Wednesday, December 30, 2009

RECOGNITION: THE STONES OF TIME AND CIRCUMSTANCES

As the end of the year is just a very few and short days away, and after the joy of Christmas celebration of God born unto us for our salvation, I want to share, concisely and precisely, the messages that dear friends shared with me, joined in prayer for one another and for the needed and confused of this world.

For this time and this time alone, let´s keep away the analysis and concerns. Let´s meditate over the contents of the messages, and pray.



THE STONES

They are the time and the circumstances, but it´s not the time or the circumstances what matters but us and our attitude towards them.

The distracted keeps on stumbling upon them, all the time.

The violent use them as projectiles to attack instead of contributing to the collective well being.

The entrepreneur builds with them.

The tired working ones use them to sit and relax before keeping on going.

They are toys and fun for the children.

David, with one killed Goliath and saved the day for his people.

And Michelangelo made the most beautiful sculpture out of it.

In all these cases the difference was not the stone itself but man´s attitude, will and decisions.

There are no “stones” on our path that can stop us or can´t be used for our betterment, growth and future…

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

ACCEPTANCE: FORGIVENESS! THE NEED FOR IT!

There is an overwhelming and omnipresent social malady nowadays. Intolerance, derived from an irrational self-conviction of possessing, in exclusivity, the truth and the not allowed to be challenged right to impose it over, despite any and all injustices or abuse committed by ourselves or our own influential people.

Consequently, forgiveness based on an adequate and rightful comprehension of what is really going on, disappears from the emotional map of conscience and behavior.

And hatred and violence sprout everywhere, breaking into un-piece able fragments all alternatives or opportunities for unselfish love and mutual support and understanding.

This is the subject of the following message. Let´s consider it, make it our own and meditate on it, hopefully leading ourselves to the necessary changes of beliefs, convictions and behavior!



FORGIVENESS

Forgiveness is an expression of love. Forgiveness liberates us breaking up the ties that embitters our soul and sickens our body.

It does not mean we agree with what happened, or that we approve it.

Forgiving does not mean minimizing what happened or accepting that the person who did hurt us had reasons to do it.

It simply means leaving behind those negative thoughts that caused us pain or anger.

Forgiveness is based upon the acceptance of what happened.

The lack of forgiveness keeps us tied to the people by way of resentment. It keeps us chained to it.

The lack of forgiveness is the deadliest poison for the spirit because it neutralizes our emotional resources.

Forgiving is proclaiming that we can do it and we must renew this decision every day that passes.

Very often we are the most important person we have to forgive because of the many things that weren´t as we thought they should be and anyway we did them.

The forgiving declaration is the key for our inner liberation.

How many people do we resent because of what they did to us? Who are those we believe we won´t be able to forgive?

Are we infallible and it is for this reason only that we can´t forgive other people´ mistakes or misdeeds?

Let´s forgive so we can be forgiven! Remember that we will be measured the same way we measure others and find them lacking!

UNDERSTANDING THE TRAIN OF LIFE: LIVING WHILE ON RIDING IT!

If we open ourselves to an inner introspective review of why and how we have lived, and why and how those who surround us react to our behavioral attitudes.

If we do so then we will understand what life really is, and what it means, even if we deliberately close our eyes to everything that could negatively affect our understanding and decisions on how to live it.



THE TRAIN OF LIFE

Life on the train: A while back, I read that life compares to a train ride or a series of train rides.

Life is like a train ride. We get on. We ride. We get off. We get back on and ride some more.

There are accidents and there are delays. At certain times there are surprises.


Some of these will translate into great moments of joy. Some will result in profound sorrow.

When we are born and we first board the train, we meet people whom we think will be with us for the entire journey. Those people are our parents!

Sadly, this is far from the truth. Our parents are with us for as long as we absolutely need them.

They too have journeys they must complete. We live on with the memories of their love, affection, friendship, guidance and their ever presence.

There are others who board the train and who eventually become very important to us, in turn.

These people are our brothers, sisters, friends and acquaintances, whom we learn to love, and cherish.

Some people consider their journey like a jaunty tour. They will just go merrily along.

Others will encounter many upsets, tears, losses on their journey. Others still, will linger on to offer a helping hand to anyone in need.

Some people on the train will leave an everlasting impression when they get off.

Some will get on and get off the train so quickly, they will scarcely leave a sign that they ever traveled along with us or ever crossed our path.

We will sometimes be upset that some passengers, whom we love, will choose to sit in another compartment and leave us to travel on their own.

Then again, there’s nothing that says we can’t seek them out anyway. Nevertheless, once sought out and found, we may not even be able to sit next to them because that seat will already be taken.

That’s okay… everyone’s journey will be filled with hopes, dreams, challenges, setbacks and goodbyes. We must strive to make the best of it… no matter what.

We must constantly strive to understand our travel companions and look for the best in everyone.

Remember that at any moment during our journey, any one of our travel companions can have a weak moment and be in need of our help.

We too may vacillate or hesitate, even trip… hopefully we can count on someone being there to be supportive and understanding.

The bigger mystery of our journey is that we don’t know when our last stop will come.

Neither do we know when our travel companions will make their last stop… not even those sitting in the seat next to us.

Personally, I know I’ll be sad to make my final stop… I’m sure of it!

My separation from all those friends and acquaintances I made during the train ride will be painful. Leaving all those I’m close to will be a sad thing.

But then again, I’m certain that one day I’ll get to the main station only to meet up with everyone else.

They’ll all be carrying their baggage… most of which they didn’t have when they first got on the train.

I’ll be glad to see them again. I’ll also be glad to have contributed to their baggage… and to have enriched their lives, just as much as they have contributed to my baggage and enriched my life.

We’re all on this train ride together. Above all, we should all try to strive to make the ride as pleasant and memorable as we can, right up until we each make the final stop and leave the train for the last time.

For all of you, NOW you are part of my train, so I am wishing you a NICE JOURNEY!

Calatorie placuta! (Romanian).
Bon Voyage! (French).

HOPE: PERHAPS LOVE IS THE ANSWER?

Love has, probably, been the most referred to, misunderstood or manipulated word in the world. From the most romantic and utopian descriptions up to the grossest, wickedest and perverted interpretations, we inevitable see ourselves forced back to consider it as perhaps the answer, the path and the solution of the human conflicts.

Only then we will find the logic and the assuredness that it is unavoidably necessary to see life through its essence, content, possibilities and application to the real opportunities for a positive life, sharing, communication and progress.



PERHAPS LOVE!


Perhaps love is a resting place. A shelter from the storm! It exist to give you comfort. It is there to keep you warm!


And in those times of trouble when you are most alone, the memory of love will bring you home.


Perhaps love is like a window. Perhaps an open door! It invites you to come closer. It wants to show you more. And even if you lose yourself and don´t know what to do, the memory of love will see you through.


Oh, love to some is like a cloud. To some as strong as steel! For some a way of living! For some a way to feel!

And some say love is holding on. And some say letting go. And some say love is everything.And some say I don´t know.

Perhaps love is like the ocean. Full of conflict, full of pain!


Like a fire when is cold outside. Thunder when it rains!



If I should live forever, and all my dreams come true, my memories of love will be of you.



And I will add MYSELF…


And life as it came! As well as life as it went!

THE OUTCOME: NOT JUST A POSSIBLE ONE, BUT A REAL AND DESERVING BEAUTIFUL LIFE

Living beautifully, constructively and consequentially is not a utopia. It is a very feasible alternative for every human being. But we must understand, correctly, what the essence, and the purpose of such a beautiful life is.


A BEAUTIFUL LIFE!

The only life that will endure
is one that's good and pure and kind!


Each day I'll do a golden deed by helping those who are in need.


My life on earth is but a span. And so I'll do the best I can.

Life's evening sun is sinking low. A few more days and I must go to meet the deeds that I have done, where there will be no setting sun.

While going down life's weary road I'll strive to lift some traveler's load. I'll try to change the night to day. Make flowers bloom along the way!

