Green Thumb by Esmer

I do not have a green thumb. I tend to over water my plants. Either that or I forget about watering them completely for a few days and then I have to go back and try to make up for the damage. My mother however, all of her fingers are green, not just her thumb. She can make a car grow in the ground by planting a tire. I asked her recently what her secret was. And you will never guess what she said?  She talks to them. She says nice things to them, praises their beauty and how much they have grown. She uses a tender tone, and I am sure I have heard her sing a lyric or two. My son believes that scientifically this makes sense. He says that the carbon dioxide you breathe out of your body and onto the plant while talking or signing to it helps it grow. Ummmm ok. I knew that. (Absolutely did not even think of it.) Although it probably is the more logical reason, I want to believe that these plants are a lot like us.  We need the oxygen, and sunshine, and food to survive, but kind words to grow. Positive affirmations to help us reach our highest potential.

Having the privilege to be inside the elementary school classroom, I have seen the power of kind words in action.  I have seen students who are struggling with a math problem or having difficulty answering a question about a book we just read, shrink in front of my eyes.  And I have seen these same students, rise to the challenge with a simple, “You’ve got this. Let’s figure it out together. I’m here with you.” They sit up a little taller, and believe they can try. Even if they get the answer wrong, their thinking has shifted from, “I can never do this”!  to “next time I will get it right.” What’s even more amazing, is that these kids who once held their heads down, began to pass on the seeds of kind words. They encouraged each other, and began to build each other up, not because I told them to but because they wanted to.

It’s okay if you do not have a green thumb either friends.  You can still grow a garden full of smiles, and kindness which leads to a lasting feeling of self-worth that will spread far beyond the comfort of your fence.  Wow, what a sight that will be to behold!

Decisions, Decisions

I am not comfortable with making choices.  It isn’t often that I deviate from my norm.  I like to stick to what I know. There is comfort in the familiar, and I am all about the comfort.  I love my comfy “ I like big cups and I cannot lie” t-shirt. I have a favorite pair of comfy sleepy pants to wear during winter, and some comfy shorts I wear during summer.  When I go to a restaurant, I already know what I am going to have. Chick-fil-A with all of its options, I know I will get a number 3 with a lemonade to drink. No need to upsize unless it’s been a day that requires some supersize fries.

It’s not the decision itself that scares me, but more choosing wrong.  Making a wrong choice will lead to a bad outcome and then where does that leave you?  Life ruined forever. Ok… ok.. A little dramatic. While there are certain situations that can highly alter your life, most don’t warrant the stress and worry we tend to cause ourselves.  I have been making some decisions recently that have kept me up at night wondering whether or not I took the right path. Did I choose the road less traveled like Robert Frost suggests? Or is Jerry Seinfeld right and is the road less traveled less traveled for a reason?   

Regardless of what quote you subscribe to, or what path you take, it’s all about how you handle a situation when the decision is made.  The decision does not define your outcome. Only you can do that. You change jobs and it might not be exactly what you thought it was, but you can still have a positive outcome.  We can make the best of any situation, and see the beauty in the paths we do choose. The journey doesn’t end after one choice after all. We keep going, keep moving, keep choosing.

~Esmeralda

ABC's of ME-Part 2

ABC’s of ME

Part 2

Ice Cream

I don’t know what it is about ice cream, but it brings me a little summer anytime, anywhere.  Mint chocolate chip is my favorite.  On a sugar cone.  In case anyone was wondering. 

Juggling

I used to be fascinated with learning how to juggle.  It just looked like a cool thing to do, and I was always up for a challenge.  I started with napkins, since they were a little easier to catch, and they floated down so very gently and slowly.  Once I mastered juggling napkins, I moved on to tennis balls.  I never really got further than that.  I can’t even say that I actually mastered juggling tennis balls, but now I juggle something a little different.  I juggle tasks, events, schedules.  With two busy kids, you have to learn how to juggle activities, and other priorities that I find important.  For example, homemade meals together and actual conversations.  I juggle a little more carefully now, since the stakes are a little higher than some fluttering napkins.

Kit Kat

Favorite chocolate.  It’s crunchy. It’s sweet.  It comes in a pair, if you feel like sharing.  I never seem to though.

Logophile

Someone who loves words is called a logophile.  I have a notebook of words that I have collected.  Words that have powerful meanings.  Or words with cool sounds and pronunciations.  My favorite words currently are shenanigans and atrocious.  They are fun to say, and when you say it with a little extra oomph, it just makes you feel happy. 

Movies

I love them! I love them! I love them!  If you ask me what I feel like doing for the evening, it is possible that I will say, watch movie.  Movies inspired by true events are probably my favorites.  Followed very closely by romantic, undying love type of movies.  It really is hard for me to pick a favorite movie.  There are so many I love for so many different reasons.  I have my go to movie if I feel like a good cry, and I have ones I go to if I need a pep talk.  My sister and cousin, and now my children even, play a game in which you have to guess the movie based on the movie quotes someone else gives.  It’s quite fun on road trips!

