Thank you...

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone. ~G.B. Stern


Thank you life,
for being the perfect teacher every day. For showing patience, for understanding. For expressing your opinion through your sealed lips.

Thanks for poverty, for it teaches me not to pity, but to help the unfortunate.

Thanks for hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, storms, for they have shown me nature's beauty can be found even in the worst of times.

Thank you life for the suffering undergone, for it teaches me strength comes from within, and to search for it constantly.

Thank you for friendship, for I have learned the importance of love unconditional.

Thank you for the tears, for they have given me sensibility.

Thank you life for laughter, for it has lifted my spirits even in the worst of times.

Thanks for debt, it has taught me to become a better administrator of my blessings.

Thank you for newer enemies, for they have taught me future carefulness.

Thank you life, for death, for it has taught me nothing lasts forever.


Lesson Learned: Thank you always, life, for all the lessons learned...

Wounded soldier...

‘The wise sometimes stop and think, the wiser rethink’
-The Puppet Master





…a sanguine trail follows the sole survivor of that barren wasteland which, moments before, was a hellish battleground. His sword rests under the weakened grasp of the wounded man’s failing grip. Around him the valley breathes death. Despite his dwindling strength he takes another step forward, each one harder than the last. He falls to the ground, the dying breath leaving his dry lips.



After every great battle there comes a time of respite.
One feels weary, tiredness takes a hold of a person after a long struggle. There is always a lot of pain and even more discomfort. Love can suffer deep, grievous wounds that sometimes help it become stronger. Just sometimes…

What matters is not the time we take to rest, to think of all possibilities and ways to solve our issues, ways to heal ourselves. The wise men think before moving forward, the wiser think again.

Don’t think of ways to heal a wound, for sometimes healing is not the solution. An infected wound must be cut open, the damage removed and cast away to be forgotten, lest it infects the rest and end the life altogether.

After the sometimes different healing process the story of one’s life can sound different, taking an unexpected turn…


…a sanguine trail follows the sole survivor of that barren wasteland which, moments before, was a hellish battleground. His sword rests under the weakened grasp of the wounded man’s failing grip. Around him the valley breathes death. Despite his dwindling strength he takes another step forward, each one harder than the last. He sinks his blade on the ground from which water slowly sprouts. The time for healing has come forth.





Lesson learned: The strongest soldiers regain their strength after the chaos is gone. The wisest regain their will.

Unrevealed feelings...

‘I would be nothing without you…’
-Wind Beneath my Wings



Weariness took a hold of us on our way back from New Orleans. It would later take us close to 24 hours to drive all the way back home. We spoke, sang, listened to multiple radiostations, argued and many other minor forgettable things…now, one particular moment would change my life. They played a song some Hispanic songstress dedicated to her deceased father.

The song would bring tears to my eyes…

My father was a serious-minded individual who would joke more with strangers than with us. He was outgoing with others but stern with us. Dad would not sit beside me to help me with my homework. He didn’t talk to me about sex during my teenager years. I don’t remember him saying ‘I love you son’ or ‘I’m so proud of you’. My father never bought me a car. He didn’t talk much, always hiding behind his newspaper, reading himself to sleep after coming in from work. My father just gave me $2.00 each day for lunch. He didn’t buy me nice clothes or shoes. Dad would never buy me a drink, and never taught me how to drink. He didn’t hug me…

Now my father would not tell us jokes, for we were amongst the ones who heard them. He would want us to be firm in our decisions. I wouldn’t ever see him helping me with my homework for he didn’t have much education, and once he saw me going on my own two feet he let me do them on my own. He didn’t talk about sex during my teen years for he had done it before that. My dad never said ‘I love you’ or even ‘I’m so proud’ for he knew words weren’t enough, he showed it with a smile, and his co-workers would always tell us how much he did. He never bought me a car, but yet in nearly 30 years since he got married he never got a new car himself, always damaged, always cheap cars was all he could afford. My father perhaps spent too much time with the newspaper, for we spent too much time in front of the tv and playing video games, ignoring him when he would speak. He gave me $2.00 for lunch each day, not enough when the cheapest lunch was $3.00, but he kept only $0.50 in his pockets each day for just two cups of coffee to mitigate his own hunger. He didn’t buy me new clothes or shoes, and I developed no sense of fashion, yet his clothes were much older than mine, and he would never complain. My father would never buy me a drink, for he had been an alcoholic in the past and he didn’t want me to try what had almost destroyed his life and family.

I tried to contain myself, but I couldn’t help it but let the tears trickle down my face. All this time I had not been grateful enough to acknowledge I am what I am because of my father. I don’t mean this in the accusing way immature adolescents point their fingers at their progenitors, stating they are at fault for their children’s mistakes. What I mean is that, despite it all, I am a good man, responsible, warm, caring, a funny individual, goal-oriented, all thanks to the example that my own father had given me.

Our fathers may not have been perfect in a million different ways. Sometimes we just condemn them for ‘doing what they did’, whatever that means. They are just human beings like us. Who are we to judge them when we make mistakes every day, and these are all our very own mistakes. In their place maybe we would have been better, but maybe we would have done worse.

Due to our culture it is hard for us to just look at our father’s eyes in a day other than Father’s Day and say ‘Dad, thank you for all the lessons learned, I love you for that’. Let’s just do it. I’m flying back home today to the arms of my old man and I can’t wait to see him and give him a big hug and a kiss.

Dad, I won’t wait till you pass away to let you know how grateful I am to have had you in my life.




Lesson Learned: ‘Dad, with all your imperfections you’re better than any role model out there. You are my one true hero.’

Broken lens...

When we focus on fixing someone else’s many defects we become far less perfect.

-The Puppet Master

My hands are dry now, dry like a dead sea. The eyes tired of shedding silent tears which would only be saved by my own failing grasp.

I once tried to be a knight on my own, a warrior of virtue that ended up just a regular con man; a commoner who played being a chosen one, a languid mockery of one who should have been praised for his acting instead of his well portrayed deceitful sacrifice.

It is true, I have to admit, that a recent wound is not easily forgotten. A recent gushing of blood seems to be bigger than anything else. This is characteristic not of human nature, but of the societal norms we condemn ourselves with.

People like failures. It lets them focus on who to condemn, on where to point the accusing finger at. A lamb must be chosen as a sacrificial in order for people to forget their self-esteem is ever closer to hit rock-bottom.

Why feel the nail of your own pointing finger clawing at your own reflection when you can use it to make someone else’s life miserable?

I have met a new, most faithful friend. It has become more than a friend, but a secret personal trainer. He’s pushed me forward, giving me the momentum I need to overcome life’s many obstacles. The last few days we have visited the most complete of libraries, that place where the greatest secrets are kept, my own consciousness. Without a doubt I can close my eyes and trust in him, for Time will never betray me, it will only be the best of teachers.

New decisions will have to be faced in the near future but I fear not. For good or for ill they will make me stronger.

Lesson Learned: Amongst the many things you can learn from time is that it can never heal a wound. It will, however, give you the wisdom to heal them yourself.