Reflections Before Bedtime #44

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Sometimes, I forget my life is just beginning. I forget that I am a perfectionist and that truly, I don’t have everything figured out, and that is okay. It’s when I remind myself of this that my breathing turns normal, and I realize my ponytail is so tight my younger self would have been proud (I had a thing for tight ponytails and tight shoes). It’s good to let your hair down at the end of the day and dream; dream of what you will work for tomorrow to hold. Don’t let others define you, complete you or set the rules for you.

Don’t look at yourself through a distorted lens; see yourself in a vision framed by hope and the perseverence that will make dreams come true.

[Image from Tumblr]

#tooreal

From Will Ferrell’s Twitter:

“There are 5 types of fear: 1) terror 2) panic 3) username or password is incorrect 4) we need to talk 5) 14 missed calls from mom”

From Camila Cabello’s Twitter:

“again, apologies to that girl who touched my leg in the front row. i didn’t shave yesterday. or the day before. winter is coming. love you.”

From Chrissy Teigen’s Twitter:

“Ok football Sunday isn’t supposed to literally be a day. I throw a flag at this or whatever it is they do when something sucks”

Monday Inspiration: October 12, 2015

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Ready for Monday? I am not sure how I am feeling about Monday. Mondays can be pretty numbing. Anyway, here we are at another week. We are heading straight into knee-deep October. Rumor has it eggnog will soon be arriving, and maybe once Halloween passes we will have our local pharmacy back. It currently looks like a haunted house.

I met interesting people on the train this week. The other day, I met the most intriguing and friendly flight attendant. She was one of those people who seems so cool; the type of person who just leaves you in awe.

You see and meet all kinds of people and creatures in the tunnels and on these streets. I met a little dog who was dressed up in a lion costume. A fierce little pup. I have a feeling I am going to need that costume myself this week.

Sometimes, we reach interesting crossroads in our lives. We have no doubt God has taken us there, but we know it’s not the end. So, as we stop to look at our maps and figure out where we are, we also have to look up and ask for guidance and clarity to see where we are going. It’s about keeping the future goal in mind, while making the most of the present.

It’s important to remember the trip is just beginning. Some things are temporary; others are lessons; others are meant to be; and others are opportunities we need to accept or reject. GPS is searching for signal.

This week, don’t forget your lion suit. Showing up and being fierce– that is already half of the battle. Go show the jungle what royalty looks like, and I will join you along the way.

xoxo.

“She wasn’t afraid of difficulties; what frightened her was being forced to choose one particular path.

Choosing a path meant having to miss out on others. She had a whole life to live and she was always thinking that, in future, she might regret the choices she made now. ‘I’m afraid of committing myself,’ she thought to herself. She wanted to follow all possible paths and so ended up following none.”

Paulo Coelho, Brida

“We are most like beasts when we kill, most like men when we judge, most like God when we forgive.”

Unknown

By: Tim Landis

“Sometimes it feels good to take the long way home.”

Carol Rifka Brunt, Tell the Wolves I’m Home 

“The things that we love tell us what we are.”

Thomas Aquinas 

Wild is the music of the autumnal wind
Among the faded woods; but these blithe notes
Strike the deserted to the heart;

William Wordsworth, “The Excursion” 

“Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer. But this I know with my heart, His wounds have paid my ransom.”

How Deep the Father’s Love for Us

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.” Robert Louis Stevenson

“The heart must mend, whether it’s mending from a lost love, failed dreams, or hopes crushed. The heart must mend, and you will never know when it is done healing, you will simply find yourself much lighter than you have ever felt because finally the heart can retain beauty and joy once more.”

T.B. LaBerge 

“The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.” Randy Pausch

[Images from Tumblr]

Reflections Before Bedtime #42

[Image from @PatriciaManfield. This photo just says, “Boss.”]

By: Gabriela Yareliz

They say a photo is worth a thousand words. It seems that these days we live off of illusions. Many times, things aren’t what they seem, and people aren’t who they project themselves to be.

We hide behind masks and large sunglasses–hoping no one will see our reality and how we feel. In relationships, we are insecure, manipulative and selfish… We sell ourselves as an image with no depth. We talk about authentic living, but we are afraid to be different.

It isn’t until we come clean about who we are; until we start living with some integrity and confronting our weaknesses– it isn’t until then that we can start growing and truly be free.

