Plant Away

We are living in very interesting days. Slowly, many of us are awakening to the need of preserving and saving our planet. 

I see so many people embracing new ideas; yet, not many are taking action. 

The most memorable moment of the 2016 Olympics for a girl that doesn't follow sports at all was the initiative of planting a tree in the name of each athlete. 

What a great opportunity to bring all races together and do something to better the planet. That action made me proud of my country.

Also, it reminded of a person very dear to me. My cousin Jose Humberto Sanches. 

A few years ago he had a brilliant idea of challenge people to go out and plant trees. I remember talking to him about it and loving his passion for the cause. 

Unfortunately, it was carried thru a social media group that has become extinct since then.

Many fauna and flora species have also become extinct and we cannot afford to wait on the sidelines, action-less. 

So here I am to challenge you and myself.

Let's act. 

After you read this, I challenge you to go out there and plant a tree. No excuses. 

I know that many will have issues with time, space, resources, etc., but we can all make an effort and act. 

Plant away. Plant in your back yard, plant in the fields, plant in a park, plant in a pot if you have to, but DO IT. 

Spread the word and challenge your friends. Make it a contest. Make it a family project.  A Bucket List item.

Then come back and tell us what you have planted and where. 

Clouds

In this age of information 

and new century technology

We constantly hear about the cloud

Over our heads, holding our knowledge

But the way I still think of clouds

As fluffy puppies dancing in a morning's sky

As hippos that just are about to plow 

Into a juicy yummy cherry pie

As Elephants playing with a ball

Or sometimes nothing at all. 

Cows - Secrets To A Happy Marriage

Yep, there are secrets to a happy marriage. 

Understand that I'm not talking about keeping a spouse. 

Maintaining a relationship status is not the same thing. 

A marriage or any long term relationship, label it whatever you want, that you can claim to be worth your while, is one that makes you a better person on a daily basis. It is one that by the end of the day you can state that "I'm glad you are by my side today." 

It's not always an idyllic paradise, but if you can at least say that you are willing to venture for another day tomorrow, you have something special to hold on.

Now, back to the secrets, one of them is having a special language. 

My husband's grandparents literally made up a language. I guess they had to find a way to communicate secretly with all 13 kids they birthed, but regardless,  they were a great example of happy marriage.

We have not been that ambitious on our marriage, however, we do have a language that it only makes sense to the 2 of us, or the 3 of us in most cases, counting in our son. 

Another secret is laughter, and this is where the cows come into place. 

We once took an impromptus field trip and were on the road for over 2 hours. 

During this time, we had the most amazing brain-storming session about cow jokes. 

Utterly whimsical, non-nonsensical, 2 straight hours of silliness like:

Q: What are cows' favorite vegetable?

A: Cowliflower  

A: No, It's cowrrots...

Q: What do cows say at a funeral?

A: My cowdolences!

By the time we got home, we were exhausted and with our faces hurting from so much laughter. 

Even though it has been few years since this road trip, we still break out the cow jokes whenever one gift itself to us. 

And this, my friends, is a little slice of happiness.  

  

This Is An Otter Issue

I've been listening to Noel Gallagher's songs a lot lately. 
Some how, they all have new a meaning for me, a new-found appreciation for the poetry in his songs. 
However, one of them became quite comical. 
I was listening to "Don't look back in anger", for the millionth time, and suddenly, I heard parts of the lyrics to be...
""Stand up beside the fireplace
Take that look from off your face
You ain't ever gonna BIRTH MY OTTER""
From that moment on, this is all I can hear on that song. 
Maybe I did get infected when a had an incidental encounter with an otter (this is a story for another time.)
Go on, listen up. I bet you will never hear the original lyrics again. 

                           

Poisonous Nail

Recently I recollected an episode from childhood.

When I was little, maybe 4 or 5, I was chewing my nails and my mom and aunt Lu told me that I had to be very careful with his habit since we all have a poisonous nail. We all have one, and it varies from person to person, so it's better not to chew any in case you want to keep on living. 

That was the end on my habit. I simply stopped and forgot about the whole thing.

Then another day, something triggered the memory and I was baffled by it. 

I went my whole life not thinking about, but somewhere in the depths of my subconscious mind, I had the belief that we all have a poisonous nail. It took me about 35 years to bring that back and re-evaluate the facts. 

What else am I carrying around as "true fact", weighing me down along the process?

How many white little lies we just take it in?

Question the world kids. Question yourself, most of all. 

