What do you say when the words escape your mind? when it goes in circles and land nowhere? when they long to come out but don’t even know how? I’ve been feeling that way, with a great need to write but not knowing what to say.

Writing to me is like breathing -just like a friend of mine said- and yet it has been hard to do. Sometimes you have to sit with your emotions for a while before something worthwhile emerges and I believe that’s where I have been lately, percolating the many facets of my mind, heart and soul. Perhaps you have felt the same way and preferred to listen instead of talking, reading instead of writing and meditating instead of preaching.

The more time it passes the more I panic that I won’t find a way out, that my words somehow will lose its strength, that I won’t know how to best express what lies within. I can’t let that happen because without sharing my words I feel like dying inside, my emotions will burst the seams that keeps me whole and then it will be hard to mend the fragments of my being. It is the way I give myself, a way to be and stay sane, to connect with me and those around me and love me and then by consequence love others.

I have fallen in a trap of expectations and perhaps that caused this draining mood. I’m letting go and embracing each moment as it comes but it doesn’t come easy. The more I do it the better it gets and who knows what I will experience then but whatever it is I will embrace it, love it and treasure it because it won’t be forced or expected but given freely as a gift.

####
Clary Lopez, author of Simplicity, Richness of Life

I’ve been drawn to read a lot of memoirs lately, and a whole selection of them are being published as we speak. I’m not the only one who is enjoying page after page these books; I guess it is our hunger to know what others do in situations similar to ours or the desire to imagine what we would do if we had the chance to live our own desires and make our dreams a reality.

These are the books I have been reading in this genre:
Eat, Pray, Love
The Invitation
and today I bought The Sharper the Knife, The Less You Cry

I would like to share with you the poem on The Invitation that is the base for this book, I think you’ll love it. Tell me what you think.

The Invitation
Oriah Mountain Dreamer
Canadian Teacher and Author

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dreams
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon…
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your
fingers and toes
without cautioning us to
be careful
be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.

If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand on the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after a night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the center of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

© 1995 by Oriah House, From “Dreams Of Desire”
Published by Mountain Dreaming, 300 Coxwell Avenue, Box 22546, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4L 2A0
Please click here for more information about Oriah’s book.

I visited Paulo Coelho’s blog and he posed an interesting question to its readers. It has to do with our thoughts on aging and how people today seem to look and do things young people do. The reality is that we are more empowered over our body and mind as we age and that helps us stay young longer. I’ve heard many times that people feel very young inside and that many times reflects on the outside. Science is also helping us along and if we work out and watch what we eat that will help us even more.

I don’t feel my age and at this point in my life I feel more vital and energetic than I did when I was twenty. Confidence has a lot to do with our looks as well and that is something that we gain with life experience. But what I would like to know are your thoughts on aging as well, feel free to go to Paulo’s blog and answer his question or if you prefer let me know here. Either way it is a chance to share with others how you have handled this issue and how good or bad are you doing in the process.

This morning I began my day just like any other day; I check my e-mails then check what’s new on Yahoo! and blogs around. This blog entry just got my attention, how many of us are living the life we imagined 2, 5, 10 years ago? Do we even bother to reflect upon it?

“For some, life is something to experience to the fullest. For others, life is nothing more than a blip in time. And to others, life is something they are constantly trying to escape. I don’t know what group most people fall into, but I would not be surprised if most fall into the last two groups. If this is true, at what point do individuals stop trying to live life and just move into the daily grind? At what point do individuals stop imagining a life worth living? When do they just give up on their dreams?” (Excerpt from the blog)

I believe we begin looking at life as something to be experienced to the fullest, then slowly life becomes nothing more than a blip in time and for some people end up being something they try to escape.

I compare it to a riptide that if we don’t know how to handle it, it may not only take us into deeper waters but will drown us in the process.

Life is pretty much like knowing how to handle the riptides; first we need to know nature and identify our strengths and weakness against it. We have power over many things in life but we need to how to exercise that power to our advantage. I know that many times we sabotage ourselves either by lack of knowledge, fear or just plain lack of self-love.

