Snap Krackle 'n Pop!: Jerusalem, My Destiny!

Snap Krackle 'n Pop!: Jerusalem, My Destiny!: Jerusalem, My Destiny!   " He who has not seen Jerusalem in her splendour has never seen a desirable city in his life.  He who has not se...

Jerusalem, My Destiny!

Jerusalem, My Destiny!

 "He who has not seen Jerusalem in her splendour has never seen a desirable city in his life.  He who has not seen the Temple in its full construction has never seen a glorious building in his life." -Babylonian Talmud, Tractate of the Tabernacle.

Evening Falls on Jerusalem

 Where do I start?  Okay, so I'm a Christian, a Catholic at that.  So when my darling daughter, on the spur of the moment mind you, said she was going to Israel 'with or without' me, I thought about it a bit for a while then decided I couldn't do it.  What??!!  I gave myself a thousand and one reasons why I couldn't go, from too costly a trip, to too spiritual, to too far away, etc. etc.  However, I was in a serious quandary, because deep down inside I really did want to go to the Holy Land!  Nonetheless I posted  my dilemma on Facebook.  I had to let Cristina know what I was going to do within 24 hours.  A couple of friends were very supportive and immediately advised me to go.  Some of the comments I got were something like: "Give me the airfare.  I'll go for you!"  Or, "You have to be crazy not to take advantage of this opportunity!"   

 

Along the Via Dolorosa

 

 Needless to say, I made up my mind to go to Israel, like PRONTO!  And, am I ever so glad I did!  It didn't matter that I almost killed myself when I tripped over some loose bricks in a London street during our eight-hour stopover there.  Or, that I was singled out as an enemy of the state at Ben Gurion Airport, not once but twice, upon our arrival and upon our departure!  Or the fact that we arrived at two in the morning and had to kill seven hours before finally crashing into our hotel bed.  Ben Yehuda Apartments forgot to mention that they don't open their doors until nine in the morning.  During those long hours of sleep- deprivation and all-over body pain from my London mishap, we breakfasted at the airport (no decent eating establishment is opened at that hour!).  We rode from the plane to the train to the center of Tel Aviv.  We hit the beach at 5 o'clock in the morning, walking long stretches of city blocks with suitcases in tow, among other misadventures(?).  Oh, the trials of being your own travel agent!  At the airport, I had looked on with longing and envy, when my new friends the ladies of a Mexican entourage waved goodbye to me as they promptly picked up their bags and followed their waiting party.  "Ah, to be in my bed right about now," I  reminisced sleepily.

Cristina outside Jaffa Gate

But wow!  What an experience!  A visit to Jerusalem should be on everyone's itinerary!  I've been reading the very lengthy and hefty tome, Jerusalem, The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiori, and what a fascinating story he writes.  Even from the time Abraham was called from Ur to heed God's call, to the time when Jesus performed miracles in and around the city, to the present time, Sebag Montefiori tells a tale like no other writer has done.  The Bible comes alive and world history meshes, with Jerusalem as its capital.  For centuries kings, emperors, and paupers alike have dreamed of ruling the fascinating city. 

Muslims, Christians, and Jewish alike live side by side here.

 But I will not say anything more than that I am blessed to have seen Jerusalem, walked her streets, and marveled at her glorious sights.  Make plans to see it for yourself, before you run out of options.  You are in for the experience of a lifetime!

Inside the Holy Sepulchre Church - Believers waiting to see the place were Jesus was laid to rest!

How far will you go for a little attention?

Has the reality TV bug hit you yet?  Because you know (as my granddaughter used to say), it seems everyone and his mother is vying for attention these days.   However lately it seems that people don't care how they get the attention.  And trust me everyone is not so much vying for attention, as they are DYING for attention these days. There is no limit to how far some people will go to these days to get it. From the Kardashians' to the Ozzies', everyone is dying to be on center stage!  Why do you think I write?  Yes, I love writing!  And yes I love a challenge!  But what about the thrill that comes with seeing your work published - your book becoming a best seller!  But enough about me.  Let's talk about the real attention seekers - the Housewives of NJ, NY, Atlanta, and every other participant in a reality TV show, and every Facebooker and Tweete out there!

It used to be that attention seekers were once classified as just that - attention seekers.  They were a minority class, the attention seekers.  I used to call my little girl an attention seeker whenever she would act out, and trust me she would act out both figuratively and literally.  I always told her she should be an actor, she was so good.  They were a small group that was labeled as attention seekers, and it was not in a good way.  However, I don't know anymore, because nowadays it seems everyone is an attention-seeker.

Go to Facebook, Twitter, all social media, and you'll see what I mean.  We can safely agree that while the Lost Generation of the 80's was called the "me" generation, today the whole world has jumped on that "me" band wagon, or at least vying for it.  When I go on Facebook, it's amazing to see how many posts are up by the same people over and over again. 

