Month: February 2022

Blank page

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Today I sat down to write a post… And couldn´t think of anything.

Absolutely nothing.

What a strange feeling.

Usually by the time I sit down to write, I already have a topic in mind, and if I don´t have it yet, it just comes up on the spot as if by magic. But today, who knows why, time was slipping away and my page was still blank. No matter how hard I thought, or how much I searched for inspiration.

A bit disconcerting, isn´t it? An empty page. Ideas, words, answers that haven´t arrived yet.

It occurs to me that, in general, we humans are not great at dealing with empty spaces. Like when we are in a conversation and suddenly there´s a silence, and out of discomfort we try to fill it as soon as possible, saying something at random. Or like when we´re queuing somewhere, or waiting to be served at a restaurant, and we turn to our smartphones so that we don´t have to deal with not knowing what to do until it´s our turn.

There´s a lot of talk nowadays about our society being used to getting instant gratification. And interestingly, when we think about our kids, we know that it´s good for them to get bored sometimes, because that´s what´s going to foster their imagination and creativity… But let´s be honest, up to what extent do we apply the same to ourselves as adults?

Maybe when we finally learn to come to terms with that empty space, with that blank page, and discover that we don´t need to have all the answers (much less have them immediately!), we will allow our imagination and creativity to flow. And then we will realize that there are infinite ways to fill in that page, and that we can truly enjoy experimenting and finding our own style.

Every new day is a blank page of your book waiting to be written

Untranslatable sentences (or nearly)

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You may have noticed that this is a bilingual blog: it´s published in Spanish, and also in English. I have the good fortune to speak both languages, and I´m also an amateur translator, so I get to enjoy double time with this blog: first while writing the weekly post, and then again while translating it 😊

But it´s true that every now and then I bump into a word or sentence that I find really hard to translate… Something that sounds great to me in one language, but then loses all its spark once translated. And it´s not just with the blog, it happens to me also in daily life, and I suspect I´m not the only one suffering from it. At home, I spend most of my time speaking Spanish, but there are certain words and expressions that I always say in English, because in Spanish they just don´t fit. And at work it´s the opposite situation: I speak with my colleagues in English, and sometimes I struggle to explain an expression or saying that would be super simple if I said it in Spanish.

One of those sentences that sound amazing in English, which is why I always say it that way, is something I learned years ago in a yoga class for pregnancy. I love the way it sounds and also what it conveys; I repeat it often to my three “babies”, and I say it to myself as well, because I believe it´s something we can all benefit from hearing:

You are lovely, you are lovable, you are loved.

Beautiful, right? And in English it sounds so musical, so special, almost like a poem. Now, we translate it into Spanish, and it turns out something like “eres adorable, te mereces amor, eres amado/a”. The message is still very nice, but which version sounds better to you?

Like branches on a tree

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Let me show you today another one of the pictures that decorate the walls in my house:

Drawing of a tree and some text
FAMILY: like branches on a tree, we all grow in different directions… Yet our roots remain as one.

I love this picture because it joins two ideas that I find really interesting. Belonging to a family means sharing our roots: as its members, we all come from a common place, we share some history, the history our ancestors started and we get to continue.

But like branches on a tree, from that common root, each of us grows in our own way and in our own time. Some of us look more like other branches of the tree, and others, less so. Some of us grow closer together, and others, further apart. And that´s all good. Each branch searches for its own path forward, always getting nourishment, knowingly or unknowingly, from the roots and the trunk that hold them.

I guess I big part of our mission as parents is exactly this: being a solid base from which to provide our children with everything they may need, of course including physical and emotional nourishment, but also the space and freedom they require to grow and evolve following their own style, and trust in the knowledge that they will find their own way in life.

Configurations

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Sometimes when we´re thinking about a problem we want to resolve, especially if we´re a bit on the perfectionist side, it happens that we fall into the trap of thinking two things: first, that there´s only one “ideal” or “perfect” solution for that particular problem, and second, that there´s only one possible way to get to that solution.

We forget that as human beings we are all different, and the same way the situations that each one of us can encounter in life are potentially infinite, such is also our creativity to find solutions, as long as we give ourselves a confidence vote.

But you see, sometimes along the way we lose that confidence, like when we´re putting together a side of the Rubik´s cube, and in doing so we dismantle another side. Sometimes when we make a change, we unintentionally stir other things up, because everything is related.

Maybe the secret is to start thinking about life as an experiment, and instead of trying to get to that perfectly put together Rubik´s cube, which is also so rigid and immovable (and boring!), with all its coloured little squares slotted on their corresponding sides, we could decide to find our own combination, the one that works for each one of us. Our cube doesn´t have to look like anyone else´s cube, or be the exact same for as long as we live.

And how do you achieve that? Well, by trying different configurations. I´m a big fan of intermediate solutions, that is, making small changes that slowly get us closer to where we want to be, knowing that we can always modify the experiment and change course if we so decide, as we start getting new results and making new discoveries.

And I´m saying small changes, because if they´re too big, they may not last long, or they may seem so difficult that we end up giving up, or worse, not even trying in the first place. So let´s go bit by bit: what happens if I move this piece slightly toward this side? Or if I swap this colour with that other one?

Apparently, a Rubik´s cube can be configured in 43 quintillion different ways… How does today´s combination look for you?