Life's evening sun is sinking low. A few more days and I must go to meet the deeds that I have done, where there will be no setting sun.

ASSURANCE: MATURITY AND CHANGE FOR THE BETTER ARE SURELY POSSIBLE.

One friend of mine, well educated but pessimistic about the possibility for the Christians of being able to make the difference, and force a change for the better of the societal behavior, uses to argue with me, that this will never happen, while these groups remain closeted in their remnant, and blindful, belief that God is here for the sole purpose of keeping them safe and happy.

He believes that real trust in God, and faithful following of His leading and commands, should empower them in such a way that could force the necessary changes.

He argues, and I tend to agree with him, that the societal role of Christians should be standing firm, stating and being consequential with our inconformity and uncompromising allegiance to what is right, to what is just, to what is derived from the negation of the inevitability of having to give up to the selfish, even if alluring, temptations of the materialistic search for happiness in term of wealth, comfort and personal well being.

I want to insist with him that there is a way, there is a possibility, there is a path, there is a care and protection available, even if it could be consider as a naïve interpretation of what Christians should believe, do and react to, when challenged into spiritual maturity and consequential behavior.

I want to share again the content of a very interesting message related to the Cherokee Indian adolescents coming into adulthood ritual that the following message refers to in such a sensitive and moving way.



THE CHEROKEE INDIANS RITUAL

When a Cherokee Indian boy starts his adolescence, his father takes him to the forest, blindfolded. And leaves him there in the darkness!


He has to sit all night on a trunk, blindfolded, until the sun rays come up, again, the following morning.


He cannot call for help! Because once he survives the night he has become a man! He cannot share his experience with the other boys because everyone of them has to face the challengeof entering manhood on their own!

Naturally the boy is terrified. He hears all types of noises. He feels that savage beasts are circling around. That howling wolves are nearing! And maybe humans out to hurt him!


He hears the winds blowing and squealing, and the grass unceasingly rustling while he sits on the trunk resisting the urge of taking off the blindfold.


He does not dare to do so because it is the only way to come out, as a man, from the ordeal.


Finally, after this terrifying night, the sun comes up and the boy lifts the blindfold… and then… is when he discovers that his father is sitting beside him!


His father has not left him. He has, silently, watched over him all night, seated on another trunk, to keep all dangers out.

Similarly we are never alone. Even if we cannot see Him in the midst of our life´s darknesses, He is always beside us, seated on the trunk of His mercy, silently watching over!


When injustices and adversities seem unbearable and unsurmountable, we must trust Him, and wait for tomorrow´s morning!


A new sunrise will surely come. And we will see Him face to face in the splendor of His glory!


If you believe, hope, endure, and wait for a better future, share this message. If you do not so, maybe it is because you lifted your blindfold up before sunrise and looked to the other side and did not see Him.

INCLUSIVENESS! TOGETHERNESS! A WAY TO GO!

As the final one, in the series of end of the year desires for the best for all, I include what the optimistic message from NavidadDeDeseos.com that I have translated and made comments on.

I have stated that intolerance and exclusiveness, promoted by the influential and controlling forces and individuals of this world, impede the taking conscience of the real causes, ways and methods, that keep us chained to unnecessary unbearable circumstances.

I have to state, too, that, consequently, is necessary to accept as unavoidable, the taking up, as ours, the challenging need to make the difference, firstly one at a time, and then, all together, in a real inclusive, and mutually sharing, and supporting way.

I do not know if they are Christians or believers, or belong to any denominational or any type of creed and doctrine. It is enough and sufficient to be people of good faith, sincere, outstanding and firm in what they say and do. Inclusiveness and togetherness is the way to go.

We cannot avoid the passing of time. 2010 is knocking at our doors and will enter our lives and homes, no matter what.


Tuesday, December 15, 2009

LOVE AND SHARING! IN ALL THEIR FACETS AND THEIR CONTENTS! My message to my friends at the end of this year!

The persistence and preponderance of Love! Love in living! With no hurry! With no fear! Transcending time and circumstances! Overcoming time and circumstances! Extending itself beyond time and circumstances!

I have been lately engulfed in the consideration and analysis of the oftentimes dizzying, confusing, usually illogical and biased, social and political upheavals that overwhelm the media and the people of our increasingly violent nation’s populations.

Then, Christmas time arrived and sort of imposed a halt, and a “taking a breath” of relief, to my mind and my spirit. By no means has this meant the forgetting about the causes and effects of our individual, communal and institutional pride, egotism, greed and insensitivity before the plight of the lesser favored or abused.

But it made me ponder over the transcendental statements of Ephesians 6:12 that clarify for all who care to see, the fact that we are no fighting against the blood and flesh people, but against the spiritual forces of this wickedness in the heavenly places.

Because the fight is that of the personalities and rulers , the powers and the world forces of this darkness of the higher levels of the artificially conceived social financial and political concepts versus the unavoidable and rightful positioning of mankind in relation to God, Nature and one another.

A beautiful Christmas card presentation, with a deeply felt message did arrive to my laptop to compound the need to stop, ponder, analyze and pay attention to the real concepts that should lead us to the rightful way of living until the final rest and glory comes and engulf us, raising us up to the place of eternal living.

I started to ponder again about the fundamental tenets of Faith, and Hope, and Love. Love remaining after faith and hope fade in the folding pages of our earthly passage through life down here.

Repeating what I wrote at the beginning, what is fundamental is the persistence and preponderance of Love! Love in living! With no hurry! With no fear! Transcending time and circumstances! Overcoming time and circumstances! Extending itself beyond time and circumstances!

I had to recognize, as I have pondered about in other comments that follow in this series of postings, that mankind is unredeemable and unrepentant when left to its own will and the greed and ambition of its earthly leaders separated from their Creator and Savior.

But it was also comforting to see Faith, Hope and Love in action through the vision, the resolve and the deeds of so many dedicated people that have transcended their time and circumstances.

In the realm of the Christians love expressed in the ministries oriented to the help and support of the dispossessed and abused, there is a continual growth and renovation.

I have been blessed and privileged, having had the opportunity to serve with some of them, or being a friend of others like the one I dedicate this end of the year message, and in him, to all the others that I respect and encourage to keep alive the freshness of their vision and their actions to transcend the years, as this “Fresh Air Fund” has done for more than already a century.

You do not have to be complex and complicated when you stand on firm grounds of beliefs and resolve. I hope to see all of them, a hundred years from now, being able to summarize what a man of faith, hope, love and resolve started in 1877.

The Fresh Air Fund History: In 1877, the Reverend Willard Parsons, minister of a small rural parish in Sherman, Pennsylvania, asked members of his congregation to provide country vacations as volunteer host families for children from New York City tenements. This was the beginning of The Fresh Air Fund tradition.

By 1884, Reverend Parsons was writing about the Fund for New York´s Herald Tribune, and the number of children served grew. In 2008, close to 10,000 New York City children experienced the joys of summertime in Friendly Towns and at five Fund camps in upstate New York.

Check http://freshairfund-newsrelease.com

I truly hope this example multiply itself in all our countries through the efforts of dedicated and unselfish Christians. To them, in the words of the following Christmas message, my encouragement and the assertion that Love, in its purest expression of unselfish sharing what we have and others need, will overcome the maladies, the injustices and the abuses of this confused and violent world.

The best of all should be that ministries were short-lived because by alleviating the sad consequences, the unjust causes that inspired them were erased by the positive changes in societies.

Unfortunately this is still and for times to come will still be just a dream, and ministries will have to multiply themselves, with my hope and prayer that their vision and expansion are not impaired or stagnated by human circumstances and weaknesses, that could impede their existence through the years and the centuries.

Because life has not to be like it is nowadays. Life is beautiful as Nature is beautiful. Life is challenging but should not be oppressive and destructive. And human beings, especially those in the higher social, political or financial positions should think it twice before destroying, by corruption or rejection, the people under their sphere of influence and power.