I've never been interested in psychology, but I think I would've been real good at it.  However, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that human nature is such, that we humans seek constant affirmation and thrive on attention,.  And with some people even bad or negative attention!  Hence, tantrums in children, acting out in teenagers, and making fools of ourselves when we've had a little too much to drink.  So yes, it doesn't stop with children!  It seems that lately, it's the adults more than the children that are acting out and begging for attention.  I myself have suffered from the attention-seeking syndrome.  And who hasn't?  Why do you think I have a blog and write books.  Okay, half of it is my need to express myself, to enjoy what I love doing which is writing.  But the other half is for affirmation.  Anyone who tells you differently, is lying or kidding themselves.  So if this is a fact, then why am I making such an issue of it.  Okay, I'll tell you why.

Because it's appalling and pitiful, to say the least, that what once used to be a minority group has emerged to become the biggest group - the biggest attention-seeking bunch of people you ever saw.  And the majority of them are adults.  Call me crazy, but after that scare with the world ending last year around this time, I saw a spike in the me-generation.  Suddenly, it seems that everyone wants to be a social media darling.

How much love and affirmation do we humans need to value ourselves as wholesome people that value in this world?

Is it something in the air, the air we drink, the foods we eat?   What, I ask myself is it, that drives people to seek so much attention, even when they're surrounded by loving and supportive circles of family and friends.  What's missing in their lives. (Because of course, I can't say that I blame a lonely person for seeking attention.)  But nowadays it doesn't matter how much you have, how big a circle of friends and family one has, or how successful one is, it seems it's all about "me".  

Comments are welcomed!

Me and my beautiful daughter at a good friend's wedding last year.

Me when I was 29, as director of the "Back to School Picnic" in San Jose, Costa Rica

Me in Masada, Herod's Fortress in the Negev Desert this month.

La Isla del Encanto - It's been said time and again that Puerto Ricans are..

Its been said time and again that Puerto Ricans are very proud people.  Does that mean that we are simply aloof, or just damn proud to be Puerto Rican!  I think it means the latter.  After all, it's the only thing left us.  I have yet to meet a boricua who was not 'humbly' proud of being born on the island.  We are indeed proud to be Puerto Rican first and foremost, and by that I mean that we love our island with an unconditional passion as true lovers love each others, many times overlooking our shortcomings.

Sunset @Joyuda Beach in Cabo Rojo

View from plane leaving the beautiful island!

For whatever reason, many of us left the island years ago.  Nonetheless, we will always consider ourselves boricuas to the core.  As other ethnic groups have also done, we've ventured off the beaten path where we've set up house and home and the serious business of raising our families.  Many have mainstreamed within the adopted country, while still others have just plain disappeared.  But again, one thing sets the true Puerto Rican apart - we never forget who we are and where we came from.  And unlike citizens of other countries, we've never given up on our right to be independent.  The Philippines traded part of their ethnicity by favoring English over Spanish.  Alaska and Hawaii accepted statehood with eyes closed.  Which begs the question:  Were we not good to be offered statehood?  Colonial status was forced on us, first by Spain then by the United States.  That might very well be where henceforth emerges that stubborn Puerto Rican pride, if we can call it 'stubborn'.  We never forsook or compromised our roots, our ethnicity, that enviable trait which makes us who we are.  The fact that in spite of repeated attempts by our adoptive country to change our language or attempts to superimpose their ways on us we refuse to abandon who we are, is a true testament to our ethnic pride and allegiance to such a tiny country.  "Good things come in small packages," the saying goes.

Aerial view of Isla Verde

Lately, I've been reading a lot of negative reports about the beloved island.  They blame the island and its people for the serious problems we face today - crime, drugs, lack of good schools, lack of enforcement of the law.  We could go on.  Puerto Rico has been referred to as a child who refuses to grow up, the adult who won't leave home, taking their parents for all they're worth without regard to consequence.  To a certain extent that may well be.  However, let us clarify that we never asked to be a colony forever.  However free that commonwealth may be, it's still a colony.  In the year 2012, Puerto Rico might well be the only country in the world that falls under such status, which depending on who you ask might not be such a bad thing.  Cuba fought for freedom, only to end up under a dictatorship for over half a century.  Santo Domingo, who once pleaded with the US to take them to no avail, is probably thanking God they were rejected.  It forced them to stand on their own feet and become the independent country they are today. 

Night Falls on Joyuda Beach

I like to believe that we possess the innocence of the Taino, the physical strength of the Amazon and African, the civility of the Spaniard,the common sense of the American, and above all, the serenity and compassion this mixture has created.  The true boricua is one of the most compassionate people you will ever meet.  Not to mention, the funniest!  Laughter in the face of adversity is what keeps us strong through it all.

