Getting it right

Repositioning! Repositioning! The plane immediately started going up fast…. The silence was so thick that it could be cut with a razor blade! Then it was abruptly ended with the different passengers’ reactions, some cried, some laughed, while others were shaking and others were busy praying. None knew what was going on and did not dare to ask, the plane was still going up and up, and then it made what it seemed a slow 90 degrees turn… I did not understand what was happening, all I knew was that the landing was suddenly aborted and we were flying in circles. We had been getting ready to land, everything looked normal and I was just starting to anticipate the feeling of relief I always get when we finally “touch ground”. But life had something different in store for me!! What I always fear was happening and there was nothing I could do about it.
A strange calm took over me as I remembered a sentence from the book I was reading on the flight: “God gave us the strength to overcome the things we cannot change” At that moment I was fully aware that whatever has to happen will happen no matter what I did! I started doing my Hatha Yoga breathing to connect with myself while accepting the inevitable. My mind was soundless as my soul took charge. After what seemed hours (probably 10 minutes) we could feel the pilot attempting to land, then the mortal silence conquered once again. People were holding onto their seats as if their lives depended on it, until the plane finally landed. As soon as it touched ground, everybody started talking at the same time, many were saying: “I was busy praying as this was the only thing I could do!”…
By sure everybody on the plane was praying to their God at the same time. Why do we all remember our faith at times of adversity? When we are in danger or facing troubles we all pray, given that this is the only thing that brings calm and relief to our spirits. We instantly forget the “important things in life”: the car we own, the house we want to have, the iPhone we got to impress, etc, etc. We do not call upon our precious mobile phone for moral support! At that very moment anything material stops existing, losing all relevance, since all that matters is: “I’m going to die!” Therefore we connect with our soul and start regretting all the things we have not done: talking with our mother, going camping with the children, saying “I’m sorry” to our sister, wasting time on the job we hated instead of going for what we really loved, etc, etc. With an unbelievable efficiency we are able to highlight our deepest feelings in a matter of seconds, while realizing we were spending our time perusing the material things. Becoming fully aware that our happiness was not relaying on them…
I got out of the plane still lost within my deepest self but present enough to notice people’s behaviors. I tried to perceive whether their normal conduct was influenced by our scaring experience or not. The frighten voice of the Captain were still resonating in my mind: Repositioning! Repositioning! Was this a clue from the Universe? Was it a message that we needed to reposition ourselves? Was it telling us: Watch out, remember who you are! Showing us that we can miss the objective but we still have the chance to reposition while searching for the perfect landing and getting it right!

Keep me strong, I’m not done yet!

It is a very wintry night; she is cold, her legs are looking purple and her whole body is shaking. She needs to pretend, to look as attractive as possible and hide the sadness of her heart with a forced smile. Everybody is hurrying home; the pedestrians hardly notice her standing there hour after hour. This is her place; she has been working on the same spot for the last five years, after being dismissed from the private club. At the beginning it was very tough but then she became at ease with it. Some people stare at her with antipathy, judging, assuming, but she is immune to them. Before it used to get under her skin and made her cry for the injustice committed, but not anymore. With bitterness she says to herself: “They need more than this to put me down, I’m a fighter, I do not give up that easily!”
In cold nights like this one, she likes to recapture the memory of her first love as this warms her heart and eases her sorrows. The musing lights her face up, disguising the early wrinkles, flushing her pale skin and bringing her to life. This is most likely the only happy reminiscence she has; it is her secret, her treasure, her hope and faith.
“Angie you are beautiful, I love you and will always do”, he used to say every morning before leaving for work. She was his world, life, his everything! But she was young, beautiful and naive. Everybody kept telling her that she deserved better and was wasting her time with a guy like him. One day a good looking man approached her and introduced himself as the owner of a very important modeling agency. She felt thrilled when he said that he was in the middle of a casting searching for the next “super model” and that he believed she could make it. He talked for a very long time, filling her head with promises of an exciting life far, far away…
Angie forces herself to stop recalling the past; there is no point in going through everything again. But despite her efforts the memories pull her back. She remembers how they took her passport and the money, then the rape and the pictures taken… She couldn’t escape and became a sexual slave of one of the private clubs. Now she is working the streets for one of the local pimps, since she is too old and ugly for the club; years of drugs, alcohol and physical abuse had taken a toll on her…
“Good morning Sister Mary, it is time for the prayers, hurry up please” she is softly awakened by someone… Angie looks around trying to see where she is, then smiles while realizing she is in her room; at once dismisses her dreams and asks God: “Why do you keep bringing them back to me, as if I need to be reminded? Do not worry; I will not let any of us down!” Saying that, she starts heading to the Chapel...
While walking fast she is thinking that today is going to be another long day; ten new young girls were brought by the police the day before. She must assign them some duties to keep their minds busy, and then they will all go to group therapy and so on… Mary knows very well the whole process but still gets excited and is never tired or has the intention of giving up. The success rate is not as high as she wishes but it is getting better and better. The end result is still on the hands of the young girls and boys; it is up to them to take the chance and accept the helping hand. Change came late into Mary’s life, but it came! She still remembers very well the day she decided to take the risk and change things around, aware that it was time to stop feeling sorry for herself and do something about it. She could use her struggle, pain, and knowledge of the human trafficking system to fight it back and help its victims. She knew she could not stop it, but she also knew that change must start somewhere.
That day, instead of walking to her working spot, she took the bus to the small town nearby. She walked with decision to the Convent and met the Sister in charge; after a long talk she joined the congregation to be close to God and changed her name to Mary.
It took her a while to gain the strength to go to the police and begin her fight, knowing that many of the police members were involved. Then with the help of a local NGO she finally found her way, she knew how the system worked, names and places and used all that to fight them back.
Sister Mary is very happy and thankful for all her blessings; she is in the right path and fulfilling her life purpose. Thanks to her past she can now help others. Every soul saved, every criminal behind bars fills her heart with joy. She has been fighting for over 20 years and helped to rescue hundreds of young girls and boys. She is aware that the road ahead is still long and rough…
Mary pauses before walking into the Chapel, she looks at Virgin Mary’s statue and in silent prays: “Keep me strong, I’m not done yet!”

