In Searching for Self

No more do I get excited for too long.

No more do I get disappointed from anyone.

I am searching for the joys and pains of my youth.

Perhaps I have matured, perhaps too soon.

People have come.

People have gone.

I think I'm just getting along.

It all must sound liberating,

It all must feel good.

Yet something is bothersome.

Something missing from this adulthood.

I'm not so sure.

I feel a bit lost.

I'm searching for self.

I think that's a must.

The Taste of Surpise

I grabbed this box this morning from the cafe I had breakfast at. It was beside a white and a brown boxes on the refrigerator shelf. I assumed the white was milk, the brown was coco milk, and this one was banana milk. I didn't have it in the morning and now on my way to the airport I had a last chance to drink it before being forced to throw it away for security reasons at the airport.

Assuming it was milk it was utterly surprising to feel a sweet and sour taste on my tongue upon the first sip!  It took me a good few sips before I realized it was possible pineapple juice!! How my brain expectation blared my ability to judge the taste! How strange to put pineapple beside milk. Or were they milk at all??

Feeling An Alien

It is still foreign to me, this city of Kobe, even after five trips. The foreign language characters are the most alienating to me otherwise not knowing the language or looking different than everyone else is no new experience. It's really daunting imaging making ones way in the crowd of unfamiliar streets and train tracks with no guide but ones memory.

I got lost going from train station to the airport bus stop. In the end my guide was a French boy who spoke a little Japanese while I could converse a broken French with him!  I lost my intended bus but made it to the next one 20 minutes later.

I got the promise of a promotion and even though I'm thrilled about it I feel unsure too. It's yet another new territory for me, to learn the language of and never mind the difference between me and others. To find the best possible strategies and alternatives whenever possible. And to make new paths by walking unfamiliar terrains.

Yaa Huuuu

Don't Fall In Love with A Woman Who Reads - Martha Rivera-Garrido

"Don’t fall in love with a woman who reads, a woman who feels too much, a woman who writes...

Don’t fall in love with an educated, magical, delusional, crazy woman. Don’t fall in love with a woman who thinks, who knows what she knows and also knows how to fly; a woman sure of herself.

Don’t fall in love with a woman who laughs or cries making love, knows how to turn her spirit into flesh; let alone one that loves poetry (these are the most dangerous), or spends half an hour contemplating a painting and isn't able to live without music.

Don’t fall in love with a woman who is interested in politics and is rebellious and feel a huge horror from injustice. One who does not like to watch television at all. Or a woman who is beautiful no matter the features of her face or her body.

Don’t fall in love with a woman who is intense, entertaining, lucid and irreverent. Don’t wish to fall in love with a woman like that. Because when you fall in love with a woman like that, whether she stays with you or not, whether she loves you or not, from a woman like that, you never come back…"

Original in Spanish: 

"No te enamores de una mujer que lee, de una mujer que siente demasiado, de una mujer que escribe...

No te enamores de una mujer culta, maga, delirante, loca. No te enamores de una mujer que piensa, que sabe lo que sabe y además sabe volar; una mujer segura de sí misma. 

No te enamores de una mujer que se ríe o llora haciendo el amor, que sabe convertir en espíritu su carne; y mucho menos de una que ame la poesía (esas son las más peligrosas), o que se quede media hora contemplando una pintura y no sepa vivir sin la música. 

No te enamores de una mujer a la que le interese la política y que sea rebelde y sienta un inmenso horror por las injusticias. Una que no le guste para nada ver televisión. Ni de una mujer que es bella sin importar las características de su cara y de su cuerpo. 

No te enamores de una mujer intensa, lúdica, lúcida e irreverente. No quieras enamorarte de una mujer así. Porque cuando te enamoras de una mujer como esa, se quede ella contigo o no, te ame ella o no, de ella, de una mujer así, jamás se regresa..."

عاشق زنی مشو که می انديشد،

که می داند،

که داناست،

که توان پرواز دارد،

به زنی که خود را باور دارد!

عاشق زنی مشو که

هنگام عشق ورزیدن، میخندد یا میگرید،

که قادر است جسمش را به روح بدل کند،

و از آن بیشتر،"عاشق شعر است"!

(اینان خطرناکترینها هستند)

و یا زنی که میتواند نیم ساعت مقابل یک نقاشی بایستد،

و یا که توان زیستن بدون موسیقی را ندارد!

عاشق زنی مشو که

پُر،

مفرح،

هشیار،

نافرمان

و جوابده است!

پیش نیاید که هرگز عاشق این چنین زنی شوی؛

چرا که وقتی عاشق زنی از این دست میشوی،

چه با تو بماند یا نه،

چه عاشق تو باشد یا نه،

از اینگونه زن

بازگشت به عقب، هرگز ممکن نیست! 

"مارتا ریورا گاریدو" شاعر معاصر دومینیکن"

Again

No more to say.

A Beautiful Saturday

Got my dose of coffee and got to teach the barista how to make Cafe au Lait. He had no idea what an au Lait was, asked, then tried. The result is not bad at all! I must say I admired his daring demeanor! 

It's another MBA Saturday filled with homeworks and assignments due tomorrow.

To be a good story writer one must be genuinely interested in people says Dale Carnegy. I feel this post is mainly about me. And the barista. And I am genuinely interested in you. I promise and my promises are real!

Now let the class begin.