Nectarine tree, persica lezvis, is a variety of peach, known for its smooth rind and its sweet taste. There’s a general belief that the word nectarine comes from the word nectar, a fabled saccharine drink of the ancient Greek gods with a pleasant taste. This is quite strange, as nectarines imported in Greece at a later time and they called apple peaches, while the word nectarine is met for the first time in the English dictionary in 1616. There is another…

It is one of the strangest economic stories in European history – an early economic bubble. In the 17th century, the price of tulip bulbs raised extremely extraordinary levels. Merchants made fortunes in one night and then lost everything, as tulips price suddenly hit rock bottom. It’s still a mystery why tulips, and no other flower, became an objective of such a mania. Yet, this beautiful Asian flower was always related to high values, like beauty, wealth, even holiness, due…

“The worst lies are the lies we tell ourselves. We live in denial of what we do, even what we think. We do this because we’re afraid. We fear we will not find love, and when we find it we fear we’ll lose it. We fear that if we do not have love we will be unhappy.”Richard BachMany studies and research have been made about lying, deceit, and self-deception. Why we lie and the ways we deceive; why we make stories to justify…

“So if decline to accept your abuse, does it not then still belongs to you?” Buddha You think you are a positive person, even though inside you there is a critical voice that you always try to mute. You try to act gently and with understanding. You want to flow like water in this world, not to battle without a significant reason, not to see everywhere competetitors or enemies. You think yourself as a happy person.  And, then one day…

I know two forms of indecisiveness from self-practice; when one can’t decide for a long time and when he finally does it, his decision is made under pressure and out of time. And, when one makes a decision emotionally or impulsively, before getting or ignoring the required information. Indecisiveness has many causes that turn out to be different sides of the same coin; the coin of fear. Fear of losing, fear of pain, fear of mistake, fear of responsibility, fear of not be perfect, fear of disappointing…

“Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck”. Dalai Lama I can imagine at least a hundred of book titles that promise to reveal one of the biggest secrets: how to get what you want. It’s like a cake recipe. Everyone claims that have the perfect recipe, but in the end all have almost the same materials, only proportions change. The result depends upon the same factors: good materials, well-functioning devices, excellent and precise…

“Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck”. Dalai Lama I can imagine at least a hundred book titles that promise to reveal one of the biggest secrets: how to get what you want. It’s like a cake recipe. Everyone claims that have the perfect recipe, but in the end, all have almost the same materials, only proportions change. The result depends upon the same factors: good materials, well-functioning devices, excellent and precise performance,…

“I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights”. Maya Angelou Is it a coincidence? All playwrights and novelists from ancient Greek tragedies to contemporary movies and theatrical plays use stressful and extreme events to reveal their characters. Imitating real life, writers know very well that circumstances are the triggering events to bring to light our characteristics, our dispositions. Chancy events,…

“Nothing is more fragile than the surface”. Gilles Deleuze

“Absence, the highest form of presence”. James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

“Black lake, black boat, two black, cut-paper people. Where do the black trees go that drink here?”Sylvia Plath, Crossing the WaterRed brownish tones and creamy highlights are sepia photo characteristics. It gives them an old and archive impression. Sepia was the color made by cuttlefish’s ink. It comes from the ancient Greek word for cuttlefish, “σηπία”. Sepia ink was commonly used from ancient times, by Greek and Romans, until the painters of the 19th century. In the late 19th century, an iron-silver photography…