© 2009 Gabriela Abalo – Author

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On the News....

Some time back I decided to surround myself with positive things, thoughts and people. I also become selective with the information I read or watch, the same way I choose what to eat or not to eat. Therefore, I stopped reading newspapers or watching the news on TV, as they basically concentrate on the bad and negative things of life. When something good happens it is usually ignored or given a very small space.

A few months ago, while on a business trip in Kampala, I was going through the local newspapers killing some free time, when the headline on the front page of one of them really stunned me, as I read: “Army’s wives complaining of sexual starvation” That was something different for sure! I eagerly started going through the promising article. It seemed that the wives of the army soldiers went to court to complaint on the poor and substandard housing facilities provided by the Army to the soldiers. While making their case, one of them explained that the situation actually affected her marriage. She further elaborated that they could not have any intimacy while sharing the one single room house with their 5 children…. I had to stop reading in order to check the headline once more, since I couldn’t believe the way the news was actually maneuvered! But my surprise did not end there… the following day the same newspaper put a cartoon with a soldier and his wife sneaking into the bush to have some sex while their children were crawly sleeping!

Then I remembered a time in Spain when we were in a bar enjoying some cold sangria and the news headlines on the TV got our full attention. It said: The Fall of Fidel Castro! Gosh, after reading that, we definitely stayed behind to watch the news, expecting to see images of a Cuban revolution! I laughed out and loud when they showed the real story … actually Fidel had tripped and fell to the floor while walking away after delivering a public speech. I really felt sorry for the old man´s accident, but what made me laugh was the way we were tricked into watching the news! How they could make such a fuss out of nothing!

Along the same line, the other day a headline on the Yahoo’s news caught my interest. It said: “They saved Michael Jackson’s brain”. While clicking on the link I bet to myself that this was by sure another reporter’s trick, which at the end proved to be true. Michael’s brain was only kept for forensic purpose and not for the same reasons than the Albert Einstein’s one, as the first lines of the article were implying!

Samples of news being commercially twisted are many. Actually a whole book can be written on it. This fact makes me wonder what the real reasons behind are. If they are doing it that way all around the globe, does it mean that this is what we are asking for?

Why do we prefer to read about sex than housing problems? Why do we only read and watch violence, war, plagues, pandemics, abuse, etc?

Why is there a need to disguise the facts? What will actually happen if the news were reported factually? Would people stop buying magazines, newspapers or watching the news? What is more important to sell or to tell?

Why do we enjoy so much negative and sad information? Is it because it is easy to look at others than to look at ourselves or because we are secretly happy to know there are people who are doing worse than us?

I wonder!

Do you?

© 2009 Gabriela Abalo – Author

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Tired of being alone...

The gun is in his hand, they are all looking at him, anxiously laughing... pretending, waiting to see if he will have the guts or not. He has nothing to lose and nothing to live for… he is by himself. But he’s still hesitating… The room smells of alcohol, drugs and smoke; some minutes ago everybody was sitting, relaxing and enjoying themselves. But it all abruptly changed when someone came up with the stupid idea of playing the “Russian Roulette” and then he, Richard foolishly decided to show off and proposed to go first! Why he has to?
All his life has been an emotional rollercoaster with more downs than ups; the drugs are the only friend he has in this life. When he is under the influence he is a “happy man”, transported to a world of unconsciousness and full of weird dreams, where he is the hero that saves them all!
He empties the glass of whisky at once; the alcohol burns his throat and warms up his body, reminding him he is still alive. That is something he has problems understanding! Why is God sparing him? What for? What will his mother say if he kills himself? Will she be sad or relieved? Annoyed with himself he tries to erase these thoughts. If he is going to die the last thing he wants to do is to spend the last minutes of his life thinking about that woman.
He is tired of being alone, of having nobody to relate to or a place to call home. He has been on the streets or living with friends since the age of twelve; from the very day his mother kicked him out of her life, the family and the house.
He is not afraid of the very high possibility of shooting himself as he is aware that sooner or later everybody is going to die. Besides he has faced death hundred times! Gradually a mischievous smile illuminates his face, he loves playing with people’s minds and feelings. He will really enjoy seeing the scared faces of all the fools that are sitting here with him. If he triggers the gun and the only bullet on it is not fired… then he will really cackle out and loud, as it will be their turn. He is sure they will all chicken out! But he will not allow them to do so… or maybe he will as this will ensure their highest respect for him, something he never had before.
Richard places the gun on his left temple, he looks at the others one by one, undressing their souls with a frizzing cold smile, and then he fires the gun…BANG!
He wakes up trying to figure out where the hell is he, took him a while to realize he is in hospital. Richard cannot contain his impulse to laugh and cry when he finally figures out that he shot himself…. and he is still alive! Later on the nurse informed him that he was found lying on the streets and a Good Samaritan called for help. They immediately informed his mother about the incident. He has been in a comma for one week and so far nobody did visit or ask for his wellbeing. Richard thanks the nurse, then he pretends to fall asleep, he is crying deeply very deeply, he is tired, very tired of being alone… he never got the chance to know what to be loved is. Is this the reason why God is spearing his life?

© 2009 Gabriela Abalo – Author

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