Monday, December 14, 2009

WHAT LIFE IS! OR AT LEAST HOW IT SHOULD BE!

There is a fairly common saying that goes like this. Mankind becomes deaf and blind when it comes to listen and pay attention to what point to the selfishness, pride and greed of the human being. It is like preaching in the desert, and even the sand becoming dust storms out to swallow the preacher.

I would love to be always optimistic and positive as my wife usually is, expecting always the resurgence of the goodness of man from the ashes of wrongness and misbehavior.

But the incessant pounding of all the social molders by all types of influencing means, ways, actors and factors that invoke precisely our passive acceptance of the right to live by way or our indifference, leniency or despondency, requires that we raise our voice to point out what is wrong and deceptive.

But this in no way discredit or denies that life is beautiful, that life is challenging, that life is a process where the stamina and the conscience of man is tested so it can strengthen up their up righteousness and resolve to do what is fundamental to live as life should be lived.

This has been a perennial quest and exhortation by men of all ages and generations. In all types of assertions and exhortations, and through all ways and means of communication as in the following message!


Life is a challenge. Confront it!

Life is an unending letting go.

Only with empty hands you will grab something new!

Life is Love! Live it, intensely and whole!

Life is Hope. Keep it always alive!

Life is a road. Keep on walking!

Life is creation. Never stop creating something better and new!
Life is also death. Dying a bit every day. Be always aware of this!

Life is learning. Always! Everywhere! Until the end!

Life is a gift. Be grateful for it!
Life is friendships. Care for them and protect them!

Life is beautiful! Keep your eyes wide open!

Life is truth! Never betray it!

Life is exciting. Keep yourself open!

Life has goals. Reach them!

And hope, always, for the best for yourself as well as for all the others!


But mankind it seems that has always preferred to live immersed in struggles, contradictions, overpowering and contention.


THE STRUGGLE TODAY AND FOREVER

One day the stone said…

I am the strongest!
Listening this, the iron said:

I am stronger than you.

Do you want to see it?
Then both fought until the stone

was reduced to dust and pieces.


The iron then said: I am strong!
Listening this, the fire said:

I am stronger than you!

Do you want to see it?
Then, both fought

until the iron melted down.


The fire said, when it won:

I am stronger!
Listening, the water rumbled: wait a moment!

I am stronger than you.
Do you want to see it?
Then both fought until the fire

fizzled out and turned to ashes.


The water then said: did you see?

I was stronger!
But the clouds exclaimed: No!

We are stronger than you!
Then they fought until the water evaporated.


The clouds exhulting said:

surely, we are strong!
Listening this, the wind said, wait!

I am stronger!
Then, they fought until the wind

chased the clouds away
and got them out of the horizon.


The wind victoriously said: did you see?

I was the stronger!
Listening this the mountains said:

watch out, we are stronger!
Then they fought

and the wind

ended up

caged within the mountains.


The mountains bragged:

we won because we are the strongest!
And then, man intervened saying,

oh no, do you want to see it?
And with intelligence and skills

perforated the mountains,
and let the wind go free,

ending thus

with the power of the mountains.

The man said:

I am the strongest creature alive,

until death came around

and with just an stroke

erased man from the picture.

Death was still exhulting

until GOD, “become man”,
After just 3 days

raised himself from the tomb,
Conquering death

and being given all power in heaven
On earth and above all Creation.

Despite this and since then

an unending struggle has been going on.
Not wanting to understand

that real freedom is
And can only be given by God,

not by men.
And is only lost

if individually given away

because it cannot
Be taken away

or imposed by others, to their liking.

The struggle being the inflicted pain,

the abuse and the fight

of men against men

and men against Nature!
Men always trying to usurp

by all means

the Place,

the Authority

and the Power of God

over Mankind

and the whole Creation!


The “setting of” of logical priorities and ways out of this universal mess and wrongly provoked chaos will be the subject of the next blog postings.

We will keep on pounding over the inner motivations of the myriad of arrogant, haughty, bold and violent uncontrolled little human gods so rampantly acting on the international scenarios.

We will also keep on trying to analyze the why and how of the proliferation of the international court of jesters and peddlers of favors, notoriety and their fleeting moments of fame, who crowd the waves of the television and internet media.





But AGAIN, WE MUST PONDER over the transcendental statements of Ephesians 6:12 that clarify for all who care to see, the fact that we are no fighting against the blood and flesh people, but against the spiritual forces of this wickedness in the heavenly places.

Because the fight is that of the personalities and rulers , the powers and the world forces of this darkness of the higher levels of the artificially conceived social financial and political concepts versus the unavoidable and rightful positioning of mankind in relation to God, Nature and one another.


Because there is an undeniable fact. No one, and this goes for all those fond of name calling, name branding, name attributing. No one side is exempt from responsibilities. Nor the capitalists, or the newly arrived to the top revolutionaries. Nor the conservative, or the liberals. Nor the bankers and financial speculators, or the grasping lenders without analysis.


Everyone of us must stop, think, meditate, pray, and change. But change for the better. Let´s remember and do not forget we all are just passing through the pages of life and Nature.

Monday, November 30, 2009

The nonsensical, blinds guiding blinds games of today!



The fleeting fruits and moments of life!

A few days ago I received through the internet email grapevine a message titled “your belongings” in Spanish.


It powerfully called my attention and I translated it adding some comments at the end, starting with a potential scenario in which the man woke up from his slumbering death, as a child resting in “himself adult hands”.


The purpose of this awakening was to be able to profit from the teachings that sometimes or oftentimes require that we die, or that we are taken away from the whirlwind of the dizzying world circumstances we are immersed in.


I had already posted it in my blog, even if I felt that something to be said was missing, but I had not wanted to keep on negatively pounding my thoughts upon the table.


I wanted to send a positive message to my sons and closest friends. I wanted to encourage my grandchildren and their friends.


But this “Sunday November 29th. 2009 Honduran elections”, and the unending and tiring appearance in all types of scenarios by the international players of all types, plus the myriad of television commentaries, have made me change my mind.

It is a blessed circumstance that the internet provides us with a podium where all types of comments are available, and we can express ourselves without restrictions.


I woke up early today to erase my posting, and add this preamble which I know will become the essence of what I wanted to convey in the first place. I hope the odiogo program that allows me to listen to what I write, allows me this time to erase what it was already complemented and change it and replace it with these additional commentaries.

Sometimes, when I embark myself in what totally absorbs my mind and conversations, which is the social behavior and political shenanigans, my wife asks me to be short, precise and concise in my conversations and writings.

She makes me remember my school days teachers, but times have changed, and the instrument and method is to incessantly pound over and over, until the message gets across and minds and wills are changed or manipulated.

Coming back to the Honduran elections, the subtle attitude changes, but still stubborn attempts to impose views and decisions that correspond to the Honduran people, just because they are poor, made me remember a game my four sons played when they were young and seated around the family dining table.

Because what is happening is or could be somehow twisted and used as an excuse by the political players that are so intent nowadays in controlling their peoples, in the name of the uneducated and manipulated masses.

My sons started the game by solemnly uttering a usual absurd opening statement. Then in a fast firing mood every one of them answered or added to the discussion the most absurd, solemn, nonsensical, unrelated reply or additional proposition.

And the game went on, without a pause, without blinking, without smiles, without paying attention to what was already said, until one of them winked, laughed, or started blinking, and this way being taken out of the game.

I usually added my part, until I took them all out of the game, sometimes staring at them, without blinking, without uttering a single word. Other times I did the opposite, quietly laughing and repeating to myself the silliest statements thrown around the table.

That´s what I feel directed to do today. I strongly feel that if every conscious person did the same, quietly laughing at or silently telling these well paid players and commentators to shut up and mind their own personal business, things could be better in all the aspects and levels of society.

But this takes balance, integrity, consciousness about what is right, just, and necessary, as well as the resolve to not let ourselves be oppressed and manipulated by the empty but bold and daring messianic agitators of today.

