Who rules...

'He who reigns within himself and rules his passions, desires, and fears is more than a king.'

-John Milton(1608-1674)

Have you wondered why you don’t succeed at a particular endeavor? Have you ever felt as if after all the hardships and struggling to find your way you end up at the shore of a stormy sea and there’s nothing you can do about it?

If you have felt that way, if you have lost all hope let me tell you one thing: you are just focusing on the wrong obstacle. We as humans can overcome anything, with the right tools, and with our mind set to it.

David(in the Bible) defeated Goliath, the giant, with a slingstone to his forehead. He was small, he was weak, but he was brave and strong-willed.

Now, we all have our giants, each to its own.

What is your giant? Is it drugs taking control over your life?

Is it alcohol not allowing you to be happy without it?

Is it risk behavior and the thrill of it being the only thing filling you?

Does your giant have a name?

Is it a sick partner?

Is it depression?

How many times have you said ‘this is the last time’ and failed? You are saying that to yourself, no one really cares.

Identify your giant, decide once and for all to use all your might and your sling to finish its curse in your life…or see your life waste away. It will be hard, I know. It will feel as if you lose your life when you lift this curse, but you will actually be regaining the reins of your own destiny.

You think you can take control of your life? If so, then too bad.

You shouldn’t think you can, you have to be sure. Doubt breeds inaction.

To all of you who are brave enough to evolve and become a better person I say ‘hail’, to all those who don’t I say ‘good luck’ for only luck will allow you be happy.

Lesson learned: Despite what anyone can say or think I AM TAKING control of my life.

Recognizing recognition…

‘Man, I have never loved like this, it feels good to know you are in my life’
-Andrej(1974-1994)

‘Life has no boundaries. The only boundaries it has are the ones you create….’
-Wes Pine in Living a dream

Have you ever felt everything around you ceasing to exist as time stops? Your life feels like a movie where everything gets distorted except for the focus of your newly caught attention. The only thing you can see and hear is moving right in front of you and you can say 'recognition'.

And what is this recognition? I define it as the moment and event when the soul of a person recognizes another as a mate, as a friend, as someone that could be(and will be, in most cases) close enough to touch the vibrating essence of our hearts, close enough to play the strings of our harps and emit a new melody that will reverberate and echo throughout eternity.

It is not love, but the truest of lovers can feel it, their feelings potentiated and strengthened by this strangest of events.
It is not friendship, but could help develop the greatest friendships and alliances that could change the course of history someday.
It is not passion, but it could cause a conflagration that would dwarf passion’s own flame.

We come to envy children in movies who are closer than brothers, who laugh together, cry together and fall in innocent, true love with one another. I’m not talking love as in relationships. I’m referring to love in its purest of forms.

Some of us have never felt this in our lives. Some of us have and we can, despite the time, silence, distance, or death itself smile at the mere fleeting memory of that soul mate that still lives within us.

Don’t isolate yourself in the desert of your depression. There’s someone else out there somewhere who’s an oasis to your life.

Lesson learned: If you think the movie of your life may be almost over and you can already see the credits then search for the sequel.

Muda expresión...

Y me sumergí un día más en el silencio
En el espacio sepulcral de mi casa vacía
La frialdad de las sábanas acarició mi rostro
Cual manos de espectros desesperados
Cuyo eco es solo la burla
De aquellos que me arrebataron lo mío
Porque nunca lo fue y nunca será
Solo crujen mis dientes
Melodioso alarido del dolor revivido
Fresca traición mi vino añejado
Que baña tu sangre
Tus palabras clavadas con garras de acero
Te amo
Y te odio
Me marcho
Y me quedo
Te busco
Y te dejo
Te cuido
Y te olvido
Fantasma embrujado que acecha mi alma
Maldito recuerdo de abrazo perdido
De la cálida estatua egoísta
Estabilidad inestable
Esclavo eterno de Baco
Siervo indudable de Ares
Seguidor incansable de Afrodita
Victima pronta de Hades
¡Largo de mi mente
Fuera de mi vida!
Busco el exorcismo más puro
Para arrancar la raíz de tu sembrada amargura
Asesino impío del sentimiento
Descanso tranquilo
Me vengará la vida
Y llorarás encerrado en tu cárcel
Solo, abandonado, y viejo
Cansado de la sobriedad de tu embriaguez
Tu calabozo castigo merecido
Y te amo
Y me marcho
Y te dejo
Y te olvido

Counter attack...

