Enlightened Life

First let me apologize to my loyal readers for not posting as often as I use to. Your emails have been heard, and I'm pretty sure I've responded to everyone. Thanks for the kind words.

With that in mind, let me begin my new post.

Today I am going to write about something that is very close to my heart. As humans we have this universal weakness that things, in particular, bad things will never happen to us. We hear about bad things happening all over the world every day. We read about it in Newspapers, and we genuinely sympathize for those victimized by tragedy, but still ignorantly we whole heartedly believe that it will not, and could not ever happen to us.

A few months ago, my family and I naively thought the same thing. We believed that all those bad things would somehow magically skip over us and all the people we love. Then the bad finally knocked on our door, my aunt was diagnosed with brain cancer. Our hearts immediately dropped, as we scrambled to find the strength to take this tragedy head on.

Since her diagnosis, thanks to God, and all our family and friends prayer, she has been going through treatment and doing very well. But it left me very pensive about life.

This life we live, is so very precious and fragile. We take every breath of fresh air that enters our lungs for granted. This has given me more perception of the phrase, "live life to its fullest."

Every day really is a gift we receive, and we should take that gift and do something extraordinaire with it every single day. Because from one second to the next we could lose it all.

I feel blessed that we found the cancer early enough for it to be treated. I thank God every chance I get for all the wonderful progress he has allowed my aunt to go through.

Her strength, enthusiasm, and will has not only inspired me and my family, it has given me something to look up to.

Every time I see her smile, every time I watch her fight to walk around, and to get better, a little bit of my soul is empowered.

I know in my heart that together our family and my aunt will over power this cancer.

We have all gained enlightenment from this tragedy though. We have all realized that family comes first. We have learned to live each day as if it were our last.

Life throws us curve balls sometimes, but I am happy that our family has been able to knock those curve balls out of the park.

As the holidays approach, and you begin to spend time with your family, take a minute to look around you, and thank God that you are all able to spend this very important time together. Take the time to tell them how much you care and how much you love them.

Because when tragedy knocks on your door, it will be those times, and those words that lift you up from the mud, and motivate you to fight for just one more gathering.

NaNoWriMo

Today is the first day of National Novel Writing Month!

This will be my first year participating, and I hope to reach the goal of 50,000 words by November 30th.

Wish Me Luck!

One of My Favorite Quotes

"One thing you'll discover is that life is based less than you think on what you've learned, and much more than you think on what you have inside you right from the beginning."

-Bret Hart (Hall of Fame Speech)



This quote rings very true in my opinion. We put way too much value on experience and education. Sure those things are very viable pieces to success, but I believe that we thrive at life, not because of those things but rather because of what we were born with.

We all have natural talents inside of us. We are all born with a set of skills that if we tap into them and evolve them, we will succeed, this is not what I am talking about though.

What this quote means by "what you have inside you right from the beginning," is not those set of talents or skills.

It is rather that hunger. That spark to always push through the rough times and persevere. We all have that hunger, but fear, lack of motivation, or just plain ol' laziness, hinders us from tapping into it, and using it to make our lives that much better.

So don't be scared to fail, don't forget that with high risk, comes high rewards.

Sometimes we just have to have faith in ourselves. The rest will resolve itself.

Like the portuguese proverb says, "Quem não arrisca, não petisca"

30-Day Challenge-- Day-30 What changed this month? what you hope will happen next month

Finally reached the end of the Challenge. I'd like to thank all my family and friends and anyone else who has been reading these along the way. I appreciate your interest. :)

Today's prompt is what has changed this month and what do I hope will happen next month.

Well like I wrote in Day 28, the month of August has been very very kind to me. If you want to know what changed read Day 28.

What I hope will happen next month:

I hope that the good fortune and blessings I've had this month carries over into next month. I hope to stay happy, and focused on writing and life. I hope my love life stays the way it is, because I'm happy.

I hope Rapaziada, gets together and jams some! I miss it.

I hope that everyone in my life has a great month with me.

In closing I'd like to once again Thank you all for reading! I appreciate it very much!

Please Stay Tuned for some interesting topics I'll be writing in the Future.

My next blog will be about one of my favorite quotes. Check in tomorrow to read about it. :)

30-Day Challenge-- Day-29 A picture of yourself

Today's prompt is simply a picture of yourself, but I decided to not only post a picture but explain why I chose the picture, where it was taken, and a memory I have of the picture. SO here goes:

This picture is a very meaningful one to me.

In this picture from left to right: my cousin Kevin James Caetano, Me, and my best friend Mike Machado.

It was taken in Artesia for a party known as "Festa da Bola" it takes place every year on Memorial Day Weekend, and is a soccer tournament, and an awesome party.