Because we cannot waste our time! Life is too short and we cannot expect to be given another chance by rebirthing ourselves as a child in our own hands, as I place as a potential scenario in my comments to the message I refer to in the video.



YOUR BELONGINGS!


A man suddenly died…

He realized that God was placing a bag by his side.
And telling him: My son, it´s time to leave and start walking!

The man, surprised, replied, why so soon? I had plans and many!
I am sorry, my son, but your time is over!

The man then asked God…
What´s inside the bag that you are carrying?

Your belongings, my son!

My things? My clothes? My money?
No!
Those were never yours.
They belonged to the earth down here.

Are my memories inside?
No!
They are not with you anymore.
They were kept, as his, by the time!

Are my talents inside?
No, my son.
They stayed back with the circumstances!

My family and friends?
No.
They were never yours. They were of the journey!

Well, at least you left me my wife and my children.
No.
They were never yours. They belonged to your heart!


Do you have my body in there?
No.
It was made out of dust and it had to go back to dust!


Then, are you giving me back my soul?
No.
It was never yours. It belonged to me!

Then, the man, fearful,
took the bag away from God and opened it.
He realized, surprised, that it was empty!

With a tear rolling down his cheek, the man asked God…
Did I never have anything?

Yes, my son. You had every moment you lived.
They were all yours to do the best you could while living them!

Life is just a series of breathed moments.
Moments all yours! Enjoy them to the hilt!
Make the most and best, out of them!

Do not let any of the things
you believed yours and weren’t to stop you.

And as a final, short, precise and concise comment as my wife so dearly likes, I want to add, that if we have the opportunity, or hopefully a second chance if we have wasted our first one…


Share them; give them to the ones who need them!
Place your hope and treasure in the heavens!


So, this potential scenario could be possible if God´s grace and mercy allows it.


And the man woke up, again, as a child,
To live life as we should live it!

BECAUSE


Nowadays, when there is so much confusion and noise,
Financial madness, vitriolic arguments,
Political Messianism, and violence,
mainly, and basically due to the boldness of the wicked,


Because of the idleness, the faked indifference,
and the feigned opposition of the irresolute and the weaker!

And these nonsensical situations make me remember my grandfather,
who,

When we were noisily fighting and pranking,
Used to, soberly, tell us,
With an admonishing finger tapping over our foreheads…

Behave! What´s the need to jump and holler,
When the floor is flat and even?




BECAUSE
Time just fly away!

Keep in mind this question.
Where will everybody be, fifty or a hundred years from now ?

Time just fly away!

Use your time wisely, while you have it!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Time to give thanks! And time for giving!

In my last posting I was referring myself to the negative sides of life, and the consequent negative approaches and comments about the ways wrongdoings affect us, and spread confusion, that prevents a positive approach to the challenges, and the possibility of overcoming them.


The paramount feeling was the desire to convey the need to stop blaming others and doing something to find solutions or ways out, ourselves.


I was planning to keep on commenting the derivations of the seven sinful tendencies of the human beings, in an effort to highlight the well intentioned deeds of some ministries, which I will, anyway, point out in the videos that will be included down here.


But, some things happened in a whirl winding way the last two weeks that have somehow highlighted and brought out, to the surface, the real existence and need for hope and trust in the resilience of the younger human beings.


I had to make 2 trips and was able to cross the vertical lines of society. It was a lesson to see from the top down and from down to the top, people living, people enduring, people facing life with resolve.


It was so intimately moving being able to dance in a posh hotel and listen to old and young, concerned with the outcome of a life based on lasting moral values. It was also moving to see them already making plans to be ready to make a difference for themselves and those around them.

It is rewarding to see them in action. It is encouraging being able to sort out the deluge of messages of so many others who will themselves in a daily mood to share the messages I share after making them my own.




It is rewarding to see that in the midst of adversity and disgrace, and as newer leaves and branches, out of the debris rises again the positively ingrained potential and longing of better things and futures that these younger generations will have to nurture and rely upon to be able to keep on walking and leaving a legacy to their children.


We, as humans, are not different from one another. We just feel we are, in the mistaken approach to strengthen up our personalities. We just react differently, and we discriminate our fellows, in the sadly, futile, effort to step upon them to reach what we consider is rightfully ours, being that pedestals of any type and mesmerizing social positions.


And, for not understanding this vital concept, we lose what is most valuable of all. Our sensitivity and the ingrained but innerly suffocated moral values that keep on knocking at the door of our conscience, reminding us that we all are, at least, partners in the journey of life, if we cannot accept the rightful but blistering notion that we are brothers and sisters.

Because this is what we are, brothers and sisters born from different human parents, but with a sole creator who did not created antagonists but complementally beings in order to tackle with the task of stewardship-ing His created nature where He placed us to enjoy and care for.


A myriad of thoughts and feelings have been overwhelming my mind and my spirit. They will give birth to future series of sharing’s and comments under the generic label of “Life question marks” that I will share as they sprout up in my spirit.


For the time being let´s enjoy the messages that are the core of the down here following postings. Meanwhile, let´s give thanks for what of good has happened in our lives.


Thanks, also, for the already overcome trials and the trials to come so we become better people. Thanks for everything, people and things that have been the chisel in the loving hands of God, in order to perfect our beings, as well as the refiner’s fire that has burned down our carnal and spiritual impurities.


And thanks for all those who have dedicated their life to help the dispossessed and the needy.

Life is a garden place, made up of people with myriad of differences!

A child went out strolling over the sidewalks of his neighborhood… And discovered that the trees, the vines and the bushes were or dying or
unhappy.


The vine wanted to be strong and tall as the pine trees! A sickly growing tree was sad because he could not grow grapes as the grapevines. The grapevine was dying because she could not have roses as the rosebuds! And the rose was frustrated because it could not hug the walls as the vines!


But then he found a flower… A carnation blooming fresher than we could think about! The boy asked her… How can you so happily bloom among so many unsatisfied plants and flowers?


The flower answered: It may be because I always thought since I was planted that it was wanted to see carnations! If it has been wanted other flowers or plants, different plants and flowers would have been planted!


So, I said to myself, I will try to be the best of the carnations! And here I am… The best of the best of the carnations!


We are who we are! We live, withering, immersed in our own dissatisfactions, because of our absurd comparisons with the rest of the peoples.


If I were! If I had! If my life were! Always conjugating the uncertain future instead of the concrete present, stubbornly refusing to accept that happiness is a subjective and voluntary issue!


We can choose, today, to be happy with who we are, and with what we have… or to bitterly live because of what we do not have or cannot be! We will only bloom the day we accept we are who we are!


We are unique! And nobody can do what we came to do! Start doing what is necessary! Then, what is possible and suddenly You´ll be doing what is… impossible!


We deserve to give the best coloring to our Life. Many have already done so! But there are some of us who have not done so. We burn ourselves under the sun instead of staying under the shadow.


Human kind, truly, is not evil. Evil is the idea of refusing to let rise up these human feelings! You will wonder why am I wasting my time writing this, if you don´t need it. It is because I feel in my heart some may truly need it!


SHARE IT! RESEND IT! And do not allow that the garden of your life may dry out, for not wanting to listen to the voice that rises up from the bottom depths of the kindness of your heart.


REMEMBER! NONE is more than anyone, only bolder, daring, deceiver or manipulating!


Above all things kept in the inner safe of your being… Safeguard your heart and your own, from the multitude of inciters, profiteers and “live off” Gurus of the confusion, deception, manipulation, violence and chaos.


Think about this… the evil spirits and the puppets of the dark are usually faster and more diligent than the children of the light. But, Discernment, Love and Resolve will make the difference!

It is Madness, Believe Me!

To hate all roses because one´s torns did hurt you.

To quit on dreaming because one did not become real.

To lose faith on prayer because you were not heard one single time.

To desist from trying because some of your efforts failed.

To condemn all your friends because one betrayed you.

Not believing in love because of one´s unfaithfulness.

To walk away from happiness because once you tried and weren´t.



I hope you do not become so crazy while you are walking.