Nostalgic

Some of my favorite trips are down memory lane.  I don’t mean to dwell in the past, but sometimes a smell or a song will take me back in time.  To a simpler day, or a perfect moment that is forever chiseled in my memory.  I don’t stay there long.  Just a short visit, but it warms me up all over.

Optimistic

“Be optimistic,

Don’t you be a grumpy.

When the road gets bumpy,

Just smile, smile, smile and be happy.”

As you have learned, I love movies.  There is a little song from the movie, Anywhere but Here, that always seems to come into my head when I am not having the best moment.  It is about a single mother who is doing the very best she can for her daughter.  Unfortunately, her daughter does not agree with the way the mother tries to get ahead.  When things went wrong, and they often did for the duo, she sang the song above.    It doesn’t necessarily change their luck, just like it doesn’t change my circumstances, but it does definitely make the tough moments a little easier to swallow.

Prayer

Prayer has always been in my life since I was young enough to remember.  There are pictures of my grandma and me walking around her house saying our prayers before bed.  I was in diapers.  I 100% believe in the power of prayer.  I don’t always take advantage of its benefits.  Sometimes I wake up and get to running before I even cover myself with protection and blessings.  Lucky for me, I remember, and get to praying. 

Quotes

 “A good quote is a beautiful bird! Wherever you meet with it, you will start flying with it!”

― Mehmet Murat ildan

Sophia Itzel Lara

She likes to say that she was probably doing pirouettes in my belly or toe touches.  That must have been what I felt when something was kicking in my belly.  I was overcome with emotion when they placed my green eyed girl in my arms for the first time, and I still feel that same way when I see that girl smile.  She has the sweetest heart, and I will do everything I possibly can to keep her that way.  I might have to lock her up in a tower or something.

~Esmeralda  

Digital Courage by Andrea

cour-age (noun): the ability to do something that frightens one, especially in the face of opposition or adversity

Recently, I listened to a well-known radio host decrying what he calls “digital courage”- one’s ability to “say” things online that he or she would never say face- to -face or in polite company. There are many trolls  (as they are called) who camp out, waiting for opportunities to berate and belittle news reports, blogs and social media postings.  They look for any opportunity to pounce on someone’s pain or vulnerability.  And there are those who over-share, make unwise personal declarations or bully others because they feel “empowered” by the digital distance. 

As I listened, it hit me.  This is NOT courage.  Spewing hateful, condemning or personally offensive messages online anonymously or behind the veil of a ‘handle’ is the opposite of courage.  A more apt description, I think, is “digital cowardice.”

A digital coward is just like a 3D, walking-around coward: one who lacks the courage to do or endure unpleasant or difficult things.  The perceived digital wall makes people like this bolder.  Real-world cowards say nothing yet snicker and criticize behind one’s back. Virtual ones say as many hurtful things as possible for all to see.  But they do it from a hiding place.

The term digital courage belongs to all the brave out there vulnerably sharing their gifts, thoughts, and wonderings with all of us.  How many of us read blogs regularly (raise your hand… you’re reading one right now)?  I read them almost daily.  Blogs are a large part of the online, global community. We get to experience life with people we may never meet because of the prevalence of blogs today.  The same is true with social media sites as well.

Someone pressed ‘Post’ and decided to share some of their innermost thoughts, feelings and opinions all in an effort to make a connection, on some level, with readers.  The braves decide that it is important for the message, the art, the music, the innovation to be “out there” in spite of the fact that they may be opening themselves up to challenge and criticism.  This is true digital courage.  And we are better for it!

Courage does not mean the absence of fear.  It is pressing forward in spite of fear.  It is deciding that it would be far worse to keep one’s creation to self than to share it and endure the discomfort of negative critique and judgment.  And each time, courage presses ‘Post’, someone’s life is impacted.  Someone thinks.  Someone questions. Someone creates.

All art, especially writing, serves as either a window or a mirror for the observer.  Looking through the window, we get a glimpse of the heart and life of the one who shares. This enables us to relate to people, to connect rather than distance ourselves.  And when connection happens, empathy is conceived.  Then empathy gives birth to compassion.  Each time someone exercises digital courage, the viewer may get a clearer image of self, as with a mirror. We get to see ourselves in someone else’s story. And we learn to be kinder to ourselves or at times to push a little harder as not to give up.  Too many times to count, I have found my voice, the vocabulary to express myself, because of the words of someone courageous enough to press the button.  

This I know for sure: when we are courageous online, as well as off, we give someone else the courage to say “I will share my (fill in the blank), too.”  We are here to elevate- first ourselves, then each other. 

I vow never to use the screen as a hiding place, but as a place to encourage: to give active help or to raise confidence to the point where one dares to do what is difficult.

-Andrea