This is the platform where my innermost and heartfelt voice is shared publicly. And today my heart aches and  is sunken for the little children and the staff -- some parents themselves and brave teachers -- but especially the children whose innocent lives were shot short in the community of Newtown, Connecticut.

It's another tragic reality that we Americans have witnessed at the hands of a gunman. A gunman who in America found it easy enough to own a combat rifle. Then go out and use it, not for combat. For the murderous massacre of a kindergarten class tucked away in Newtown, CT.

Today, parents sent their children to one of America's institutions considered to be a safe haven for education... and they will never see their precious babies again.

GUNS DO NOT HAVE ANY REMISSIBLE PLACE IN OUR HANDS, OR IN OUR HOMES, OR IN OUR COMMUNITIES, OR IN OUR NATION!

But because there are organizations out there with loads of financial backup making loads of cash on weapons, we are told that these weapons will remain here whether we like it or not.

WHY CAN'T WE SAY ENOUGH AND STOP THEM DEAD IN THEIR TRACKS? Or how many more deadly tracks will follow in the wake of such tragedy? How many more gunmen will be allowed to take the lives of our loved ones -- of our most precious innocent lives?

I cry.  I pray.  I hold on to my faith. And for everyone suffering from this tragedy, I mourn with you.  I will do something about it starting with this here, my voice. And I encourage whoever reads this to join the many voices that will speak up to put an end to this incomprehensible right to sell and bear guns...THAT KILL.

Where do we start? I'm going to start by writing to our President, telling him we are done with guns and asking him to initiate legislation that removes guns from America for good. You could start there, too. Will you?

May perpetual light shine upon all the souls of those precious lives taken today by tragedy.

Until We Meet Again...

I was really moved by the recent passing of Jenni Rivera, the Mexican-American superstar of the genre Banda music.  No, I wasn't a die-hard fan.  As a matter of fact, I was not a fan at all.  It wasn't that I didn't like her, it was simply that the type of music she sang just isn't my taste.  But I knew of her, and I know people close to me that are big fans of her, and whenever I visit my mom and happen to catch a show of El Gordo y La Flaca or a television interview of Jenni Rivera I took an interest in her as a person and in her career. When I learned the news of her sudden death, I was first in disbelief. Speculation surrounding the circumstances of this tragedy swirled around in my thoughts. Then the confirmation made it real. In an instant she was gone.

Sixteen years ago today (on December 13, 1996) I experienced the loss of my father.  His death was also tragic in that no one had any forewarning.  He, like Jenni Rivera, was in another country when death came knocking.  I never got to say goodbye and the last time I had seen him was a few months before.  When the news hit our family, it shocked us all but affected us differently in that our personal relationship with him was individually distinct.  So much was left undone... unspoken... and some things even misunderstood. As for me, it was very hard to accept. I wanted to believe that when we arrived where my father was, I would see him possibly laying in a hospital bed at worst clinging to life, but not gone. Not laying on a cold steel table in next to nothing.  I had things I wanted to know, things I needed to say, things I needed to hear. But, seeing his body there listless already stone cold made it real.  In an instant, he too was gone.

My emotions come flooding back with the recollection of this memory.  I have since made peace with my father's passing. But, what the memory of this and the passing of Jenni Rivera does to me is bring me to the realization of the speckle of time we actually have to live; how suddenly we could be facing our last good-bye. One moment we are breathing, living, working, building relationships and in another moment we are gone. I know not all deaths are unexpected; some deaths are prolonged in instances of the progression of an illness (like my Aunt Rosa whom I loved so dearly and succumbed to cancer), but it doesn't take away the impression that death leaves us with -- sadness, loss, pain and emptiness. And for some the thought of "when it happens to me."

Recently my husband also lost his father -- his friend, his protector, his role model. My husband no longer lives in the country where his family resides, as such distance too played a role in this deep loss, as well as the words which were left unspoken and the inability to see him before his parting. And so it seems that apart from having to deal with the feeling and emotions we are left with individually, there is that ominous reality that we too will have to leave our loved ones to contend with our own mortality.

And if we know this, coupled with what we have experienced with our own departed loved ones it should not be stringent upon us to live each and everyday as it were our last good-bye.  The thought of all this is morbid, I know. Death is the last thing on our mind when we have responsibilities to tend to and problems to solve day in and day out.

All in all, I guess what I am attempting to get across is not that we should be anticipating death, rather we should be embracing life and the people in our lives closest to us should be imparted with the knowledge that we love them deeply, that we care for them dearly... and that if today were our last good-bye, it would be okay.

Something to think about...

In loving memory of my beloved father: Joe P. Aldana (Feb.20, 1930-Dec. 13, 1996)

In loving memory of my beloved aunt:  Rosa (Rosita) Diaz (Sep 1946-Apr 1999)

In memory of my husband's beloved father: Raymond Lowe (Sep. 24, 1926-Aug. 27, 2012)

And in loving memory of your departed loved ones.

These departed souls will forever remain a part of us.  Until we meet again.


Please feel free to leave me a comment below and provide your feedback. I would love to hear from you.

Have You Ever Been Moved... Just By Nothing At All

     Can you recall ever having a moment where something out of nowhere pops into your mind and stirs something up inside of you -- a song, a line from a movie, maybe even something out of the blue that is necessarily nothing at all?  In an instant your soul is moved.  You can't explain it, but the feeling is familiar yet unknown.  This happens to me frequently, and most recently as this morning.

