{"id":7,"date":"2015-03-23T03:50:14","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T03:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kathrynberlabooks.wordpress.com\/?p=7"},"modified":"2015-03-23T03:50:14","modified_gmt":"2015-03-23T03:50:14","slug":"falling-in-love-again-originally-published-9182011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kathrynberlabooks.com\/index.php\/2015\/03\/23\/falling-in-love-again-originally-published-9182011\/","title":{"rendered":"Falling in Love Again (originally published September 18, 2011)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nSHE arrived in New York from her native Afghanistan 30 years ago, leaving behind a country scarred by colonialism, tribal lords and fundamentalists for whom religion became a vessel of hatred.\u00a0Armed only with an unbeaten spirit, she met and married the man who would become her rock in her newly adopted homeland.\u00a0 A savvy and visionary mother-in-law convinced her to match her remarkable cooking abilities with what must surely arrive in the future\u2026 an American desire to learn more about this newly arrived immigrant community through their cuisine.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2011 when bolanis can be found at any Whole Foods and Costco.\u00a0 The sales rep you speak to in Costco who \u201cpromises to change your life\u201d with \u201cjust one taste\u201d is most likely one of her sons, or one of their friends.\u00a0 Business is so good that another factory is opening in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

When my husband asked a son \u201cWhat sport did you play in high school?\u201d he got a bemused but good-natured response.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t have time for sports in school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every weekend, this small family split up to cover all the local farmers\u2019 markets, spreading the word and selling their wares.\u00a0 When they weren\u2019t at the farmers\u2019 markets, they were helping with preparation.<\/p>\n

She could certainly afford to take it a little bit easier but that\u2019s not in her nature and that\u2019s not how she got to where she is today.\u00a0 She walks with a little difficulty caused by bad knees from years of being on her feet.\u00a0 She has adopted two more sons to add to her already large family.\u00a0 Her generosity to neighbors is amazing as we discovered early one morning after her 24-hour shift at the factory. She arrived in pajamas bearing mountains of food for a party she couldn\u2019t attend out of sheer exhaustion.<\/p>\n

HE was born in a town in southern China and\u00a0separated from his family at the age of eleven when he was sent to live in a big city for reasons his young mind could not comprehend.\u00a0 Misery hounded him until his high school years when a teacher finally broke through and helped him discover his life\u2019s purpose.
\nPutting aside all thoughts of self-pity, he worked his way to the University of Hawaii where he eventually earned advanced degrees in social work. He knew that his life\u2019s work must somehow be funded and so he took a chance and launched the Prince of Peace Enterprises with all the savings he had.<\/p>\n

Today, \u00a0Prince of Peace is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area with offices in New York and Los Angeles.\u00a0 Their top products include Tiger Balm, Nutella, and Prince of Peace chocolates, teas, ginseng, soap, honey and more.<\/p>\n

But business is just a means to an end and, true to the epiphany he had in high school he uses his profits to benefit American and Chinese society. An example is an orphanage he established and funds in mainland China, the only one allowed by the Chinese government to be staffed and run by United States citizens.\u00a0\u00a0 It provides full time care for over a hundred mentally and physically disabled children under the age of six as well as rehabilitation services for other abandoned and disabled children.\u00a0 The facility and its professional care is all state of the art.<\/p>\n

He works on a 24 hour clock and appears to require very little sleep.\u00a0 When you catch him on a walk, the smile on his face convinces you that if there is a secret to life, he has discovered it.<\/p>\n

THEY came to the United States from India to attend college and never looked back.\u00a0 Brilliant and unafraid of hard work, they looked about and wondered at the possibilities in this new land.\u00a0 It was only a matter for them to chart their direction and their destination.\u00a0 They knew how to take care of the rest of it.<\/p>\n

A growing business in a field which I don\u2019t understand (telecommunications software?) has them opening a new office in a new state and hiring new employees from all over these United States.\u00a0 This is in addition to their already existing offices in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n

An evening spent with them, husband and wife, promises to be intellectually stimulating and entertaining.\u00a0 Don\u2019t expect to be let off the hook with a simple answer to a soul-searching question, but be prepared to laugh for they brought their rich senses of humor with them when they left their native India.<\/p>\n

A comment romanticizing multi-generational living in India will bring an admonishment from them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lived like that because we couldn\u2019t afford to live otherwise.\u00a0 Nothing romantic about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She, he and they all came from ancient empires, cultures already antique when George Washington was chopping down his cherry tree.\u00a0 While our nation is floundering economically, she, he and they are putting hundreds of Americans to work.<\/p>\n

And, like the rest of us, they have incorporated their own personal stories into the skills and contributions to our country as a greater whole.\u00a0 But they still have the love in their eyes when they speak\u2026the love of this country they chose for their home.<\/p>\n

We all have the blood of the adventurer coursing through our veins. Even the Native Americans had to make the choice of crossing the Bering Strait land bridge if scientists are to be believed.\u00a0 But I think that many of us have forgotten what my neighbors know so well.<\/p>\n

In the course of a long marriage when two partners become so accustomed to the other that they find themselves taking that special relationship for granted, they can always reach for their memories to appreciate why they fell in love so many years ago.<\/p>\n

Those of us who are not first generation immigrants don\u2019t have that ability to remember why we fell in love with this country and what strong magnet drew us to its shores.<\/p>\n

So talk to an immigrant and listen to\u00a0her tales.\u00a0 With that, I\u00a0promise\u00a0that you will fall in love again.\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SHE arrived in New York from her native Afghanistan 30 years ago, leaving behind a country scarred by colonialism, tribal lords and fundamentalists for whom religion became a vessel of hatred.\u00a0Armed only with an unbeaten spirit, she met and married the man who would become her rock in her newly adopted homeland.\u00a0 A savvy and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynberlabooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynberlabooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynberlabooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynberlabooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynberlabooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynberlabooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynberlabooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynberlabooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynberlabooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}