Reflexion by Mahatma Gandhi

December 17, 2013


Le preguntaron a Mahatma Gandhi cuáles son los factores que destruyen al ser humano. 
Él respondió así:
La Política sin principios, 
El Placer sin compromiso, 
La Riqueza sin trabajo, 
La Sabiduría sin carácter, 
Los Negocios sin moral, 
La Ciencia sin humanidad y 
lLa Oración sin caridad.

La vida me ha enseñado 
Que la gente es amable, si yo soy amable; 
que las personas están tristes, si estoy triste; 
que todos me quieren, si yo los quiero; 
que todos son malos, si yo los odio; 
que hay caras sonrientes, si les sonrío; 
que hay caras amargas, si estoy amargado; 
que el mundo está feliz, si yo soy feliz; 
que la gente se enoja, si yo estoy enojado;
 que las personas son agradecidas, si yo soy agradecido.
La vida es como un espejo: Si sonrío, el espejo me devuelve la sonrisa.
La actitud que tome frente a la vida, es la misma que la vida tomará ante mí.
"El que quiera ser amado, que ame".  

No compliques las cosas, es así de simple: ¿Extrañas?. ¡¡¡LLAMA!!!  ¿Quieres ver a alguien?. ¡¡¡INVITA!!!   ¿Quieres que te comprendan?  ¡¡¡EXPLICA DE NUEVO!!!   ¿Tienes duda?  ¡¡¡PREGUNTA!!  ¿No te gusta algo?  ¡¡¡DESÉCHALO!!! ¿Te gusta algo?. ¡¡¡CUÍDALO!!!  ¿Tienes metas?, ¡¡¡Cúmplelas!!!  
¡Estar VIVO no es lo mismo que vivir!.  La vida no son años, la vida es consciencia y tu eres el lugar que Dios ha elegido para vivir.  Eres su lugar preferido.

The most meaningful and valuable gift

The most meaningful and valuable gift

December 16, 2013

By: Gina Yoryet Roman

Today I went on a stroll to unwind and to meet a friend of mine who took me out to dinner on this ‘special’ day. While we enjoyed dinner, we reminisced about having celebrated this day in 2011, 2012 and 2013 together. This is very meaningful to me as I don’t think I have ever spent this particular day with anyone else three years in a row. These special moments and the significant gifts we get, are what really add value to life. 

All of this is what keeps me alive, like the key chain I was given by one of the most loved people in my life in the 1990’s. The ‘Y’ is the initial of my name embraced by Mickey Mouse. In my mind, the Y represents me, and the Mickey Mouse speaks for that special someone clasping on to me and comforting me amid my solitude and harsh moments. 

At times when I am alone feeling lonely, forgotten and abandoned, I hold on to my key chain knowing that that dear loved someone is thinking about me and it brings warmth to my heart. 

Is masking the real you unethical?

Is masking the real you unethical?

December 15, 2013

By: Gina Yoryet Roman

As of lately I’ve been doing a lot of writing but not necessarily the type I want. I am taking this TESOL  (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) which requires a lot of analyzing case studies and writing a response essay. 

Today I bumped into this very interesting one that reminded me about a post a wrote on May 8, 2012, “It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice,” by Deng Xiaoping's 

Essay question:

In the professional world, people often "dress for success." They wear expensive suits and ties to give the impression that they are confident and powerful. High school and college students often dress to give the impression that they are "hip" or fashionable. When is it unethical to dress in a manner that masks the real you? Explain by using an example from your own experiences.

I have lived in Guadalajara Jalisco for the past 9.5 years and teach at the American School Foundation of Jalisco.

The American School is a public system in the United States, unlike here.

ASFG is for a very exclusive upper class group in which competition is a constant factor in everyone's mind.

I have always disliked this behavior because people are always pretending to be something they are not.

The middle (the working) class is always buying more than they can afford; clothes, trips, electronics, shoes, apartments, houses, fine dining, etc. They spend more than what they make and end up in huge debt. 

‘According to 'Lingerie, iPads: Mexican kid-free couples fuel high-end boom,' 

BY ALEXANDRA ALPER AND ELINOR COMLAY

MEXICO CITY, July 14 Sun Jul 14, 2013 7:59am EDT,

Mexico is a third world country with first class taste because everyone wants to fit it. 

As for me, I did modeling work for about five or six years. Every time we got our makeup done, I had to tell the makeup artist to keep it very natural and to use a lot of makeup. The same thing with the outfits we got.

At the beginning it was very 'cool,' to experience the feeling of being praised, but as time progressed, I ended up feeling more empty and sad.

