la solitudine...

"You can not split the life of ours

I am Begging you, wait for me my love, but to deceive you, I do not know how...

This solitude between us, this silence inside me

It is the restlessness of living a life without you

I am begging you, wait for me! because

I can not live without you

You can not split the story of ours!"

The evening arrived and the work was not started. At home I am suffering from an upset and isolated myself. Is this my sweet home? But the house is dark, the TV is off and everything is silent. No one is here to open the door; no one is waiting for me. I am alone. The sadness of loneliness ... What else would I want but not be in solitude ...

But let me tell you something: My sadness doesn’t come from loneliness. It comes from fantasies that arise in solitude. I remember when I was younger I loved the solitude, being alone, reading, listening to some music ... So on Saturday, I prepared for a night of happy loneliness. But it was just when I sit that fantasies arose. Scenes, on the one hand, happy friends at parties, amid the chatter, the laughter, the beer. Then the scene changed: I was alone in that room. Surely no one was remembering me. At that happy party, who would remember me? And then came the sadness and I could no longer enjoy my friend loneliness. The remedy was to go out, meet with the group to find the joy of the feast. Dressing up, I went to the party ... But I realized that fantasized parties are not equal to the real parties. It was a mismatch; an inability to share things from my solitude ... The night was lost.

The flame of a candle, is opposed to the light bulbs, it is always lonely. The flame of a candle creates around it a circle of soft light that is lost in the shadows. Around it:shadows and silence. No silly chatter or easy laughter to disturb the truth of a soul. Everything is in communion. The great communions do not happen in the midst of laughter from the party. It happens, paradoxically, in the absence of the other. Whoever loves knows this. It is precisely in the absence of someone that proximity is greater, there seems to be dark corners within us that tolerate only a flickering light. A sensitive heart needs strong values. My loneliness has its own life.

Amongst the many profound things that Sartre said, this is what I love most: "No matter what they did to you. What matters is what you do with what they did to you." Stop it. Read that again. And think: Do you regret this evil that life is bringing to you? Solitude! If Sartre is right, that evil may be the place where you will plant your garden. Plant flowers in that garden so that the butterflies will come and thus you will not have to worry about running after them.




Carlos Drummond de Andrade thinks so:

"For so long I thought that the absence is lack of something and I lamented, ignorantly it.

Today I don’t regret. There is nothing missing in absence. Absence is something within me. And I feel it white, so close to me, snug in my arms that I laugh and dance in joyous exclamations , because the absence, this absence assimilated, nobody steals from me."




Alone, sick, sometimes I have terrible migraines that lasts three days and drives me crazy. I search for relief by hiking in the mountains. It is a wonderful companion! I see often, people who walks for health reasons. Unable to walk alone, go in pairs, in droves. And going talking, talking, without seeing the wonderful world around them. They speak because they can’t bear to walk alone. And, therefore, lose the greatest joy of walking, which is the joy of being in communion with nature. They do not see the trees, nor flowers, nor the clouds… they can’t feel the wind. What an unfortunate trading! People are exchanging the voices of silence by vulgar chat.

If they were alone with nature, in silence, their loneliness could make them listen to what nature has to say. Being together does not mean communion. Being together is often a terrible form of loneliness, a ruse to avoid contact with ourselves. Sometimes hell is the partner!

Let's balance our lives

All around us appear pacifist voices concerned about the future of the universe, but they are so low that we just hear the forces of war, much higher and more effective. It is the dark side of human beings, which build nuclear weapons capable of destroying the world in a split second.

The world wars are here to prove how we are capable of exterminating life on the planet. The accumulation of wealth and power give rise to weapons that can destroy humanity altogether. Getting rich for what? Mastering what? If in the end everything will be destroyed.The destruction process starts within us as individuals, Gandhi said: "The only demons in the world are those that come into our hearts and there is where the battle must begin." St. Teresa of Avila once said that our heart is the dwelling place of God Himself and we should keep it clean and purified from all evil.

