Path to One Blog

The fourth Thursday of November is “Thanksgiving Day” in the United States and Canada, an important holiday celebrating the harvest and other blessings of the year. It is a holiday particularly rich in legend and symbolism and is characterized by a large meal in the company of family and friends. It is a day to be grateful and celebrate all the blessings on our lives. Other countries may or may not have an official holiday day to celebrate this day and may or may not celebrate it as big as Americans and Canadians do, but most of them do have a religious or secular day to give thanks. Although it is important to have a dedicated day to give thanks, in reality, we should be grateful every day and every single moment of our lives. When all we see is negativity, when we take things for granted, when we victimize ourselves, and when we are so busy that we do not have time to reflect about life, little room is left for gratitude. We, humans, tend to emphasize negative experiences beca...

Somehow life seems to be a race. We seem to always be running to do something, whether it is to grow up, finish homework, finish school, finish a task or job, get married, buy a house, have children, get the children to school, retire, etc. And it seems that the running never ends. We spend all our lives running in all directions and for everything. We think that life is a freeway where we can move forward fast with no obstacles to the desired destination, but that is not always what is happening. Life is more like a back road in the countryside where we have to stop constantly to check and see if we are going in the right direction. On the road of life, it is important to stop, reevaluate, and restart often so we do not get lost along the way. This continuous stop and start will maintain us on the right path and toward the right destination. The stop-start method allows us to realign ourselves as we go so that we are certain we are moving in the right direction. Life is not diffe...

We all have been in situations or events where either us or someone else reacts strongly to what is happening or has been said. In fact, we or someone else around us reacts abruptly or softly so often in our daily lives that we do not even realize the frequency with which it is happening. As society is less inhibited physically, mentally, emotionally and verbally and is surrounded with more negativity, fear and stress; we trespass easily the boundaries of respect, tolerance and understanding in our daily interactions by even the most minimal conditions. Whether the reaction is favorable or not depends on the type of situation or event we are confronting and how we feel at the moment. Anything can trigger a reaction. A positive reaction can be triggered by either getting good news, or seeing a loved one, or meet an old friend that we have not seen for a while, or anything that touches us superficially or deeply in a positive manner. A negative reaction can be triggered by either a s...

History has proven that human beings moved from a nomadic life into more permanent communities or villages for reasons of food (to have steadier food supplies: being close to wild game, agriculture, and animal farming), security (to protect themselves or to be the aggressors), and beliefs (deities, Gods, and religions). As these communities grew larger and larger, they became today’s cities and megacities. In parallel, as communities were created and these communities grew larger and larger, people started to move away from nature and started to become more “civilized.” This phenomenon is clearly seen today all around the world. Civilization is defined as the stage of human social and cultural development and organization that is considered most advanced; the process by which a society or place reaches an advanced stage of social and cultural development and organization; and/or the comfort and convenience of modern life, regarded as available only in towns and cities. (Source: int...