‘The best way to defend yourself is to stop doing it’
-The Puppet Master



What happens when you leave a room where you just had an argument with someone else? You feel relief, maybe even content with your decision of leaving.

Why? Probably because you have felt the argument was started by that other person who probably had ‘something against’ you.

Analyze this…

Why do you feel people have something against you? We are sensitive to criticism when our self-esteem is so low we counter it by thinking we are just greater than anybody else, and being so important, we can’t help it but be attacked.

Victim, according to Narratology, is defined as ‘a character who is conquered or manipulated by a villain’. Who, then, is the villain that plagues our lives?
It is easier to pick one, to name one, or even to make up one, than to recognize the real villain sabotaging our beings is the one you can only see in a mirror.

We strike back, sometimes blindly, and we end up hurting others, or even ourselves in the process. Sometimes what we hurt is our image, and lose face, and the respect of others.

For once, when an argument arises, stop to think ‘I am not being attacked’ and just listen to whatever the other person has to say. Maybe they’re right, maybe they’re not, but just to let someone ventilate while you wait quietly(AS HARD AS IT IS) will give you victory over your foe.

Get a piece of paper out and write ‘Why am I not being attacked’ when you feel like the World is against you. Then read it and proofread it, and you will see how much stronger you become.


Lesson learned: Drop your shield, the raging battles are present only inside YOUR mind.

Imaginary images…

‘Things are always much more than what they seem…or much less’
-The Puppet Master


This very morning I was taking a friend to the airport. Despite the turmoil inside his head he carried himself so calmly, probably the peace of mind that his ‘returning home’ would bring, the mere ignoring of the destruction which will inevitably happen if his life continues as chaotic as it is right now, or the effect of a medication.

He held a guitar in hand, a Colombian hat resting on his head, and a huge bag with sneakers that didn’t fit inside tied up to the outside belt. You would’ve thought he was a proficient musician, a South American traveler or just a misplaced youngster who moved out too fast to organize his own life effectively. He was all and none. He couldn’t even play the guitar, which was out of tune anyways.

What do you see when you see a white, young thin boy with long blond hair carrying a surfboard? Do you see a young, crazy, adventurous surfer? Or do you see just a young boy who wants to look like a surfer? Or even then, do you see a young boy who is perhaps carrying a surfboard somewhere, maybe to sell it. The fact is that this boy may be all three of those, or none.

If you see a woman crying alone, what do you see? Is she a woman who cries for the death of her son? Or is she crying out of despair, for she has no money, no home, and no food? Or even then, she might be crying out of happiness, for she has received a so long awaited blessing. She might be all three, or none.

Snails, always seem as cursed for their slowness at least take their time to think. Even monkeys sit down and analyze things before acting, even if the act they perform is not the best.


Lesson learned: What do we see? We are quick to judge. Don’t just see. Scrutinize, see beyond the beyond.

Black diamond…

‘Only you know your true worth’

-The Puppet Master

Who are you?

Let me ask you again, and think carefully…WHO ARE YOU?

How long did it take you to answer? Did you answer promptly? When we hesitate, is thought, we are showing insecurity. Hesitating, however, brings us a brief moment of rethinking that could end up in a great time of respite.

Are you a young man who’s striving to study? Are you a simple person who works at a store? Are you a woman who’s living the moment? Perhaps you’re an old man who’s feeling tired, or a housewife who’s sad. Maybe you’re an adult female who’s lonely…

Think about how you describe yourself.

I think…wait, let me correct that! I KNOW you are much more than that. Maybe you have been through Hell and back again, but what’s important is not the journey you’ve taken, it is who you are because of that journey.

Have you figured why I asked you this question? Well I have because you, and ONLY YOU know your true value. Coal is a potential diamond.

Who am I? I am a man, a young professional who thought my true worth depended on other’s view of me. God, I suffered for it badly, and lived through a desert that drained my spirit, that wounded my soul. Despite it all I have chosen to stand forth, to look up, thank God and to help others in similar situations not to open their eyes(as it will depend on their own disposition to learn), but to see that there is always another way of seeing things, and themselves.

Now, I ask you, once again, WHO ARE YOU?

Lesson learned: We should all be jewelers, for we are all jewels.