Thanks mom. I'll send you the therapy bill.  

Waves

Some days she rose up billowing like Neptune's fury, 

Some days she lay flaccid like Silentia's sleeping breasts,

She wasn't fueled by the phases of the moon, 

Her reasoning a mortal couldn't grasp.

She stopped explaining, she gave up on apologies.

She danced with the waves,

Crash, retreat, rise again.  

Cohabiting

One day she realized it was silly to be afraid of having a monster under her bed.

Along the years, they've moved up, one by one, into her head. 

Now they cohabit in a symbiotic harmony, 

Delivering new dreams, one by one, into her head. 

New Birth

Self-discovery was confused by a joint experience. 

It was put aside as meaning took precedence,

It laid dormant with mundane distraction. 

Self has been patiently waiting,

Its colors eager to show,

its labels  peeling one at a time

unfold and stating: THIS IS ME.

Meeting Gandhi

In the book Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire the author Alex Von Tunzelmann added a bit about the death of Gandhi's wife, in 1944. 

I was very troubled by Gandhi's actions at first.

She pleaded with him to be given Castor oil to relieve her symptoms but was not granted. 

He refused to let her get any medication that could potentially cure her.  On her final days, when one of their sons came in with medicine, learning that it had to be injected, Gandhi refused under the religious belief that is was going to show a weakness of his faith.  

He stopped another son to see her on death bed because he was drunk. Instead, he filled her room with his followers and sang praise to God until she passed. 

For such an icon of non-violence, I found his actions very imposing, violating her simple wishes for relief and family. 

After all, he was Gandhi, right??? 

Well, maybe not. I had t stop myself and try to find another point of view. 

How many people do we put in altars and proliferate their words we find nice, but in truth, we know very little about them?

Gandhi himself said that we should not have a sect after him since he was just learning according to truths that are as old as the world. 

Once we realize that we are all humans, all learning, we will see that in truth, we are also gods in a path of self-discovery. 

Tereza's Diary

She thought her words documented days

She thought her Blog told of childhood antics

But she was writing a history book, 

the only history that really mattered to us.

We were kings and queens, 

knights and hobos, 

Fairies and beasts,

We were kids. We were dreams.

We were spring's self-realization. 

The Day I Questioned Buddha

I'm currently enrolled in a Coursera class about "Buddhism and Modern Psychology" where I had to write an essay for the midterm exam, answering one of few questions. Here is my essay. I'd love to hear your point of view. 

The Buddha offers a specific diagnosis of the suffering that is part of human existence. Explain the Buddha's diagnosis. Does this diagnosis ring true to you, or has the Buddha ignored some aspect of human life, or made some other mistake?


The Buddha’s diagnosis of human suffering shows the concept of humans clinging to pleasure, and with that, creating a world of suffering, referred by the word DUHKHA. Buddha explains that any time we are seeking pleasure, we not only become dependent of the eagerness to find it, in an increasing necessity, but we also create a universe of suffering, since pleasure is impermanent and fleeting in our human essence.Even while experiencing pleasure, we are already suffering from the thought that it will end.Buddha suggests that the way to become enlightened and achieve Nirvana is to avoid grasping to any pleasure, any source of satisfaction that would create anxiety in seeking to make it permanent.
Coming from a different spiritual background and studying dogmatic religions, as well as spiritual concepts and physical laws, I have just a slight grasp on what Buddha is referring to.

1. For our modern life, the best “translation” of the diagnosis of the suffering, in my opinion, would be that we don't live in the moment. We tend to not even understand what the moment is, concentrating all of our energy on preparing for the next second, or regretting the minutes passed. We spend our entire lives looking for the best way to prepare the now so we can have a better “later on”, while the later on is always one step ahead, therefore, we are always depriving ourselves of a real life.
2. We also have a genetic disposition to gather, either supplies or societal links, in which makes us possessive of things and relationships. We spend most of our time strategizing to keep them in place, creating the circumstance for our endurance as a species.

Seeking enlightenment seems to inflict a constant battle between our physical nature and our spiritual being.I believe that the decision to seek enlightenment or be Buddha-like is already putting you in a position where you invite Duhkha into your life. In seeking it, you start to suffer from the set backs along the way and cling to the notion of what it would be like when achieving it.
Maybe the message he wanted to pass was more of “let it go”, or, "observe what comes to you" instead of absorbing what comes to you.

