spirituality

Celebrate 46 Years Of Marriage

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joe & liz

Elizabeth beams, gets intoxicatedly animated, her eyes lit every time she tells their heartwarming love story, on how they stumbled upon each other that sublime day in December and why not?

We all have stories on how we met our amores, I met mine on an airplane that was about to crush, seriously, true story but I save that for a later date. They are always fascinating and divine with tale of their own to tell. Some are funny, others trite, and others just down right cramped, hint hint, blind dates but they are yours to treasure, perhaps, write a novel or pass it on to your grandchildren. Whatever the situation, it is your one and only unique libretto to keep.

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I wanted to share their story because I found it sweet, endearing and also interesting that after some many years, they are still in love, the lust and devotion are still there. They dote on each other. They are eternal soulmates who have mutual respect and deef affection. They are like glue that keeps on sticking who have been apart only twice and for no more than a week.

It is charming to hear and observe her narrating their story. She melts. She smiles with gusto. I sensed the earth shaking beneath her, her knees quivering, her heart pumping faster than an ostrich still. The details unescapes her. It took me there. I dreamt a little. It made me wish I was single again meeting my prince on a carousel at Disney World. Yes, I too wanted to be there watching from afar. Oh romance!

Faith runs deep in their marriage and perhaps, is the pillar of strength that bonds them together. They are two beloved members of Lady of The Lakes Bible Studies in Miami Lakes, Florida and this is how I met them. So, today being Valentine’s Day, I invite you to relieve their story. Be Elizabeth and Joe!

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THEIR STORY

“December twenty seven nineteen sixty four. We, my friend and I, went skating at Branch Brook Park in New Jersey. It was an Ice Skating Ring at the time but a roller skating rink now.

Joe and I did not know each other. We had never met. The skating ring was closing. We were taking off our skates. I finished taking off mine and I stood up at the same time Joe stood up at the other corner. He had on a blue coat. He stood up, I stood up and we look at each other, and, huh, our eyes locked. We just stared at each other. It was like, love at the first sight. We didn’t talk, just smiled…

Then we went home and for two weeks, we didn’t, well, I thought about him and didn’t think I would see him again.

January tenth nineteen sixty five which was a Sunday. We get there early in the morning. He got there with his friends and I with my friends. One of the people who was in his group saw me, and before we started skating, she approached me and asked said, “You want to join our group?” “Yeah sure”, I replied. “I would love to join your group.” So, we all went together. She introduced me to everyone, except Joe.

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I skated with most of the boys in her group who asked me to skate, and then, finally, a few hours later, my, the friend that went with me, got very upset and said, “Stop skating with them. Let’s skate together.” So, we started skating together.

Me, Virginia my date, were trying to make a circle and all of a sudden I fell, hard. I was sitting there in the ice for a while, laughing, as matter of fact, everyone at the skating ring was laughing too and then, I felt this. I open my eyes and I see the, a big hand in front of me. I look up and it was Joe… “Oh my God, it is Joe”!

He helped me out and then asked, “Would you like to go have some hot chocolate?” I quickly said, “Yeah, sure!”.

We sat down and started talking and by the end of the evening, he says to me, “You know, I remember I saw you from far away two weeks ago and I have been dreaming with you ever since.” And I said, “Oh, I do remember that day, oh my goodness. I do remember”. So, then our lives started together and from then, it has been beautiful, blessed, lovely and wonderful life.”

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The couple on their 40th wedding anniversary

The couple have been married for 46 years and have two grown children. Today is their 50th Valentine’s Day.

I want to be like them when I grow up.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Sand Castle Art

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IMG_4020There is something mystical about building a sand castle. You are building something that you know for a fact that if not erected yards away from the seabed, soon or later, it will wash away in an instance. All it will take is one grand wave for your beautiful creation to turn into a pile of wet particulars.

