Expect miracles.
“You have to have a day on the calendar that scares the sh*t out of you.” Joe De Sena
I was enthralled by the conversation between Alex Ikonn and Joe De Sena. Listen to it here. Below, you will find a post from Alex Ikonn on the key take aways. I love De Sena’s school of thought. It’s short and worth the listen. There are applicable takeaways for work, relationships and parenting.
“You need to build a mausoleum in your head with big iron doors so that nobody can get in there except you. You don’t let me in there, you don’t let June in there, you don’t let your manager in there, you don’t let the record company people in there. You have to decide for yourself what you want to do with your music and not let anyone else tell you.” Bob Johnson to Johnny Cash
By: Gabriela Yareliz
Picture it— I am walking through the Times Square subway station. There is a man with a full blown salsa band performing a salsa version of Despacito (trying to make this sexual song romantic) in the middle of the station. He is loud on the mic. The trumpet, drums and keyboard behind him are equally loud. The whole station is shaking. I look around as I try to get to my next train platform. The music is so loud locals are looking disoriented (you just know who the locals are; they are walking slower and wincing, looking at signs). Tourists are straight up covering their ears and some wander in circles, lost, and others are trying to yell arguments as to why they should take a certain train to the other members of their group. A young woman with a mask and plastic gloves takes her bag charm Labubu and stuffs it into a plastic ziplock. Looks like the charm is being put to bed and sanitation and is done for the day. She lifts her eyeglasses and looks around the station. The police stand in a corner and shake their heads as they witness the confusion and all the noise.
Noise.
Noise, in real life, has a way of making even someone who knows their way around disoriented. And if you are new to the route, then, you are really lost and out of focus. Noise can be so loud it rattles you to the core.
The same thing happens with mental noise. People’s opinions, our own thoughts, our harshness, our thoughts on loop that we can’t let go of. It can rattle and disorient us. It can make us shake.
Today, let’s think about where we are experiencing the most noise. Find your way, as Bob Johnson said, to a mausoleum or fortress inside. A place where it’s quiet. Where you can hear the voices that really matter. The voice of God. The moments when you don’t listen to yourself, but instead, you speak truth to yourself. Don’t let the man with the mic hollering Despacito take over. It’s just not worth it. And Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee are so much better at it. Cut off the noise. Original voices only.
By: Gabriela Yareliz
Ma, celebrating you today. Thank you for indulging my childhood obsessions. For listening to my personal (spoken) unsolicited book reports on all the books I read. For playing carritos or those mini Barbies from the McDonalds happy meals on the couch for hours. Thank you for the immense trust and independence you always granted me. Thank you for teaching us sacrificial love through your example. Thank you for always being there and not leaving us with anyone else. Thank you for teaching me to never be less or accept less.
Thank you for always holding onto faith no matter how dark it got. Thank you for sharing the hard and impossible so we could appreciate the miracles that came next. Thank you for being the one who always says, “You can always come home.” Thank you for teaching us to respect nature, plants and animals. Working outside (even when I didn’t want to) taught me a lot about life and God. Thank you for adopting Bunny (her love marked us all).
Thank you for always showing up to celebrate our successes. I always knew that when I walked across any stage, your face was in the crowd. Thank you for reading the stuff I write that no one else wants to read (lol). Thank you for always praying for us. I always feel God’s protection and shielding around me. It covers me even on the days I fail because of you.
Thank you for your encouragement when I have failed. I will never forget a difficult season where you told me not to give up and sent me a book you had read on growth mindset. It changed my life (and after several failures, there was a win). You have taught us grit, the honor owed to another life and hard work. You have taught us integrity matters.
They say motherhood means always worrying and checking in on your children because they are a piece of you out in the world. Not every mother cares or is like that, but you embody that. For that, we are grateful.
Thank you for your love. In a crazy world, love is not a given. But with you it is. And that is everything.
By: Gabriela Yareliz
It was a summer night, and the sun was still shining in the Upper West Side. I was impressed by how bright it was and how tired I felt. I had been looped into a late evening meeting at work and told I could take a car home (which I was grateful for).
Given the chaos and evening increase in population of the arts district, I decided I would call an Uber from a quieter location. I walked over to a local Mexican restaurant, away from the Opera and busy venues. I called my Uber from the bustling Mexican establishment, eyeing the tacos on the plates of the outdoor diners who were sweaty, inebriated and animated.
