As the kids have grown-up I still like to decorate, carve pumpkins to make our Jack-O' Latern, the treats for the kids, and maybe put on some red lipstick! ;) It's not about how much we participate, the most elaborate or not, most of the time it is about how much love we put within our efforts, to keep traditions, festivals, and cultural practices alive! :)  

As I close my eyes and drift away to a land where there is love, health, peace and blessings. I wanted to take the time to think and reflect. 

     After taking the time to reflect upon my previous writings, scholarly / academic endeavours, and even after the efforts made after formally belonging to any institution, I understood how much has been written about the issues of immigration, the undocumented, the hardships, and hurts that continue to take place against the Hispanic / Latino populations. It goes without saying that there is much work to be done, if minority and majority populations truly want to be able to live side by side. In love and harmony. To be able to have differences and similarities, and still remain in a state of understanding one another. But even in a state of knowing, when the truths have surfaced in our conscious awareness, we realize that when it is time to rise or even fall, there is a timing: such as God's timing. We could even say that the work of revealing, researching and looking for truths, solutions, resolutions, and to continuously improve, becomes a Godly act. Sort of like; Graduate researchers for God.

     Or maybe God already knows the truth but just wants to see how us humans will sort through what we know? For the sake of helping to improve the human condition. This is why I realized that it is important to trust God's timing. As humans we are on the brink - there has been too much hurt and harm. Hispanic / Latino compromises more that just speaking Spanish. A unique minority population that continues to grow. With intersections of race, European, Indigenous, Afro - Caribbean and more. Maybe this brink - this need to act will truly reveal the character of humanity. Human nature and the ability to care. 

Prayer: It is with these thoughts we pray that even in a state of knowingness, we hope and pray for all, healing for all. Minority and majority.  

My thoughts to share with love & kindness! :) 

Notes: These thoughts were originally hand written on October 31st 2019.
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Wishing everyone a safe and happy 2019 Halloween celebration! :) 

     Congratulations to the Washington Nationals MLB 2019 World Series champions! We are really proud of our teams! Well done to the Houston Astros who made it right to the finals, and were on the brink on winning the World Series title for the second time, Your efforts and determination  have revealed what it takes to be winners. We are proud of our teams, in victory or defeat we accept each others success!!! Congratulations Washington Nationals! :) 

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Related Reading:
Publishing Life! :)

As I close my eyes and drift away to a land where there is love, health, peace and blessings. I wanted to take the time to think and reflect.

     I always thought about life itself as being art. As I began to decide that I needed to write about this topic / thought, I decided to see if I had written about this earlier, and the truth is that as much as I searched our website, it doesn't seem like I did. I found this especially odd as I have read, written a lot about the arts, creativity, but its also one of those beliefs. A belief in the arts, and the potential of the arts and creativity. 

     So as I had my recent flashback that inclined me to write via instagram, I decided to share them on our website too. During my high school / secondary school years, I was known to be "artsy." I used to hear it a lot of the times: I can't draw, or I'm not creative or artsy from others. But even in my younger years, I would always appeal and simply say, that even if you can draw a line or a stick person, you are still creative. Even as I write with this very pen - isn't that act of picking up a pen to write words on a paper creative? Artsy? Or even typing words on a webpage creative? I think so. As we are taken back to my opening thought - all of life is creative. To the one who does the cooking, cleaning, creating a business, the social scientist, or creating anything, to the focused painter / drawer, even the very act of living, it's all art. What we could say that evokes the word I can't, is the direct attachment to the construct. The construct of art itself. What is art, and how one chooses to define art . These thoughts can be related to the word schemata defined as: "Frameworks for organizing and representing knowledge that contain roles, variables, and fixed parts" (Galotti, Fernandes, Figelsang & Stolz, 2010). 

What we could say is what limits the artists him / herself are the various social - emotional blocks, socio-economic, leading to the limitation of artistic resources. There really is no such thing as I can't. But it does become such a thing when we keep repeating thought patterns. Believe me it is very difficult to change the I can't to I can. It is not as simple as it sounds, because thought patterns change, and require more that just an actual thought, but maybe it is a starting point.

     All of life is art - including the musicians, dancers, Actors / actresses, professional athletes, and anyone else that one would like to add. These thoughts are not written as a form of compensation, but rather to inspire and encourage. To think of the formal arts as the paintings, drawings, arts and crafts, creative writing, but also beyond what is formally viewed as art. Life itself! ​

My thoughts to share with love & kindness! :) 

Reference: 
Galotti. M. K., Fernandes, A. M., Fugelsang, J. & stoloz, A. J. (2010). Cognitive Psychology. Belmont, CA: Thomas Wadsworth Publishing. 
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Notes: These thoughts were originally hand-written on October 26th, 2019.
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Maybe we were meant to learn, know and understand what it means to walk the path of humble humility? So that even as we receive exaltation we receive with the encompassing of humble humility?

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Originally hand-written on October 25th, 2019  

Related Websites:
Committed To Love
With Love & Kindness

As I close my eyes and drift away to a land where there is love, health, peace and blessings. I wanted to take the time to think and reflect.

     The truth is that the other day I realized that when an account to a website expires, one is taken to a webpage that is totally disassociated with what one created. So finally finding some time, I decided to correct this. As I was doing so, I looked over the website and realized that I also needed to make some edits. The fact that I do need to edit this site made me think deeper about us - who we are as humans. Even when we think that there has been no growth, or the slow processes of growth, we eventually do attain / achieve. Sort of like social innovation, growth, development, or any goal that requires time and commitment. Sometimes reflecting back is all it takes. 