In order for anything to be created (our life included) we need to imagine it, it is all in the mind and our ideas way before we get busy creating our handiwork. It is a shame many of us don’t realize we have a say in the many facets that shapes our life. We can’t control all circumstances but we can do wonders with them. It is like driving through an unknown town or country, we don’t know how the road is going to be and as it present itself to us on the way to our destination we travel it to the best of our ability.

I will have to strongly agree to what this article says about the many aspects of our life and what it ultimately does to our happiness. Career, work, family, friends and relationships it all impact us in the overall make up of our life. We definitely need to simplify it all and the way to do it is by keeping in mind what is really essential in our life and eliminating what is not. One way to do it is by choosing career, work and relationships that uplift our mind and spirit. I believe that it is only when we do what we love and spend time with whom truly love us for who we are and not for who they want us to be or do for them, that we really start living the life we imagine.

Are you living the life you imagined?

I guess it happens to the best of us, we go around life doing what we are supposed to for others and then even more if we love them. But do people tend to take for granted those attentions? I think we all do. I say we, because I’m sure I have done it at times but when it is done to me it is very hard to come up with a long line of excuses to justify the act. I try -I promise- to look the other way, to keep busy with other things, to understand that work, family, studies and everything else can come in the way but in time I have to accept that maybe I’m not being appreciated like I should.

Time to step aside, to give some room and to see what they do to demonstrate if I have a place in their life or not, that’s it. It’s not that I stop caring or loving, it’s just a moment to let things get back to normal. What I give is usually what I want to get back even though I realize it must come from their heart.

I guess all comes up to self-value myself and not be afraid to said it or expect it. When that moment comes I accept is not easy, but is even harder to stay there waiting hoping that they guess my needs. Not too many people can read minds so it is my duty to be clear and to the point, even though I also believe that at times silence can speak volumes both ways. It’s a matter of intuition and who I’m dealing with and for how long I’ve known them.

Let me tell you, outside of business calls I don’t call that many people, I can count them with only one hand. I like to dedicate myself and make relationships grow but I can’t do that with a lot of individuals, so I hand pick them. I can’t also do it if the other person don’t do the same with me, it’s a two-way street. That’s why I say that “I like to travel on a two-way street” and if it’s not I might as well get on a one-way street.

I hope you understand what I’m saying here; don’t take anyone for granted and don’t let others take you for granted either.

“Fear is a question: What are you afraid of, and why? Just as the seed of health is in illness, because illness contains information, your fears are a treasure house of self-knowledge if you explore them.”
Marilyn Ferguson

“Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.”
George Sand

Treasures can be so many things in our life. For some are tangible items they can see and touch and to others the ability to feel and live certain experiences in their life. To many of us it is a combination of both the physical and spiritual nature of a treasure. Treasure is something of great value to us. We should learn, most of all, to appreciate at least one treasure in our life; ourselves. It is the base from which all the other treasures are ultimately found. I’ve come to the conclusion that in order to find my own treasures I need to believe I deserve them and then I have to work hard to claim them.

If fear is the house of self-knowledge then I have a lot to explore. The question is what do I fear and why?

When it comes to identify our fears and find the reasons why, it is not an easy thing to do. We are used to move along life trying the best we can to not go too deep within. But in the long run we are urged to do so because it is impossible to find any satisfaction in superficiality. Living in the upper layers of our being never satisfies the human soul. We were created to experience deep and meaningful relationships with ourselves and others. Sometimes we settle for part of what was meant for us and as the time goes by our life becomes unbearable.

Finding our treasure it is ultimately the necessary action we all need to take in life. It is a proactive degree of responsibility and respect to our human nature. We all have treasures to search, encounter and hold within our hands and heart.

In learning “how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness,” we learn the art of living. Thinking back on the things that shaped my life I realized that whenever something took the ideal form to give my life greater significance was because I gave, lose or acquired in the right manner. Love somehow manages to transform all our actions into the right way to do things. It detaches us from our selfishness and helps us give ourselves in a sincere manner. I can’t ever get over the way I act when I act with love, I’m a new creature, and there is an infinite interior softness deep within my soul.

I truly believe that anything in life begins with a decision. Some people and circumstances come into our life to help us along, but it is our personal determination to let it come into our life what makes it our own. With that decision we are also called to act; our eyes in our “treasure,” on the journey we must walk in order to find it, to face the challenges and then in looking for ways to preserve it.

