Deserts of Life

Every one has his own deserts to cross. Sometimes the journey is short, sometimes it's long. Deserts maybe a symbol of hardships, uncertainties and, perhaps, death. But believe that in every desert, there's an oasis, every desert has an end and every desert has a promise... 

Rudy’s Decision

After some excruciating months, Rudy arrived at a decision to leave the seminary. His classmates made jokes about him, his family rejected him, his sponsors considered him ungrateful.

When I met him months after he left, I wanted to tell him how proud I were of him, and that it did not matter if his decision was right or wrong: what matters was that he made a decision.

But, I did not have the courage to tell him that. In front of me, was a broken man. His family stripped him of their 'love' and killed his hope. To them, his decision was a sign of defiance, of ungratefulness, of disrespect, a waste of money. They saw to it that he suffered for his decision.

Among my friends back in the seminary, the story of Rudy is just any other story, but to me, it’s precious; for every time, there’s a person who struggles to be real, to be honest with  himself there’s Rudy. I knew several stories like Rudy’s but with different ending, beautiful ending which gave birth to real happy people.

They got broken, lost hope but went back to the arena, picked up the pieces of themselves and continued the battle. Such are the true warriors of life.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson said “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” Keep being real…

The Miracle of Embrace

There are two kinds of embrace: a healing embrace and a destructive one.

A mother who embraces her children in the morning,
a father who picks up a kid after a hard fall and carries her in his arms,
friends who hug each other after a period of separation,
lovers who sit side by side looking at the same direction: It's healing.

Embrace unites us, fuses us, touches our unseen wounds and heals them. It soothes the tensed muscles, neutralizes anger, secures the scared child within, and radiates an aura of love around us.  Such is the power of embrace.

An embrace may be destructive, however, when it suffocates, squeezes, controls, obligates and makes decisions for others. 

Embracing denotes acceptance of the person we embrace and giving of ourselves as well. It’s a mutual exchanged of ourselves.

A genuine embrace is free. It is an act of giving while receiving. When a person embraces another, there is no more distinction between giving and receiving: both happen at the same time. It is the most natural expression of love.

Embrace to love.
Embrace to forgive.
Embrace to say sorry.
Embrace to accept.

Embrace to receive.
Embrace to be free.
Embrace to live.
Embrace to heal.

Embrace to be healed.
Embrace for nothing.
Embrace to be yourself.
Embrace to be embraced.

Embrace to be happy…