Deep down, all the girls concealed our real selves only to feel  momentarily which in the end opened a wider gap of solitude.

Every event that we attended, there were always people who looked up to us and wanted to take pictures with us led to the thought that we were superior beings when in reality we were not. We were also invited to VIP events where we didn't have to pay anything just because all the men that we were invited by, wanted to be surrounded by thin and ‘beautiful’ girls.

In the end, I opted leaving that superficial job because it didn't befit the person I've always been. I have never liked to masquerade myself. 

Now that I teach, I feel a lot more useful and self-fulfilled.

I like to go by Deng Xiaoping's principle, "It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, 

so long as it catches mice."

Life

Life 

December 14

Hoe does one know is she has forgiven? you tend to feel sorrow over the circumstances instead of rage, you tend to feel sorry for the person rather than angry with him. You tend to have nothing left to say about it all.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes

He who is overly attached to his family members, experiences fear and sorrow, for the root of all grief is attachment. Thus one should discard attachment to be happy.

Chanakya

I like living. I have sometimes been wildly despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing. 

Agatha Christie

Sorrow is a fruit. God does not make it grow on limbs too weak to bear it. 

Victor Hugo

Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Is overweight normal?

Is overweight normal?

December 10, 2013

By: Gina Yoryet Roman

What’s a normal weight for a thirty something 5 foot 2 inch woman? 

According to wikianswers.com

A 5 foot 2 woman should weight between 120 to 130 pounds.

Though some people describe me as small, I would categorize myself on the borderline of small and medium, which means that my ideal weight would be between 108-132 pounds.

http://www.healthchecksystems.com/heightweightchart.htm

5'2"

Small frame: 108-121

Medium frame: 118-132

Large frame: 128-143

At this precise moment as I type, I took a brief time out to weigh myself and the number on the scale gave me this number: 113 pounds (51.2559 kilos).

Up until a couple of weeks ago, my perfect weight was precisely 108 pounds, unlike now that I dreaded looking at that ‘magical’ number due to the inconsistency and lack of motivation that have struck me very aggressively lately.  As much as I reach down to find the “why,” deep down in my pocket, it must have gone stray because I cannot find it. Plus! A lot of mindless, compulsive, impulsive, emotional, unnecessary and excessive eating have reigned my every day.

I used to consider myself a health and fitness enthusiast but I’ve rearranged the sequence of the wording: I am a fitness enthusiast because I love working out BUT, I ONLY claim to be a health advocate. There’s a difference between advocating something and actually putting it into practice.

Very contrastingly, 113 pounds means an insignificant number to the majority of the population worldwide. Here I am suffering due to my health down fall this  year (it was the worst year every!), there was a substantial change in my body all around so I have to go back to basics fitness wise. On the contrary, to other people’s eyes, I am still ‘weak,’ ‘puny,’ ‘feeble,’, ‘skinny,’ NOT thin, ‘little’, ‘frail,’ ‘small,’ or I look like a niña, (a young girl), I was told this last comment as recently as yesterday. This one is hard to believe!

Someone was once insolent enough to imply that I should eat more because I was on the borderline of anorexia or bulimia. Since I’ve been here, there hasn’t been a single person who’s considered me normal.

I am bedazzled by others’ reactions and comments everywhere I go as I don’t fully comprehend why people have slowly accepted overweight as ‘normal.’ 
Through my readings the other day, I came across a woman, a health and fitness enthusiast who is amazingly fit after her third birth. She was being horribly scrutinized by all these hate comments.Those haters don’t know this woman, true she’s married, and her husband seems VERY supportive, she’s fortunate enough to be running some of her family’s business so time is not a constraint as it is for others, she has incredible genetics and a lot of other points in her favor. 

On the other hand, she’s got what 90 or 95% of the population lacks: INCREDIBLE SELF-CONTROL and DISCIPLINE, cooks smart, she doesn’t eat junk, never misses her workouts, she fuels up her engine with a clean and transparent diet, and on top of that, she’s helping thousands of people through her passion. Health and fitness.

This woman rebutalled very smartly and politely even after being called very offensive names by a massive group of people. Before she apologized to all those she had ‘offended,’ she argumented that society accepts women as ‘normal,’ with 20, 30 pounds over their indicated weight. Yet they are making her, a fit woman be ashamed of herself?

The overweight and obesity rate has gone sky high now that when a ‘normal’ looking person is seen, they are contemplated as ‘abnormal.’ Unfortunately, for all those who are full of excuses, there will always be a culprit other than “I.” dissimilar to me and other fitness enthusiasts; overweight and obesity are NOT normal...

