A socio-cultural evening of poetry & good talks

Friday evening (August 3'18) I was delighted to meet again with a group of dear friends at the Conservatory to discuss, analyze and share poetry, personal perspectives and life stories, which helped us all dive even deeper into meaningful matters. 

Also, I was pleased to welcome them with a fragment from Johann Pachelbel's sublime Canon (“In the Garden“) - a piece of classical music, which brought upon a deep sense of peace. On the other hand, as usual by now, I brought my aromatherapy diffuser with French lavender, which filled the room with such a pleasant and refreshing fragrance.

This time, we had two guests of honor – Dr. Ovidiu Grecea together with his wife. Dr. Grecea is Consul General – Head of Mission and Plenipotentiary Minister of Romania, and he brought along a noble message, re-emphasizing the importance of dialogue, communication and co-operation. We all are like branches of a tree and our lives are heading in different directions, we all grow wings and fly, but our roots always would remind us where we are coming from. Truly heart felt! 

Aside of that, our subsequent group conversations were long, open, from heart to heart, from soul to soul, from mind to mind…without any doubt, genuine, deep conversations with open-minded people are the best. Specifically speaking, our friends also brought a number of beautiful poems, dear books & a patriotic song, which triggered fond memories in many of us, and some of these I will enumerate below:

- “If“, a poem by Rudyard Kipling

- “Visam sa scriu“, a poem by Monica Pillat

- "Romanta fara ecou", a poem by Ion Minulescu

- "America ogarului cenuşiu", a book by Romulus Rusan

- “Maitreyi“, a book by Mircea Eliade (briefly mentioned though)

- A beautiful poem of Queen Maria, of Romania

- A beautiful poem of Ferdinand of Romania about Romania’s Great Unification

- A patriotic song, featuring our beautiful young adults

Following these we didn’t forget the light refreshments either, which again ignited new series of pleasant conversations around the table and offered extended socialization.

Concluding, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all who joined me this evening to share memories, personal journals, poems, life changing stories and special moments. Until we meet again, I send along my best wishes to each of you for a wonderful rest of the summer!
Alice

Mesaj personal din partea lui Alice, adresat direct in limba romana:

Dragii mei,
Si pe aceasta cale doresc sa-mi exprim sincera apreciere pentru participarea si atentia pe care ati acordat-o intalnirii noastre de vineri (3 aug.'18).
Poeziile recitate, amintirile enumerate, simtamintele impartasite cu o autenticitate absolut deosebita au dat un farmec unic fiecarui moment petrecut impreuna. A fost o reala placere sa depanam cu totii trairi de suflet care au re-adus pe tapet intamplari memorabile din viata fiecaruia, scrieri dragi care ne-au incalzit inimile amintindu-ne totodata de fosti profesori consacrati de odinioara, de carturari respectati, de parinti, de neam, de radacini.
Cu siguranta, dragostea pentru frumos este numitorul nostru comun, ceea ce denota multe aspecte importante. Conceptul de unitate in diversitate si diversitate in unitate a stralucit cu adevarat.
Inca odata, sincere multumiri!  
Alice
“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” AliceFriendsCircle.blogspot.com

Mesaj primit înspre publicare din partea Domnului Dr. Ovidiu Grecea* şi al Doamnei Liliana Grecea

Pentru Doamna Alice şi pentru cei care ne-au impresionat plãcut, prin delicateţea sufleteascã, nobleţea intelectualã, bunul simţ, modestia şi normalitatea demonstrate într-o searã plinã de semnificaţii şi încãrcãturi emoţionale, unde nişte români-canadieni s-au reunit pentru setea lor de culturã şi de românism, pentru dorinţa de bine şi de un viitor frumos, artistic şi spiritual, cultural şi relaţional în comunitatea din care ei fac parte.

A fost un adevãrat balsam sufletesc, iar faptul cã poezia, filozofia, pildele de viaţã, cântecele şi sentimentele trainice şi veşnice faţã de România s-au contopit în prezentãrile, expunerile, discuţiile, dizertaţiile şi chiar controversele din aceastã magnificã întâlnire, demonstreazã cã românul este şi va fi, oriunde şi oricând, un cumul şi un vârf de omenie, de dragoste faţã de ţara lor şi de respect faţã de ţara care i-a adoptat, de oameni adevãraţi, nealteraţi sau schimonosiţi sufleteste şi mental, ci adevãrate repere existenţionale şi de devenire pentru noua generaţie.

Acum sunt puţini, dar sperãm şi avem convingerea cã în viitor elitele şi adevãratele personalitãţi reprezentative comunitare vor gãsi sursele, resursele, cãile şi modalitãţile viabile şi concrete de a se uni în cuget şi în simţire, de a-şi demonstra adevãratele lor calitãţi, forţa, tãria şi puterea de a fi numai învingãtori, de a-şi ocupa locul binemeritat într-o societate nouã, multiculturalã, care le-a oferit posibilitatea de a se integra, de a deveni, de a se simţi mai liberi şi mai încrezãtori, unde adevãratele valori sunt preţuite şi nu târâte în mocirla vremurilor actuale.