###
Clary Lopez, author of Simplicity, Richness of Life

Today all the TV stations, radios and newspapers will remind us of this tragic day seven years ago. I just wonder if we should continue to dwell in the past or just honor those who tragically died that day in a better manner.

I don’t forget that day and remember the lost not only today but any other day of the year. I just can’t understand how dwelling in such a painful day helps anyone. There is no need to relive those moments we lived seven years ago with a display of the events year after year, to me that is torture specially to those who were directly affected. This is the reason why I’m not even putting a picture with this entry, do we need to see those images again?

Today I will take the time to remember the lost and their families in prayer, then I will pray that the nation doesn’t forget that it was founded “under God” and release to Him the turmoil of our hearts and ask for its protection.

In my house there will be no TV watching to rekindle painful memories, we must look forward and not back. I believe we have learned our lesson from all of this, to dwell in it will be giving the terrorist exactly what they wanted; to get us on our knees, to tear apart our heart, for some of us to stir hate and vengeance, to disturb our peace. We should not fall into their mind games. We are not like them.

A few days passed by and I can’t find a theme to write about, usually it is something I want to share with you; an experience, a question, an opinion, a dream or desire but lately I’m just floating above myself waiting for something to happen. That time hasn’t come. So in order not to wait too long before I lose you, I decided to tell you what is going through me.

I’m definitely attracting like minds to me and that is a consolation, for a while it gets really lonely if I can’t find people who speak the same language I do. At the same time I’m finding myself in a deep reflection mode in order to find my path to enlightenment. I need to make more time to quiet my mind and for some reason -with all the responsibilities and worries- it has been impossible. I need the sea, today I’ll go and seat in front of it. I can’t wait any longer. I guess I need to do what my dad taught me; “stand before it, give it all your worries and problems and let it carry them faraway from you.” he told me one day while I was contemplating the waves come in the shore.

We all need those moments of silence where not only we can be with ourselves but we can connect to the mind of God. Nobody said it will be easy but it will be worth it. Without silence our mind and soul grows weary.

Do you have moments of silence? Why or why not? What do you get from them?

I have to admit it, I am not big on women holding big offices in government. I listened to Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech and I have to admit she seems like a good person but my intuition tells me otherwise. Perhaps I’m still thinking about the fiasco with the first Puerto Rican governor who put the whole island into a halt because she needed to get all the crap out of the government offices. It was true, there is a lot of corruption there but you don’t stop everything in order to clean house, the result was a disaster for the economy of Puerto Rico and still to this day it hasn’t got back to normal.

Women operate at a different level and their way of thinking is more sensitive to the people, we are able to analyze problems and situations from a different perspective which at times can be good. But at the same time that we are capable to rise to such high offices I worry about the message that it will send to women in general. To me family is the most important and powerful endeavor a women can overtake, to put a job before that it can’t be good for them. There is no doubt that we are entitled to develop our gifts and talents to the fullest and that eventually our kids will leave us since they are not our own, but at the ages that Sarah’s kids are right now they need her more than ever.

I don’t agree with the critics on her morals standards and how good she is implementing them in her own family when they speak about her daughter’s decision to be sexually active. We can’t be judged by our children’s actions since everyone is free to do what they please. Sarah taught her what she was supposed to, but there is no way you can control another individual. I have taught my children the same way she has but there comes a point when their actions are not longer our responsability but theirs, that is what we are called to do, to raise responsible individuals. I admire her for supporting her daughter and not force her into having an abortion.

Another message I see coming from all of these women in power deal is men position in society. I appreciate men who support their wives in their goals and dreams but when I see a man holding a baby in his arms while his wife is speaking to the nation I see a role reversal that it is very hard to get used to. Mr. Mom is getting more and more popular these days and even though I believe in the father’s involvement in raising their children the image of them being sustained by their wives while they stay home with the kids is not for me. I know it is necessary in a case like this for the well being of the kids but the role reversal is depriving kids of a very important component for their development, their mom’s nurturing.

I have a lot to sort out; from my beliefs and values to the best candidate to provide the kind of leadership and representation to my ideals for this nation are. Our vote should be a reflection of who we are and what we stand for, we are giving power to individuals to perform certain jobs for us and our country and we need to be careful who we choose.

What is your opinion?