     I can say that almost daily I arise out of bed with a musical tune in my head. Sometimes, I have the lyrics all wrong, but the tune keeps playing over and over in my head.  One day I thought, "what if I looked up the song and found the true lyrics?  There could be a message in the song that is meant for me to hear."  As it turns out, I discovered there was something kind of eerie, but energetically powerful in the message -- by now I should say the 'messages' -- that are downloaded from the music playing in my head. This occurs with every song.  This morning it was none other than a doo-wop tune that all I could remember of the lyrics was something to the effect of "watoosy."  I had no inclination or knowledge whatsoever of what this song sang about, but it kept repeating over and over. Thank God for Google search and YouTube because I was able to do some sleuthing until I came up with "Wah-Watusi" the song that wouldn't give over in my head since I had woke up. There I am in the kitchen fixing my morning coffee, listening to this tune --really listening to it -- and I get the sudden urge to start dancing. More incredible were the cold, fuzzy goosebumps I got when I started to do the twist and I was instantly welling up with tears -- the emotion in my heart was of warm joy and melancholy, a feeling of past and gone; and I wasn't alone in that moment.  I had a feeling of being in the presence of love as I danced along with it.

Lyrics for Wah-Watusi (sung by THE ORLONS)

Wah, Wah-a Watusi

C'mon and take a chance and get-a with this dance

Wah, wah-a Watusi

Oh, baby, it's the dance made-a for romance (shoo-bop, shoo-bop, ahh)

Baby, baby, when you do The Twist

Never, never do you get yourself kissed

'cause you're always dancin' far apart

The Watusi, girl, is-a really smart

Wah-a, wah, wah-a Watusi

C'mon and take a chance and get-a with this dance (shoo-bop, shoo-bop, ahh)

Baby, baby, when you do The Fly

Your arms are wasted wavin' in the sky

Come on and hold me like a lover should

The Watusi makes you feel so good

Wah-a, wah, wah-a Watusi

Oh, baby, it's the dance made-a for romance

Yay!! (shoo-bop, shoo-bop, ahh)

Baby, baby, that's the way it goes

Nothing happens when you Mash Potatoes

I just gotta fall in love with you

Watusi is the dance to do

Wah-a, wah, wah-a Watusi

C'mon and take a chance and get-a with this dance

Wah, wah-a Watusi

Oh, baby, it's the dance made-a for romance

Wah-a, wah, wah-a Watusi

C'mon and take a chance and get-a with this dance

Wah!

     It may sound crazy to the nonbelievers and skeptics of past life percepts reading this, but this is the thought that took over me. I've always had an interest and liking for the doo-wop 50's - early 60's era ever since I was a child.  In my teenage years while my friends were listening to the new age music of the decade, I was recording and playing songs from Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, the Supremes, the Drifters, Richie Valens, the Dell Vikings, the Crests, Ronettes, Coasters and the Platters -- the list goes on. Even back then I wondered if it was at all possible I came from a past life of poodle skirts and pony tails (to this day I'll pull my hair back in a pony tail). To fathom an idea like that back then was considered just too weird and somewhat on the brink of supernatural, so I kept it to myself until adulthood. Not to get sidetracked and go off subject, however this isn't the only era I am intrigued by though; I have a strong interest in the 1600's, the 1800's Victorian era -- I've even had dreams that take me back to that time. I have always been fascinated by the British, also going back to when I was a child (it's no wonder I'm married to a Brit). So, what if this morning's tune was brought to me as a message from the past; not as in a past from a few years ago -- I am referring to a past life! It would make sense to me then why I was overwhelmed with emotion when I played the song and began dancing to it. Who was there with me? Who was sending me this message? "C'mon and take chance, and get-a with this dance!"

     Last week my husband and I treated ourselves to movie night and it should come to no surprise that I chose to watch Cloud Atlas -- right?  Of course, I did. Thinking back to the movie, its theory whispers in connection with my encounter of this morning. Could I have been channeled from beyond, from another space in time where I too once existed in body, mind and soul?  According to the movie, our being evolves through space and time and occupies a human body that transforms over time from one existence to another, but the soul remains the same.  It keeps a DNA different and separate from human DNA.  We can switch from gender to race as our soul evolves and passes through space and time.  In the process we meet those same souls who have partnered in our journey throughout different lifetimes -- they show up to continue where we left off from one lifetime to another.  But what happens when a soul journey reaches its plateau and it no longer returns? Well, I do think that was my visit from this morning. They can still reach us from beyond, watching over us and reassuring us with signs and feelings of deja vu, flashbacks or a familiar, longing reminiscence of a period long ago. 

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."  -- 2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV

     I know this subject is controversial to some people in that it takes on the metaphysical, and perhaps to others plays a little bit with the occult. However, that is not my focus here. It is the connection we as humans experience intuitively with a practical knowledge of an existence of something we are not able to pinpoint -- in human nature, of nothing at all. Because, as I said before it is unnatural and unknown, yet so very familiar all at once. The next time you are moved to feeling inexplicable emotions of overwhelming joy and love, it may not be out of the blue -- it may very well be a whisper from another time in space. Perhaps a jog of memory from a time beyond this one. So, remember, wah-a watusi, c'mon and take a chance and get-a with this dance!

ON THIS NOTE:  Never be afraid to explore the inexplicable moments of profound sense of feelings or emotions, there just might be a reason for these encounters. Sometimes by giving into these emotions, we discover something about ourselves that could help us navigate through whatever it is we are going through in this VERY moment.


I hope this blog motivates at least one person to find their courage and start moving toward making their dream come true!

Please feel free to leave me a comment below and provide your feedback. I would love to hear from you.