Remember there is always another chance,
another friendship, another love, new strenght.


It´s just a matter of persevering and keep on trying to be happy.
Glory is not to never fall but to raise up again every time.

NEXT TIME...

When feeling that God cannot use you anymore... remember!

Noah used to get drunk! Abraham was very old! Isaac was a dreamer!

Jacob was a liar! Leah was not good looking! Joseph was abused!

Moses stuttered! Gideon was a coward!

Samson had long hair and was a women chaser!

Jeremiah and Timothy were young! David was an adulterer and a murderer!

Isaiah preached while naked! Nohemí was a widow!

Peter denied Christ! The disciples abandoned Him!

Martha worried about everything !

The Samaritan woman was divorced and more than one time!

Zacheus was almost a midget! Paul was a religious zealot!

Timothy had an ulcer! And Lazarus was dead, already !


Even so... GOD helped them all !


So, No more despairing! God can use us at our maximum potential!

Besides, we are not the message. We are only the messengers.

In God´s Love Circuit, He wants to use us, to the fullest extent of our capacities!

But we must understand and remember that God expects deeds borne out of the spirit!

He does not need just religious actions !


Let´s count our blessings and share them with those who need them!

Faith is the ability to visualize God´s plan, His love for all, and His wisdom.

And wisdom is understanding that what is more important for Him is the peoples, and the children specially.


God wants us to stand still until the time comes for action and He let us know the specifics!

Let´s keep on being His Watch and Beacon People...

And keep His light of love and hope... shining!

The rest?

Let´s leave it to God!

He knows best! He will guide us!


For all those who have answered the call to serve Him by serving others,

But specially you, who serve the dispossessed and the forgotten of this world, and His children,

My sincere desire, hope and prayer is that you all flourish,

And make all the people and children cared for, to bloom as the flowers of my garden and my Life.


Just remember to always have the heart pure,
the soul submitted, the spirit purified
and the flesh under control.

Because visions and ministries can change,
die or worst of all stagnate,
if we change, we die inside,
or again, worst of all,
we stagnate!

May God bless you and keep you safe and pure!

DO IT IN HIS NAME!

About a month ago, as part of a college assignment for my wife, we both had a very singular experience. We visited, with some of her classmates a ministry that distributes more than 500 meals, daily, to people of all ages, as you will see in the adjunct video.


Besides the emotive examples of the people fed and loved, we had quite an experience meeting a young guy, who as a matter of fact, with stolid certitude expressed his hate for society when saying “I hate them more than they hate me”. A defensive reaction against received rejection from people and society as a whole!


There are many like him all around. Maybe, if we stopped just a moment to instill hopes in their souls, we could help them to change, for their own good, and society as well.


It only took some deeply felt encouragement and exhortation words to make his heart to open and glimpse a ray of hope when seeing he was still accepted despite his self defense built up barrier of distrust.


People, children, youngsters, adults and elders as well, need spiritual food even more than the food given to placate their physical hunger. We must be aware and convinced that the Lord will find a way for all of them, but He needs our willing helping hands.


If we cannot solve, wipe out or erase the causes and we are only able to partially palliate some of the consequences, let´s do it in His name!


THE VOIDNESS PRINCIPLE…

We have fallen into the habit to hoard useless, and not transcending things, believing that someday (we do not when) we will need them.


We pile up money, not to save it, but just to avoid spending it. Because we fear we´ll lack it in the future. We collect clothes, toys, shoes, furniture, all sort of gadgets, and many other things. Things already and for a long time unused!

And, in within ourselves? We use to keep closeted our feelings, quarrels, resentments, sorrows, fears, peoples.

Don´t do it! It is anti-prosperity! It is necessary to create spaces so new things may be able to become part of our lives. It´s imperative to eliminate what of useless we have in our lives, so prosperity may become a real possibility.

Is the strength of that void what will absorb and attract all that we long for!

As long as we remain materially, or emotionally, attached to the old and the useless, there won´t be any space for the newer opportunities. Goods, chattels and things must be kept in motion.

Let´s clean up the drawers, the closets, our room, the garage and the basement! Let´s give out what we do not use anymore! The attitude of hoarding is what ties us up and immobilizes our lives!

It´s not the kept objects what stagnate life, but the meaning of the keeping for the sake of keeping attitude that pervades our beings. When keeping… the possibility of want and lacking is considered, it’s believed that tomorrow we will not be able to provide for our needs and longings.

That way we send two messages to our brains and lives: 1º No trust in our tomorrows. 2º and believing that new and best are NOT to be ours, because we fret and worry, and keep old and useless things all around us.

Do not just read this and add it to our kept things! Let´s share it and send it to others!

COUNT WITH ME, LORD! because you asked me, Lord.

because you asked me, I tell you, You can count with me. In the midst of the life´s turbulent seas You send me to the brethren to be your Gospel witness; so, among them and for them, I can be the "portioned bread", as you wanted to be present among

Make me a faithful witness of your offered life. My heart, fill it with your love. My eyes, make them a vase for your tenderness. My ears, a conduit for your attentiveness. My feet, those of your diligence. My hands, your supporting ones.

Anticipated thanks, Lord, for the life I could nurture.
And thanks, above everything else, thanks, for the life you made be born within us!
Count with us, Lord, whatever the spiritual group we could be part of, or the living ambience where we could be living in!


Sunday, October 18, 2009

STOP BLAMING OTHERS. GET TO THE CORE OF THE ISSUES, THE SELF, I, YOU, WE, YOURSELF AND OURSELVES.

TAKE CONTROL AND MAKE THE DIFFERENCE BY CHANGING WHATEVER NEEDS TO BE CHANGED.


I have received, lately, all kinds of sharing comments about the inconformity with what is going on, worldwide. On the TV, biased, daring and clownishly mimicking gurus of all types. On the internet, emails, pictures, acid commentaries, about all political and social maladies, blaming leaders and followers alike.

Interestingly, ninety nine percent of the negativism is focused on the United States and its present crisis. Comments flourish with all types of barbs based on policies, non policies, actions, non actions, race and non racist justifications. It is a circus. A very colorful one, to say the least!

Let´s get back to the title of these comments of mine. Let´s dissect it, piece by piece.

STOP BLAMING OTHERS. Yes, and let me tell you why. We can spend all our life, or what is left of it, blaming others. The government! The politicians! The savage capitalists! The manipulators! The socialists! The leftists! The rightists! The one in between! The middle classes, the poor and the paupers, the literate and the ignorant, the buffoons and the clowns! And the list can go on forever.


I have done the same, before. It is so easy to blame others to avoid blaming ourselves. Why do I say this? Because it allows us to endlessly perorate about circumstances, causes and details without never getting to the core of the issues.

GET TO THE CORE OF THE ISSUES. And what, the hell, all this means? Because the real and fundamental core of the issue is the self! In other words, we, the human beings that populate this earth and dilapidate its resources as the most cannibalistic and self destructive virus we would ever, or could ever, visualize it exists.

And viruses are overwhelmingly virulent, active and abundant in the myriads, inside of us all, and all around, wherever we are or go.

Not many weeks ago I was mesmerized and innerly shaken up while watching up a documentary about what the earth would look like if humans disappeared from its face.

The documentary, produced and aired, I do not remember well if History Channel or National Geographic, took us through a astonishing and whirl winding time trip in a succession of seconds, universe time lapses speaking of.

In it the earth purges itself from the atrociously negative effects of human doings, deeds and makings, using among many ways, the most astonishing ones because of their simplicity, as the grasses and their roots, the birds wastes and the water and the soluble salts disintegrating the most solid things we have been able to devise, steel and concrete.

THE SELF, I, YOU, WE, YOURSELF AND OURSELVES! We should start taking responsibility for ourselves. By this I mean we should stop avoiding the inevitable presence of the self, as we have turn it into. The virus I was referring before.

Because all human race is a self, and individual one, every one of us, and a collective one, the families, the communities, the nations, the races, the whole human world.

