If you feel overwhelmed with what is going on in your life, consider watching this video. I hope it helps.

This reminds of the mathematics proof writing process. It can feel a bit outrageous sometimes. Something like this... hilarious I tell you!

A kindergarten class had a homework assignment to find out about something exciting and relate it to the class the next day. When the time came to present what they'd found, the first little boy called upon walked up to the front of the class, and with a piece of chalk, made a small white dot on the blackboard, then sat back down. Puzzled, the teacher asked him just what it was. "It's a period," said the little boy. "Well, I can see that," she said, "but what is so exciting about a period?" "Damned if I know," said the little boy, "but this morning my sister was missing one, Daddy had a heart attack, Mommy fainted, and the man next door shot himself."

One day a Texan teenage girl was on a flight traveling across the U.S.. During her layover the plane picked up some new passengers; among them was another teenage girl, but from Britain. After a very enriching and delightful conversation the Texan girl noticed that the British girl said "full stop" after her sentences every now and then. So out of curiosity she felt compelled to ask why she said that. "In my country, people say 'full stop' to emphasize a period at the end of their sentences." said the British girl. So the Texan girl inquisitively replied, "So do you say 'yield' to emphasize a comma?"

-By Yvonne Hernandez

A couple of weeks ago, during the washing of the feet part of the Holy Supper ceremony at my church, my niece Dalilah decided to do some cleaning of her own. A very thorough cleaning might I add. :-)

Louie is the smaller puppy. He is about a year old. Pepper is the older, or larger dog. She is over 10 years old, I think. They are my brother Frank's dogs. Pepper is in heat right now. So sometimes Louie wants to get frisky with her. But she doesn't let it happen. The love you see her give him in the video is about as romantic as it's going to get between this odd pair.

By Yvonne Hernandez

Autumn Tears

As the sun slowly sneaked into my bedroom I began to regain conscience.
Why must I suffer through another day, I wondered.
If I could only sleep through this misery and wake up after it subsides.

I begin to open my eyes and immediately feel the tears flood my eyes.
Wearily I reach for the almost empty kleenex box that sits by my nightstand.
If only this kleenex would stop the tears from flowing.
But even after the tears are gone, the pain will linger on for days.

As I gently wipe my eyes, my swollen eyelids remind of the day before.
Discouraged my day won’t be any better, I press my flushed face into my hands.
This seemingly serene movement of my head is now magnified by my painfully, pulsating migraine.

A bottle of little pills in my nightstand drawer become very attractive at this early hour.
I shouldn’t take the pill on an empty stomach,
but any remnants of appetite left me soon after all this began.
What’s left of my ability to reason tells me to leave the drawer closed.

I turn away and realize my face is now entirely flooded with saline dripping from my eyes and nose.
“Someone make this stop, please!” I shouted in my head.
I wiped my nose but it wasn’t enough,
I need to blow my nose to feel some relief.
This most dreaded act is inevitable now.
I brace myself.
I blow my nose.
Then a sickening reaction of chain sneezing taunts me.
If I could have only have taken Claritin long ago.

To my dear Luz.

I remember the last time we spoke I was at the airport waiting for a flight to D.C.. You asked me, with an unexpected, slight tone of plea in your voice, to come see you in Mexico. “I promise that as soon as I return, I will go see you,” I replied. Even though you struggled with poor health for so many years, you continued to smile so beautifully. Unknowingly, I began to take your life and time with me for granted. I failed to realize that for you, your health was a daily struggle, slowly deteriorating your body.

I was already home from D.C. for a few days when I listened to that dreary voicemail Fernando left me. I didn’t know what to make of the news, no feelings or thoughts of what happened crossed my mind. I didn’t comprehend the gravity of the news until I stepped into your home and the elements of your presence was gone. The light that filled your dilapidated house had burnt out.

My dear Luz, you knew what was to become of you. You so badly wanted a chance to say goodbye to me and my fate took it from you. The only thing that comforts me is that we were not meant to say good bye to each other. Even though you are no longer here, I can still feel your arms around me when I am feeling down and blue. I can still hear you tell me “Sigue luchando” (keep fighting) when I am utterly discouraged and tired wanting to give up. And when I have accomplished something that no one else realizes what it means to me, I can still see your pure and sincere smile expressing how proud and happy you are.

Forgive me for not being by your side when you were preparing for that arduous trip. I can’t imagine what you must have gone through being alone with no one to hold your hand and comfort you. Knowing that you had to take the bus to the hospital alone shatters my heart to a million pieces. I can picture your small and frail body walking the street from the bus stop to the hospital only to be turned away because they didn’t see anything wrong with you. So you returned to your empty house to lay in bed and wait for what the night had in store for you, knowing you wouldn’t see the light of the next day.

My Luz, how I miss calling you and hearing you so excited to talk to me. I can’t ever express to you how much everything you were and did meant to me. I am who I am because you taught me to not be afraid of life. Thank you for sitting by my bedside when my life was slipping away. You gently soothed away my ailments with your worn and tired hands. Thank you for every meal you worked hard to prepare with the few ingredients you could afford. I know that you wished you could offer me so much more. Please know my dear Luz, that I never saw the paint chipping off the walls, or noticed when was having a bowl of pinto beans for the fifth day in a row. All I knew was that I was in a wonderful place, eating the best food in the world, with the most beautiful person I know.

My dear friend, please know that you were always a real friend to me. Until we meet again, you will always be in my heart.

Yours,
Yvonne Hernandez

For whoever reads this...
Are you ever caught in a whirlpool of what you should do to survive and what you want to do to live? There are things that I am really passionate about but am adamant about pursuing for the very typical reason: people say that you can't survive doing that. I won't say what "that" is, I believe it is irrelevant at this point. However, I would like to share this space on the expanse we know as the internet, to show what happens when you are in such a whirlpool. Will I be consumed by the my social norms, or will I be me.