Today has been challenging... I had a conversation with my brother's brother in law (is there not a better way to say that?). He had years ago the same type of cancer, same surgical procedure, same ileostomy and bag. He also had the second reconstructive surgery that I am awaiting as we speak. His news about the time after that...
In my recent trip to Atlanta from Spain, despite protection measures implemented in airlines and airports during this pandemic, I sat elbow to elbow with Soraya, a Colombian lady who lived in Miami, and with whom I exchanged some impressions. We ended up speaking about magic in one of those extraordinary conversations that only happen with...
In my previous contribution to this blog I spoke about how sometimes it hurts when others do not receive our presents and how some other times it's us on the other side who find that the things that others offer are not helpful or may even harm us. I am speaking about people you love and whom love you without...
"The human experience is too big for one human being alone", I told my friends Kathleen and Jim recently. We are certainly social animals, designed by evolution to understand information and learn it in community. I'm not even sure that my life adventures belong to me so I've always preferred to be an open book with the desire that we...
Please excuse how graphic is the title of today's contribution, I'll soon explain. The lotus flower is in Tibetan Buddhism the symbol of one the most noble virtues of all, love or compassion, which grows in sh*t, in the sludgy and stinky mud, the filthy waste of the land. It is very different to explain this abstractly than to live...
The few people with whom I've shared the news of this new episode of cancer so far have a hard time believing that I feel perfectly fine. It is strange, I know, and surprising for me as it was the second time I received this diagnosis. This is part of the story I tell in the video on the home...
And why not? This was the response given by the husband of my dear friend Patricia´s sister to his wife when they were informed that they were going to have a child with Down Syndrome. The strength and wisdom of that young man, around 27 years old at the time, expecting his first son filled me with awe, although I...
I have had the privilege of feeling death very close several times in my life. Not only when my parents and other people close and dear to me passed, but also on the two occasions that I went through the nasty experience of cancer. I call it "nasty" because I do not wish to glorify such experiences, which I would...
"Illness and death concern me less than life, which is what I would really like to resolve or to accept". This is what I told my niece Lucia more than a week ago when I was about to begin my silent retreat. In a recent colonoscopy, which is not so unusual at my age, 47, they saw a "mass" which...
Very often, when I see clearly, when I'm able to organize reality as it is and my dreams and difficulties, together with my successes, vulnerabilities and strengths, I try to investigate why and how I feel sometimes down. My baggage is one of anxiety and depression, true, although I understand and I explain moments of sadness and agitation as part...