Noi, ca simpli oameni şi români pânã în mãduva fiinţei noastre, vom fi deschişi la orice iniţiative sincere şi benefice pentru comunitatea românilor de aici, pentru binele, propãşirea şi prosperitatea lor, pentru un viitor mai sigur şi mai demn, pentru unitate în gândire şi acţiune, pentru menţinerea, dezvoltarea şi perpetuarea unei relaţii sincere şi benefice a României în Canada.

Iar ca oficiali, noi nu vom pregeta de a face tot ce este omeneşte şi profesional posibil, în limitele şi competenţele noastre diplomatice şi de reprezentare, ca România şi românul sã fie pe primul loc, într-o armonie existenţionalã şi funcţionalã, pentru cã noi avem o istorie adevãratã, realã şi concretã de peste 2.000 de ani, iar bagajul nostru ancestral de experienţã de viaţã, de culturã şi de educaţie, de creştinism şi de respect al valorilor autentice, ne determinã sã fim numai: ’the best’, ’the first’, ’the no.1’!

Liliana şi Ovidiu Grecea

*Domnul Ovidiu Grecea este Consul General şi Ministru Plenipotenţiar al României la Vancouver

“BE LIKE A TREE. Stay grounded. Connect with your roots. Turn over a new leaf. Bend before you break.
Enjoy your unique natural beauty. Keep growing. ”

This event has been delivered in Romanian Language, featuring Romanian culture. 

● Fotogallery published on their website by the General Consulate of Romania in Vancouver

Concisely regarding PERCEPTION

Generally speaking ‘perception’ it is explained as being the ability, the awareness or the way a person thinks, notices, interprets or understands something or someone by the means of senses, or through the cognition of the mind. Over the years, numerous studies have shown that in general people expect a perfect match

between personal perception and reality, which are not always matching up, because the human lenses are constantly shifting. 

“Every person has a different view of another person's image. That's all perception.” (Steve Alford)

In the light of this concept here is a short story which I recently came across and find worth sharing it further … some of you might know it, some of you might not, but regardless, it will make it for a good, short reading. Enjoy!

Story: Changing our vision

There was a very wealthy man who was bothered by severe eye pain. He consulted many physicians and was being treated by several. He did not stop consulting a galaxy of medical experts; he consumed heavy loads of drugs and underwent hundreds of injections, but the ache persisted with more vigour than before.

At last, an elder who was supposed to be an expert in treating such patients was called for the suffering man. The wise man understood his problem and said that for some time he should concentrate only on green colours and not to let his eyes fall on any other colours. It was a strange prescription, but he was desperate and decided to try it.

The millionaire got together a group of painters and purchased barrels of green paint and directed that every object his eyes were likely to fall to be painted green just as the elder had directed. When the wise man came to visit him after few days, the millionaire's servants ran with buckets of green paint and poured it on him since he was in white dress, lest their master see any other colour and his eye ache would come back.

Hearing this, the wise man laughed and said "If only you had purchased a pair of green spectacles, worth just a few dollars, you could have saved these walls and trees and pots and all other articles and also could have saved a large share of his fortune. You cannot paint the entire world green. Let us change our vision and the world will appear accordingly. It is foolish to shape the world, let us shape ourselves first.”

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” 

A Literary Afternoon

Saturday afternoon (June 9, 2018), I was very pleased to meet with a small group of friends at a public library to spend some time discussing Romanian literature (personal compositions as well as masterpieces written by famous Romanian authors). 

I was truly happy to be able to greet them all with “Poema Românã“ by George Enescu (George Enescu, 1881-1955, who was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher, regarded as Romania's most important musician and one of the world's greatest composers of the 20th century).
In addition, the aromatherapy with natural French lavender oil that I brought had a nice relaxing effect on all of us.

After our usual introductions around the circle, which this time took longer than usual and helped our friends open their hearts even more toward each other, we began our program, as per below: 
- Teo brought again few personal compositions (“Florile” & an acrostic, dedicated to our dear friend Ligia, who is also a virtuoso musician & a choir conductor).
- Asiza recited 2 poems composed by her departed mother (“Odoras“ and “Doar noi doi“)
- Ligia recited few poems, (“De-a v-ati ascunselea”, “Din tara de unde venim”), by Ana Blandiana, who is a Romanian poet, essayist, and political figure, considered also one of the leading contemporary authors

- Ioana narrated a chapter from “Maitreyi“ – a semiautobiographical novel of great intellectual and emotional power, written by Mircea Eliade, who was a world renowned scholar 
- Monica brought a poem filled with timeless wisdom, written by Emil Cioran, who was a famous Romanian philosopher and writer

At the end of our cultural program, Teo offered us all a live violin performance, gratefully re-emphasizing the heart touching love for his wife and lifelong partner (also part of the audience), who is such an adorable person. 
We all had a great time together and again we wrapped up the afternoon with light refreshments, snacks we each brought, and prolonged conversations, because food always tastes better when you eat it together with likeminded people. 

In closing, I want to share that I sincerely appreciate the participation of all these dear friends, who at the end of a long, busy week (mine not being an exception either) took the time from their relaxation program to join me for few hours to discuss literature, to share life stories, and to enjoy the presence of each other, which I find simply beautiful. Until next time, my best greetings to all and each of you!
Alice 

Don’t count the days, make the days count!

This event has been delivered in Romanian Language, featuring Romanian culture.