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March 13, 2018 /
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13Mar2018

One thing that consoles me about getting older is that I have gathered wisdom with my age or at least I hope so!  Like all of us, years of situations and relationships have been great learning experiences and these learning experiences I take into my next situations or relationships.  We learn and gather information and then we try to keep only what is valuable and useful.  That is wisdom to me.  I also have learned that the only sure thing is that NOTHING IS FOR SURE!  Just when you think that the planets are aligning for you and things are going your way, you can blink your eyes and POOF! It all changes!  But the same happens when you think everything is NOT going your way. You might think that everything is going to hell and yet some miracle suddenly happens!

I have been thinking about how this goes for our romantic relationships, too!  Being in a relationship is like playing Russian Roulette.  You can put all your chips on one number and color and you see the ball bouncing around as the roulette spins. There it goes spinning fast.  You can’t really see the numbers but you do see the white ball moving from black to red from 10 to 4 to 16 until finally it stops on a totally different number and totally different color than you chose.  You lose all your chips.  If you are lucky, you are left with one last lucky chip. You feel miserable, lost and a loser. You put that single chip on a random number.  You feel hopeless.  And suddenly, VOILA!!!! You win and the house pays double and you start winning again!!

I love my life and I love my work.   My store gives me the opportunity to talk to so many people. I enjoy talking with couples and asking them how many years they have been married and, of course, I get all different numbers as you can imagine from 1 to 60. I like to ask these couples to reveal the recipe for a long and successful marriage.  You should see the facial expressions I get!  You would think that I am asking them what is going to be the next winning lottery number!

My personal theory about a good relationship is willingness. To me WILLINGNESS encompasses so much; willingness to be patient, willingness to forgive, willingness to be selfless etc. . . . Of course, I hear all the expected answers from couples: good communication, tolerance, open mindedness. We all know this.  However, I think there are a lot of other LOGICAL things that make for successful marriages or partnerships.  Here’s a list!

  1. Having your own bathrooms.
  2. Spending time and engaging with the other’s family.
  3. Enjoying the same restaurants or foods at home.
  4. Loving the same pet.
  5. Having an affinity for the other’s hygiene habits (or non-habits)!
  6. Equally seeing the importance of staying attractive for one another.
  7. Allowing the other to drive in peace with no passenger commentary!
  8. Happily participating in parties or movies or anything the other likes to do (even though the other one doesn’t particularly enjoy it)!
  9. Decide that if politics are discussed, make sure you are on the same page. Otherwise, don’t talk politics.
  10. Having the same moral values.
  11. Biting your tongue when your partner contradicts you in front of your kids.
  12. If one of you needs to talk, let that person talk even if you are fake listening for hours!
  13. If you are a shoe lover, always have enthusiasm for every new pair your partner brings home!

The list can go on and on. Will you help me to increase it?  Write me and let me know what yours are.

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February 22, 2018 /
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22Feb2018

Phewww!!!!!

Finally, the holidays are over!  Ummm, yea. It has taken me all of this time to finally have all the holiday paraphernalia boxed up and put away in storage!

Speaking for myself, the holidays went by happily and smoothly. No drama, no fights, no uncomfortable dinner . . . well just “poquito.” I did not have issues this year with any immediate family, ex-girlfriends, ex-boyfriends or any ex-in laws, and let’s not forget business related exes!   But I definitely can’t say the same for what I have observed with other people. Every year it is the same.  Holidays seem to bring out the worst in people and relationships.

My mother always said, “How can we expect peace in this world if we can’t have peace in our own families?”  I have to admit that there is much truth in her wise words. When I ask other people how the holidays went for them, they roll their eyes and say things like, “I wanted to kill my sister the entire time” or “My mother was very difficult!” or “One more day of holidays and I would have had to be placed in a mental hospital!” And, of course, I heard multiple times,  “I am glad the holidays are over!”

It’s true that familial relationships are hard.  Sometimes our friends are closer to us than our own siblings.  We can find understanding, compassion and simple friendship in others before we find it in our families so it seems.   The stories I hear about people’s in-laws are mild compared to the stories written by Stephen King!  As human beings we are such unnecessarily complicated creatures!  Most of the time we make our own situations worse than they need to be. We hold grudges from years and years ago and around Christmas times these grudges all take a bigger shape that looms over us and clouding up the festivities.  They are hidden scars, deep inside our brains and hearts and they keep us from enjoying ourselves. They leave us emotionally exhausted and we wonder what the hell is happening!

The great irony is that ultimately we all want the same things:  to enjoy ourselves, each other, to have and to be enough.

The Universe chose that I be raised in a country, city, school and family that was very Catholic.  My Christmas memories are actually very joyful ones. I remember the big nativity that we would put up in our home. I would envision what it would have been like during the time that Christ was born. I remember the grandiose and moving  Christmas Mass at Church. My school used to put up “Posadas” various nights in December. It was so festive!

But, it is not fair for me to compare those memories with what my eyes witness now as an adult.  Adulthood changes everything.  We become involved in the conflicts and the tensions.  As a kid, you are oblivious to this. As adults, we have the pressure of being responsible for the presents, holiday dinners and decorations. We have to make a decision if we are going to do the Canyon Rd walk or not?Or just the lights on the Plaza or dinner first?  Or dinner after?  Should we go to midnight mass? No time? Where should we open presents?  In the car in between one dinner and another?!  It’s too cold out to walk. I don’t have the right shoes like you but I am hungry!!!!! ARGH!

