The Hard Way

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Some people look down on the ones who take the hard road. We live in a time where you can find easy if you want it.

These days, things are so convenient that we as a human race lack intimacy with each other (even in the nonsexual sense) because “real intimacy requires inconvenience” (David Leon). If you want to lose weight, you can follow the steps of celebrities who take a drug and drop all their stubborn weight. If you want longer hair, you can just clip in extensions. If you want a tan, you can spray it on. If you want to eat but don’t want to cook from scratch, you can order in or do a Sandra Lee semi-homemade situation. Kids these days use AI for their homework.

But there is strength and also deep satisfaction in the hard way. When you make a good home-cooked meal; when you get fit through hours of sweat; when you care for your hair and grow it out; a tan that shows hours spent in the sun having fun; an assignment where you poured out your creativity.

The hard way is important, Sahil Bloom writes, “We don’t value what’s easy. We value what we earn.

Because nothing feels better than a hard-earned win. Nothing. The pain. The struggle. The resilience. The grit. And then, the reward. The thrill of knowing that you paid the cost of entry for the thing you wanted to achieve.

Hard things are good for the soul.”

Chaos and Harmony

Words by: Alex Ikkon

“Life itself is the ultimate psychedelic.

No substance. No filter. Just this.

This breath. This moment. This miraculous now.

It’s the most exquisite trip we’ll ever take.

In its raw, unedited form-without enhancements, without escape—

Life is already the highest high, the deepest journey.

It’s art in motion. Chaos and harmony dancing as one.

The good, the bad, the uncertain-all of it-flawlessly woven into a masterpiece beyond comprehension.

And once I began to see it that way…

Once I let go of needing it to be anything other than what it is—

I see the design.

I see the brilliance.

I see God in the details.

This isn’t something happening to you.

It’s unfolding for you.

Because you, whether you remember or not, chose this.

You’re not just along for the ride-you’re co-creating

You are part of this ultimate creation.

And the way to navigate this sacred trip?

Not by resisting.

Not by clinging.

But by surrendering.

By trusting the flow, even when it feels like the current is pulling you under.

Especially then.

Ask yourself not, “Why is this happening?” But instead, “How am I creating this?”

The truth is-this life, your life, is a miracle in motion.

And the beauty you find in it

Will always reflect the beauty you choose to see.

So this morning, here in Madeira, I pause.

Not to chase meaning, but to feel it.

To marvel at the ordinary, made extraordinary simply by presence.

And I just wanted to share that with you—

This quiet knowing.

This wild grace.

This sacred, beautiful ride we’re all on.

I am grateful for each moment and the journey that I am on.”

Necessary People

“Some of you were lessons, some of you were poetry, and all of you were necessary. Either way, you gave me a story to tell. No royalties will be issued. Wishing you all the best (but mostly therapy).” Cara Alwill

By: Gabriela Yareliz

I can hear Fergie’s Big Girls Don’t Cry being blasted by my neighbor. She has the best taste in music. I swear we would be friends.

I think often about the paths that cross in this life. There are the friends, family, acquaintances. (Like, where is that girl who loved fairies and fantasy novels in high school? Or the girl in jr. high who would pick at her eyebrows until they were all gone?) This reflection was amplified as I read Cara Alwill’s latest book.

We reflect on how things started and how things ended. We think about whether we were right about people from the beginning. We wonder if people did their best by us and vice versa.

That saying that says people do the best they can is delusional. It’s something we say to mask reality. I don’t believe that. Some people are really trashy. I have seen people purposefully give zero effort.

For example, yesterday marked the end of an era for Sam Rosen and the NY Rangers. The Rangers won the President’s Trophy last year, and this year, they were one of the worst teams (with the team intact at the beginning of the season— same people). They didn’t do their best. They gave up. (Exception of the fourth line). People do this in life all the time. They settle for mediocrity.

This whole web of stories and lives shapes us. It softens us or hardens us. Sometimes, it’s more of an automated choice, a dangerous seeking of the familiar, and a method of survival. Survival never justifies anything, though.

I feel like we move through life slowly making decisions that either bring us more into alignment or more out of alignment. Alignment with what, you may ask? With our values. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what you profess. What matters is whether your life matches those ideas. We either do the hard thing or we start desensitizing ourselves to who we want to be and fall short. We are always moving in some direction; we are seldom truly stuck.

In the end, we keep making choices and rubbing elbows with people. Some we want to stay with; others we need to escape. Even the ones we leave behind teach us something about the world or our simple act of leaving builds the person we are. And little by little, our stories unfold. Our characters keep evolving.

We keep writing the pages until we reach the last one.

Ricky

By: Gabriela Yareliz

I typically avoid tourists. Most New Yorkers do. We don’t have time for slow walkers or people who take up the entire walkway with their tour group.

Today, I was walking through an area that attracts a high volume of tourists. Central Park. As I was walking, some food cart was blasting Ricky Martin. Naturally, I turned my head because I love Ricky. I named my TI-83 calculator after him.

Next to the food cart was this tiny little girl. She was dancing with abandon and having a blast in her own little world. I could tell she loves Ricky, too.

I smiled big. I wondered— when was the last time when you and I danced with abandon, just having fun? Maybe, it’s time to blast some Ricky.

A Starbucks Monolgoue

“You have to pay a price for your distinctiveness, and it’s worth it.” Jeff Bezos

By: Gabriela Yareliz

I stopped at Starbucks this morning for a boost of energy; matcha. I felt a lot of desperate energy from the staff.

Businesses— they lose their soul through rapid expansion, technological advances, being sold, having a change of leadership, losing what made them unique to begin with, etc., etc.