So, whatever it occurs is a consequence of what we are and what we do. The essence, by way of our innerest tendencies and cravings of our human being-ness and the way they sprout into life and express themselves will determine our most fundamental even if hidden and disguised motivations.

In due course these motivations will dictate our actions, deeds or misdeeds, and this is what we must take responsibility for, without blaming others, even if in a collective way, because all started with a single and sole human being in the first place. And it is here where change and restoration must take place so retribution and real progress and well being can be obtained.

Human beings, we, all of us, without exception, needlessly complicate things, and consequently mess up living, ours and that of the rest, all around us.

We confuse well being and happiness with abundance and profligate enjoyment and personal satisfaction of our cravings at all costs.

When discussing all this one of my closest ones vehemently insisted that since the beginning of every human deed all has been the same. Titles, names calling, philosophies, regimes, social mores, have only outwardly, as a chameleon, changed.

In the near future new voracious and ruthless leaders, and compliant followers and opportunist will arise. Just the name will change. And the wheel of destiny, as the wheel of fortune so wildly popular in the TV will come to a new crisis stop, in waiting for a new name calling and actors so the show can go on.

And this is natural, logical and consequential. It is embedded in the human self. Let´s analyze why.

At this moment I would like to refer to some catholic religious tenets. I know that many of my friends are not catholic, but for the effect of the analysis I have not found a better comparison parameter up to date.


I am talking about what is known as the 7 Capital Sins.

PRICE! AVARICE! LUST! GLUTTONY! ANGER! ENVY! SLOTH!


The shortest and more accurate synthesis of all the social turmoil,

maladies, crisis, abuses, thunderously murdering genocides, and we could go on, and on!



PRIDE! Al all types! Racial! Social! Financial! Political! Religious! Spiritual! Carnal! Homosexual! Lesbian! Keep on naming, you will always find another one to deal with! And this is the root of the rest of the chain of abuse. because in every case pride becomes self-deception, discrimination of all types, and consequently, abuse!


AND WE ARE WILLINGLY PAYING THE PRICE!


AVARICE! With its two faces of the same coin: GREED AND AVARICE! Greed to get whatever and much ever we can. Avarice or denial of the responsibility to share with the rest what overflows and go beyond the reasonable limits and horizons of our needs.


AND WE KEEP ON PRAYING THE PRICE!


LUST! Or the unreasonable and unrestrained desire to get what is normally within our domain. Starting with sex and its perverted deviations, ending with the lust for dominion and control, by all means of manipulation, deception and suppression of the rightful needs and desires of the rest!


AND WE DISREGARD THE PRICE!


GLUTTONY! Or the, again, unrestrained and uncontrolled addiction of any type! It could be of food for the lesser but privileged ones, while the immense majority go unnourished and sick, even if natural resources and production processes abound and are available or on hand. It could be any devisable crave that bloats our flesh, mind and spirit, if we allow it to do so.


AND SO, WE SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES

ATTACHED TO THE PRICE TO PAY!


ANGER! The disguised as rights, violated and claimed back! Or the cyclical outburst of the reaction to the abuses not because they are abuses per se, but because they are inflicted upon the ones who see themselves discriminated and kept apart from the privileged ones!


AND THE PRICE CONTINUES TO BE EXACTED
AT GREAT PAIN AND COST,
IN THE FORM OF VIOLENCE, REVOLUTION AND DESTRUCTION

OF WHAT HAS BEEN OBTAINED,
AND SHOULD HAVE SERVED

FOR THE EJOYMENT OF ALL!


ENVY! The necessary ingredient for the less daring and bold! Those unwilling to risk their lives as the ones who lead the outburst detailed in the paragraph above, but willing to support them, with hopes of potentially accessing the leftover and over spilling pieces of the looting of what was enjoyed by the few, before.


EVEN IF IS NOT UNDERSTOOD

THAT THE PRICE PAID WAS AT THE EXPENSE

OF PERSONAL AND COLLECTIVE DIGNITY,

INTEGRITY AND MORAL STRENGHT!


SLOTH! IDDLENESS! LAZINESS! The cowardly scenario for the self justification efforts by the majority to excuse themselves, and remove all sense of guilt and responsibility, without understanding that none of the corruptional steps laid out above would be possible without our procrastination, laziness and who cares attitudes that pervades and immobilize the masses of the world!


AND THIS IS WHAT I STATE THAT WE MUST GET RID OFF

AND WHAT I MEAN BY TAKING CONTROL

AND MAKING THE DIFFERENCE

BY CHANGING WHATEVER NEEDS TO BE CHANGED.


And don´t tell me that you do not see all this as possible or within your realm or influence because it is no so. it is quite possible, feasible and most of all unavoidable and just.


Even if it looks as an impossible dream, a visionary outburst beyond all attainable goals!


It takes daring, personal resolve and sacrifice, it´s true!
But what life is that of the one who overfeeds and the one who starves, because we do not do our part?


MAHATMA GHANDI did it.

If he was able to do so, why we can not even go beyond where he went and obtained?

It only takes dying like he did, with only a pair of wire rimmed eyeglasses, a pair of worn out leather strips sandals, a bare and almost ragged white cotton tunic, and a badly dented tin plate to feed himself.



But his example moved multitudes, who bled and were bludgeoned when crossing a bridge and refusing to leave, with the awesome consequence of the liberation of a continent riddled with all types of social castes´ discrimination, but free to decide its own destiny, after all.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

TODAY HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST WONDERFUL DAYS OF MY LIFE!

It is cool outside! It´s softly raining!. Cloudy skies! Quiet rumors of cars slowly and carefully passing by!. Parents gone to work, vendors visiting our little commercial plaza, and children coming back, bused, from school!.

Why am I saying this has been one of the most wonderful days of my life?. The day started gloomy, the poems I was editing for my wife brought me gloomy memories, while sitting at my desk in front of my laptop, my faithful companion, these days. My spirit feeling an inner need to find the way to make a mark on things!.

With all this on the back of my mind, this morning I was wondering how I could leave a legacy so they will always remember, not only with love but with respect, the last phases of my life.

As is said in some of the poems I was editing, I have told, time and time again, that the only keys to a truly meaningful life are: truthfulness, integrity, forbearance and willingness to pay the price of dismissal, isolation or rejection by the systems. In other words, simply stated, selfness at all costs!.

But, sometimes is hard to keep on going on, when you see it applied to your own, and when you see that your ideals are considered not politically or viventially correct by the masses of today.

It is hard not to lose your peace when you see that loss and grief have torn apart the world we thought we knew, and that words never seem to be enough for things we can´t undo, as another of the poems said.

Then, after watching some documentaries on TV about the inconsistencies and intolerance between individuals when facing issues of race, the intellectual clouds began to lighten up, as we meditated upon what that wonderful woman poet of Maya Angelou had to say about human kind as a whole.


I cannot resist presenting, with pictures and songs, what she so profoundly and artfully expressed.


Human Family! .


Poem by Dr. Maya Angelou, read at the dedication of the Disney Millennium Village.

I note the obvious differences in the human family.
Some of us are serious, some thrive on comedy.

Some declare their lives are lived as true profundity,
and others claim they really live the real reality.

The variety of our skin tones can confuse, bemuse, and delight,
brown and pink, and beige and purple, tan and blue, and white.

I've sailed upon the seven seas and stopped in every land.
I've seen the wonders of the world, not yet one common man.

I know ten thousand women called Jane and Mary Jane,
but I've not seen any two, who really were the same.

Mirror twins are different although their features jibe,
and lovers think quite different thoughts while lying side by side.

We love and lose in China, we weep on England's moors,
and laugh and moan in Guinea, and thrive on Spanish shores.

We seek success in Finland, are born and die in Maine.
In minor ways we differ, in major we're the same.

I note the obvious differences between each sort and type,
but we are more alike, my friends than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.
We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.



Because it is so stupid to believe that our particular group owns the earth and has the right to impose social control oriented mores, when they deviate from sound and fundamental principles of truth, rightfulness and real love and concern for one another.