Some other day I heard someone saying that at the day science creates a remedy against the selfishness we will have taken a step forward in our evolution.Have you ever stopped to think how the greedy are selfish?There are few cases of people who assume they are alcoholics but need to drink every day. Thousands of people die every day due to tobacco smoking.

They smoke to feel socially accepted or to relax, but all this is a great excuse, because nicotine is a drug that is as addictive as any other. Food marketing affects all social classes. TV shows that teach a variety of recipes. Imagine a dependent on alcohol or cigarettes having to deal with all this kind of advertising in daily life. The hunger for power is destructive. I know a case that a co-worker was appointed supervisor and changed completely. He has become a powerful, centralizing all the work. On day to day he badly greeted the colleagues who were slowly going away. That so kind person was destroyed by the office of supervisor. There are many men who win a job and lose their soul. They become greedy and unbearable.

I heard once that cancer are sad cells. And how many people are sad around the world! People who can not lose, who gets uncontrolled when things gets tough and don't know how talk, interact, just want to impose their truth. They get angry in seconds and express all his lack of patience by cursing, insulting and fighting.
True love is the giving of oneself for the happiness of another, without being dependent and without dominating but complementing and making happy ...
Let's exercise our decisions, making them wiser and courageous, for example, quitting drinking, smoking ... Let's take better care of our health, respect others opinions, lead a simpler life, let's be more friendly, more loving, more fraternal and supportive, more passionate and exciting, engaging and sweet ...Let us become small to grow big and bigger!!

Seasons

... And there comes spring, summer, fall and winter, spring again, another summer, another fall ...Often we are distracted by appearances and forget the essence.
Imagine a tree. The root provides all the nutrients to the plant, and then I wonder: What is the sap that feeds you? Have you been seeking to nurture yourself with good books and friends that enrich you? Have you been careful to your health and disciplined with the simple things in life? How is your reflection on the meaning of your existence?
Is the meaning of your life today to seek to be the best or the richest? Do you live for pleasure, avoiding all suffering? Is life all about this? One day the tree will be cut down or will die, what will be left is the oxygen that it has purified and gladdened to the eyes, the shadow that housed birds... If you die today, what would you leave? Do you consider yourself as an ”oxygen cleaner"? The tree is the lung of the world. What about you? Have you also cleansed the world? You, today, build the civilization of love in your home, school, university, work and neighborhood?
A tree without flowers, is still rooted, it has stem, sap, branches ... Do you wonder what you have developed in your life? Or are you a specialist in look at what you don’t have?
The flowers will appear! We already anticipated that the tree, so opaque and colorless, would be revealed. Love is this: looking at people in no mood, no motivation, apparently lifeless and admire them. It is loving and admiring the other, not only by their beauty of appearance or skin color, but also have an understanding that those we live with are not all the time in the "spring time". We need in meeting with others, get our nutrients for maintenance, growth and flowering. Our meeting, to give flowers and fruits need to be a true contact, deep, realistic and loving.
And there will come spring, summer, fall, winter, spring again, another summer, another fall ...

Life lessons

Through this post I intended to convey stories of life, that I face every day in my life. Values, life lessons and experiences that show us what is real life.
These experiences were told along the classes and I hope that when you read them you can rethink your own lives.By thinking that there are some people who are experiencing issues worse than ours, that must not be seen as tragedies, but as life lessons.

My name is Marina, I'm 41 years old and was born in another state and came to this region with my parents at the age of 3 in order to realize the dream of a better life. We've been through many hardships, starvation, sleeping on the streets. As I had to care of my younger brothers I had no childhood.

At age of 11, I started working as a nanny and I did not like it, but I've always done everything well done. I could not study, but I've learned how to read and write.
Today I work as a seamstress. I"ve learned the profession that supports me and my children and grandchildren. What began with the need to make my own clothes and my children's, grew to become a source of income to sustain them. What was tough once, today is source of happiness!

I am Sandra, 20 years old and I have lost my mother last year. I was very depressed and had no heart to do anything. That was when I was invited to attend the sewing course to distract me. I liked it so much that I decided to change my entire wardrobe and so my self esteem went up and praised because all my clothes are made by me. Today I think about going to college to study fashion design.

