A KEY TO EMOTIONS

  Speaking of dreams, one of mine was to write at least one book. The purpose of it was to give me a purpose in life, something that would symbolize a little seed of mine in this world, a footprint on the sands of time. Perhaps something pretentious. Perhaps a pretext to perpetuate myself when I was no more than dust and shadow. In this journey of letters and forms, I have tried to seek excellence, to feel proud of myself for a job well done. However, I have also learned by trial and error that, in spite of my dedication, to make mistakes would be that stamp that, as a human, I would carry in everything I did. As Agent Smith said in The Matrix, “it is inevitable.” Why does it hurt so much to make a mistake? In my case, I do feel pain. It's like when you get your heart broken, you feel something tearing inside you, although your body remains intact. I have even gone through all the stages of grief. Two months ago, when I visited my doctor for a check-up, he asked me, How is your p...

By Ángela López One of my readers asked me what my main quality is, well, I would have to mention patience. Few things get on my nerves, as I always try to imagine how difficult life can be for many of us at certain times.  By emotionally putting myself in someone else's shoes, I am able to develop a level of understanding for the frustration, temper and even envy that others deal with. In addition, being a teacher has fueled my desire to understand the different ways of learning that others have, which also applies to the multiple interpretations that each of us give to life. By this I do not mean that I am an enlightened and perfect being; on the contrary, I strive not to taste the irrational banquet that anger, sadness and frustration prepare for me on a daily basis. Streams are beautiful as long as they are just that, harmless rivulets with pebbles and flowers around them, but when it rains incessantly on them, the flood is imminent, and with it, the charm transforms into des...

By Ángela López Words caress sweetly or strike cruelly, that is a fact. A couple of years ago someone told me that, "Although I thought I was intelligent, in reality I was not" and, moreover, "I was a weak woman.”  I don't deny that these were difficult words to assimilate, however, I questioned internally those statements. Were they absolute truths what this person was saying, or were they simply comments from someone who wanted to hurt my self-esteem? By asking myself this question, in a way, I took away someone's power to pollute my thoughts.  I imagine that you too have gone through similar situations where you have had to challenge the blatant and malicious opinions of others.   Each of us has tasted a "you're great" as well as a "you are not valuable.”   Paradoxically, many times, it is not necessarily someone around us who can hurt us with their statements, but it is we ourselves who mistreat ourselves psychologically during those endl...

In my country, Colombia, December is undoubtedly the happiest month of the year. I don't know if it is because we are a tropical country or because our veins have all that Latin flavor, but the truth of the matter is that this is the time when Pastor López's music, dancing, custard, fritters, liquor and roasts have their most desired reunion. Even, after going through such a complex year as 2020, we Colombians are looking to shake off all the bad things of these 365 days. It is as if during this month we had a clean slate, or simply suffered amnesia for 31 days. I sincerely hope that this year that is ending will not leave you wounded, dear reader. However, if that is the case, remember to give healing a chance. Easy? It will never be, so let's learn to smile at the process. And how do you do that? I once wrote in one of my blogs that as a teenager I suffered a car accident, which left a deep wound in my right hand, as well as multiple traumas. My...

Are you looking for answers? Then, don't be afraid to ask"...  is what I've said to myself for years.   And it was also the message I conveyed to my dear students; for many of them were ashamed to ask, either because they considered their questions silly or because they believed they lacked learning skills.   However, when we were children this did not happen to us, as we asked the same question over and over again: "Why?” So, our mentors, parents and teachers struggled to respond appropriately and patiently to that question.   Curiosity has always been part of our DNA, in fact, it is thanks to the search for answers that human beings have been able to give life to great inventions, as well as transform the impossible into the possible through Science and Technology. Despite this, we sometimes naively give certain statements as irrefutable without first having verified their origin, authenticity and implications. For example, when you feel hopeless, have yo...

My 15-month-old niece is the clear example of how to be surprised by life. She is happy crossing her small fingers, sighs and opens her bright eyes when she touches different textures, while with her gaze she looks amazed at the origin of the sounds.   The beautiful Julieta -my niece-, lives in constant admiration with this, which is now her world... In fact, even my curly hair has been the object of research by her.   And to think that we were all like that, with that fervent desire to discover everything around us; however, as we "learned" what it was about, we also got used to seeing it as something simple.   Although the question is, do we really know the value of everything we have already supposedly discovered? Or did we just take it for granted that we understood it? A rather popular saying says that, "You don't know what you have until it's gone.” This was exactly what I felt a few months ago when I suffered a terrible respiratory infection. I had...

All of us have, any time, wanted to have a perfect life; a life where sadness, rejection or failure was only part of a nonexistent dream... the truth is we all have internal battles in different terrains, going through tough times is what humanizes our spirit, although on many occasions these challenges can take us up to the limit; so as our life begins to turn into a dark gray color...our  focus is lost, we would simply give up. We could even reach to the point of saying to ourselves: "I can't!... what is wrong with giving up?". We compare ourselves to others and then, we imagine how our life would be if we were under other circumstances... and right there it  is where we begin to condition our lives with phrases like: "if I were", "if I had"... then... "I would be happy", "my life would be perfect."  BOOM!  ... The game of conditioned happiness just started...  Depends on  ... Is it true that happiness depends on ...? On...