Inspiration
Articles to inspire authentic living on the topics of resilience, spirituality, and self-growth with touches of storytelling, depth, and humor.
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When Dreams come with an Expiration Date
“You are such a dreamer,” one of the funniest insults in the history of humanity. Considering that there hasn’t been a discovery, a life-altering innovation, an awe-inspiring enterprise that did not start as a dream makes me believe that those who ditch the dreamers suffer from a limited myopic view.
I love asking kids what they want to be when they grow up. Astronauts, teachers, doctors, parents, architects, you name it. Seeing a child’s face lights up when answering is the precise representation of a soul ignited by a dream. As we grow up and become more aware of life’s challenges, we tend to either put those dreams aside for more practical answers, forgive what it feels like to have that internal desire, or just succumb to the limited belief that life is too difficult.
Of Finding Our Purpose and Calling on Magic
I always joke that I have a Librarian Complex. Not only because I obviously love books - the actual physical books, not just reading – but also because I love to organize and categorize everything: information, ideas, feelings, facial features, personality types…you name it! Maybe it was because my brain worked that way that from a very young age I started seeing my life as a series of puzzle pieces, each representing things I was either good at or that I loved to do. One piece, for example, was my passion to create constantly. Another one was my interest in building communities. I was the child always organizing groups, bringing people together through common interests. Later on, when I had a short stint doing theater, I discovered that I really loved creating experiences where people felt transported. As I started growing up and all these pieces started fitting into each other I realized they contain my purpose. What a great feeling to start discovering what we came to do in this world! I feel my “Purpose Puzzle” is still evolving and I can identify pieces that still haven’t fit there, but I know they eventually will.
The last couple of years have offered me the opportunity of immense growth, although sometimes they have come like axes that have as well left me terribly bruised. The beauty of it is that it has brought me closer to find my purpose, and I am grateful for that.
Back in December an opportunity came for me out of the blue.
When the plane goes down
I don’t remember when was the first time I had a dream, but I can assume that I was still a little girl. Up until this day, my dreams can be quite entertaining, to the point I sometimes wake up exhausted because I have long, energetic visions that seem as I got to relive in my sleep a Tarantino movie on a nightly basis. Other times, these oneiric experiences are nothing short than pieces of wisdom. I receive messages for others, process complex problems and even get to meet cool people and places I have never met before. I also get repetitive dreams and continuing dreams, complicated stories that are paused when I open my eyes to be continued later as if I had just pressed some kind of mental pause.
Months ago, I had one of those dreams whose wisdom was meant for a friend but up until today its moral still haunts me.
The place where all dreams come true
When I was fifteen I discovered that sometimes life showers us with gifts that might come in an unrecognizable wrapper.
I was a - maybe unusual - serious teenager. Great student, president of the Student Government, was already studying painting so I could become the artist I wanted to be. I was basically a good, responsible girl. I don’t mean it in an arrogant way because the truth is that I was so mature that I feel I never got to experience what I was suppose to live during the precious years of adolescence. That was actually my handicap.
Stargazing was one of my favorite pastimes those days. Every night I would stay for hours in the window with my binoculars learning the name of the constellations with the help of an Astronomy book my mom had bought. Soon after I started learning about the stories that originated the stars’ names. That is how my obsession with Greek Mythology started.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
What do you want to be when you grow up? I have to admit I always enjoyed that question. The thing is that I was a weird kid. I just knew from a very young age what I wanted to be. Since I was 4, I would always have an adult ask me “so, what do you want to be when you grow up?” and I would say in my serious 4 going-on-forty’s voice “I want to be a painter and a writer” And they would say “You are cute. Do you mean like a teacher, or a mom, an astronaut. “No, I want to be a painter and a writer.”
I knew it in my heart, the same way I also knew that there are things I really, really wanted but they were not in my destiny. Like ballet, for example.
Today I was driving when a memory hit me like lighting. I was probably a sophomore or junior in college and as every Sunday we stayed for hours at the dining table talking about our weeks, our lives, our dreams. At that moment I was expressing my life plan: what I was going to study, where, timing to reach my goals, how I was going to make a living, what I was going to do in order to sustain my creative endeavors, etc. I had such a determined plan and I was proud of myself, I felt I was on a roll.
I wished upon a star....and I discovered magic
Looking at the stars: one of the favorite pastimes of my childhood. There was something always so incredible enchanting about it. That sense of us being so little among the universe, the fact that it always changed and at the same time remained eternal and universal. I could not even count the amount of hours I spent looking for a shooting star or a comet with the sole intention of making a wish, because it seemed that that rare appearance could only symbolize that something special was about to happen. Growing up we lived in a hill on the outskirts of a big city with the gorgeous view of The Avila, a mountain that at approximately 9 thousand feet high offered constant Kodak opportunities. But the best part of our location is that the altitude and the fact that it was far from commercial areas or highways offered a privilege point of view of the celestial map.
One day my mother brought home an astronomy book that I took possession of without even asking. I loved learning from the constellations, started recognizing the patterns. By learning the names of some of the stars I got intrigued by their mythological origins and that is how my love for Greek Mythology was born. Now that I think about it in retrospect, what drawn me into Mythology were the stories, the characters how it showed something universal about our human nature in a very magical setting.
Although long gone are the days when I though I needed to write a compilation of Greek mythology books and I don’t look at the stars with the same frequency, there is something still so incredibly moving when I look into the sky and see that stars in all of its glory. It is almost like a call to forget my mundane existence and blend with the universe.
Threading the path to our North Star
There are women whose dream is to have a shoe closet like the one Mr. Big built for Carry Bradshaw: the shoe displays, the lights, an universe of heels and colors and tons of accessories that are more decorative than functional. Although I would not oppose to a closet like that (as long as shoes are arranged by color), there are other places that provoque my soul to vibrate at a much higher frequency.
A bookstore and its sister, the old-book section at a library; an art supply store with tons of items to play with and create the mountain of work I will never get to actually produce. Lastly, and the strange thing is that this one does not connect with my career choices: a fabric store.
My heart always jumps when I see the rolls of fabric. As a kid in a candy store, the awe accumulates in my stomach and comes out in a sigh. Maybe it is that sense of not knowing where to start, the physical need to rejoice in the different textures that caress the tips of my fingers, or perhaps the sensation of getting drunk on color overload and creative patterns. My soul gets greedy, I want them all! So like in a labyrinth I get lost comparing all the textiles, imagining what I would do with each of them: beautiful gowns that I don’t have an occasion to wear, summer dresses, swimsuits, handbags, upholstery for that piece of junk I found at a tag sale.
Dreams
Thinking today that every trip begins with a dream. As with most things in life, even dreaming takes practice. Unfortunately, the people that have to travel the longer distance to make their dreams a reality, are the ones that constant hits and tribulations have deplenished their ability to move forward. Instead of blaming them for not having the focus, the will, the discipline to achieve their goals, we should walk with them until their capacity to dream strenghtens. Every soul deserves to be saved from the catastrophe of a dreamless life.