My Uber pulled up in two minutes, and I essentially pole vaulted myself in the back seat with my bags and large umbrella. I buckled up, and then, Mustapha made eye contact with me through the rear view mirror and said, “So you work at this restaurant, but what is your dream?”
I was startled by the assumption through my exhaustion. Maybe I looked like I had just worked a 12-hr shift? That aside— I smiled and asked him what his dream was. He told me my hesitation revealed to him that the job I had was not my dream. I tried to not react.
He never stopped talking in the whole ride. I am pretty extroverted, but let’s face it— I was wiped out and tired. I just wanted to stare at Manhattan in a blur out of my window.
That question did stay with me, though. When was the last time someone asked you what your dream was? And then nosily asked whether you are going after it hard?
When I asked him what his dream was, he told me “to make money.” I chuckled and told him, “that’s not a dream.” He laughed and said he wanted to own a restaurant. Maybe that’s why he assumed I worked at the restaurant?
As I stumbled out of the Uber with my bundles, I thanked him and said, “It was nice talking to you. I hope all your dreams come true.”
I hope your dreams come true, too.
By: Gabriela Yareliz
If you are rushing around or trying to kill fifteen birds with one stone— this PSA is for you. And you are not alone. I get infinitely frustrated when things unfold inefficiently. I love change. I love speed. I love maximizing. Call it a syndrome from childhood.
Sometimes, we need to remember to think abundantly.
“Abundance tells us there is time. There is space. There are resources. That we will all get there. That we were never not going to get there. Abundance asks us to have faith even as we’re in the depths of figuring it out.” Amy Dong
By: Gabriela Yareliz
In recent times, I have noticed an interesting push for the Catholic Church that wasn’t as evident before. I think it’s important to spot these things and observe them. They are cultural moments of significance. It draws the question— where did this flow from? This post is not so much a criticism of the Catholic Church, but a criticism of a conversation I heard recently and the ideas that were upheld as truth in it. (I believe we can criticize structures and arguments without disrespecting those who sincerely adhere to those beliefs. This is my attempt to do so.)
The conversation was between Candace Owens and E. Michael Jones. I respect Candace and believe she is genuine. She has ideas I think are insane and others I know are true. She is like anyone else. I am sure she would say the same about me. Candace is a recent convert to Catholicism and blatantly admits she doesn’t know much about what she just converted into, but she is fierce in her defense of it (as most people are when they join a tribe or community). This conversation was a weird one. But before we dive in, there is something we must acknowledge—
When you sit in Protestant circles, you often hear the Catholic Church torn apart. You hear its history and evolution. (Tearing it apart, I suppose, isn’t difficult even from a secular argumentative standpoint). I know this to be true, and I am a member of a church that deeply believes the Catholic Church has a significant place in Bible prophecy.
This conversation was the opposite. They called Protestantism “satanic.” Jones’ premise is that Martin Luther was a pervert (and listen, I am willing to place a bet that he probably was, because at this rate, who in history isn’t?), and John Milton is the father of Protestantism. Jones goes on about how Milton wrote a poem (Paradise Lost) glorifying Satan (according to Jones), and therefore, Protestantism is “satanic.” I wish I was kidding. (The levels of irony throughout the conversation were interesting. I sat through it all because I am a masochist and love to hear a counterargument— this one was a 2+ hrs. I deserve a medal. If you want an unhinged conversation or a crash course on how not to persuade— tune in).
I was intrigued by how Protestantism was equated with John Milton and man “following his own way.” How respect for authority was equated with revering and accepting papal power. If you reject the Pope, you are a damn anarchist who rejects Christ. Jones said that if you compare the pathetic wooden board Protestant churches of the early colonies with the beauty of the Vatican, it was evidence that something “as beautiful as the Vatican” must be “truth.” Wealth and external beauty were equated with truth. I sat dumbfounded at the statement. It made me wonder what Jesus would think of that statement. There was no discussion on whose backs the beauty was built on and how the church acquired the wealth to do so. It was a conversation that pointed out the flaws of Protestantism (and there are real flaws in the Western church at large, for sure), but it weirdly ignored the deeply entrenched legacy of manipulation, power and structural protection of violence and abuse (sexual and otherwise) that has persisted in the Catholic Church. It was a disappointing analysis because it wasn’t rooted in a fair ground level truth.
