Tag: #friends

Your Name is Love

Your Name is Love

by TheSecretLifeOfPandas ♥ 2 Comments

“Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.”  – Martin Luther King Jr.

Every weekend, Friday night and Sunday morning, I sing in the choir at my church.

There is a song by Christian artists, Evan Craft and Banda Horizonte, called Su Nombre es Amor, and I love when it comes up on our song list. My favorite part being the pre-chourus and chorus:

“Mis ojos fijaré en aquel que ya venció 
Me asombraré, mis cadenas Él rompió 

Su nombre es amor, 
Su nombre es amor, 
Jesús 
Su nombre es amor, 
Su nombre es amor, 
Jesús”

“I will fix my eyes on He who already triumphed.  I am in awe, He has broken my chains.

His name is love, His name is love,  Jesus. His name is love, His name is love, Jesus.”

We are proclaiming He is love. Because this is what we believe and this is what we know.

I’ve had love on my mind a lot lately. All kinds of love. The divine love I sing about, the familial love I feel for my family and friends, the romantic love I feel towards my boyfriend, the fraternal love for my fellow man– my neighbor.

Because I spend so much time reading about the pain and suffering my neighbors are going through, hunger, poverty, violence, homelessness, murder, depression, suicide– a laundry list of heart-wrenching pain. And I feel hopeless in my inability to help these strangers who are so far from me.

These people are in dire need of a demonstration of love. And I’m not trying to be cheesy or cliched. I’m not talking about sitting in a circle, holding hands, singing all you need is love with our eyes closed, and an acoustic guitar. I don’t mean going around saying “I love you” to everyone you see. You see words mean nothing if there isn’t any action to back it up.

Love isn’t just an abstract noun, an idea we spend a lifetime searching for. It is concrete, an action verb. We need to love. It is something we do. Love is a weapon we can bear to combat the hopelessness we feel in the world around us.

Instead of doing nothing but scrolling through headlines and feeling sad I can take a look around at the people that are within the reach of my love. Being love for them with a kind word, with an open ear, with my money, with food, with supplying a need that needs to be met. I want to be love for the people around me.

Because when everything feels like chaos, there is always one thing you can control, the way you react and the action that you take.

So choose to love.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”- Martin Luther King Jr.

On Giving Thanks and Eating all the Food

On Giving Thanks and Eating all the Food

by TheSecretLifeOfPandas ♥ 3 Comments

*I wrote this four years ago. It came up as a memory on the Facebook. Since Thanksgiving is upon us I thought I’d share it again

I don’t really cook.
 
Scratch that.
 
I don’t cook.
 
Occasionally I will bake things that look really nice and taste just as good. Sometimes I make beans and I don’t burn them. Other times I manage to make spaghetti. 
 
I know what you’re thinking, “HOW IN THE HELL DO YOU BURN BEANS? YOU ONLY HAVE TO BOIL THEM.”  Oh my friends. If you only knew. I once burned the spaghetti. You can’t win them all, my little turtledoves. You can’t win them all.
 
I digress.
 
It’s Thanksgiving, a holiday that makes me so happy that I’m ‘Merican. Trust me, rest of the world, you are missing out.
 
I’m sitting in the kitchen smelling the turkey I just put in the oven (but did not prepare, putting it in the oven is the only thing I could be trusted to do) and watching the parade. There’s cajeta boiling on the stove because I learned the hard way, last night, that I do not know how to make praline topping the way the Pilsbury cookbook told me to. It’s okay though.
 
And as I watch a bunch of overly excited elementary school students dance to a song about Santa being real or something I realize I’m supposed to be reflecting on what I’m thankful about.
 
I know there are those people who like to ruin Thanksgiving by moaning, “you’re supposed to be thankful every day.” And all I can think is, “shut up, nobody asked you to talk.”
 
Because let’s face it. Sometimes life just gets in the way of gratitude.
 
There’s work, and chores, and responsibility, and those family members and friends that just annoy the heck out of you, and bad hair days, and traffic tickets, and inconsiderate people and too much traffic, and accidents, and paperwork, and burnt food, and sleepless nights, and prolonged hospital stays, and everything else that keeps us too busy to even want to say thank you to anyone.
 
So I think that it’s wonderful that on every fourth Thursday of November we, as a nation, together, say, “stop, collaborate and listen– er… give thanks.” Or something to that extent. I’m sorry, I use any opportunity to keep Vanilla Ice relevant. 
 
And when I’m feeling low and sad I forget that I have so much to be thankful for. But rather than bore you with a long list of things you probably don’t care about I’ll tell you the two that are always at the forefront of my mind.
 
I thank God for my family, extended and immediate. For my parents who are supportive of me in everything that I do and for my wonderful sisters, with whom I have a freakishly close bond. I’m thankful that even though they say I followed them home from the monkey zoo, they decided to keep me.
 
And then there’s my adoptive family. My friends, near and far. They say you can’t choose your family but you can choose your friends. And I’m so happy that they chose me. And even when I’m crochety and moody and mean they still love me for some reason. What would I do without you guys? Probably sing less karaoke…
 
So on this day full of nummy nums and warm feelings, I hope you are gathering ’round the table with those who mean the most to you, getting ready to stuff yourself till your pants burst at the seams.
 
And I hope that you remember that no matter what, you are loved and there is nothing I can think of to be more thankful for.