Kevin, Mike and I, and some others like, my cousin Kris, another one of my best friends Eric, and Jesse, etc. etc. would rent a van and drive down there every year for this party. We'd get there on Friday afternoon, Jeca (Mike's girlfriend, and now fiancé) who lived down there would meet us at the hotel, clippers in hand. She would give me a mohawk every year, it was tradition. She would also dye some of the guys hair, and bleach mine etc. etc. I'll never forget those drives up and down to and from that festa, I'll never forget the great times and great memories made at all the festa da bola's we went to.

We were of course under the age of 21 in this picture, and in order to drink you need a pink wristband. We had our connections, but on this particular day we weren't able to use our connections for some reason or another. So there we were wristband-less. Were trying to come up with an elaborate plan to get them, when our connection shows up with three of them. This picture was taken right after we got them, as you can see we were pretty excited.

I chose this picture because KEvin, Mike and I used to call ourselves the wisemen. We used to sit outside Mike's house, and talk until the early morning about everything. Life, Love, Fears, etc. etc.

This picture makes me smile, because it is a portal to every memory I have with both of these brothers of mine.

Everyday I think about Kevin, and I miss him, and these memories help to soothe that void that his passing left in my heart.

I know Kevin is up there waiting for us to get there, so we could continue our wise men conversations up in heaven.

Until then, all I have is memories, luckily I have enough memories to fill a thousand books.

So to the Wisemen, I love you guys, Thank you for everything you've down for me over the years. I am blessed to have people like you in my life.

Check in tomorrow for the FINAL DAY OF THE CHALLENGE with its prompt, "What changed this month, What you hope will happen next month."

30-Day Challenge-- Day-28 The Month you Were Happiest This Year

This has been a very Good Year for me. I have received lots of great news, accomplished lots of things I set out to accomplish. So it's kind of hard to pick just one month. But since I have to, I'm going to choose the month of August, and here's why:

August is not only my birthday month, and lets face it everyone loves their birthday month.

But August has brought me lots of Good News.

First, my insurance accepted my claim for Gastric byPass.

Second, Barnes n Noble has contacted me to host my first book signing. (Oct 4th, 2011.. Come say Hi. :))

Third, my school contacted me to inform me that I would be one of ten featured authors at their annual event. (September 9th, 2011, Downtown San Jose, if you want to come let me know I can get you tickets free)

Fourth, I have a wonderful Girlfriend, who makes me extremely happy!

Fifth, I'm alive, and well. Always a good thing.

Sixth, my family is healthy, and also doing things they set out to do.

Seventh, I'm almost done with this challenge and will be able to blog about whatever I want soon.

Eight, My back has been getting better and better, and it is no longer a crutch for me.

Ninth. I'm almost finished with School (FINALLY)

Tenth, I just feel like my life is finally falling into place, and that is perhaps the best feeling in the world to know everything is resolving itself.

So those are Ten reasons why August has been the happiest month for me this year.

Check in tomorrow for Day 29 of the Challenge with its prompt, "A Picture of Myself"

30-Day Challenge-- Day-27 Talk about your siblings

Today's prompt is for me to talk about my siblings. Well I only have one, my little Sister Alycia.

I can go a few directions with this post. I can be cheesy and nice, I can be cruel and funny. Or I can be a little of both.

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA ( Evil Laugh?)

My sister and I are 7 years apart. You would think that being so far apart would make us not get along very well, but the truth is, Alycia and I are very close. We've always been close, and I hope we always will be.

She is a beautiful, Strong, intelligent, caring, ambitious, outgoing, woman.

She is a person of action. When she sets her mind to something, she will not stop until it is achieved. She's outspoken, and stubborn (not always fun) But she has a huge heart, and is always there to lend a helping hand to those she cares about.

There was a time that I thought I had lost her. I thought that our relationship had been destroyed. It killed me to think that she wouldn't come into my room and tell me about her day and her dilemmas anymore. She was slipping away from the woman she was destined to become. Then the "Cancer" that was pushing her away from her family, abruptly ended.

It hurt me to see her so sad. But she bounced back so quickly, her strength overpowered her sadness. I admire her for doing that. For never giving up hope that there were brighter days to come.

Today, she lives in Visalia (3 and half hours away) Not a day goes by that I don't miss talking to her. I find myself sometimes calling out her name, and then feeling stupid because she isn't here.

I am proud and blessed to have a little sister, like Alycia.

Ok so I went the cheesy gay route. Maybe there will be a part two to this post where I embarrass her a little bit. :)

Bottom line~ I love you Alycia, and I am proud to call you my sister, and one of my best friends!

Check in tomorrow for Day 28 of the challenge with its prompt, "The month you were happiest this year."