Losing it...

‘The greatest loser of all knows he’s losing something valuable, yet does nothing to keep it’

-The Puppet Master

The Cravers…

…that would be another, perfect name for the human race. We want more and more each day. We consume, we buy, we even own more than we can handle.

Take for example books. How many of us own books? Are we reading them all at the same time? If not, why do we keep them? They occupy space in our closets, lots of it. We sometimes think they will be useful in the future, but then we don’t ever open them again. Why don’t we give them to someone else who could make good use of the material inside? Even before finishing a book we’re already on the prowl, searching for the next text to feed our craving eyes.

We are so difficult to satisfy.

People…

Are we ever satisfied with what we’ve got? Maybe we have found a great partner, someone worthy to be described in a fairy tale, someone so perfect it must have been ‘sent by God himself’. Sadly, even that is not enough. As time passes by we occasionally get so used to that someone’s presence that we don’t even notice that same old person was the one that swept us away in the beginning. We are ‘satisfied’ by the mere thought of a different person at our side, on our bed, on our lives.

Open your eves before it is too late and decide. What is worth keeping?

Lesson learned: Loss can be a great, yet a stern teacher.

Lone wolf...

The coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave man...only five hundred.

-Meredith Willson

Why does a wolf howl at the moon?

Have you ever wondered why?

In the eternal search for ourselves we wander, aimlessly at times. Throughout the dank, dark forests of our lives we sometimes see roads that seem to lead to our final destination. Occasionally, and sometimes more than we want it, the road ends on a broken bridge, on a sabotaged dam. We, with our ignorance, have been the perpetrators of such sabotage.

There are times when we must choose a small, forgotten winding trail through the dense woods. It may be the scariest place we’ve been, but only because we have chosen to see these difficulties as such, for we have seen a forest as a place people get lost, not as a great natural source of wood with which to build a campfire, or even a cabin to protect us from the impious weather.

Wolves howl not at the moon, the howl upwards so that the sound can be transmitted in 360 degrees from its howling point. It howls so that others like him can hear him in the distance when he has gotten lost. All sense of pride is abandoned, for a wolf is not foolish, it would rather announce he’s lost than risk never finding his way. They do it atop a rock, on bright nights mostly because amidst the darkness his way will be more visible.

Now other envious wolves can also hear the howl, and may search for him to kill the wanderer. Everything in life involves a risk.

Will you be brave and howl in the middle of your darkest hour? Or will you try to find the way on you own, in your foolish independence?

Lesson learned: ‘I will howl, and I will live’

Green grass...

‘The grass is always greener on the other side’

-Anonymous

At times you look carefully enough to notice the grass seems greener on the other side of the fence. What you don’t see as carefully is, though, that there's also barbed wire separating those sides, and crossing it can spell disaster. Not only is the crossing over treacherous enough, but as you make it you’ll notice the grass is just the same, it just seemed greener when the light of the sun shone upon it from a different angle.

Why look for a hidden treasure, why wish for what we don’t have?

We humans crave for more and more, our hunger never satisfied. Why don’t we instead take that same light and direct it to wherever we want it to shine. It is then when we will see we can be happy with what we have. The problem is not wanting more, don’t take me wrong, but when you can’t be happy until you catch that ever-fading dream you will never then be happy.

Fulfill your dream, but do it in yourself. Stop looking for your fulfillment anywhere else. Only you can fill your own void, permanently.

Lesson learned: The grass is greener wherever it is watered.

Temporal stasis...

‘If one thing’s uncertain is uncertainty’

-The Puppet Master

What happens next?

That’s a question we all fear. We, who strive to take control of our lives and environment, the strong human race which seem to be the epitome of evolution on this planet. We have conquered all, but we are conquered by fear.

The fear of loss, the fear of betrayal, the fear of starting again something that is doomed to fail…

Ignorance rears its ugly head, breeds fear, feeds it, raises it, and it sets fear free to roam and destroy us in its growing process.

Understand…set your mind to it. Accept things as they are, accept people as they are. Instead of expecting someone to change, why don’t we learn instead? Learn to deal with the problem, seek the solution.

Move, learn, grow, let go, send away, love yourself, enjoy life as it is, with the least of worries, and you will succeed in finding the happiness we all work so hard to get.

Lesson learned: No one knows what will happen next, but we can focus on what we can do whatever happens.