Day 12 of Slice of Life Challenge: Favorite Scars

On my Monday's post (which you can read it here), I wrote a list of things that made me happy on that particular day. One of the things that I included in the list was Cher's new song called Favourite Scars. I have listened to the song several times and I absolutely love the lyrics which I thought I'd share it today.

                                                                    "Favourite Scars"

Best jump
Like do we feel we're going nowhere
Unless we're falling
We're not ready to give up until we're crawling
Don't make it easy on ourselves

Climbing
Risk it all if you ain't living you're surviving
Tell me why you tip your toes when you could dive in
Don't be scared to hurt yourself

Take your heart back off the shell

Love covers you up in a landslide
Love pulls you under like a riptide
Love's when you crash trying to hang glide
Love's when you run and then there's no light

Love is a sword when you've got no defense
Love is the rock we throw ourselves against
Love is the healing of a broken heart
The story behind all of my favorite scars
Oh, all of my favorite scars
All of my favorite scars
Oh, all of my favorite scars

High-wire
Don't look down, because below you is a raging fire
But love is waiting for you on the other side
We're not easy on ourselves

So take your heart back off the shelf

Love covers you up in a landslide
Love pulls you under like a riptide
Love's when you crash trying to hang glide
Love's when you run and then there's no light

Love is a sword when you've got no defense
Love is the rock we throw ourselves against
Love is the healing of a broken heart
The story behind all of my favorite scars
Oh, all of my favorite scars
All of my favorite scars
Oh, all of my favorite scars

Love covers you up in a landslide
Love pulls you under like a riptide
Love's when you crash trying to hang glide
Love's when you run and then there's no light

Love is a sword when you've got no defense
Love is the rock we throw ourselves against
Love is the healing of a broken heart
The story behind all of my favorite scars
Oh, all of my favorite scars
All of my favorite scars
Oh, all of my favorite scars

You see, I'm the eternal optimistic and hopeless romantic. I believe that LOVE is all you need in life. I believe that LOVE is the force that makes this world spins. One of my favorite lines in the song has to be: "Tell me why you dip your toes when you could dive in." So much wisdom in those simple words. I believe in this one life and in this once chance to make ourselves happy and be the person we aspire to be. My favorite author Paulo Coelho once wrote, "avoiding problems you need to face is avoiding the life you need to live."

We all have those. We all have excuses for not to "dive in" but if we must do something, why not do it well? 

Well. That's what I believe anyways. Happy Wednesday of chilly temperatures and crazy winds!

Day 11 of Slice of Life Challenge: Impromptus

One of the hardest things about living in the States is that everything needs to be "scheduled" ahead of time. I come from a culture that lives day by day and that includes making plans. The only big things you schedule in life in our culture are weddings and birthday parties. The rest? We go with the flow. 

So today I'm celebrating the impromptus moments...you know...those few moments in life in America when someone calls and says, "Do you want to grab a bite and catch up?" and the even the most surprising part is the "yes!" that comes out of my mouth. 

That's what I did today...everything was impromptus....

I didn't quite plan this but after school I went to Starbucks, ordered coffee and sat on their patio. I read a chapter from two different books. 

Then later on, I got a called from a friend who said, "wanna catch up?" and my answer was, "yes! what time and where?" 

It's been a while since the last time I was able to do this impromptus kind of celebration and it feels so good. It's a 50% chance you take....but it's worth it....because in reality...nobody guarantees tomorrow. All you have is TODAY. 

Carpe Diem=Seize the Day

Day 10: Slice of Life Challenge: A Happy List

Did anybody else struggled this morning? I hit the snooze button several times and that's just not me. I dragged myself out of bed half an hour later than my usual time. Even the coffee wasn't strong enough. I guess the one hour less of sleep affected me more this year. For the rest of the day, I got things accomplished s-l-o-w-l-y. I didn't want to feel like I was "dragging" for the rest of the day, so I mentally started a list of things that makes me so happy on this Monday. I worked on this list as they day went by....and here it is...the list that made me feel better and stronger on a day where all I wanted was to sleep in.

