Expect miracles.
I am doing my sixth Tunnel to Towers Foundation 5K, this month!
If you would like to donate to help our nation’s injured first responders, military heroes and their families, you can donate here to my fundraiser.
“While we have time, LET US DO GOOD.”
With gratitude,
Gabriela
By: Gabriela Yareliz
I was reading the piece on Annie Dillard’s life and recent death.
It made me think a lot about writing. About life. How many hours does any of us have left? We spend so much time in unconscious living; engaging in habits and actions we do on autopilot. How much conscious life do we have left? I heard a whole podcast about this, recently— the things that steal life away. Eeh!
I am also reading this book, Habits of a Household, about turning ordinary moments into liturgical moments. Turning habits into worship. Creating space for sacred moments.
With all these thoughts swirling through my head and coming to me, repeatedly, in different ways, I then encountered the obit piece on Annie Dillard. (RIP)
I loved the quote in there, and you can apply it to just about anything you want to be in life. Doesn’t have to be writing.
She wrote:
“How many of you, I asked the people in my class, which of you want to give your lives and be writers? […]
And then I tried to tell them what the choice must mean: You can’t be anything else. You must go at your life with a broadax.”
There she goes quoting Walt Whitman; someone she was compared to for years.
What does it mean to go at life with a “broadax”?
Be bold, fierce, committed, present, and full throttle.
Nothing less, and always MAX.
Go at life with your broadax. Let’s do it.
People love to be helpless. People feel comfortable being assholes.
By: Gabriela Yareliz
People do a lot without consequence, now. People hide behind their delusions, phone screens, AI slop, and handles and screen names that lend anonymity. People sue others for the decisions they made and responsibility they share. People hate responsibility and ownership. They hate others, conveniently. They strive for false righteousness and superiority.
Perhaps the past is filled with hypocritical people who lived off of appearances, but let me tell you something— the people who pretended went to great lengths to do so. It took effort. Nothing takes effort anymore. People don’t even think for themselves.
In many ways, technology helps information spread like a wildfire. In other ways, it cloaks and deceives. It’s a double-edged sword that people are willing to surrender to if it means flinging their agency and intelligence off a cliff, and being able to abdicate their responsibility to one more thing.
I think we were better people back in the day when you had to face life and face someone to say something. Where saying something had consequences. Where your actions had consequences. You’d get popped in the mouth or feel its weight. (Some people out there haven’t been punched in the mouth, and it shows…)
How do we go back to moral clarity? Do people just start punching others? Kidding. But also, not?
How do we return decency to the human race? How do we return responsibility to where it belongs?
I heard Dr. Will Cole say something recently— people let their excuses be bigger than their why.
So, don’t let your excuses be bigger than your why. Let’s gooooo.
Hello my fellow journey(wo)men,
It’s a rainy morning here in NYC after some hot temperatures this week. The sun was roasting. The rest of us were yearning for fall.
I am still wrapping up Nantucket Second Chances; you would have thought that with all of the brutal train delays this week I would have finished it. I did not.
I am plotting my closet clean out as we prepare to enter cooler days (I pray).
It was an emotional and somber 9/11, as it usually is. The week carried that weight throughout.
I am in my refinement era and very consistent with Ladder. I am on day six of the MAX series, and feeling the intensity of weight lifting these past 14 weeks.
Made the Gordon Ramsay rice, and I already know this will be a repeat-make this fall and winter. Along with GP’s congee. Is it odd that I find myself craving that Congee on certain days?
The Paper is back (and funnier than last season), and Dancing with the Stars and hockey are on the horizon.
It was a draining week filled with bright moments and lots of productivity (got so much done). Here were some of the favorites.
“The line between good and evil runs not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either – but right through every human heart.”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“He wasn’t really teaching us composition as much as he was teaching us how to pay attention, think independently, live honestly, and take responsibility for our words and our lives.” Liz Prather
“The most valuable math you can learn, is how to calculate the future cost of your current decisions.” Unknown
“You just have to decide: are you going to keep going or are you not going to keep going? That’s really all there is.” Shea Serrano
“Increasingly, even non-muslim liberals hopped up on Zinn and Chomsky believe that 9/11 was justified, calling it “blowback” from the foreign entanglements of generations past. These people don’t see the objective reality that America is the greatest force for good in the history of the world, but worse…they see America as the islamic fundamentalists do: the great satan.” Spencer Pratt
“Primer pensamiento: sigue durmiendo, querida.” Patricia Benito
This homemade pop-tart recipe! I need to try making this.
