into human nature (you could gain interesting and helpful knowledge that never can be taken away from you)

- Readers become more sensitive to the emotions of other people, quality which seems to disappear in today’s world

- Good literature of any language improve and expand the comprehension skills; also, at the same time, by considering all the aspects involved, you could become even more versed with your critical and analytical thinking (the more skills you have, the better equipped you are to tackle any challenges that sometimes life might present). Additionally, a well written novel could 'transport' you to different places, while an engaging article might distract or keep you in the present moment allowing relaxation to occur. 

- A book always stimulates the brain (amazingly enough, through reading new brain pathways are created and the existing ones become even stronger, facts that assist with the short-term memory recalls as well as mood stabilization).  
So, once again dear friends, please be kindly reminded that the journey of a life time starts with the turning of a page. 

Until our paths will meet again on this wavelength, my best wishes to each of you for a peaceful rest of winter.

Alice

“The reading of all good books is like having a conversation with the finest minds of the past centuries.” (Descartes)