las lagrimas.....del alma....

A dear friend of mine in South Texas wrote these words to me:

Remember that: "las lagrimas nos limpian el barro del alma."

Roughly translated: "tears clean the mud of our soul"

Another dear friend gave me a book to read, titled: Broken Open, by Elizabeth Lesser.

Opening words: "It was time for me to step boldly into the fullness of life, with all of its dangers and all of its promises. Remaining tight in a bud had become a kind of a death. The time had come to blossom."

And other words: " How strange that the nature of life is change, yet the nature of human beings is to resist change. And how ironic that the difficult times we fear might ruin us are the very ones that cn break us open and help us blossom into who we were meant to be."

And yet more words: "To be human is to be lost in the woods. None of us arrives here with clear directions on how to get from point A to point B without stumbling into the forest of confusion or catastrophe or wrongdoing. Although they are dark and dangerous, it is in the woods that we discover our strengths. We all know peole who say their cancer or divorce or bankruptcy was the greatest gift of a lifetime - that until the body, or the heart, or the bank was broken, they didn't know who they were, what they felt, or what they wanted....as they pulled the pieces back together, they discovered a clearer sense of purpose and a new passion for life."