Be a boss. Be all that God made you to be.

A Goethe Moment

By: Gabriela Yareliz

The perfect message for a tough week that has no end in sight.

Image from autumncozy.tumblr.com

“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.”  Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Amen, Goethe. Amen.

Monday Inspiration: October 5, 2015

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Hello, my people!

On Friday, I spent a good amount of time fighting with my umbrella in torrential rains. Thank God I wear shorts under my skirts because the wind was looking for its next Marilyn.

By the end of the day, I looked like I had walked through hurricane Joaquin– hair-in-mouth and everything; like a mad woman.

Because I hadn’t learnt my lesson, on Saturday, I walked down Park Avenue from 87th St. to 59th, this time through a light cold mist, but still fighting to keep my skirt down. To those who saw my shorts in the last couple of days–you’re welcome.

The temperature dropped. It dropped enough to make landlords everywhere turn on the heaters.

And while this year is my first year since kindergarten where I have not gone back to school, in the good tradition of autumn, I am still learning a lot. That is the beauty of life. It never stops teaching us, if we pay attention.

I have been thinking a lot about the meaning of love. In many ways we can be self-preserving, defensive and even prideful. We can even be logical and think in terms of what people deserve. But I then was thinking about Jesus. Jesus showed a different kind of love. A very sacrificial, expect-nothing-in-return kind of love. We, as a society, fall so short of that kind of love.

So, this week, love grandly. Give, knowing that no one can take away from you the love you freely give. I guess the main point is give love even to those who don’t deserve it; to those who won’t say thank you or apologize. Just give. It’s one thing to say it or believe it, it’s another to think of someone who has hurt you and then decide to love them anyway. Love can heal all wounds; especially our own.

I hope you have a great week. I hope it’s less windy on this end. Let’s rock.

XOXO.

[All images are from Tumblr]

“September slipped by into a gold and crimson graciousness of October.”

L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

“Autumn is here
The air is crisp and clear
The leaves are amber, red and gold.

There’s cider on the stove,
It’s cozy in our home,
I love this time of the year.

I love this season and I’ve got every reason
Autumn’s when we first fell in love.
The town will soon be white,
snow’s moving in tonight,
I love this time of the year.

Autumn is here
We’ve all got coats to wear
There’s gloves of every size and hue.

The wood’s all chopped and dry,
The family’s gathered near,
I love this time of the year.

I love this season and I’ve got every reason
Autumn’s when we first fell in love.
The town will soon be white,
snow’s moving in tonight,
I love this time of the year.”

Bruce Adler, “I Love This Time of the Year”

“Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.”

Carol Bishop Hipps, “October,” In a Southern Garden, 1995

“I urge you to please notice when you are happy.”

Kurt Vonnegut 

“When you write with a bruised, aching heart, I hope there is a finality to it.
I hope every chosen word takes the weight off your chest in fragments and towards the sky. I hope  when you put your pen down that the tears on your cheeks are a cleanse, the ritual of letting go being finally complete.”

incandescentghost  

“He also loves. He also has suffered. He also has waited a long time.”

C.S. Lewis // The Great Divorce

“We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts” 
― A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

“To think that before the hills were formed, or the channels of the sea were scooped out, God loved me; that from everlasting to everlasting His mercy is upon His people. Is not that a consolation?”

Charles Spurgeon

“The reason we know so little about God’s wisdom is that we will only trust Him as far as we can work things out according to our own reasonable common sense.”

Oswald Chambers

“Loving someone should be hard and active, not easy and passive. When you sign up to actually love people – no fakers allowed – then you sign up for a life of runny noses, awkward car rides, hugs that last too long, pauses that demand no noise, and admitting you were wrong. If you want to actually love people then you have to be willing to be wrong.

Love is forgiveness. And it’s atonement. And it’s basically like putting your soul in a washing machine – it’s not some gentle cycle, it’s a fierce whipping that rings you out good.

It makes the stains fade.

Best of all, it fills the holes.”

Hannah Brencher

“Take a shower, wash off the day. Drink a glass of water. Make the room dark. Lie down and close your eyes. Notice the silence. Notice your heart. Still beating. Still fighting. You made it, after all. You made it, another day. And you can make it one more. You’re doing just fine.” Charlotte Eriksson

“What am I? I am myself a word spoken by God. Can God speak a word that does not have any meaning?”

Thomas Merton