Death

Death

December 8, 2013

“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.” 

― Anaïs Nin

“It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know. It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise as you try and readjust the way you thought of things.” 

― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid

“A girl calls and asks, "Does it hurt very much to die?"

"Well, sweetheart," I tell her, "yes, but it hurts a lot more to keep living.” 

― Chuck Palahniuk, Survivor

“Things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect.” 

― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

“I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens.” 

― Woody Allen

“I'm the one that's got to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.” 

― Jimi Hendrix, Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold as Love

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” 

― Mark Twain

“If you gave someone your heart and they died, did they take it with them? Did you spend the rest of forever with a hole inside you that couldn't be filled?” 

― Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes

“That was the thing. You never got used to it, the idea of someone being gone. Just when you think it's reconciled, accepted, someone points it out to you, and it just hits you all over again, that shocking.” 

― Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever

It almost seems unreal

It almost seems unreal

December 7, 2013

By: Gina Yoryet Roman

unscathed by bitterness

I was saddened to learn about Nelson Mandela’s death on December 5th because he was one of the most influential men in the world. His death has with no doubt touched and impacted the whole globe and left us all mourning forever. 

Another death that came to remind me that we don’t own our life, and that humans are only passing through this world temporarily, was that of the late Paul Walker, actor of The Fast and the Furious movies. 

Michelle Rodriguez posted this warm dedication to him,

"What happens when kindness begins to depart the planet one by one? Is there enough time to learn, evolve, do something, in-between the extinction of kindness and our stint of a lifetime ... mortality makes me realize life is not just accumulated moments and memories, some people touch your soul and make you see unconditional love in all its innocence. In my eyes, Those kind people, are the most powerful forces on the planet ;) You can't run away from feeling Empathy or a sense of mystery in Life can you?"

When mortality comes to mind, it makes me draw back and realize that tomorrow is too late for anything. In the wake of grandma Mary Lou’s passing on January 26, 2012, I learned that one of the most challenging missions in life is changing ourselves. Making mistakes is part of our growth, yet many times we take our loved ones for grated. We get hurt by one another and we let pride subdue us. We let our brain dominate our emotions because our heart has been very badly wounded and we can’t let that happen again. 

For me, the act of forgiveness is a miracle come to life, real and eternal love, when two people can overcome all of life’s obstacles hand in hand conquering the world just like grandma Mary Lou and grandpa Hal did since they committed to their vows until death parted them. Before, I used to hold a grudge on everyone about the littlest issues until I I first learned about the act of acquitting offenses through those two dearly loved beings. Last year I was taught another lesson about the act of dissolution  through another dearly loved and close person in my life.

Thirteen years of marriage, two children, all the support and the life she devoted to her husband were not enough to avoid being betrayed and wounded. Little did she know that she’d be entrapped in a profound catch-22 and it would take her a long time to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Every single time I heard her sobbing during our phone conversations, I got choked up because our bond is so strong that I really felt it. Yet all those times I had to bite my tongue to avoid telling her to put an end to that relationship. 

She instead sought for God, therapy and decided to fight for them by changing and fixing particular things she had forgotten because she loved him. Her reasoning was, “I love him and tomorrow if one of us were to die, it it will be too late. Life is too short to be resenting others. Why do human beings always choose the fastest way when we are hurt? I am not perfect and I have hurt him too so I am taking 50% of the blame and I choose to stick with him.”

When I close my eyes and think about all that wise advice, I still get emotional, because it almost seems unreal that their hearts are unscathed by bitterness after all that pain. When I hear Hal sobbing on the phone, the emptiness in his voice echoes through my ear but he is not sour to have lost my dear grandmother. 

These two people have touched my soul very deeply and have taught me about unconditional love, the unequivocal love of God which I’ve never had through a human being because I’ve never been given a second chance...

What I REALLY Want...

What I REALLY Want...
December 5, 2013
By: Gina Yoryet Roman

I am eleven days from my birthday and I can't help being struck by the thought of what I really want, or  the question of, "What am I going to do with my life?"
I can write out an endless list of material and emotional requests. The matter of whether or not they will be granted, is unbeknownst to me, perhaps the answer lies within.
With all this in mind I read an article earlier today on http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/ titled, 'Obamacare, Dante, and what women really want.'

The last paragraph is the one that clarified all my doubts and the one I really resonated with:

"We want love. And no human love will do. We want God. No other kind of “insurance” will do. And no advertisement that promises security or pleasure, or pretends to understand our deepest desires, will ever come close to the message of the Gospel."