THOUGHTS, FLOWERS AND FRIENDS, ARE THE PRICELESS GIFTS FROM GOD!

Some time ago, and it´s incredible how fast time passes by, we were getting our things ready to come back to this country of Guatemala, that has been like our real back home, the resting place, the nourishing, and rehabilitating, place for our broken hopes of seeing a better world for everyone around.

We were getting back from our birthplace country, after six years of experiencing, as if they were our own, the hardships and pain that young children suffer when abused and abandoned, and on top of that, subjected to what well intentioned people, but with different perspective and culture, think it is the best for them.

It was a hard earned and assimilated lesson, seeing that the most we were able to do was to offer to these children a short period of love received, care given, and real concern for their well being.

Sometimes I wonder if we do not do more harm by temporary allowing these disadvantaged children to taste something good, or better than what already they have gone through, when changes of perspectives, influenced by other culture and environment sets of belief about what we want to give, as a gift of charity or compassion, dominate the scene, and make things change, even if not for the better.

And I keep on wondering if these children will not become more hardened with those glassy eyes, that I see so often when I ride the buses of our hardship filled, and bloated with despair, lower classes.

One thing for sure permeates the awareness and judgment of even the best intentioned people, Christians included. It is seeing things from our personal perspectives, instead of placing ourselves in the mind and the emotions of the people we want to help, so our efforts become imbedded in their spirit, so they can change, really change for the better in their lives.

It is easy to give out of what abounds, especially if we ask others to do the giving so we can appear as the great people of mercy. It is a laudable position, that of being intermediaries in the transfer of generosity and compassion, no doubt about it.

But what is really required is our full and comprehensive commitment to taking our efforts to the end, not for a while, avoiding setting up rules and parameters that are only meaningful to us.

Undoubtedly there will be children, and even adults, who will analyze us and find the way to please us, purposely, so they can benefit, as much as they can, from what we have to offer.

But even if we only change one soul, one person, one child, one abused, one abandoned, and set him or her on the right track of life, lived as it should be lived, all spent efforts will be worthy to have been done.

But in order to make possible for them to be a positive, and committed, individual, the chain of support must be consistent and be carried with the same purposeful will by all those who become part of the process.

It is necessary that the highest level of spiritual commitment is carried all through without personal interest or conveniences. It is well known that any chain is as strong as its weakest link, and if a subsequent link is added to the strong initial ones, or if the motivation is influenced by personal likings or disliking, then, the responsible one for debilitating, or modifying, the effort, will see unnecessary failures coming into the pictures, no matter what the amount of justifications are invoked for self-appeasement.

It is then when we should pray for divine guidance, because it could be easy to disrupt the already healing process, sending it back to worse than before circumstances.

It can be argued that this is an inevitable fact of life, but the Lord knows what it really went on and what responsibility everyone involved will carry upon their shoulders.

The ones who did well can rest assured that the consequences will be like an unstoppable avalanche of life changing actions. The ones who did not do so, someday, sooner or later will have to face the consequences of their actions and decisions.

Fortunately, everyone of us, besides of our share of successes or losing, in the course of our life find solace in our inner thoughts, relax at the sight of the beautiful flowers that bloom even in the midst of the deepest piles of waste, and get comforted by the assurance and stability, instilled into our weaknesses, doubts and misfortunes, brought by those special friends, like Ivonne and Richard, among the ones who have a special place in our hearts.

Ivonne has already gone to rest in the loving arms of our Creator, but she left a legacy of rightfulness, generosity, loving acceptance of our weaknesses, encouraging appreciation of our best characteristics, that makes her become a living presence all the while we keep on walking until we also reach our final departure date.

To both of them, she, Ivonne, and he, Richard, I want to dedicate the following thoughts and videos, in humble recognition of their being the strongest links in every chain of life events they became part, and we were lucky to be one of them, from time to time.

To them, because so fittingly relate to them, those verses from Isaiah 52:7. “How lovely on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who announce peace and bring good news of happiness”.