And more stupid to bend over, just for the sake of accommodating ourselves
to a submissive way of living as the price to be left alone,
in peace, and not hurt, abused, or destroyed
by the rampant waves of the mediocre but audacious predators
that proliferate because of our weak and coward compromising.

That´s what I said to my son, who argued that what is going on has always gone on,
through the times and the ages,
with just the changes in names and scope of influence of the powerful of this world.
Because if we accept all this, we have to conclude we, as the human race,
do not deserve to live on this earth.

Then I went back to my computer to write and release my thoughts on its board,
checking my emails, and then, the gift of hope came through the internet waves,
as a message from my friends, telling that we have a purpose for our lives,
and that what we need is God in it,
as He needs us because of His love for us, His created ones.

Rejoice and meditate on the message. It can make your day one of the most wonderful days as it did with mine.


YOU NEEDED ME. I NEEDED YOU.

I cried a tear, you wiped it dry. I was confused, you cleared my mind.
I sold my soul; you bought it back for me,
and held me up and gave me dignity.
Somehow you needed me.

You gave me strength to stand alone, again.
To face the world out on my own again!
You put me high upon a pedestal.
So high that I could almost see eternity!
You needed me. You needed me.

And I can´t believe it´s you. I can´t believe it´s true.
I needed you and you were there.
And I´ll never leave; why should I leave?
I´d be a fool ´cause I finally found someone who really cares.

You held my hand when it was cold.
When I was lost you took me home.
You gave me hope when I was at the end,
and turned my lies back into truth, again!

You even called me friend.
You gave me strength to stand alone, again.
To face the world out on my own again!

You put me high upon a pedestal.
So high that I could almost see eternity!
You needed me. You needed me.

This gave me the strength to finish what I have started to write
and post in this blog what I visualized
as my potential legacy
after reaching the golden age of 72 well lived years.

I did choose to love and be faithful to what I believe was right and true.
I hope I had pointed out enough thoughts, enough times,
so we all have the opportunity to make a mark on things,
as said and hoped for in one of the poems I was editing today.

A series of messages to meditate upon! An introduction summary!

About a month ago I reached the age of 72. A full life, lived intensely, with many ups and downs, but with the unfailing and untiring support of my wife and children, who now zealously surround us with their love and care, in our retirement days.

The marriage wows of mutual love and support, in riches and poverty, health and sickness, have been a real thing in our lives. We have learnt the real value of the fundamental things needed to live.

Social, political and financial upheavals have rocked our boat and our children´s boats, but all this has brought more cohesion, mutual love, care, protection and support from one another. We have been and keep on being blessed, for sure.

Motivated by this already extensive, and long, journey through life and experience of all types, and as a gift of remembrances for myself, and a gift of memories to meditate upon, by all my friends and whoever could read these comments, I have prepared the postings down below.

Each one of them, by itself, is an encapsulated message. I have tried to turn them into a message that could be read one at a time, or in a sequence. A sequence that leads from a start of lived experiences, reflections and ruminated meditations, to an ending message of thanks and hope, and gratefulness to the Lord of the Lords of our lives.

I have tried to present the equation that causes and decisions have inevitable consequences. I have tried to present the human need for valid, idealistic but practical at the same time, values and parameters to abide to, and comply with.

Values and parameters so profoundly and sorrowfully ignored by our generations, from the top of the social ladders to the abysses of abuse, rejection and despair of the lower classes and the dispossesed, through the provoked exaltations of the vilest opportunism, greed and disregard of every fundamental value.

Even if by doing so, we are discriminated or rejected, or even worst, victimized by the ruthless moral midgets of today´s circles of political, social and financial power, that prey upon the misery of the less privileged and the dispossessed of this world.

Because the Lord said that His peace is not the peace as the world dreams it and understands it. Because we can enjoy life, even in the midst of the direst situations, that fade away when you have a God´s and family love to rest upon, and shield yourself from the most negative, and painful ups and downs of an extended life.

JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE

How are we supposed to live our lives? Are we just a fleeting second in the universal and unending time? Is it enough just to live the easiest way we can, avoiding unpleasantries, challenges, misunderstandings and defeats?

What´s more important? The pursuit of happiness on this earth? The outward success whatever the cost or compromising? Or the deepest understanding that we are here for something better, worthier, and significant than just going along, getting along?

Isn´t worthier purposing ourselves to make a difference, even if becomes apparent , and noticed, only, by us, and not by the surrounding world?


THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

Sometimes this becomes possible, when retirement age comes around. Usually due to your own efforts and your planning. Other times as the result of raising up a solid family where the grown up children take care of their parents.

This becomes real when you recognize, accept and enjoy the simplicity and affordability of the easier, and slower, living within its parameters and limits.

AS TIME GOES BY

Love and family! Love that can start at the closest level of the individual towards him/herself and his/her family, and then expand to embrace, in wider circles, the whole societies and nature!

This is the only way to journey through life in a real and meaningful way. And then reach maturer phases with a wonderful baggage of memories and learnt lessons to leave behind for the benefit of the ones to come!

If we do we will be able to enjoy walking at a slower but sedater pace along the roads filled with beauty along its sidewalks, after reliving all the pleasant memories that in harmonious ways, return to you, to walk alongside in the most intimate communion with your fulfilled hopes and longings

MOON RIVER

We must always have in mind that we are journeying through a world of wonders, moons, rivers, beauties and circumstances, that frame and serve as the foundations of the remembrances of our past, that gave meaning and support to our present autumnal living.

And in doing so, we find that all the clouds past were inevitable incidents, as they already came and went, and that there is no better way to live but to extract from them the valuable lessons that enriched our passing through the different stages of life.

THE WINDOWS OF LIFE, AND PEACE AT THE END OF IT!

Now, safe and secure in the coziness of our homes we can serenely look out through the windows and encourage others to do the same by opening theirs and grasp and make their own the lessons learned while we were younger.

IN PEACE
We must face life, specially in its twilight, remembering that every beginning has an ending. Because by understanding it so, we can approach our twilights, with a sincere recognition to the goodnesses and blessings received, in peace with life, owing her anything and being owed nothing, too.


MALTIOX LOY, THANKS, LORD!

For making possible that we understand what real love and trust is. As individuals! As families! As community members! Respecting people and interacting with them as wholesome human beings

IMAGINE!

Sure we can, but climb beyond human imagination, pessimism and utopian unrealistic hopes!

Humans, per se, and without higher sensitivities, values and concerns will never go beyond the self-centeredness of today´s greed, manipulation and abuse.


GOVERNMENT OFFICERS AND BUREAUCRATS! ARE THEY IDEALISTS OR OPPORTUNISTS?

"You're a Government officer", says Bud. "Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?". "No guessing required." answered the cowboy.

"You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used millions of dollars worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about how working people make a living, or about cows, for that matter. This is a herd of sheep. Now give me back my dog”.


Holy cow! This has been one of the best emails I have ever received, as it showed to me the dire contradiction of the scenarios of the leaders and the followers, the self labeled saviors of the nations and the wasted human debris of their societies.

Meanwhile the people, the people of the less developed but euphemistically labeled as “on the road to development of popular democracies”, impoverished, coarsened, dissociated with reality, drunkenly dance on the streets.

And the contradicting picture completes itself, because the drunkard dances, oblivious of his surroundings, while nearby school girls pirouette through the dilapidated streets and houses of every small village of their respective country.

That is the vivid image of the people, while the smarter ones enrich themselves with the spoils of the power exercised and power abused.


IF YOU CAN!

Some weeks ago, while sharing comments about the present international political conflicts and maneuvering, some of the responses were: What's new?

Countries are misunderstanding the meaning of democracy. We can attest to the fact that it is not enough to be elected. Democracy goes beyond elections. It is a lifestyle with true meaningful values.

Whether we like it or not: Things will not get better, they will get worse.

The final solution is the millennial kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. My final vote is for the Kingdom of God.