Just for a minute let’s forget about all of the holiday issues.  Close your eyes and remove the holiday parties. Remove the conflicts. Remove the pressure to buy gifts. Remove any decorative decision making…..….We are 11 months from the next Christmas. Dowe want to change any of these things? You know what?!  I don’t think so!  It wouldn’t be the Holidays if we didn’t have all that.  It is what is!  Just embrace and enjoy!

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February 22, 2018 /
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22Feb2018

I can still hear him loud and clear.

My father was well known for using this expression, “El hubiera no existe.”  Basically, it translates to more or less:  forget about the “what-ifs” or the “should’ves” because they don’t exist.  He used to get aggravated if any of us seven kids would whine saying “I should’ve done THIS” or “I should have done THAT!!”

This year, on the night of the 24th during the Farrolito Walk on Canyon Road, I had a moment I keep going back to with the “I should’ve…”.  Everyone was in the holiday spirit. The weather was beautiful – not too cold but with enough of a chilly bite in the air so that it felt like Christmas.  The merry spirit of Noel with the “I love you’s, you love me’s, let’s be cheery was in the air floating through the sculptures of Canyon Rd. While we were strolling with a group of friends, I saw out of the corner of my eye a stalled couple.  It was hard to discern what was happening but it appeared that she was fainting. Like the Good Samaritan I think I am, I rushed over to see how I could help them.  The man had managed to get her to sit on the cold sidewalk and was hovering over her.  I asked him what was wrong and how I could help.  He was curt with me and answered back that there were too many people and that she was confused.  I immediately felt this need to leave them alone and give them some privacy.  Strangely enough I turned around and walked away from the couple.

I re-joined my friends who were enjoying the evening so that we could continue walking through Canyon Road. We were quickly submerged into the crowd and I no longer could see the couple.

My reaction has been haunting me since then!  What was I thinking?  What happened to the woman?  Was she okay?  Did they really need help but were too shy to ask for it?  Why did I leave?! I SHOULD have stayed. I SHOULD have tried to help him. I SHOULD have found someone else to help if they didn’t want my help. I SHOULD’VE, I SHOULD’VE , I SHOULD’VE!  But it’s too late.  Like my father used to say, “El hubiera no existe.”  Although it makes sense – I shouldn’t dwell.  It’s over.  It’s past. I still feel guilty. My father would not have been proud of me. In my head I explain to my dad, “I’m sorry. I’m generally more assertive!” Something did lead me to believe that the woman needed privacy.

This year I didn’t make any New Year’s Resolutions. No diets. No exotic trips. No “re”designing myself.  However, after my encounter on Canyon Road, I do have one focus for the year 2018: I AM GOING TO TRY TO LIVE MY LIFE WITHOUT ANY “I SHOULD’VES.” This year will be about action and no regret.  Let’s do it!

 

I would love to hear from you….write me at guada755@outlook.comt

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September 13, 2017 /
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13Sep2017

“I’m so glad you’re leaving!” said the angry voice of a woman.  I was completely taken by surprise!  Was this voice directed at me?  I look up from my crouched position- I was picking up my belongings- I had just had my nails done.  Her facial expression was of pure anger! I looked around to see if anybody else was behind me- maybe she was talking to someone else?  But no, she was clearly talking to me.  All I could do was blink back at her.  I imagined her angry expression like one from my emoji keyboard.  I didn’t understand why she was so upset with me.  I realized that my naivety did not make me innocent but I couldn’t figure out why she was so angry at me.

My brain was working frantically trying to determine what my reaction should be. The room was full of people that I knew.  Should I make a scene right back at her?  Like the velocity of light, I mulled through my options.  The truth was that I didn’t want to have a verbal fight with this woman who was a perfect stranger to me.  I muttered, “Have a good day.”  I figured she clearly wasn’t having a good day.

I left the salon flabbergasted.  What did I do to aggravate her so?  The only thing I could think of was that I was talking on my cell phone in this public place.  I was definitely talking to a friend of mine but I wasn’t gloating about my sex life for Christ sake! I wondered if I should go back and tell her off, “Hey lady with the ugly shoes, you ruined my day!!!!” It’s true she had upset my day- I know I unwittingly upset hers- but I tried to remember what Eleanor Roosevelt said: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”  I kept saying this as a mantra in my mind…. but it didn’t work. I was upset and I wanted to feel the breadth of my upset-ness!

Ironically enough, the next day at about the same time, I experienced a total different situation. I was in an airplane flying to……….Mexico for, yes, ANOTHER trade show as well as to see my dear mother. I was looking through the airplane window through the layers of clouds- still disconcerted by the previous day’s encounter- when a man’s voice interrupted my mental conversation with that lady. I turn toward the voice.  It came from a good looking gentleman, probably in his 80’s.  It was a nice, calming voice. He was asking me where I was headed and it took a second for me to decide how to respond.  Should I stop thinking about that woman, or should I drop it an engage in an authentic conversation with him?  I decided to talk to him. He told me about his background, he had been a very successful business man in the film and TV industry in California. But now he is retired and has moved to San Miguel de Allende.  But instead of resting on the laurels of his successes, he was now founding shelters for children that have been sexually abused. As we talked I could feel the level of compassion he had for these innocent kids. He said to me that a lot of people go to Mexico to die but that he was to work.

The time went by pretty fast talking to this amazing human.  Before I knew it we were landing in Leon.  I was emotionally tired from the trip that he guided me through, into the lives of these kids. I looked through the window and it was raining and pitch black outside.  I felt so far from the incident from the previous day.  It seemed so irrelevant. At the terminal we said our goodbyes.  I thought to myself how lucky I was….

 

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