The good news that there are friends like them, who bring peace and happiness to all who were fortunate to share their friendship!

HOMAGE TO FRIENDSHIP!

Richard, my dear friend, and in you, all those whom I met and shared my life with…

In life there are transcendental changes that indelibly seal the phases we go through. It could be a change of fortunes, social status, or living environment, forced or voluntary ones.

Changes in our vision of how to live our life! Different alternatives sought for or forced… again! So many things! So many incidents, fierily branding our emotions and spirits!

Wisdom and experience are not the instruments to accumulate possessions at the expense of the Inner Peace, our own, or that of our own ones.

They are not anything else but the consequences of our adapting to and our positive acceptance of what have been popping up all along our walking paths.

A fundamental premise is the recognition of the fact of, having been given free will by our Creator… our decisions will inevitably bring logical consequences. Sometimes well deserved, other times clearly unjust! But not capable, just for it, to destroy us, if we do not allow it! Or even worst, to lead us to spiritual suicide, which is the worst of all of them!

God, in His infinite generosity, is always ready to give us what we need to walk through life. Enjoying what of good nature offers us! Learning from the failures that confront us, to take us apart from what is harmful or negative.

It is for all this that we are able to walk unharmed, through the different phases that make up the framework of our lives. Making, if we decide so, whatever possible to change our surroundings!

One by one, not in the midst of multitudes, who most of the times hide themselves, in the anonymity of the masses, to bring up all that´s twisted, and malignant, in the human personality!

I am already at the top of my occurrences´ plentiful 73 well and fully lived years. Years of sharing with “all types of people” of “all social standing levels”!

I, still enjoy the blissfulness of going, joined and supported by my wife, contrary to you, who already saw her, departing for her eternal blissful resting! I don´t know if I will be the first to go, or if she will precede me, in this final and decisive change.

But we have the joy of knowing that, in our pilgrimage, we always found friends, friends like you all, eternal friends, temporary ones, generous and understanding friends, as well as those who erroneously judged us, enriching, contradictorily, and incomprehensively, our existence.

Thanks God, I have always been like a stubborn child, refusing to be depressed no matter how traumatic my experiences. My love for reading, my awareness of others´ points of views, and its analysis, my fondness for picture taking… augmenting my emotional reserves for the times of need of encouragement, as well as any bouts of doubt, uncertainty, tiredness or discouragement!

My reckoning of everything I have encountered while walking… The musical and the thought full moments that this material world as let me enjoy… For the good in them, because not everything is wrong in this world…

And, finally, my recurrences to my God, who has always been there, present… protecting us, individually, as well as, we, as a family… through all kinds of changes, experiences, sorrows and blissful times.

All of this has allowed me to understand what it really is the reality of our earthly living. In them, often, I take refuge. I hope them also useful for any of you. Even if, and only as a benevolent remembrance from a friend who cares for you.

TO MY FRIENDS, and everyone else! With my pictures of our Guatemalan gardens and scenery!

There are people, in our lives, who make us happier,

just for the simple fact of having crossed our path.

Some walk alongside us, seeing together many moons go by.
Others, we, fleetingly see them in the lapse
between one of our steps and the following…
We call them, all, friends!

But there are many types among them.

Every leaf in a tree or a plant symbolizes one of them.
The first ones sprouted from our parents.

They show us what life is.
Afterwards… the brothers, the children, the friends,

with whom we share our space, so they are able to bloom
as we have bloomed before!

Our fate introduces to us other types of friends
we did not know were going to cross our paths.
We call some of them… soul mates,
because they are sincere and true.
They brighten our eyes,

are music in our lips
and agility in our feet...

There are also those who are our friends

for just some time,

maybe during vacations, some days, some hours…
They also, make smiles shine in our faces
while they and we spend time together.

The time passes by, the summer goes away,
and our autums get nearer every day.
then, we lose some of our leaves...
some re-birth in other summers,
others remain alive almost forever.