Maria Rita, 40. My husband has been transferred by the firm he works and after two years we've been living apart we've decided to move and stay all together. My daughter was 4 years old at that time and suffered a mental block for missing grandmother and other relatives who were in our birth town. She could not remember anything that she had previously studied.
Today she's been overcoming the trauma and I learned to sewing and I am working at home with her and two other children. I make clothes for all and have an income to help at home. I know that a new page is being written in my life, and a beautiful future awaits for us. I would like to be able to afford to bring my whole family to live with us one day.

Elza, 65 years old. My father was a very conservative person and did not allowed me to go to school. He fobade me to read books and kept me at home taking care of household chores. Even hiding I enrolled myself in schools and when he discovered I had to leave. So I learned to read and write. My mother was very submissive to my father and never contradicted him, but still taught me how to sewing. I've made the clothes of my dolls and used to enjoy it. I've married with the age of 16 and raised three children. When they became adults I confronted my husband and went back to school.Today I'm going in the course because I'm driving my own clothing company and realizing my dream of setting up my own business. I must say: We must never give up our dreams!!                                                                                            Creuza, 50. I am the only child of a novel that was supposed to be a beautiful love story, if not for a terrible fate: When I was 27 days old my father died and my mother had to overcome the emotional and became an alcoholic .

At the age of 3 years old I was left at the house of a "friend" and my mother promised to come back for me, but as she didn't, I became one more puppy at that house.
I used to sleep on the couch in the porch with the other dogs, when it was very cold we were put to sleep in a crate in the bathroom. The only difference among me and the dogs was that at the age of 5 I was required to care for the whole house. At age of 8 I was handed over to an uncle who looked after me and showed me what was a family. I got married at the age of 24 and I live for my family. I have three grown children and now I learned to sewing. This was a dream I had since I was a child. Now I make clothes for my grandchildren.
My suggestion is this: Whenever things are looking too hard, stop, take a deep breath because the oxygen circulates better through the brain so we can reflect clearly. Now I know that there is still time to live and be happy, despite my age of 50 years.




These are some true histories, only. So many others a hear every day,

Panchtatva is starting a new project on sewing. It is meant to help ladies to learn how to sewing and make their families' clothes. The best of wishes for this new project of PCG. For the testimonial above it is possible to understand the importance of learning this art.

Stitch by stitch we've been sewing our dreams and goals.

About Roses, ants and anteaters...

His name was Brazilian Garden. Brazilian Garden had a garden in the name and a garden in the heart. He loved all living things, plants of the vultures. Life for him was sacred.
Brazilian didn't go to the church and religious people feared for his soul and wondered, "He does not know that going to the church is to be right with God? Who is not right with God is in danger, God punishes!"

Brazilian used to smile a gentle smile and ask: "Where is told in the Scripture that God has a church? Almighty, had churches to be done he would have created those since the beginning. Almighty, He created what He wanted. And what did He do? He planted a garden. It is said that "He walked through the garden to cool wind in the afternoon!" When I'm in the garden I know I'm walking in the place that God loves. God loves life, wind, sun, earth, water - things that are in the garden. But the churches are indoors, muffled. Animals and plants do not feel happy inside ... "

He did not attend church but he loved a saint: St Francis; because he was the man who saw God in the things of nature. St. Francis loved all things that lived, and according to legend, the living things understood him, he used to preached sermons to fish and birds. Often the animals hear better than humans ...

Then Brazilian decided to plant a garden in honor of St Francis. It would be a wonderful garden with a bed of roses in the middle. And so he did. Some time later he was gazing the lush leaves of roses, the rose that first opened and the buttons that would open in the next day, Brazilian went to bed happy.

Upon waking thought the garden he wanted to see if the buttons were already open. But disappointment! What he found was devastation. At night, the leafcutter ants had cut all the leaves and flowers of all roses. Brazilian was very sad. He decided to seek for advice from a neighbor who had a beautiful bed of roses bloom.

