Being Human: Look Ugly in a Photograph

“The more you see the less you know The less you find out as you go I knew much more then than I do now” City of Blinding Lights, U2 By: Gabriela Yareliz GREAT EXPECTATIONS Expectations can be a funny thing. This week, I experienced this, first-hand. I was going to exchange letters with someoneContinue reading “Being Human: Look Ugly in a Photograph”

Being Human: Emotion In Our Veins

“What is most striking to me today about the diary I kept in the camp, seventy-five years ago, is what I left out.” Zuzana Justman By: Gabriela Yareliz WHAT IS LEFT UNSAID I was struck by a piece I read in The New Yorker, called My Terezin Diary, about a holocaust survivor, Zuzana Justman, lookingContinue reading “Being Human: Emotion In Our Veins”

Gabriela and the Awful, Rainy, Bad-News-Filled Day

* [Yes, this title is a play on: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, published in 1972, written by Judith Viorst.] By: Gabriela Yareliz What a day it has been. It was a combination of stress, bad news and having to hold in emotions. I had to walk through the rainContinue reading “Gabriela and the Awful, Rainy, Bad-News-Filled Day”

Being Human: Here Comes Autumn

FALL TRANSITION By: Gabriela Yareliz And here we are. Inside of my little studio, French jazz playing, little amber candles burning and the drawers of my dresser only half closed. That’s the way it goes on a Friday where I don’t want to leave my house anymore, and I just want to start my sentenceContinue reading “Being Human: Here Comes Autumn”

This Past Season

“And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, support, strengthen and establish you.” 1 Peter 5:10 By: Gabriela Yareliz I always do enjoy putting my thoughts out into letters. It sort of shifts things in timeContinue reading “This Past Season”

Community

By: Gabriela Yareliz I was walking in downtown Brooklyn, and a young black man was propelling his skateboard forward, at full speed, on the street. He was going at least three times faster than the cars around him. I had never seen anything like it, and the sound was roaring. He zoomed past me andContinue reading “Community”

Happy Birthday, America

By: Gabriela Yareliz Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. [Constitution of the United States of America,Continue reading “Happy Birthday, America”

Puerto Rican

By: Gabriela Yareliz When I die, I want them to say they looked into my eyes and saw my fire. That I aged with my head held high by a backbone of resolve. And that with that same fire in my eyes, I confronted life without flinching. That I had the heart of Jesus, theContinue reading “Puerto Rican”

June 2019 Insights

By: Gabriela Yareliz The insights of the month of June. The insights come to me in between the walks past the bakery that just opened, with its “Grand Opening” funeral flowers, getting elbowed in the face while exiting the train (almost broken glasses– nerdy much?)– only to find the permanently broken escalators of the trainContinue reading “June 2019 Insights”

A Short Prayer

God, come meet me in my anger, in my brokenness, in my abandonment, in my pain, in my defensiveness, in my heavy burdens, with my empty hands, and don’t leave me there. Make my life the evidence of all you can do, to make all things new. Don’t let me dismiss all of the brokenness,Continue reading “A Short Prayer”