“‘I want to write a novel about Silence,’ he said; ‘the things people don’t say.'” Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out
[If you need to, have a Barbra Streisand moment]
A late-night epiphany brought to you by: Gabriela Yareliz
You are entitled to make decisions in whatever way you decide to do so. Some people mistake wisdom and maturity for uptight and fearful. When I am looked down on for the way I make decisions, usually it just means I am not doing exactly what someone else wants me to do. This is what I do: I just think about how I moved hundreds of miles away from home to a huge city through providence, alone, to pursue my dreams; I think of everything I lived before that, and I smile. Don’t let people tell you who you are. If anyone puts you down for your innocence, your wisdom, your maturity, and simply your way of doing things, just remember that they don’t know half of the strength inside of you. Be like Phoebe:
Oftentimes, doing what is right for you takes more strength and fearlessness than succumbing to what the world wants from you. Enough said.
XOXO–Corporations has me like Carmen Maura in an Almodovar film.
[Images from Tumblr (mostly), all should be linked]
I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see. John Burroughs
[Both screenshots are from the film: La Delicatesse, which is such a treat.]
[Is that the best pick-up line or what? “I could go on holiday in your hair…” Yes.]
[The Theory of Everything]
[Maria Valverde and Marie Claire Spain want you to know, 2015 is going to be your year, and I agree.]
There is no place I would have rather been today, on Human Rights Day, than at the United Nations for the Hague Talks. A big thank you to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the American Bar Association, the UN, and the International Criminal Court Consortium for being such gracious hosts and for the invitation.
[A snapshot before leaving the house and discovering that my first snowfall of the season was awaiting outside. *Giddy face*]
I met some incredible people tonight, and I ate amazing mushrooms. It was great to be surrounded by inspiring practitioners who are out in the trenches revolutionizing an ever-changing international law sphere.
If you ever doubt that dreams come true, I got some things to say: I met and spoke to Nicolas Sarkozy, I was published in Latina Magazine, and I went to the Hague Talks at the UN on Human Rights Day. Dreams come true; some in unexpected ways, and some are dreams you never dared to ask for because in your own mind they weren’t possible, but anything is possible. God is [too] good.
“Happy Human Rights Day!” From: The snowy, sparkly, magical New York City. I am still giddy about this evening. My own eyes are sparkly and magical, like a NYC snow globe.
“It is a miracle if you can find true friends, and it is a miracle if you have enough food to eat, and it is a miracle if you get to spend your days and evenings doing whatever it is you like to do, and the holiday season – like all the other seasons – is a good time not only to tell stories of miracles, but to think about the miracles in your own life, and to be grateful for them.” Lemony Snicket The Lump of Coal
Today, we are celebrating Human Rights Day. It’s a cause worth fighting for. I know Humanitarian Day is August 19, but I want to honor humanitarians and missionaries on this day, too. They are, day-by-day, fighting for people’s basic needs all over the world; they spread hope, joy and love.
There is still much to be done.
As many of you know, I am a law student finishing up her degree, as we speak. The people below are some of the incredible lives that have inspired my journey as a human rights advocate. The injustices are real. The fight is real. The hope is real. The people are real. The love is real.
Whole Foods had gluten-free pop tarts as buy-one-get-one-free. It also had a sale on Coconut Milk “Nog.” There is true joy in Manhattan.
I also managed to trek in 20-something-degree weather (for my readers outside of the U.S., about -6 C?) for kale. Kale. Kale juice. Kale in all forms. You know? Kale is like potatoes; perfect in every way. Errgghh… I sound like one of those yoga-pant wearing, Soul Cycle obsessed, Turkish bath member, brunching Tribecalites (not too surprising since it was my home this past summer, I suppose). This love affair with kale is real.
Anyway, study hard. Keep sanity. Today, I mentioned the bar exam in conversation, and it felt like my heart stopped. Not good. So, I am trying to think about right now. Just right now. I am trying to keep the positive thoughts flowing. I am almost done. Soon, I will be on the last long vacay of my life (with the exception of maternity leave someday, but that won’t be a vacation). But this moment, right now (as the chair I am sitting in falls apart), I am thinking I will never have a moment like this again. [Sorry for the typos. YOLO.]