Homesick

Yesterday I had a taste of what pizza should really be like. We went to a Brazilian Grill that had a Pizza Rodizio night and it was fabulous.  No wonder we have the saying there that "everything ends in a pizza party."

The toppings, piled high, are different than what we have here in America, and are combined in a way that makes Americans question our taste. But once they try it, it's a sure winner. 

One thing very strange for us there was the language we spoke.

We walked in and automatically said Hi instead of Oi, just because that's what is natural now. Then they look at Alex, with his Army t-shirt, assumed that we are not Brazilians, and kept talking to us in English. Half way thru we said something in Portuguese and that we are Brazilians, but throughout the night, we all kept going back and forth between both languages. It feels so unnatural to me talk in Portuguese with people that are not close friends or family. 

By now I have spent more time of my life here in the US than I had in Brasil, and that seems to take its toll sometimes.  

How to save a life?

It's so hard to take the path of least resistance. 

Last week I had such a moral dilemma about saving a lizard's life or letting the bird eat it (or take to her babies).  Who am I to choose who will live, right? I wasn't fast enough to even make a decision in that case, but it bugged me the whole day. Or maybe more, since I'm still thinking about it. 

How can I just let the bird eat him?  In the other hand, the bird also needs a meal to survive. Arghhh!

Today, I sat at Subway, eating my lunch, and a big ant in the corner of the room caught my attention. She was climbing the glass wall and falling. Climbing again, getting a little higher, and falling... This went on for about 20 minutes, each time she was making a little more progress. What a tenacity (That in itself was already a lesson). 

But then she got all the way to the top and fell. She was clearly looking for a way out.  I looked down on the corner of the floor where she kept falling and found 3 other ants there, dead. 

Then, I could not resist and became the crazy one in the restaurant saving an ant. 

Took me few tries and maneuvering to get the ant, but I got her out.  

As she walked outside, free, I could actually feel her relief.  So, I patted myself on the back and went on with my day, walking just a bit taller. 

Parallel chatter

Multiple traits of our personalities 

Having strings of parallel conversations.

In each line, we share who we are.

In each line we peel the many masks we carry around.

We feel lighter. We get deeper.

We trail between reality and the mundane.

We fly among fantasies and dark wishes.

Bulgarian wine, silly poems,

intense projections and quantum physics

All sharing the same appeal.

Wet skin, hot tea,

peculiar travels and magnetic pulses

All sharing the same desire

In each line, we lose ourselves

In each line, we find each other. 

MSU, here I come...

Today I started to take photography classes from Michigan State University. I've been planning to do this for quite a while, and longer yet, I've always wanted to really learn how to take nice pictures.

I had a brief course when I was on Advertising School, and was really happy with some pictures I took. (Thanks Jeronimo!!!)

Now is time to do more of the things that make me happy and photography is on top of my list. 

What are you learning nowadays? 

Twinkle

He had a touch of amusement in his eyes every time he found her truly laughing.

He wondered where does she hide the twinkle in her own eyes when quietly immersed into her head. 

He didn't want to ask how many more of those he would witness.

Some questions are better left unasked.

Endurance

She sat down and took a deep breath,

Sometimes she found herself

caught in a cloud of anxiety

By now she's learned that the first impact stings, 

But time would ease the tightness in her breathing

One step at a time has never made so much sense

as it does nowadays.

Then she stood up again 

Tied the shield around her arms

And faced the wind. 

Encyclopedia of Bugs

During the week prior my son's Airborne graduation, I kept catching myself making mental notes of things I needed to remind him before he left for his First Duty Station. When it became overwhelming, I decided to write the little reminders, and it wasn't any better.

I had to stop myself, take that deep breath everyone kept talking about; and trust that he did pay attention along the way. So then, I could concentrate on the really important things that I had to make sure he "got it" and we tend not to say it in many words. Thus this little project was born.

As anyone in the Army knows, plans change with minutes notice, and so did his travels to FDS. We had basically 2 days to get all his affairs in order. When I finished, I didn't have time to revise it or make the cover I wanted. You will see many errors, but I decided not the fix them after. The errors are part of the story. 

I see this as a very personal gift (especially on the title) from me to my son, but today I've decided to share with other Army Parents. I'm sure there are many out there feeling just like I did. Support your kid/partner. 