My husband and I talk about this all the time. He tells me about what Starbucks used to be like in a more golden era for NYC.

Now, businesses like Starbucks are trying to go back in time. They are whipping out Sharpies, and the barista who was cursing you out under her breath hands you a cup that has “Enjoy!” scribbled on it. You ask her for a straw, and you feel the judgment. Sadly, when it comes to Starbucks, I am invested in its success, and at the same time, I am not sure it can succeed.

I don’t know if everything that is lost can be found.

I think what is missing is authenticity. Before, you would walk in, and you were completely ignored while baristas whispered inside jokes while the blenders ran. They would finish your drink and let it sit on some back counter you couldn’t reach, and you would (patiently) wait 15 minutes until someone gave you the time of day, so you could politely ask (while seething), “Is that mine?” Then, you taste the drink, and it tastes like water or pure milk (not what you ordered). After enough of these experiences, you swear off the morning anger like any rational person would. You don’t step foot in there for a good few months.

And now, after ages, you venture back in and every barista is lined up like a scene from The Sound of Music, giving a coordinated “Good morning!”

It’s giving desperate. I am not sure what it will take to fix this, but we still feel far.

About three months ago, I got a spinach wrap, and they wrote in Sharpie, “Be better than you were yesterday.” I laughed. I almost turned around and told them to do the same.

Different

“If you want something different, you are going to have to do something different.”Jack Canfield

By: Gabriela Yareliz

This may be one of the hardest lessons life offers us. Hard because ‘different’ requires courage. It requires risk. It often requires uncertainty and the unknown. It requires sitting down and doing the hard work of trying to map something out.

But when we decide to venture out— anything can happen. And that is where the magic and adventure lies.

In the Dark

“Ironically, though light can be scarce at night, the darkness can often bring clarity.” Richard Christensen

By: Gabriela Yareliz

We often talk about the clarity light brings us. We rarely talk about the clarity found in darkness.

The truth is, some of the darkest moments in life clarify things for us. We see things not as we wish them to be, but as they really are. Jonah found his clarity in the darkness of the belly of the big fish.

Have you ever walked down a street or area at night, and it looks different than it did during the day and vice versa? Sometimes, it’s not even about clarity but perspective. It’s not better or worse— just different.

A wide open field when the sun is rising and the fog is low is different than the same field at night with the moonlight. All redemption carries some darkness. Joy comes in the morning. But there is no morning without the preceding night.

Nights can be quieter, more solitary, but also, absolutely illuminating. Suddenly, we can see the same thing differently. Life is like that. Life lets us see both.

Ideas for NYC: Open Letter #2

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Dear Eric Adams (Mayor):

Public things require courteous and considerate users. Absent that, they are destroyed. Public libraries (which we should talk about because funding is being cut, and they barely function pre-cut), public pools, public parks— but let’s talk about public transport. Public transport is the pool everyone is peeing in.

People are out of control. You will be walking up the stairs to get to another platform and someone passes gas in your face, and you have no where to turn while choking. There is the eternal problem of dancers on crowded trains using grip polls as strip polls, and a patron almost getting kicked in the face. Also, no one needs to touch a poll that was between someone’s butt cheeks. Certain turnstiles steal your money and don’t let you in. Certain stations steal your money because a train never even comes, violating the whole function and promise of public transport. Then, there are the people who don’t even pay and jump the ‘stile. No. It’s basic, you pay for service rendered. A bus shouldn’t have to announce “Fare Required.” Either you pay or you don’t get on. If the average person can afford drugs or coffee, they can afford bus/train fare.

There is the man at the station who thinks the perfect time to bring his skeleton doll out to dance is when trains arrive and the whole area is swarming with people like an ant pile that has just been stepped into. Like, dude, dance when there aren’t millions of people trying to get to their next train before it disappears in the tunnel, not to be seen again for the next half hour because of delays.

There is the unhoused person that people fear, so everyone is crowded on top of each other at one tiny end of the train to avoid his swirling pee. Then, the sleeper who decides they should sprawl out on a whole section of seats because God knows what they were doing last night. God forbid you say something and get stabbed.

There are the people who start getting on the train without letting people off. Canal Street is notorious for this. People get swept away by a mob, pushed back into the train they were trying to exit, flailing, screaming and shoving. This is every day, bro.

Yesterday, I was almost hit in the face with multiple skateboards, because God forbid these bros actually use them on the street. (Shouldn’t the skateboard be used to avoid the underground hellscape?!) And then, there is the person annoyed that you sat next to them in the one empty seat, and they fake cough to pretend they are sick so you won’t sit down. Joke is on them because I am not afraid. And if they are sick, stay home. Basic courtesy.

People lack consideration. It should be required if you will use a public good, otherwise, you destroy it for everyone else who is literally paying for the service. (This isn’t free like the library). Sleeping people should be told to sleep at home, unhoused should be sheltered, sick should be told to stay home until they stop coughing up a lung, skateboarders to the streets, the selfish need to learn to share. The blind and impatient need to see that yes, this person needs space to get off the train, they aren’t Casper.

If you can’t play nice, you shouldn’t be allowed to play.

Maybe, we should have metro cards that you must sign on the back with a Code of Conduct. And you take some sort of oath like a Girl Scout. Clearly, the little “Don’t be an asshole” banners in the trains are ignored and illegible because of graffiti. (If you are an artist— do your art off the train).

The trains and stations are hell with a haiku on the wall that I am forced to read because I am smashed against the haiku wall because I am apparently invisible.

Code of Conduct signature cards, with financial penalties if you violate. Think about it. The transport hell is getting old.