I am down to criticize and dissect ideas and history, but if we are going to do it, let’s do it for all sides. We can’t conveniently ignore the inconvenient. (We do this with politics all the time). Just as Jones spoke about Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, maybe we can add a blurb about the inquisitions? Maybe, we can discuss that Hawthorne was a Protestant with a brain who saw hypocrisy and called it out as we all should. (A gorgeous piece of literature. The man describes every shingle and leaf).
I respect that the host and guest pointed out the ways the church in the West has lost its way, but that in no means gives us some default that the Catholic Church is the only answer. I would argue that the authentic expression of the church is far from the institutions (Catholic and Protestant) that dictate worship in today’s world.
What I found to be interesting was that the conversation was solely focused on defending man-made traditions and rituals and did not investigate or expose Scripture itself. It compared a man-created tradition with man-created philosophy at best (the Pope vs. Milton— and our pervert Martin Luther). With discernment, one knows that these are not the same, and true religion is neither. There was no acknowledgment that many man-made traditions and order are actually in direct unequivocal contradiction to Scripture. I found troubling that the truth and plain text of Scripture did not enter the discussion at all.
It was odd to listen to people who I have seen know how to argue simply glaze and blanket over certain things and ignore others because it didn’t serve their argument and position. (I am gonna Hawthorne that and call it out). It reminded me of how many times a day we hear statements made confidently as if they are true, but they are not. They are rooted nowhere aside from personal opinion. What can be equally concerning is that our ideas can stand in the way of us seeing the truth right in front of us.
The conversation was a reminder that discernment and truth are confident but not brash. Truth is confident in that you know it— not because it makes you better than anyone, but because it has transformed you. Truth makes us tremble and grope through the dark for it because it is light.
The conversation reminded me of many conversations I have heard and even been a part of in religious circles. Conversations that, whether we realize it or not, at times drip with assumptions and arrogance. Conversations that I see differently now— and I know them from a mile away.
As I listened, I wondered how many people would blindly take the hosts’ word for it. I pray not. I pray for a seeking journey of humility for all of us. I write this to ask you to seek and be on your journey to find truth no matter what or who you face. I want people to always turn back to Scripture. Check anything you hear against that. Read it yourself. Eyeballs to the page. That is the only ask. If you read your Bible, you will find what you are seeking.
The hosts spoke as if they had truth. They reminded me that truth isn’t something you have and hold arrogantly, but it’s something that has you. Truth breaks you. It shatters who you are, your ideas, your pride, and your expectations. Truth always accompanies transformation. It’s not something we hold and own. It holds and owns us. What truth holds is not like the rest. It is different. In these strange times, we must practice discernment. We must seek like our lives depend on it because they do.
May we be held by truth, always.
This was a wildly good message out of Mosaic.
“Maybe nostalgia is not a trap, it’s a compass. It points us to what mattered.” Mixtapes by Gor
“Life will present you with people and circumstances to reveal where you are not free.” Peter Crone
This conversation between Alex Ikonn and Peter Crone was very interesting, and I really enjoyed it. Sharing here in case of interest.
The podcast version is here:
By: Gabriela Yareliz
The world is small. Sometimes, it’s interesting to think of time overlaps. This is bound to happen in the randomness of life and also, in its mysterious synergies. These are moments where you and another person are in the same place but you don’t know each other then. For example, the moments you walked past your spouse before you knew each other. Who knows how many times you wandered around the same circles and places.
There are also moments where you brush past someone you won’t know later, intimately, but someone who you will later see in the news.
The other day, I heard something about a woman who had taken a train with a guy who later was arrested for some murders. They made small talk, and he said some weird stuff to her. “A brush with true evil,” the podcast host called it.
Candace Owens just dropped an installment of The Epstein Files, part of her reporting is a summary of investigations that have taken years for Xavier Poussard. A lot of it confirms stuff many of us curious ones have put together about Robert Maxwell (Ghislaine Maxwell’s father), The Mirror pension fraud, etc. It is definitely the most condensed version of the facts I have heard so far, so check it out if of interest.
But where I am going with this is— imagine sharing space with these people back in the day in mundane settings. A bank encounter, a walk past each other on a NYC sidewalk, maybe they open the door for you or vice versa, maybe you make eye contact or share a smile… There are so many weird moments in life where we brush past or even converse with a stranger who has a story that is larger than anything we could imagine. They are brief moments from which we emerge unscathed.
There are moments where we have brushes with evil in the everyday scene. This is your reminder to pray every time you leave your house. You just never know who might be sitting next to you. Life is interesting like that.
GABRIELA YARELIZ 