IMG_4022Castle building is art. It is an art form for a selected few. It is relaxing, spiritual, zen, therapeutic. It is artistry. It is a chance encounter recreational art. It is not a souvenir nor an article you can take home or sell in the next market. It is love, dedication, work. You can’t freeze it or taste it. You can only display it until the next tide. It is a pillar of tenacity, an exercise of the mind, here today, gone tomorrow.

In the sand building world, the sand becomes your canvas, your finger, a rock or a piece of wood, your pencil and your thoughts, your guide. It requires love, care and dedication.

IMG_4025This is one art form I never dubbed into nor profess to know but have watched a few brave ones painstakingly diving into it with calmness of a tiger ready to attack its pray, leaving me at hello.

It is drive. love. addiction. gusto. Otherwise, there is no explanation.

IMG_4027Building a castle is tranquility. silence. solitude. happiness.

IMG_4023I found this gentleman at New Smyrna Beach, Florida. He was obviously plunged into his labor of art, oblivious of our presence and just kept going. Last I check, he was still building. I wonder what became of the castle.

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He Responded: ” Nothing”

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20131218_193052A very interesting debate that could have perhaps, gone to where no man has been before, temporarily ignited on Facebook based on a friend’s post. Lucky me, she is a friend, seriously a friend, a fact I can’t assert about forty five percent of those who I call “friend” but I digress. Welcome to social media!

“Best answer ever! Oprah asked Don Miguel Ruiz (Author of The Four Agreements): “What happens when we die? He responded: ” Nothing”.

I found the statement kinda lame, and as far as I know, if you post something you should expect a comment. This is how it works on Facebook or I am wrong? So, I made a comment that resulted in the following exchange:

Me – How can he know? Has he died and came back to talk about it?
Friend – That’s his answer, accept it or don’t… but that’s his answer.

Well that was a zing! That was a little too forceful for my taste. Perhaps, I should have been clear and stated something to the fact, came back to tell all about it or came back and wrote a book, maybe, just maybe, she would have understood it better?! Fat chance!

Me – I am neither accepting or disagreeing, I was just stating that one can never know that because no one has come back to talk about it.

Mindful of her sturdy mannerless response, she quickly replied with, “anyways, no one can claim to know what happens when we die. Not a single person on this earth. There are hundreds of theories, to calm down our fears, but I just found his answer to be the boldest one, specially coming from a spiritual healer.”

Hum, ok, thank you for the correction. I am forever grateful. Spiritual healer or not, I didn’t find it bold. I found it tad irresponsible specially when he hasn’t been “there”, so it does not make him an expert. Perhaps, “I don’t know” should have been a more appropriate answer considering that dying is a secret club with very specific members.

There are no testimonies, proofs or palpable evidence to descend to, perhaps a psychic, TLC’s Long Island Medium type, would be so kind to give us the intimate details then again, she would have to be telling us the truth before she is paid.

Surely, no one can claim that he or she knows what happens after death. No one. It is a mystery, only for a selective few who have beat the odds, the “lucky” ones who have died, well kind of, temporarily, and came alive to tell all about it. The one’s who have seen the light, the comatose patients who almost expired but for an unexplained reason or another, unbeknownst to them and anyone else, got a reprieve, a second chance to enjoy earthly life once again.

The selective few gives a glance of what it is like beyond life. The “roads” they travel. Their surroundings. Their feelings. Friends and Family they visit with. What they see at the end of that road, that rattles them enough to make a U turn. The beauty of it and the one thing we can attest to is that most, based on their narratives, emerge transformed, a different being, with a different life’s perspective and a chance for a do over.

Others are chance encounters with what they describe as angels they meet at the check point, an invisible line they are not allowed to cross, a point of return, a guard stopping them at the boarder.

They are handed a special meal, an enormous responsibility and it feels special, and yet uncomfortable. No one knows but the fact of the matter is that according to them, they died and came back, as crazy as it may sound, to tell us all about it.

One cannot say for sure that dying is like a bus ride to Disneyland or a pitstop at McDonald but the select few contend that it is one awesome paradise. Peaceful, quiet and… heaven. Based on these premisses alone, something does happen after one dies but it isn’t Nothing!