"The way is to kill the ants," said the neighbor. "Ants and gardens do not mix. For ant gardens are vegetables gardens, things to be eaten."

"Kill the ants? No way. They are creatures of God, as all of us. Once it was God who made them, they have the right to live. Ants have rights ..." And with these words he left the neighbor talking to himself. "Why would I ever kill the ants? They are creatures of God. There must be another way ..."

He thought: "If the ants ate the roses, they ate because they were hungry. It was not out of malice. If I give food to the ants they will no longer be hungry and will not eat the roses."

Then he planted, around the rose garden, a ring of tender and sweet carrots that would be the delight of eating ants. But the ants ignored the carrots. They continued to eat the roses.

"Maybe they did not understand," he thought. "They do not even realize that carrots are delicious and they are meant for them. they haven't been educated yet. If they are educated for more refined tastes they will not eat the roses. I will be an educator of ants."

And as he knew that over night was the preferred time to cut roses by the ants, Brazilian began teaching the ants during the night, steadily, in his garden. He wished the ants learned how to like carrots gastronomically and started admiring the roses.

The neighbor was upset by the talk that night. He went to see what it was. And was astonished. "Brazilian, are you nuts? Preaching to the ants?" Brazilian replied: "St. Francis used to preaching to birds and fish. And they understood. That's why I will preach to the ants and they will understand." But the ants did not care for the Brazilian's classes. Not had a new lesson been learned. Ant fest remained as they continued to cut the rose bushes.


The Brazilian failure reminded him of a feature invented by humans called "condominium". What is a condominium? These houses are surrounded by walls on all sides, in order to prevent entry of criminals, who remain outside. "I will do the same with my roses," he said triumphantly. Immediately thereafter took liter coke bottles, nipples and cut back, made a vertical cut along these hollow cylinders and used as protective linings for the stems of roses. "Now my rose bushes are protected! The ants will not enter!" Poor Brasilino! He did not know the cunning of the ants.They can make tunnels, climb walls, go through gaps, build bridges. And when he went to the garden in the morning, he saw that the ants had devoured their new rose bushes.


Brazilian then remembered an old story that reports the achievement of a flutist who has delivered a city of a plague of rats. What has made the flutist? Just played his flute! "Oh! Music has magical powers! Of course, ants do not understand the language of pedagogical arguments. There will be susceptible to the magic of music." He bought a flute and began to play Ravel's Bolero. Ants responded immediately. They felt the power of music.Even the animals have music in their soul. They began to chew leaves and roses upon the music rhythm.

With the failure of the music, came to him, then a new idea: "If the ants can not be made aware of the words and music, roses can be. So I will wake up my roses to the sense of non-violence, the beauty of peace. Our thought has power. If all the roses together make a chain of peace thoughts, positive energy in the air will be so strong that the ants will be gone ... "


He spreaded through, the garden, colorful images of peace and smiling flowers; he put some music on CDs along with the roses, Strauss,Vandré, Caymmi... Everything placed in the garden space, suggested peace and non-violence.People who visited the garden felt the positive energy in the air. But it seemed that the ants were not sensitive to the positive energy of peace, once they continued to cut the roses.


Then he began to get angry at the roses. "I do not understand the passivity of the roses! They do not fight! they must defend themselves! Hasn't God endowed the creatures with the right to defend their lives?"

Then he covered the branches of the bushes with thorns and sharp pointy knives and swords in order to the roses use them to defend themselves against the ants. But the roses did not know how to defend themselves. They did not know weapons. They were meek and clumsy by nature.The ants continued to rise for their branches without connecting to the thorns.

In desperation, Brazilian decided to take a more radical attitude, even contradicted to his feelings of reverence for life, he went into the garden armed with a hammer and began pounding ants approaching their rosebushes. But the number of ants was immense,never stopping coming. He killed many ants with a hammer.There was also the fact that Brazilian's ants could not get hammered all the time as he needed some sleep. By sleeping, the hammer stopped but the ants work went on.