Song of the week:
May this week be all we hope it to be.
By: Gabriela Yareliz
It’s the 25th year marking the anniversary of 9/11/01.
We remember those on the planes who left those last voicemails and never landed at their destinations.
We remember the brave ones who fought back.
We remember those who went to the office and never came home.
We remember the heroes of all kinds who saw chaos and ran toward it.
We remember the service members who were deployed and those who served.
We remember those who immediately enlisted to serve.
We remember every spouse who lost the love of their life and raised a family alone.
We remember every child who grew up without a parent.
We remember every New Yorker who looked on in horror.
We remember those who ran through the streets to find safety.
We remember those who jumped and the ones who saw them.
We remember the weeks of hope and grief, as first responders tried to dig missing people out of the rubble.
We remember the taxi drivers who packed their cars and didn’t charge a cent for months.
We remember the ferry conductors and Port Authority who came back for people.
We remember the parents who experienced the chaos and didn’t know how they would reunite with their children.
We remember the generation who watched the attacks on live television.
We remember New York, Pennsylvania, D.C. and a grieving nation.
We remember our history and our people.
I never forget a woman that I met who told me her 9/11 story. She had her baby with her on the morning of September 11. When 9/11 was happening, she joined the many who were running up the West Side Highway on foot, running North covered in ash from the Financial District.
She said she would run and would have to stop in anguish because her baby was heavy. People noticed and helped her. She told me she never forgot the men and women, covered in soot, like angels, who would take the baby from her arms and run a leg, and then, pass the baby on to someone with fresh arms.
They were the ones who made it home. Even in the moments of anguish and darkness, we are not alone.
As we remember, we remember the victims of this horrific attack that is still so surreal and feels like yesterday. We remember that love is all that remains.
I am always in awe of the heroes. The ones who run toward the darkness. Their courage is the best of America and the best of the human spirit. May their legacies never be forgotten and may we strive for their virtue in every day we are gifted. Tomorrow isn’t promised. An ordinary morning can turn into tragedy quickly.
We remember.
By: Gabriela Yareliz
It was a mind-numbing day. My hair that is pulled back into a bun literally hurts. One of those days where you are a captive audience, and you take a total of three steps all day. It was a sedentary, aneurism attorney day.
I am clinging to a poll on the train, exhausted and dehydrated. Swinging from side to side like a flag. The only thing stopping me are the bodies that act as guard rails. Looking like a sad black-clothed Elle Woods. We have those days against our choice or better judgment. Here’s to tomorrow. A day filled with opportunity, hot teas and 10k steps.
Only survived thanks to my kind husband who made sure I was well-fed and had a tasty lunch. Bless him. May we always be grateful for the ones who help us survive.
By: Gabriela Yareliz
It’s back-to-school season. It’s in the air, thick, in NYC because suddenly the trains are packed, and I write this smashed up against a set of train car doors. The keedz are back.
FOMO and nostalgic joy take over as we see the footage of game days around the South— college football is back. Lainey Wilson at LSU with the Nader sisters and Theo Von joining the tailgate. Gators singing “Won’t Back Down”. Fireworks. All the things.
I was reflecting on high school in general and the blessed college days. It’s no wonder some people just keep getting degrees (we all know someone like this) and don’t want to leave school.
School, learning, wonder— it all has its own magic. I also remembered the pressure and the non-stop work it took to get to some places. I was reflecting on all of it. The journey is a fun one. Lucky me, I work in an academic environment, so I still feel the magic up close. Closer than the person smushed against me on this train.
Sometimes, I walk down the halls and this nostalgic-school-type smell hits me. It takes me back.
I am of the belief we are eternal learners. No matter what age we are or where we go, the magic of learning never has to be far. (Thank God!)
We have the opportunity to always be changing, growing and entering new seasons.
If you are starting a new season— be it school, college, grad school or a new job— this guide was created with you in mind:
“Our thoughts do not remain invisible.”
Dr. Edie Wadsworth
GABRIELA YARELIZ 