But what bring us happiness is those leaves,
that, even fallen, stay with us,

feeding our roots with gladness,

and marvelous remembrances
of the time we were together,

simply because each person
that enters into our life is unique.

They always leave something of them behind,
and take a bit of us with them, when leaving...
Evident proof that souls

do not meet each other just by chances!

YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE!

There are people, who, by saying just one word,

turn on the lights,
and light up the roses!

And by just smiling with their eyes,
invite us to travel to other places,

and make us walk
through a world that is wholesome

and righteous!

People who, by just extending their hand,

erase away the loneliness,

set up the table, serve the punch,

hang, on the walls, the garlands!

There are people who,
by just holding a guitar, play a celestial symphony!

Who, by just saying a word, reach the souls´ innerness,
make a flower bloom; make dreams come true,

make the wine sing,
making the soul smile,

and then just stay as if nothing had happened!

And we walk along, as fiancées, with Life,

chasing away a lonely death,

because we know that just around the corner
there are people like those… so needed!

You are one of those people. Let´s be merry!
Someday we will rest in His loving arms!
Let´s be assured! God is in control!

THAT´S LIFE!

I do want to close this homage to friendship with some references to what life is in the eyes of many ones, who have lived it, even if not from, probably, a Christian perspective, but full of braveness, optimism, and openness to the fact that every circumstance adds an additional bit of flavor to a life that, otherwise, would be so limited and dreary.

Some will find the way back to God´s friendship, the most desired for in times of troubles, and of blessings and solitudes, too.

By doing so, they, me included, have been able to close the loop and tie up the loose strings of a life that would have been, again, otherwise, so dreadfully wasted.

O.C. Smith, one of my favorite singers of decades past, was one of them. He was able to turn his life into one of service to God, with the example, his dreams, his voice and his experience.

For all this, is why his song about life is so fitting to close my comments on this wonderful gift from God, life and friendship, with him with ourselves, with the rest of the people, even those who antagonize our way of thinking, believing and doing.

For all this, again, let´s sing with him, from the bottom of our hearts and feelings!

That´s life! That´s what people say. Riding high in April, shot down in May. But I know I´m gonna change that tune when I´m back on top on June.

That´s life! Funny as it seems… some people get their kicks stepping on dreams. I won´t let it get me down. This old world keeps spinning around.

I´ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a paw and a king. I´ve been up and down, and over and out, and I know one thing: every time I find myself flat on my face, I pick myself up and get me back in the race.

That´s life, I can´t deny it. Oh, I thought of quitting buy my heart won´t buy. If I didn´t think it was worth a try, you know I’d would roll up in a big ball and die.

One morning I´d would roll up in a big ball and I would die!

Some basic understanding about our present way of living and what the new generations can expect or hope to change for the better!

It has been already a month since I received this forwarded message from George Carlin. I have been going through its content, once and once again, and every time its concepts sink deeper in my mind.

I have chatted with some retired friends, cozily sitting by the fountain in our residential compound´s little park, and we have all agreed that times have changed, faster and vastly more complicated, but in no way better than the ones we have enjoyed so far.

Even in here we see the sad consequences of the hurried way of living of the newer generations. Just the other day, while chatting, some children, not older than eight years old, were playing around the next to us bench in our park.

They were wearing brand name tennis shoes, baggy short pants, sport teams T-shirts, and earrings in their ear lobules, thanks God, not in their noses. And their parents, as usual were absent. Working hard but leaving alone their children at home. No surprise that we also have become used to see nice looking young girls, parading around with young boys, similarly sloppily dressed, and even some already carrying little babies in their arms.

Supposedly this is a middle class neighborhood. Abundant cars noisily cruising along our main street, driven by the older boys and girls. If this is what happens here, you can easily guess what is going on in the crowder and more dilapidated living areas where younger people have adopted the gang style way of living so popular nowadays in the more advance countries, mesmerized by the expelled ones who have been forced to return.

Add to this the broken moral ways of the older, who, justified, they say, by the rampant social injustices of today, dedicate themselves only to shout and claim their right to be subsidized by the government in turn, while they, busily and irresponsibly, contribute to the growing population explosions, bringing more babies to this more than sagging and hurting world.