"I know!" He said. "I will appeal to the Pope. The Pope prays hard. I will ask him to pray for the ants to stop eating my roses." He then wrote a letter to the Pope, exposing his suffering, and asking him to intercede with the saints, by the virgin, with God ... After all, the heavenly host should have a special interest in preserving the garden, taste of Paradise.

The ecclesiastical authorities, in possession of the Brazilian' letter , gave him the greatest consideration, and placed in the list of prayers for peace prayed daily by the Pope: peace between Jews and Palestinians, between Russian and Chechen, peace between Protestants and Catholics, peace in Colombia, Peru, in Africa, in Spain ... It was a huge list. The Pope prayed but nothing changed. The men continued to kill and the ants continued to cut his roses.

Suddenly he heard a voice calling him. It was the voice of his neighbor, who watched in silence. "I have a solution to your problem with ants, without you having to kill the ants."

Brazilian was astonished: "How?"

The neighbor explained: "Do you think the ants are creatures of God. As God's creatures are entitled to live. You're in good spiritual company. Men like St. Francis, Gandhi and Schweitzer also felt reverence for life." Brazilian was happy to find himself placed alongside these saints.

Your neighbor continued: "But what you say to the ants must apply to all creatures. Right?" "Right," agreed Brazilian.

"So why do not you bring an anteater to live in your garden? Anteaters are also creatures of God. And love to eat ants! Its tongue is thin and long, which goes to the bottom of the chills! So the anteater eating ant is not a sin, but a virtue! "

And that's how Brazilian, without breaching his spiritual convictions, brought an anteater to live in his garden.

And coming the anteater, the ants were gone, the garden flourished and Brazilian smiled ...

Moral of the story: Who wants to get rid of ants and keep a clear conscience must buy an anteater ...

By Rubens Alves (http://www.releituras.com/rubemalves_rosas.asp)  

one node in a sheet ...

During a meeting of parents at a school on the outskirts of a city, the teacher was stressing the importance of the support that parents should devote to their children and asked them if they were present in their kids's life as long as possible ... He considered that although the majority of parents used to working far from home in that community, they should find some time to focus and understand their children.
But the director was very surprised when a father stood up and explained, in his humble way, that he had no time to talk to his son, nor to see him during the week because when he left for work ,early in the morning, his son was still sleeping ... When returning from work, it was too late and the boy was no longer awake.
He explained further that he had to work hard to provide for his family, but also said that this situation made him upset for not having time for the child and tried to redeem himself every night when he got back home. And in order to his son knew about his presence, he use to give a knot in the sheet that covered him. That happened religiously every night when he went to kiss him. When the child awoke and saw the knot, he knew, through it, that his father had been there and had kissed him. The knot was the symbol of communication between them.
The teacher felt touched by this simple story and was surprised when he found out that the son was one of the best students in the school.
This fact makes us reflect over the many ways of people being present in someone's life, to communicate with others. That father had found his way, which was simple but effective to demonstrate his caring. And the most important is that the child was aware, through the affection, what his father was saying.
Sometimes we care so much about how to say things and forget what is communication through feelings. Simple gestures like a kiss and a knot in the sheet, are worth, for that child, much more than gifts or empty excuses.
It is valid to be concerned with people, but it is important that they know about it , they must feel it. So as to have communication it is necessary that we "hear" the language of our hearts, because in terms of affection, feelings always speak louder than words.
It is for this reason that one kiss, clothed in the purest affection, cures headaches, scraped knees or the fear of the darkness. People may not understand the meaning of many words, but everybody is able to register a gesture of love. Even if this gesture is only one node in a sheet ...

We get used, but we shouldn't...

Have you ever 'stuck' a queue? Or have asked to someone to save a room in an event? Have you ever 'cut' one or more traffic lanes to make a conversion? Or arrived late in a bank and tried to talk the porter into a “please, let me in?”

This underlines one of the most striking features of the human being: individualism. "My need is more important than others, so I have to cut right through a left turn in traffic, and the others must understand". "My reasons for delay are real and fair, more than the others."

