Inspiration
Articles to inspire authentic living on the topics of resilience, spirituality, and self-growth with touches of storytelling, depth, and humor.
You can browse themes below
Do you want to explore other resources? Check my favorite books and podcasts
Love in Times of Cholera and Other Pandemics
Fast forward to 2020, while we are dealing with the paranoia of the COVID-19, we have all be instructed to stop touching, shaking hands and kissing altogether, as well as to avoid gatherings as much as possible. There is so much fear! We certainly need to take measures to avoid the spread of the disease as much as possible, but I can’t deny that I am even more worried for what it is fostering in our society,
The letter that makes all the difference
Recently, while reediting a novel I recently wrote, I noticed a mistake. It was just one letter, but it changed the complete meaning of the sentence. Of course, fixing it was very easy. My mind, however, had been shaken.
Happy valentine’s day!
Thinking today that in this era of fact checking, google, wikipedia, bias media, even Alexa, there is only one place where the facts are not as important as the perceived truths: relationships. In every relationship bonded by love and/or affection what we do and what we say does not hold most value if is not aligned with how it is perceived. We can be as good as we think we are, as loyal as we strive for, as affectionate as a teddy bear, but if the other end does not perceive it as that, then the message gets lost in translation. So for all the lovers out there, don’t be content with sending the right message. Make sure it arrives safely to your intended destination.
The Premise of Unconditional Love
For several weeks now there has been a topic circling in my head: unconditional love.
I have jotted several ideas, go back and forth in arguments and it has been hard to come up with an answer to my question: does loving unconditionally means supporting every single decision our loved ones make? Where is the line that divides unconditional from self-love?
If I put the mom’s hat on, I have to admit there seems to be no purer form of love than the one we profess our children, partly because it comes with the innate desire to protect like a lioness with all of our jaws and hoofs; to support and to encourage; to wanting to keep them away from suffering but to incite them to fly on their own.
The spouse’s hat is peculiar because it also means “I love you because we are a team and I promise to renew our vote everyday while keeping my ego as tamed as possible." Your heart swells because besides many other things, the sum is better than the parts.
I have always envisioned the friend’s hat as a steel helmet. I want to put my whole armor to fight with them whatever battle they are facing, regardless if I think there is a chance of winning or if the fight makes sense. That is the time when I know that a friendship is held by love and respect rather than circumstances.
But what happens when we don’t agree with our loved ones' decisions or opinions? Should our love pick up the pieces of our discordancies? Or should our love stand tall beside the tree of honesty?
Butterflies in the stomach
What a delicious feeling is to fall in love! Those first days when everything is a bliss, butterflies flutter in our stomach, we glow, the world seems brighter, we smile alone while remembering the object of our affection, time is eternal when we are apart from that person, time goes too fast when we are together.
That feeling is so wonderful, however....it is fleeting.
A few days ago I went to a very slow yoga class. And by slow I mean we only did like five poses. The rest of the class was just practicing awareness of every single move, of our breathing, of the space around us. That is when it hit me...mindfulness is the most similar thing to the state of infatuation.
Reflections
Thinking today that we never know how strong our heart is until we are tested by fear, how weak is it until we are tested by love and definitely how deep it is until we are able to experience and embrace both.