It is not my purpose to keep on painting so bleak images of the social maladies that are affecting our countries. Similar images are found everywhere, over here as well as in the slums of the more advanced and so called first world cities of this world.

It is for this reasons that the message of doom and despair joins the choiring circus of the media but get lost in the noise and the flashing and the repetitive clowning of the masters, for their financial gain, of such a kaleidoscopic shows that inundate us, every time we turn on the radios or television sets that have taken such a grasp of our homes.

Let´s hope that sanity and change for the better soon arrives. The time is coming on! We are almost reaching the bottommost level of the social moral decay.

There will be no other way but to reach up again, if we do not want to stay crushed to death upon the filthy floors of what I have already defined as the bleakest moral decay of this century that has just begun.

A MESSAGE FROM GEORGE CARLIN:

His wife died, recently. It is not surprising that George Carlin, a comedian from the 70s and 80s, could write so eloquently.

Our time´s paradox is that we have taller buildings but much reduced temperaments. Wider roads but narrower points of views! We spend more but we have less!.

We buy more but we enjoy less!. We have bigger houses but smaller families! More comfort but less time in our hands!.

More academic titles but less Common Sense!. Greater knowledge but less judging capacities! More experts but more problems!.

Better medical care but less well being!. We drink too much!. We smoke excessively!. We waste too much!. We laugh too little!. We drive too fast!. We get mad too easily!.

We do not sleep enough, and we wake up tired!. We scarcely read, we watch TV too long!. And we rarely pray!.

We have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values!. We talk too much!. We love too little!. And hate too frequently!.

We have learnt to earn our living, but not to live!. We add years to our lives, not life to our years!.

We have achieved going “to and back” to the moon, but find so difficult to cross the street to meet a new neighbor!. We conquered the outer space, but not our inner one!

We have achieved great things, but not better ones!. We have cleaned the air but polluted our soul!. We conquered the atom but no tour prejudices!. We write more but learn less!.

We plan more but achieve less!. We have learnt to hurry up, but not to wait!.

We have produced computers capable of more Information processing and distribution, but we communicate, every time, less and less!.

These are the fast food times and the slower digestion ones!. The times of taller sizes and shorter characters!.

The times of unbelievable financial profits and shallower human interrelationships!.

Two home incomes are usual today, but more divorces!.

Luxury houses, but broken homes!. Times of faster trips!. Throw away diapers!. Discarding Morals!. One night sexual shacking ups!. Obese bodies!. And pills for everything! From getting high and calming down, even to kill!.

These are times where there is so much in the stores windows, and so little in our hands!.

Times when technology makes possible for this letter to reach you, so you can choose to share these reflections! Or simply decide to erase them!.

At this point in time, let´s stop and meditate on the words of wisdom, by a remarkable woman.

“If we assume a catastrophic vision of the human being, we are done, life becomes a useless endeavor. I do also feel, internally, incapable of being optimistic… but we have to be, whatever the costs!.

We must keep alive our trust in the future!. These are the timely words of Rita Levi –Montalcini, Italian neurologist, 22/04/1909. Medicine Nobel Prize in 1986.

Once agreed upon on this, let´s go back to Carlin message!.

Remember to spend some time with your dearest ones, because they will not be here, forever!. Remember to be kind with the child who admires you, because that little one will grow up and leave you behind!.

Remember to hug those who are near, because this is the only treasure you can give with your heart, without costing you a penny!.

Remember to say “I love you” to your spouse and your dear ones, but, above all, say it with all your soul!. A kiss and a hug can heal a wound when are given with all you have in you!.

Remember to hold hands with your dearest one, and to treasure this moment, because someday that person will not be with you anymore!.

Give yourself time to love and talk to people, and this way to share your most precious ideas!. And remember always!.

Life is not measured by the number of times we take a breath, but by the extraordinary moments that take our breath away!.

George Carlin