A Happy List on a Sluggish Monday

1. coffee. always.
2. a hug from one of my student
3. a healthy lunch
4. Cher's New Album
5. Song number 9 in Cher's New Album
6. Being able to complete Core Synergistic from P90X
7. Amazing weather...rooftop down on the drive back home
8. 20grams of protein in my post work out bar
9. Windows open this afternoon
10. Zumba with my peeps
11. a small piece of chocolate at the end of the day
12. friends that make me laugh

What's on your happy list for this Monday? for this week? Happy Slicing. And thanks Two Writing Teachers! 

Slice of Life Day 9: This week's reflection and invitation

Two Writing Teachers encourages us to write daily during the month of March: small, big, quiet or loud moments....they all count

Every year, my church prepares this small Lent cards that are given at the end of mass. For each week during Lent, there is an invitation on what to focus on. It's a way to prepare ourselves during this time of Lent by thriving on one thing as a community of believers. This tradition has become my favorite one. Every week, during Lent, I look forward to what will be written on these cards.

This is the message we received today:

I love the way this is written but one particular sentence stood out to me: breaking promises takes a lot of energy-ours and that of our loved ones. I never thought of it this way but boy this is so truth. Even when I break promises to myself, the disappointment is such an awful feeling to fight. So, yes...this week, let's do what we say we are going to do. Sounds like a great beginning step.

Slice of Life Day 8: Life's Celebrations

Two Writing Teachers encourages us to write daily during the month of March: small, big, quiet or loud moments....they all count. 

This first week of March has just been beautiful. So many little & big life's celebrations make my heart warm...happy for my friends who either welcome a new year in their life or began a new chapter. My friend Adriana celebrated her birthday surrounded by love, family and friends. I'm a firm believer that as years go by and we get "wiser" in life, that circle of people may get smaller but they are all you need. Each of them remains in our life for a purpose and a reason so making a wish surrounded by them sounds pretty amazing to me.

On Friday, another friend started a new chapter. Christina and Kent said the most beautiful vows to each other. It was a night filled with joy. One particular sentence I remember the pastor said was "use your words to lift each other up, not to tear each other down." It was such a powerful reminder of what words can do for us and to us. 

To my friends who had another reason to be grateful and to smile, thanks for letting me be part of your day. What an honor!

Day 6 of Slice of Life 2014: Heart Full

My heart is so full today. My dad reminded me over the phone that he supports all my dreams and that he is proud of me. My students say things like, "I feel very thankful..." and "I just want to read with you..." My friends give the best hugs in the world and I'm surrounded by some of the most amazing professionals I've met in my journey. And on top of that, tomorrow will be sunny and 50 degrees. Seriously friends....sometimes, we just have to slow down & remind ourselves how blessed we are. 

Thank you team at Two Writing Teachers. The celebration continues. 

Slice of Life Day 5: What a child taught me

Last week, one of the teachers has asked me to read with one of our ELL students to get somebody's insights and to start our conversation about how to best help this child. Yes, there are some concerns and sometimes it takes more than one person working with a child to figure things out. He has been learning English for a a little over a year and a half now. His oral production is still very limited. 

As we are reading together, I've noticed that his eyes wondered around the room many times. He would pause in the middle of the book and stare. He would disconnect  often and then come back to me, to our book, to what we were doing. I redirected him a couple of times so he can continue reading. I was taking a running record on his reading. After several redirections, I just looked at this child and said, "what are you thinking?" He looked at me surprised I asked him that question. The next words that come out of his mouth were amazing. He gave me two complete sentences in English predicting what will happen next and he shared a question he had. Simple. Yet amazing. According to the teachers that worked with him, when asked to make predictions, he wouldn't say anything. But a simple question, "What are you thinking?" allowed me to get in his brain for those short minutes. It enabled me to understand him deeper before he disconnected from me again. It was such a powerful insight. 

Thank you little one. You taught me today that instead of redirecting you when you are drifting, I could ask you a simple question that allows me to understand you better. There might be days when you will not say much to me and I'll understand. I'll wait for you. You lead the way. Thank you dear. I needed that lesson.