“It’s important to read a book, but also to hold the book, to smell the book…its perfume, its incense, it’s the dust of Egypt.”
Ray Bradbury (I am going to try this with my textbooks)
[Those sunglasses.]
“Remember this: You are lovely. You are tender and passionate and something that shouldn’t be loved halfheartedly.”
Karese Burrows
“Life becomes easier when you learn to accept an apology you never got.”
Robert Brault
“Good people are like candles; they burn themselves up to give others light.”
Turkish Proverb
“I think we meet certain people who stir something within us, as if we were born into slumber and now that we have encountered this other soul, we have awoken, dazed and groggy, but finally awake.”
T.B. LaBerge
“Solitude with God repairs the damage done by the fret and noise and clamor of the world.” Oswald Chambers
“The gospel destroys fearfulness because it tells us that nothing we can do will exhaust His love for us.” Tim Keller
[God is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than all that you ask or think.]
“There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live.” Dalai Lama
“I like messy people; people who don’t fit in a box or stay between the lines, but whose integrity is greater than any rule book and whose loyalty is stronger than blood.” Jim Wern
“If you want to learn what someone fears losing, watch what they photograph.” Unknown
“God sometimes takes us into troubled waters not to drown us, but to cleanse us.”
Kusha Alagband
“Since everything here today might well be gone tomorrow, do you see how essential it is to live a holy life?” 2 Peter 3:11
“And if not, He is still good.” —based on Daniel 3:17-18
Michela Quattrociocche had her second daughter, Diamante, and she turned 26. Che emozione! I remember when Michela wasn’t a mom or even married yet. She is such a beautiful mom and wife. Below are some cute photos of her journey with her second pregnancy from her Instagram @michelaquattrociocche.
After the birth of her daughter, she posted, “Childbirth is the only blind date that results in meeting the love of your life.”
[Michela, her husband Alberto, and their daughter Aurora. Diamante is in her belly in this portrait.]
Congrats Michela! The Aquilani family continues to grow.
I read this today, and I loved it. Malcolm Muggeridge was a journalist (he interviewed Coco Chanel for crying out loud!), satirist, and spy (during WWII).
“I may, I suppose, regard myself as a relatively successful man. People occasionally stare at me in the streets: that’s fame. I can fairly easily earn enough to qualify for admission to the highest lopes of the internal revenue. That’s success. Furnished with money and even a little fame, even the elderly if they care to may partake of trendy diversions. That’s pleasure. It might happen once in a while that something I said or wrote was sufficiently headed for me to persuade myself that it represented a serious impact on our time. That’s fulfillment. Yet I say to you and beg you to believe me. Multiply these tiny triumphs by a million, add them all together, and they are nothing – less than nothing – a positive impediment measured against one draught of that living water Christ offers to the spiritually thirsty, irrespective of who or what they are.” Malcolm Muggeridge
[Me, probably eight years old, being ridiculous at my abuelo’s house, wearing my grandmother’s nightgown.]
By: Gabriela Yareliz
Several people who were once closer to me (friends) have noted that I seem different but the same. It happens around the holidays, when people see you after a long time and when you are my age (going into my mid-twenties). This has made me think. I believe our essence remains, and while I may still be oblivious to some things in life, (*grin*) I like to think that I am different. We learn to love ourselves; we learn our worth; we learn to love others; we learn to let go; we dream; we idealize; we see reality; we break; we heal; we learn what we want; we go after what we want; we walk with God differently– I guess it’s called growing up.
So, while my essence is still the same, I am different from who I was as a kid, in high school and even in college. Thus, there are parts of this new womanhood that some have not seen, yet; especially those who don’t see me or communicate with me in the day-to-day. And that is ok. When you have friends for a long time, it kind of calls for getting to know each other all over again. We can’t box ourselves into who we were, though. The different me you see is still me. I am still weirdly philosophical, feisty and quirky, but I am also a serious independent professional with responsibilities, and I am an ambitious adventurer. I am becoming a woman, and I am not done.
This woman in the suit still carries the corduroy-wearing girl inside, I promise. But now, I am more, so much more.
GABRIELA YARELIZ 