Beach in Cabo Rojo at Dusk - La Mona Island in the background

So to the naysayers, I say go easy on us!  We're no different that any other.  And if we're in this situation, it's because of our unique status.  Take a chill pill and instead of coming down on it, let's unite to restore the island to its true and proper name:  The Island of Enchantment!

Evening in Joyuda - View from my cousins' house

Another view of the magical place

View from my sister's house of Melia Beach, Cabo Rojo

God in the Time of Chaos

I started the new year wondering how I could become closer to God.  In the book Eat Pray Love, the author is searching for all the above.  Of course by Pray, she means searching for and a yearning to become closer to God.  In her quest to do so, Elizabeth finds herself in India in a monastery of sorts, where hundreds  just like her are looking for (what seems to be these days) an elusive God.  I read the book when it first came out and dared to venture out to seek a certain closeness to God, through meditation and prayer.  I have to admit, though, that for me the experience was more scary than it was en-lightning.  I found myself in an almost trance-like state, over which I felt I had no control.  But the really scary part was feeling like I was communicating with some other who-knows-what spirit.  That was really scary!  For all I know, it could've been anything (?).  And so for the time being, I was leary of going somewhere for fear of what I might find.  After about three or four frustrated attempts, like Elizabeth, for a time I gave up the search.

I've always believed in prayer and its power.  I grew up in a Christian home, where prayer was part of our daily lives.  Thus, I pray for everyone and about everything every day.  I even pray for such insignificant (?) petitions as my favorite team winning the Super Bowl (?)!  I truly believed that God is always there for me, and that in due time He will answer my prayers according to His will.  But I have to say, that this quest of becoming one (?) with God can be a bit challenging.  At least that's what I thought, until this morning! 

I'm not of the athletic types who jog every day, play tennis every week, or run marathons every year.  I do, however, try to make exercise part of my day.  Somehow I manage to fit in twenty or thirty minutes of exercise a day, whether it's my own version of yoga, stretching, and/or somersaults(?), all while still in bed; squatting or jumping jacks once I'm out of bed; or, dancing up a sweat in the family room.  I also try to take the opportunity in the quiet morning hours to center myself and start my day with meditation and/or prayer.  I pray for guidance for myself and for my girls, to get us through the day.  I pray that the Holy Spirit guide us in whatever we may propose to do.  And, I pray for  everyone, from our servicemen and women in the military to all the children in the world.  I run the gamut, including everyone - family, friends, and anyone else who might need prayer. 

This morning, I experienced what I would call becoming one with God!  One might wonder exactly what that means.  I'll tell you.  I became one with God!  How is that possible one might ask!

When I pray, I feel I do all the talking.  Just like when I read Scripture, God is talking to me!  This morning, instead of praying like I regularly do, somehow I found myself asking God to show me his face.  I have no idea how that happened!  What possessed me to ask that after my last failed attempt!  But then God has a way of finding us when we least expect it.  You could say, He does it in his own way and on his own time.  And then I  found myself asking Him questions, and suddenly God was present to me and answering all my questions.  It took me a while, but I could feel his presence.  I was actually having a real conversation with God!  But it wasn't just that I was conversing with God.  I was actually, one with God!  I could feel Him and the feeling was like nothing I remember ever having experienced.

The conversation went something like this, "God, is it really you?  Or, is it something or someone else?  Can you show me your face?"  

And then I heard the words in my head, "Yes, Sylvia.  It really is me, God."

"Remember what happened last time I try doing this.   How scared I was."

"Don't be afraid, Sylvia.  Trust in me."

"Wow! God, it really is you!!!  I can so feel it's you!  What a wonderful feeling!  Thank you, God!  Thank you for showing me your face."

"You're welcome, Sylvia."

"I love you, God."

"I love you, Sylvia."

The conversation lasted about five minutes, with me asking and God answering.  I was elated beyond words to finally have connected with God in this way.  It felt better than being in my mother's arms.  A peace and serenity unlike anything came over me.  For that period of time, I had no cares in the world; and if I did, I knew that He would take care of them - that He would take care of my girls and me.  Regardless!  God asked me to trust in and believe in Him.

I'm almost certain that this hasn't been the only time I've seen God's face this way.  But lately I've been so preoccupied, caught up in the craziness and the chaos of this world, that I cannot remember the last time I was in His presence like that.  The promise that "He is never far from those who call on Him" cannot be more true now more than ever.

Many people claim to have had similar experiences with God.  They are blessed to have been in His presence.  He is real!  And He is available to us!  But, we cannot give up looking for Him!.  We must insist and persist in seeing his face.

Seek his presence today!  You might be pleasantly surprise to find God in the time of chaos!

Your comments are always welcomed!