Several friends have approached me with questions about what to look for in a spouse.  My husband and I came up with a list of questions to ask yourself when getting to know someone.  Please add more to the list.

1. Do they give you the space and support to be the person you are supposed to be not the person they want you to be?
2. Are they kind?
3. Do they create unity around them (what is their relationship with friends and family)?
4. Do they bring out the best in you?
5. Do you communicate well together?
6. What are the things about them that annoy you or you don’t like and can you live with those?
7. What are the spiritual qualities you see in them?
8. Do they put their faith at the centre of their lives?
9. Are they in a learning mode and are they trying to overcome their challenges?
10. How do they deal with challenges?
11. What is their attitude towards life? Are they optimistic, positive thinkers?
12. Do they see stumbling blocks or do they see stepping stones? Do they see the problem or do they see the opportunity?
13. Do they bring you peace of mind?

I would love to hear your thoughts and if you have more ideas of what to look for please post them below.

Today I had a great time making the finishing touches on 3 of the handmade cards for orders I received for the Birds of Love limited edition. Creating the specialty cards for the limited edition has truly been a joy. The process is an exciting and lengthy one as I make them from scratch. Each card is unique as there are no two that are alike. I never know what it will look like till the end so I enjoy the process of discovering how the creation will unfold. I use a simple technique with paint to make them and once they’re dry I mount them on gold paper with a quote from Abdu’l-Baha from the Birds of Love book. The quote is: ‘What a power is love! It is the most wonderful, the greatest of all living powers.’ What inspires me is beauty and adorning these precious words with dignity so I wanted the cards to be unique in their style and design. Here is a photo of a few of them that I sent out today for someone who plans on giving the Birds of Love gift set to his wife on their 30th anniversary! For more info on the limited edition click on this link.

I am pleased to announce that my latest song ‘Love is Patient’ is available for free download!

‘Love is Patient’ is one of the songs that is included on my most recent release entitled, ‘Birds of Love‘.  This song is inspired by the well-known Bible quote and has often been used for wedding ceremonies for centuries.  I felt that a CD on the theme of love would not be complete without the timeless classic bible quote from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.  So far the feedback has been very positive.

You can listen to ‘Love is Patient’ below:
Love is Patient from the album Birds of Love:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Please feel free to download the song by clicking here. I hope you enjoy!

Here are the lyrics to the song:

“Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”  ~1 Corinthians 13:4-8

I look forward to sharing more about how this piece was created in my next blog.

I would like to wish you and your family joy and happiness during this time of the Baha’i Festival of Ridvan!

Last week I attended a highly inspirational conference on how to build a united world civilization. I had the opportunity to perform a piece from my Fire and Gold album, ‘The Bird Which Soareth’ with the video in the background for the first time.
I was also able to share the Birds of Love CD and book with a large group of people who attended the conference and the response overwhelmed me. I really didn’t know what to expect and was delighted when the first person I shared it with wanted to purchase 5 copies! I later realized that would disappoint some people later when I ran out of copies… So many people expressed what a unique and useful gift it would be for their friends getting married. One gentleman was proud to tell me that he had bought one as a Valentines gift for his wife and had already shipped it to her.

I hadn’t anticipated that the Birds of Love gift set would run out within the first day of the conference! I had underestimated the wonderful response I would get. We also sold out on the single CDs that we made available for Birds of Love (without the book) – a lot of people commented how it was lovely to have music on the theme of love and marriage.

I also performed ‘Blessing for Women’ from the Birds of Love album and was happy to be able to share that with everyone. I will be sharing more about this song in my next blog along with a video…

One of the most moving highlights for me was during one of the breaks at the conference. I bumped into a friend whose 2 year old daughter was singing ‘Blessed is the Spot’ and ‘I adjure Thee’ from my 2nd album, ‘Melodies of the Nightingale for the Family‘. Her mom told me that she sings the pieces from the CD often and listens to it everyday. Listening to a 2 year old singing prayers so beautifully was truly inspiring! Many friends commented how Fire and gold has helped them through difficult times and assisted them in memorizing the words. Lately I have been feeing so blessed to be able to share what I love to do with others and am so touched by how people have been deeply affected by the music.

Thank you for making all my efforts so rewarding and appreciated! I feel truly inspired to do more, and have already been working on exciting new music even though Birds Of Love has just been released!

I’ve been married for thirteen years and I often try to remind myself of how precious married life is. It is easy to take it for granted sometimes as we see with so many marriages that fall apart everywhere. Getting divorced these days has become so common that it is hardly given a second thought anymore. Often people enter into marriage without much consideration and split up on a whim!

About a year ago, Tarry, my husband and I were asked to give a talk on ‘Enriching Marriage and Family Life’ to a large gathering. We felt very humbled by this task and weren’t really sure what to share especially to an audience where some of our friends were married far longer than we were. So we decided to create a booklet of quotations with questions. We divided everyone into smaller groups so they could have discussions focused around the theme of marriage. It turned out to be very useful, enjoyable and enlightening for many of those who attended.

I am attaching the booklet we made in case you would like to use it or share it with your friends. At the end of it, we have included some fun questions for couples to ask one another. Enjoy!

Marriage Booklet

I also look forward to sharing my new CD on the theme of love which I plan to release in January 2009! You can read more about it here.

Thought of the Day: “The true marriage… is this, that husband and wife should be united both physically and spiritually, that they may ever improve the spiritual life of each other, and may enjoy everlasting unity….” -Abdu’l-Baha

I spent several days last week in Vancouver with my producer, Jarome, recording several songs for my upcoming CD on the theme of marriage. It will include a number of songs using quotations from various sources for the lyrics. I am excited about this project as I believe that the diversity of sources (which include Native American sayings, a Biblical passage and quotations from the Baha’i Writings) will help the CD reach a wider audience than my previous music.

The first day we recorded the vocals for one of the tracks which will be called ‘Blessing for Women’. One of the challenges for a singer is to be completely at ease in the studio in order to achieve optimal results when recording. As I have my own small studio in our house in Beijing, I had the luxury of recording most of the vocals for ‘Fire and Gold’ at home. For me it is easier to let go when I am by myself, so I was curious to see if I could attain the same vocal performance away from home in Jarome’s professional studio. Of course, the quality of his equipment is so much better than mine, so I was determined to get it right while I was there. I am happy to say that with Jarome’s encouragement, patience and guidance, I was not only able to fulfill the standards I had set for myself, but I was even able to surpass my expectations!

Has there ever been a time when you were challenged to achieve a lofty goal and surpassed your expectations? I would love to hear about it.