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. 

     Just as there are many social and political constructions, there are also the construction of sexuality and sexual control. This is not a new thought but historically and to the present day. Where sexuality is especially controlled, for the purposes of manauvering in private and public spaces. This manoeuvring of the private and public can also be thought of in terms of Western and Eastern socio / political construction. We can compare how civilizations of the world handle sexuality privately, publicly, through customs, traditions, celebrations. But where I begin to think deeper is when we think about the contradictions, irony and even bring forth the term: hypocritical. When civilizations who are critical of sexual practices that take part in the west, but then engage in the very same practices themselves.

This thought made me think further - sexual condemnation is also a political tool. Utilized to allow the rising and falling of nations, civilization, or even religion. But then I thought: How and why should one condemn what one practices themselves? Maybe I do have the answer. 

My thoughts to share with love & kindness! :) 

Notes: These thoughts were originally hand-written on November 6th, 2019.
Image 1 - Web Link 

I am always so busy writing, learning and sharing my concerns about the inequalities within the hispanic / latino populations. Especially how political parties: Democrats and Republicans have failed to act on numerous bills / acts in congress, that would support the Dreamers and immigrants;  I took a side step to celebrate what has and is being accomplished. I decided to decorate my face with these tattoos, to try to create the sugar skull. A celebrations of souls. I think it was a good first attempt!! ;) This reminder made me realize once again to trust God's timing, and have faith that those who do posses the power to make change, will hear our voices to support the vulnerable, whilst we also celebrate happiness with celebrations and traditions. Happy Dia De Los Muertos, day of the dead, Mexican Halloween! :) ​

SUGAR SKULL!!! :) 

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.

     Recently I have cherished the spaces where I was able to transcend to a reflective state, to think and to absorb. In my opinion these spaces are necessary, especially as one seeks to understand moments, memories, past and present. What is known and unknown. Our past may not have been especially pleasant, but this does not mean to say that we should feel agony or resentment. Because really a past is part of who we are. Good, bad, happy, sad and so on. The pieces are us. However; the beauty of a past, present is we get to choose. Decide what we want to let in. Sometimes this is more difficult to so, since we did not and do not exist in isolation, and a past was never formed by itself. Meaning that the individuals, experiences, relational encounters all encompass the past and present. So the question of the present is about focus. What one chooses to focus upon, and what one desires to be. And without these reflective spaces / moments, there is probably going to be more, or some confusion. Which is why the allocating of time is vital for emotional processing. 

Further Reading: 5 Things That Could Be Stealing Your Joy

My thoughts to share with Love & Kindness! :)

Notes: These thoughts were originally hand-written on November 5th, 2019.
Image 1 - Web Link
Image 2 - Web Link
Image 3 - Web Link 

Image Created with Canva 

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.
Image 1 - Web Link 

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! :) 

​Image Source 

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. 
​
Notes: These thoughts were originally hand-written on October 26th, 2019.
Image 1 - Web Link
Image 2 - Web Link
Image 3 - Web Link 

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?

Image Source
Originally hand-written on October 25th, 2019