We all feed corruption with small gestures, with our actions, with our bad example; we always forget that we live in a society.
Why so many people throw garbage on the floor? Is it due to poor education? Do we throw garbage in the living room of our house? Do we throw garbage in our own bed? I don’t think so! And why we do it on the ground, in parks, in seas, at the beach?
Why not devote some care and love to nature? Why waist water or energy?
Why do we vote in politicians if we know about their dirty actions in the past? Corruption is not only the politics nor the politicians; we make part of it, perhaps more than they do.
What is the difference between stealing a million of dollars from public saves and steal a penny from a friend? What is the difference between defrauding your nation and defrauding your employer?

Picture this: You go to work and see that box of staples just lying on the table, than you remember that your son asked you to buy some staples for his school work. At once the box disappears from the table and appears in your child's backpack. That could not be considered a robbery?
How can we wish a society free from corruption if in our actions of day to day we practice them at all times. Corruption is more comprehensive than the acts of politicians. It's a choice we make all the time, in small gestures such as offering a sweet in return of a favor... It is the feeling that arises in the heart that causes our actions. If there is corruption in the society it must have been born first in each one of us. And it's not easy to escape the web of corruption, because once we refuse to participate in certain procedures, a revolt is formed around us as if we were meant to fit into the relative truth of each person.
Thus, our conduct should be honest at all times, in every way, even if it means personal loss.

Here I open a parenthesis to reproduce a text from Colassanti Marina who says:

I know we get used to. But we should not ...
We get used to living in apartments in funds that have no other view than the windows around. And because it doesn’t have another view, we get used to not look out anymore. And because we do not look outside, we get used to not open all the curtains. And because we do not open the curtains, we get used to turn on the light sooner. And as we get into it, we forget the sun, we forget the air and we forget the vastness.


We get used to waking up in the morning, startling because it's time; to take coffee quickly because it is running late; reading the newspaper on the bus because we can not miss the travel time; to have sandwiches for lunch because we do not have time to cook; to leave our work because it's night; to take a nap on the bus because we are tired; to go to the bed early and have heavy sleep without having lived the day.


We get used to open the newspaper and read about the war. And accepting the war we accept the deaths and accepting death we accept that there are numbers for the dead; in accepting the numbers we agree in not believing in peace negotiations and by not accepting the peace negotiations we accept reading every day, of war, of the numbers of dead, of long duration of wars.


We get used to wait all day for a phone call and at the end the calling says:”I can not go today”

We get used to smile at people without getting a smile back; to be ignored when both needed to be seen.
We get used to walking on the street and see posters; opening the magazine and see ads, turn on the television and watch commercials; going to the cinema watching advertising and we swallow them all. We get used to be instigated, led, bewildered, and released on an endless waterfall of products.


We get used to pay for everything we want and need; and we fight for winning the money to pay for that; and to earn less than we need; and lining up in a long queue to pay; and to pay more than things are worth; and know that increasingly we pay more and more; and go for more work to earn more money with which to pay on the queues.


We get used to pollution; in artificial light that slightly twinkle; to the shocking that the eyes get in natural light; to the Bacteria from drinking water, to the contamination of sea water, to the slow death of the rivers. We get used to not hear birds, to not to have roosters at dawn, to the fear of water from dogs, not to reap fruit from the tree, not even having a plant.


We get used to so many things in order not to suffer. In small doses, trying not to notice goes away a pain here, resentment there, and a riot over there. If cinema is full, we sit in the front row and twist a little the neck. If the beach is polluted, we just wet our feet and sweat the rest of the body; If the work is hard, we go for console over the weekend; and if the weekend is empty too we go to bed early and still get satisfied because there's always sleep to catch up.


We get used in order to preserve the skin not to suffer in roughness ; once we get used to avoid wounds, bleeding, dodging  the knife and bayonet to protect the heart. We get used to everything in order to save our lives which gradually wear out, and because we get used to life, it loses itself.