Recognizing the validity of these statements, I would like to add that we must give to our children the opportunity to have ways to understand what could and should be done to do our part so the miracles of God, derived from His undying love for every one of His creatures, may become not just a hope but a reality.

We must show them how, and lead them if we can. We must tell them what they can accomplish in life if they can…

And to all those who are doing their part to provide a glimpse of hope to the children of this world, as Fresh Air Fund does, praise the Lord! Check: http://freshairfund-news.com/








Blessed be, and keep on blessing, making the difference, to shame all those who prefer to stand in the balconies, without doing anything that could signify a daring, and uncomfortable decision to make.

Only by doing so we will be able to tell and proclaim, at the top of the mountains of life, experience and learnt wisdom: I give you thanks, Lord.

HOW WE WOULD LIKE OTHERS TO REMEMBER OUR JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE?

In my book, and I am sure in many other people´s book, some of the most fundamental questions, borne out of the deepest, and innerest, ineludible longings, are the following questions.

How am I supposed to live my life?. Am I just a fleeting second in the universal and unending time?. Is it enough just to live. the easiest way we can, with no meaning or purpose, just to avoid unpleasantries, challenges, misunderstandings and defeats?.

What´s more important? The pursuit of happiness on this earth? The outward success whatever the cost or compromising?. Or the deepest understanding that we are here for something better, worthier, and significant than just going along, getting along?. Isn´t worthier purposing ourselves to make a difference, even if becomes apparent , and noticed, only, by us, and not to the surrounding world?.

These questions came around, again, as they had come from time to time, while journeying through life. It was because of the attractive presentation, and the pleasant background music, of the following message that did reach me, through one of the innumerable email chains, that try to encourage and give support, to the otherwise disconcerted disconected, or dispirited, peoples.


JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE


If you cannot be the machinist,
be the most amenable
and easy going passenger!

Take the seat by the window, if you can!
Enjoy every scene, that times rolls on
while you watch, when journeying
with the pleasure of the first time traveler.

Do not be afraid of the cliffs and the abysse!
Care not for the curves,
that do not let you see what´s coming!
Or the roads that are waiting
just beyond them!

Try to enjoy the life´s journey,
watching every shrub, every stream,
every roadside,
and the scenery changing colors.

Spread open the road maps
and plot ways and routes.
Pay attention to every stop,
and watch out for the departures whistles.

And when deciding where your hopes leads you,
do not worry!
Place your dreams upon them!

May your life´s journey, be a first class,
and unforgettable one!


This was the core of the message, get the best of your life, draining out whatever and whenever you can get that may make your life more amenable, pleasurable and easy.


THE FUNDAMENTAL CHALLENGE IN LIFE EVEN IF CONSIDERED AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

Sometimes this becomes possible, when retirement age comes around. Usually due to your own efforts and your planning. Other times as the result of raising up a solid family where the grown up children take care of their parents.

It is a blessed reward. It is a time to rest, to visualize what it really was the core of the lessons imparted by our life experiences. A time to wonder, to ponder, to give back in advice what you did not have time to communicate before.

There are, still, Shangrilahs waiting for us when you really understand the real richness of life, filled with modern comfort, without need to recur to the external wealth or financial excentricities.

This becomes real when you recognize, accept and enjoy the simplicity and affordability of the easier, and slower, living within its parameters and limits.

Because it is still possible to live on first name basis with people who still possses, and preserve the fundamental values of friendship, priorities of life, and will to make a decent living without unnecessaryly overworking or overextending themselves.

It is amazing how life is able to blend dreams, challenges and purposes, with the amenities and the reconforting circumstances, that, as grown up men or women, spouses, societal actors and players, or audiences and witnesses, benefactors or benefited, conquerors or victirms, she leads you through, while journeying from the craddle to the grave.

There is no better example of this purpose filled, and purpose lived life, than the lyrics of what it was one of the most influential songs in my life:



THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM.


To dream the impossible dream!
To fight the unbeatable foe!

To bear with unbearable sorrow!
To run where the brave dare not go!

To right the unrightable wrong!
To be better far than you are!

To try when your arms are so weary!

This is my quest:
To
follow
that star, no matter how hopeless,
no matter how far.

To be willing to give when there is no more to give!

To be willing to die so that honor and justice may live!

And I know, if I´ll only be true
to this glorious quest,
that my heart will lie peaceful, and calm,when I´m laid to my rest.



The message and the song describe a beautiful and challenging way to live. A heartfelt and usually a painful way for those allowed living this way, me included.

Even if usually the end is to finish among the ranks of the fools and the dreamers who are considered and included in the losers of this world. But let´s not despair. The going on and the journey are not made only of sacrifice, disgust, suffering and defeat.

Life has a way to adorn and beautify our journey. As the flowers in the gardens, and the grass on the lawns that only need a little rain, wetting the unsightly roots from time to time, in order to bloom, and to adorn the walls of our homes!

Let´s take a peak down memory lane for us to rejoice and be comforted again, and for our descendants and future generations who may read these memories, to see that the harder the way the worthier the outcomes.


AS TIME GOES BY! Let´s take a LYRICAL AND MUSICALTRIP BACK DOWN MEMORY LANE!

As I have been repeatedly telling before, life is worthy to be lived, when the decision has been made to live it without compromising what you believe in, if these beliefs are founded on solid and rightful values, and premises.

Another recurrent reference concept has been that, as a member of an older generation, we found a lot of inspiration in the sedater melodies, and lyrics, of the songs that marked the passing of the years, and the changes of our generation.

I am honest when stating that the frenetic, even if rhythmically insistent, pace of the music of today, forces the acceleration of living and reacting, making more difficult to set up parameters for almost every aspect of the pace of the present generation.

It is also imperative to recognize that these generations are also greatly influenced by the lyrics and melodies, as we were in our days.

It is for this reason that I intend to refer myself through music, on this trip back down melody lanes, so I may find an understanding echo in any potential reader, and or listener, of these remembrances of mine.

I have pondered at times the apparent contradiction of today, especially in reference to the isolation, and the multiplication of the statements communicated through the internet waves.

It is so easy to call the attention, and become a jester, an entertainer, a seducer, a manipulator, of the grossest tendencies of the masses.

It is also easier to close ourselves to any intruding, and nagging stimulus of our conscience, by the invitations to pay attention to, to analyze, and hopefully, get valid, solid and fundamental conclusions, out of the also present and available calls to logic and responsibility, both at the individual as well as the societal levels.

Just a few days ago, I watched on TV a movie about how to manipulate your life with a mysterious remote control device, but inevitable pay the consequences.

It was an entertaining and at times, laughable tale, but at the end, when the main character recognized the stupidity, futility, and wrongness of his egotistical decisions, a fundamental truth came out.

And this save the day and made worthy the time spent, and overcame the whole banality of the movie, because some things fundamental were asserted. Love and family!.

Love that can start at the closest level of the individual towards him/herself and his/her family, and then expand to embrace, in wider circles, the whole societies and nature!.

This is the only way to journey through life in a real and meaningful way. And then reach maturer phases with a wonderful baggage of memories and learnt lessons to leave behind for the benefit of the ones to come!.

If we do we will be able to enjoy walking at a slower but sedater pace along the roads filled with beauty along its sidewalks, after reliving all the pleasant memories, that in harmonious ways, return to you, to walk alongside in the most intimate communion with your fulfilled hopes and longings.

As a gift for you all, enjoy the lyrics and the melodies that embody these memories of mine that I present to you in a sequence below.


AS TIME GOES BY

You must remember this:
A kiss is just a kiss;
a sigh is just a sigh.
The fundamental things apply as time goes by.

And when two lovers woo they still say: I love you.
On that you can rely.
No matter what the future brings as time goes by.

Moonlight and love songs never out of date.
Hearts full of passion, jealousy, and hate.
Woman needs man and man must have his mate…
That no one can deny.

It’s still the same old story,
a fight for love and glory,
a case of “do or die”!
The world will always welcome lovers…
As time goes by!