    I specifically began to think critically about my research interests. What was my focus previously as is listed on the website. Are my interests similar, changed or just some additions? This was and is a critical question. Because just as one starts a business or any endeavour, we have to be selective with a focus, or focuses. Especially as the focus requires time investment, strength and attention. This thought does not mean that one can't have related interests, or interests / hobbies that are directly / indirectly attached to what one is researching. But most importantly the research interests have to matter to the researcher. Meaning that the interest, passion, is what drives the purpose. But we can add additional elements to the passion, interest, purpose, such as practicality. How would research serve to practice? 

     These are important questions and ones that do need to be revisited occasionally, and for me it was the visiting of the website that led me to these very thoughts. But even as our questions or interests are shaped, it never really means that the queries have helped to solve a societal problem or not. This is the beauty of research we could say, in some sort of ironic way. Because we want to learn about human beings, as shifts occur and society progresses with growth and so on. It is also from points such as these we are led to look at histories, uncover histories. Histories that have been silenced, covered-up. Sort of like modern day media, that can easily shift our attentions.

     Histories are important to know and understand, especially as to how we got to where we are at present day. I never really thought about any upset associated with the uncovering of histories, until I came across the following:  

"Latino history has the potential to upset what we think we know about the United States and Latin America." (2010)

As I reflected upon this thought, I decided that danger / upsets just evokes fear. It's more about thinking of the capabilities of historical truths, and how these can shape and continuously improve the course of histories today and tomorrow. 

Website Notice:
Please note that our website Committed To Love does require some editing, I would also like to add that I was very excited to create this initiative, which I have not been able to give my attention to due to the many health / life challenges that I have experienced recently, which I am sure readers are aware of. For more information about me, please visit the following site: With Love and Kindness.

​Reference: 
Adrian Burgos, Donna Gabaccia, María Cristina García, Matthew Garcia, Kelly Lytle Hernández, Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof, María E. Montoya, George J. Sánchez, Virginia Sánchez Korrol, Paul Spickard, Latino History: An Interchange on Present Realities and Future Prospects, Journal of American History, Volume 97, Issue 2, September 2010, Pages 424–463, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/97.2.424

My thoughts to share with love & kindness! :) 

​Notes: These thoughts were originally hand-written on October 23rd 2019.
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Good luck to the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros, the two teams who are competing for the MLB 2019 World Series Championship title! We cheer and support our teams, but ultimately play for our nation. Wishing a safe and happy start for the beginning of the World Series, all the best! :) 

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Related Reading:
Church + State

As I close my eyes and drift away to a land where there is love, health, peace and blessings. I wanted to take the time to think and reflect particularly with regards to my previous thoughts, where I wrote about the tensions between the church and state, that do exist to this present day. 

     After taking the time to reflect, I think that the church / state relations also vary from nation to nation. To exemplify we can think about nations that have an explicit dominant religion, such as Islam, often known as an Islamic State. Islam works in all aspects of life, living, including the conduct of Government and religious institutions. The agreement and disagreement of strict / moderate practices are another topic, but in terms of these thoughts offered as one example. We can even think of the various churches such as, Catholicism and Western regions including America, where there is more unison with Church and State. Especially when we hear political leaders say: God Bless America, or In God We Trust. 

     The interior divides / unions between church, state, religion and politics are experienced as we engage with the institutions and nation. Revealing links, unions and divides. But what I would like to add with the act of worship, or even how the various religions are practiced themselves is that religion / faith can only be enacted from the individual him / herself, as humans who practice faith it is important not to get lost, or entangled in artificial worship. This is the layer that could be derived from culture, traditions or customs. For example: the man / woman who is expected to dress up for a Sunday service, is and should be equated to the man / woman who is casually dressed to cover the body. 

     God wants to see or even be a witness to our raw faith, to come as we are. To know and love as we are without expectation. Simply put - maybe religion is entangled / entrenched in God + Politics? Politically and socially constructed. God could careless about this, and cares more about what is within - our heart!

    Note: This additional thought is not written to deter ones engagement with a specific religious institution, but rather to reveal that as individuals we should be aware of socio-political influences, as well as understand how we choose to participate and levels of engagement.  

My thoughts to share with love & kindness! :)

Notes: These thoughts were originally hand-written on October 20th, 2019.
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As I close my eyes and drift away to a land where there is love, health, peace and blessings. I wanted to take the time to think and reflect.

     Every year the National Council of Teachers creates awareness about writing with the hashtag #WhyIWrite. We all have our reasons, or not to write. The very reminder calls us to reflect and point our attention to this act. If you search the hash tag you will find many different reasons that are offered. Writing is a creative outlet, it is also a professional, personal, practical, and purposeful act. Through writing we can achieve a goal, simply: writing serves a purpose. Today we could even call hand-writing a traditional act, because of the digitalization of writing and publishing. But writing / publishing are not a new act, merely a progression, growth and development of the platforms, as we utilize the act of the pen and keyboard functions. Even as we write, share our stories on our platforms, and even social media in the form of personal blogs - I began to wonder how publishing is also an act that we do through our daily living. How or what are we publishing as we live our lives on a daily basis?

     If you think about it how we live "publish" our life is where the desire to write, publish, and even the very purposeful practical elements of writing stem from. How we Live "publish" our life / daily living is where we begin our daily interactions - our life story, which really becomes our open book. Similar to social media, digital publishing and even writing, the act of living, the interactions / relations we forge with other human beings can either make or break relations. 

The following graphic is a brainstorm I created earlier today with some of the reasons for writing. Others that I saw with the #whyiwwrite #NationalDayOnWriting were the words empower, inspire. I am sure there are many more reasons / words that will arise to add. 

National Day On Writing! :)

My thoughts to share with love & kindness! :)

Notes: These thoughts were originally hand-written on October 20th, 2019 at about 8:30 - 9:00am.
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