Are you excited for the New Year? This morning I feel especially excited for 2014! Maybe it’s the fact that I’m drinking coffee and haven’t had a bite to eat, but I’m pretty sure that it’s not just the caffeine. Of course, it could also be because it’s the last day of the year. 2013 has gone by so fast, it seems. As I look back on my life this year, what really stands out to me are the people…the amazing lessons I’ve learned, the love that has been shared, the experiences enjoyed…every relationship is unique and a gift. Continue reading →
Change is good. It keeps things fresh…so the time has come to change the tagline on my blog. This blog (Amalia Vida), is my personal blog out of two blogs that I have. The other one is my travel blog called Amalia Travel. Since I started Amalia Vida two years ago, the tagline has been Life is for Experiencing. I still like that to this day and it’s meaning remains true for me. It always will, really. Yet I wanted to expand on it…to capture a bit more…more of what I’ve learned, what I feel now…all those wonderful things that we grow in on our journey through this life.
Here is where I’m going with my new tagline. I like to talk in stories, so please keep reading. It’s like getting a surprise at the end. Who doesn’t like that? Continue reading →
For months now I have slacked in my writing. See that? I used the word “slacked”…it tends to be a more negative connotation and fact of the matter is, it shows me that I’m judging myself. Maybe what it comes down to, is that I simply needed time to not be writing; that uncomfortable strange […]
I know…you’ve probably heard this question umpteen times already in your life. But here, I’ve coded it…and the code word, if you haven’t already figured it out, is fire for passion. It seems to be the big concern…that is among creatives, artists, and absolutely anyone else who is sick of settling for typical. I’m not being exclusive here – I’m just feeling extremely sarcastic and short-wired right now while writing this…so, I mean every one of course.
In the book “Love Without Conditions“, there is a chapter towards the end that is called The Death of the Ego. Here are a few lines that inspire and resonate with me…
People identify with thoughts that they think. If you want to communicate with people, find a way to acknowledge and include their ideas. Then, when you express your own ideas, it will be easier for others to acknowledge them. People will never be able to be together peacefully until their ideas can dwell together without competition. To accept another person’s idea, even when you don’t with it, is to extend to him respect and trust.
Dwelling together in peace requires that you see what links you to others, not what separates you. If you what links you, you will respect your differences. If you see what separates you, you will try to overcome those differences. The attempt to overcome differences invariably fails. That is because differences are healthy. As long as they are respected, they do not interfere with the potential for intimacy and cordial relations between people.
Always give another the space to be different. Then you will not be avoiding intimacy with him. If you feel that you need to become like him to be accepted by him or that he needs to become like you to be accepted by you, you are trying “to overcome” the differences. Just let the differences be. You are acceptable as you are, and so is he. Peace remains in your heart and in his. Everything is fine.
What are some ideas that you have, that you do not share because of fear that others will not accept them? Have you shared them, only to experience people not accepting them and thus felt like they were not accepting you?
Speaking from my own personal experience, I also see how many times, I am not accepting my own ideas within myself. This seems to create a cycle where I live in fear of sharing my ideas, pursuing them, and accepting and including the ideas of others. How do I expect others to accept me and my ideas, when I do not even accept them myself?
When I think about this, it also helps me to see differences in a loving light. What would you say is the usual response to differences? I would say that in our world the response to differences is usually fear. It is okay that fear is there…it means that the opportunity of courage is also there. At times when I am afraid, I practice kindness to myself, rather than beating myself up for being afraid. Then a magical transformation seems to take place and I walk through the fear and see it morph into courage. In this space of courage, differences are shown for what they are…creativeness, magic, uniqueness and self-expressiveness. And we can be together with all of our differences and ideas, without fear and instead with love.
Dear Carmen…she is the small, little lady who has been with my mother’s family long before I was alive. She is from the Dominican Republic and lives there now. I am staying with her while visiting my family. Her stature is short and she is older and grey now, but her personality exudes a big energy and when she speaks, there’s no chance of not hearing her…that little voice of her’s is loud, just as her generous heart is so big. Her faith is Catholic and she is one of the most accepting, loving people I know in my life. On the same hand, she’s the one I learned all the Spanish curse words I know! When she makes a point to speak something to me, I make sure to listen. That is the confidence and energy with which she speaks, sometimes relating what she shares to something God spoke to her, a message she heard from her church, or more often than not, from one of the many heart-touching experiences her life has been filled with.
Today, she came to me in the kitchen and told me this… Continue reading →
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