ATTRACT BLESSINGS AND RISING HIGHER

IKEA - RAMADAN SPECIAL

IKEA at the Avenues Mall, has set up a lovely tent with seating, they have interesting daily meals during the evening after breaking of fast. The menu differs for each day. I enjoyed their new new furniture collection, especially the dining and kitchen.

POMEGRANATE THE AMAZING FRUIT - INTERESTING FACTS AND SYMBOLISM

I had posted earlier on the health benefits of Pomegranates. And now let me share some interesting facts and beliefs about pomegranates.

* There are 760 varities of pomegranates!

* In Spanish, Granada means pomegranate. City of Granada is named after this lovely fruit.

* There is a belief that exists among some scholars that it was pomegranate rather than apple that tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden

* In Latin, pomegranate means apple with many seeds. (Pomum - apple; granatus - seeded)

* It's known as a lucky fruit. A supersition goes like this - If you make a wish before you eat a pomegranate, your wish would come true!

* Pomegranate festival is held in Goychay in Azarbaijan annually. Cuisine made with pomegranates, music and dance being the highlight.

* Pomegranate has a nickname - Jewel of Winter

* Pomegranate plants can grow up to 15 to 18  feet in height anad live to about 100 to 150 years in the wild, and 300 years or more in cultivated gardens.  They bear fruit in the second or third year.

* Afghanistan is the world's cradle for pomegranate cultivation, where they have more varities of pomegranate trees than anywhere in the world!

* When you cut open Jumbo pomegranates of Afghanistan, the seeds are ruby red and juicy.

* Iran is the world's largest cultivator and exporter of pomegranates

* Bedana pomegranate is classified as 'seedless' as it has very soft seeds inside and they are cultivated and used purely for making juice.

* Pomegranate is the national symbol of Armenia

* In Malaysia, pomegranate is called 'Buah Delima', meaning ruby fruit

* The juice of pomegranate will stain anything!

* This fruit is actually a berry!

* Ancient Egyptians buried their dead with pomegranates for eternal life

* Greeks break open pomegranate during wedding celebration.

* In mythology and religion, pomegranates have been a symbol of fertility, bounty,  marriage, abundance, and propersity.

* Buddhists consider pomegranate a symbol of eternal peace and is one of the three blessed fruits besides peaches and citron.

* Excavation of early bronze age (3500 - 2000 B.C.) holds the belief that pomegranate was one of the first cultiavated fruits by man.

* Chinese eat candied pomegranate seeds for good luck.

* In China, special pomegranate paintings with the fruit half open showing the seeds, are given as wedding gifts, as its symbolizes happiness and fertility.

* In Turkey, pomegranates are a symbol of good luck representing money and prosperity.

* In mythology, the pomegranate was associated with three goddesses, Hera (abundance and prosperity), Aphrodite (beauty and love) and Demeter (harvest and fecundity).

* Pablo Picasso's painting 'La Grenade'  capture beauty of pomegranates. Many eminent artists have painted this wonderous fruit.

* Shakespeare wrote of nightingales singing on pomegranate trees in Romeo and Juliet

* Let us go early to the vineyards to see the pomegranates are in blook - there I shall give you my love - Song of Solomon, 7:12.

PAIN AND AGONY CAN BRING LIFE TO A STANDSTILL

Oh no, no, no...not pain and agony of the emotional kind. It's physical. For the last several days, my life came to a halt, a stand still, frozen with pain and agony from a sprain in my upper back. I can't remember when was the last time I experienced such excrutiating pain accompanied by the agony of it! Pain and agony are inseparable - be it physical or emotional you see. They visit our lives as co-joined twins! .

Now I can breath a sigh of relief, that I feel better than before. Some of the pain still lingers. But that's okay I guess, I can manage... I don't want to be ill during the weekend. The strange enligtenment we get  from aftermath of physical pain is, a realization - 'how important and valuable our health is'.