Do you celebrate the things you do have?

How often do you turn back and really think about things that you already have? Often/not so often/rarely/hardly ever/never?

The other day I paused to think about it. From time to time you can hear people complaining about not being able to have this or to do that or about crappy life altogether.

Once I started thinking about the question of celebrating the things you have, I had realized that it might be a useful practice. First, I made a list of things that I take pride in, or which I am happy about. It turned out that I just cannot be unhappy about things I already have.

• Education

Thanks to my parents, my country and my never ceasing desire to learn as much as I can my education turned out just fine. I went to a great school, did my degree at an amazing university and took all extracurricular activities I wanted.

• Personality

Practical approach to things with a dab of optimism to it. Compartmentalization. Stubbornness (perhaps, a bit too much of it). I am grateful for personality I have, because it helped me a lot.  

• Relationship

Family is precious. My amazing husband. It’s just impossible not to celebrate those things.

• Work

I thought this one would be tricky, but it wasn’t. I never did what I learned to do, never quite used my degree. However, I did a bunch of other things and I am glad I did. It gave me knowledge, new skills and new perspectives. Hurray for diversity!

The list can go on and on. The main thing is to concentrate on good things and avoid bad ones. It will probably not change you overall way of thinking, but it is likely to improve your mood for a day. Worked for me, anyways!

One more good thing about this list: the older you get, the longer it becomes. 

My take on Almaty Puppet Festival 2012 opening parade

This Sunday in order to find and excuse for not cleaning the house, I escaped the place and headed towards Arbat, a pedestrian street in Almaty, where I encountered a parade of participants of Almaty Puppet Carnival 2012. This is a second international festival, which invites participants from all over the world.

By and large I am not a fan of puppets and circus, because I find them a little bit creepy. However, the parade on Arbat made me change my opinion about puppets and turned out to be a pleasant event. In addition, it instigated my interest towards this type of art. Due to the fact that not all participant of the Carnival took part in the parade, it made me wonder what else is there to see. The program of the festival looks quite full and diverse.

Parade on Arbat attracted quite a number of people. Most of them were families with young children, whose parents looked equally excited about seeing the puppets. In fact, this was not surprising, because diversity and unusualness of those puppets does impress. I found the fact that puppeteers seem to form an organic whole with their puppets. They move in synchronicity and look very much alike even if at first one cannot find any similarities.

How to decide what career to pursue?

In the past year I continually questioned myself about what I want to do with my life and particularly with my career. The main problem is that since I left school I have been involved in so many different things that I am not sure what my true calling is any more. In the end I have decided to unearth a psychologist in myself, which I am supposed to be according to the University Certificate, and do some digging into my personality followed by brainstorming.

First, I remembered reading somewhere that one cannot know what he or she likes to do unless they actually try it. It is sort of similar to food. How can you know what you like more banoffee pie or rocky road or a meringue if you never tried any of those? On top of that, there in an immeasurable number of other options that might turn out equally appealing. Well, it obvious one cannot try everything in the world. I suggest that the best option here is to stick to your strengths, interests, desires and available options. There are obviously many other factors as well, but one has to be realistic here. If one have some problems with their health or body complexion it would be really difficult to become an astronaut no matter how strong this desire might be.