You Came Along

"Follow me" - she sang

"Here, hold my hand,

No need for blue or red pill

We can soar up the hill, 

We can dive down the shore,

It will be fun" - she swore

And with a belly full of butterflies 

His hand now in hers lies

Uninvited

Walked in unpretentiously

Settled yourself in a quiet corner 

Nursed your poison like you had all the time in the world

Avoided eye contact like you haven't noticed me

Betrayed your anonymity by chuckling at my uncanny jokes

Oh,... Nonchalant mysteriousness fits you well

Without trying,  morphed yourself into my poison, 

Uninvited and welcome.

Unpredictability

While he was steady like a rock, 

His gaze held a touch of the unpredictable.

While he was thirsty for independence,

He still missed having to hold hands.

While he was longing for home

His eagerness for adventure was palpable.

One In A Row

My dear husband has a special talent for saying things out of a contest, at the worse possible moment, mess up quotes, words, or plainly make up stuff that is hilarious. 

One of his trade marks is, when guessing something right, or achieving a goal, he blurts out ONE IN A ROW. Yes, you can't have a row with just one of anything, but he is handy like that. 

I wanted to document his trademark phrase, but today he presented me with another "Alex's Gem" that took precedence. 

I sent him an email with an alternative view on a topic that he is quite fond of. His response caught me by surprise and had me laughing so hard. I could hear the anguish in his reply. 
- "I'm serious, the only one in my heart and soul is the following...
(...topic of the conversation, no need to be publicized...)

NOTHING ELSE EXISTS IN THIS WORLD, GALAXY, UNIVERSE. NOT EVEN IN PARALLEL ONES.

GOT IT?!!! "

Living with him, the laugh is an every day given. 

Happy 21st of every month, Carapalida!

Easy complexity

I don't need diamonds.
Strands of gold won't glitter my eyes.
Don't bother with gems,
Colorful pebbles are precious the same.
But I do require a castle,
Built from sand and dreams,
Big enough to hold you and me,
And a zoo, it will seem. 

Dragonfly wings in lieu 

Of fancy designer shoes,

A tiara woven from vines,

Skip the glamor and spotlight
But I do require magic,
And a touch of wildness from time to time.

Semantics

Here are two examples of seemingly nice acts that are actually hiding prejudice in its essence.

• Perform an act of kindness every day
• A nice man helps with house chores

If you perform an act of kindness every day, are you being kind all day long? Are you only doing one act a day, checking it off your to-do list and resuming a selfish normalcy?

Each time we promote the message to do one kind act, we are also limiting the need to express kindness constantly, regardless the recipient, regardless the circumstance. Just be kind, if you have the kindness to give. 

Nice men don't ever help with chores. A nice man recognizes that the chores are not a woman's job. A nice person, being a man or a woman, recognize that their "feminine" partner is not automatically entitled to take care of house/chores/kids. A nice person recognizes that in any partnership, each person should take on the tasks they have a natural inclination to, and divide or take turns on the tasks that make you both feel like it's a "task". 

If you don't have a team mentality in a romantic relationship, sooner or later the partners will feel used, abused and unappreciated. 

I suggest replacing both statements with only one:

• Be kind.

Unfair games

Arghhhh!

I'm in such an upheaval today. I can barely focus. 

Theories of why someone would make up stories baffles me. Please, give the truth. Straight up. I can handle it. 

Don't make me walk round and round searching for your motives or reasons. The more I search, the more I think you are up to no good. 

I'm just hoping that we won't need to get law enforcement involved in this, but I'll see it thru. 

Wake up!

Today I've been reminded that we, too often, let the auto-pilot take over while we lose ourselves watching life go by. 

We need to embrace life. We need to actually live each moment, experience every nuance and make a conscious decision for each thing you are doing. 

We doze for years and suddenly we realize that we have not appreciated half of the things we lived thru. 

So, get out there, hug that tree, buy that ridiculously expensive dessert, open that bottle, take that class, watch the sunset, live like you mean it. 

Magic Bus

Last night I watched a video that showed a glimpse of the Magic Bus Memorial, in the Denali Park-Alaska (from the movie "Into the Wild"). 

I have a feeling that I spend most of my time visiting my imaginary Magic Bus, my "porto seguro", the place where I get to go home to, at least internally. 

One of my personality traits says that I live most of my life "inside my head."

More and more I find it to be thru. It's very comforting to step away from the world and walk into my Magic Bus, where everything has a place, every memory is sitting on a shelf, all the emotional supplies awaits to be needed. 

This is also where you realize that "happiness is only real when it's shared", so every once in a while I step out of the bus and collect more memory supplies and emotional tools to prettify my bus!