Holiday's Recipe

       November is here, and with it, the early Christmas spirit! I live in an island where Christmas is one of the most important and happiest holidays of the year. It is about festive music, sharing with your family, presents, and food, mainly food. Believe me, there is no Christmas in Puerto Rico without food. Last year I shared with you one of my mom's best recipe for this season. A delicious and easy pumpkin cheesecake you can check here. It promptly became popular so I decided I should share another one this year!

       This time I want to share with you one of the most exquisite and popular recipes in my country. We called it "Coquito" and it's a sweet beverage that you can enjoy as a dessert on this upcoming thanksgiving dinner. So, if you haven't decided a dessert yet or want to add a delicious, sweet, easy, and fast recipe, here I'm to your rescue. I hope you enjoy and spread some sweetness this holidays.

Ingredients

• 1 can of coconut milk
• 1 can of evaporated milk
• 1 can of sweetened condensed milk 
• 1 can of cream of coconut
• 1 tsp of cinnamon 
• 1 tbsp of vanilla

Instructions 

Mix all the ingredients in the blender, and once ready let it cool in the fridge for about two hours. Serve cool and add more cinnamon if you please. 

   

A BIG psychological hug, R.M.

A closer look at what is happening.

     It has been in the news for months now. The mainstream media coverage of all the immigrants looking for refuge and the great dispute they face at being rejected by a country. All the stories just get a few minutes on the news. That's not enough to cover what is really happening and how these humans are suffering.

     To understand their reality we need to take a closer look at their thoughts and feelings. Luckily the great Brandon Stanton understands the importance of this being shared. On his blog, Humans Of New York, he has been lately giving us an insight of these humans, rated often by the media as just immigrants. Not only is important to know what is going on with the humans of the world. But this stories will change the perspective of your world and the things that really matter.

Capturing deepest emotions with a photograph and a short quote Stanton give us the opportunity to take a closer look.

“Everyone here has been very nice to us. When we got to the beach, there were people there who gave us food and a hug. A priest even gave us this carpet to pray on. He told us: ‘We have the same God.’” (Lesvos, Greece)

“I wish I could have done more for her. Her life has been nothing but struggle. She hasn’t known many happy moments. She never had a chance to taste childhood. When we were getting on the plastic boat, I heard her say something that broke my heart. She saw her mother being crushed by the crowd, and she screamed: 'Please don't kill my mother! Kill me instead!'" (Lesvos, Greece)

“My father was a farmer and we had eight siblings. I went to Australia when I was fifteen because my family didn’t have enough to eat. I was on a boat for forty days. When I got there, I couldn’t find a job, I couldn’t speak English, and I had to sleep on the street. I know what it’s like. So everyday I drive the van to the port and hand out bread to the refugees. My son is my business partner. He says, ‘Baba, please. It’s fine to help. But not every day.’ But I still go every day because I know what it feels like to have nothing.” (Kos, Greece)

"The extent to which refugee children have been conditioned by their environment is heartbreaking. We wanted permission to take this young girl’s photograph, so we asked if her mother was nearby. Her eyes filled with the most uncontrollable fear that I’ve ever seen in a child. ‘Why do you want my mother?’ she asked. Later, her parents told us how the family had crouched in the woods while soldiers ransacked their house in Syria. More recently they’d been chased through the woods by Turkish police. After we’d spent a few minutes talking with her parents, she returned to being a child and could not stop hugging us, and laughing, and saying ‘I love you so much.’ But I went to sleep that night remembering the terror on her face when we first asked to speak to her mother."  (Lesvos, Greece)

“I used to work as civil engineer in Nepal. I worked on government projects: bridges, roads, things like that. But I was sitting in my office one day in 2004, watching television coverage of the tsunami that hit Indonesia, and I realized that government work was not the best use of my abilities. So I joined the UN and helped build 380 schools in Indonesia. Then when the earthquake hit Haiti, I moved there and began building shelters. Any engineer could do this work. But there just weren’t many available. So all I did was make myself available. Now I’m working with the UNHCR to construct camps for refugees. The first priorities are basics: shelter, health, food, water, and toilet access. My next priority is to respect the dignity of the refugees. When they arrive, they are very anxious, so I want to make sure they feel like they have a place. We leave four meters of space between every tent. We also leave the camp open so they can enter and leave whenever they like. And I added this cover over the entry way, because I wanted to be sure they were shaded the moment they walk in.” (Lesvos, Greece)

This is just a glimpse of the trip Stanton is doing. There are many more stories, it was hard to choose just a few ones. If you are interested in the rest of the stories you can find them in the Humans Of New York Facebook page. I hope you can take your time to reflect.

A BIG psychological hug, R.M.

A rolling stone gathers no moss

Proverbs have been used for decades. Perhaps it is their simple and concrete way of saying the truth that makes them so popular between everybody. The easiness with which someone can relate at least one of them to their ordinary life is incredible. Those practical experiences of humanity are the ones that bond us together. As humans we have our doubts, and what is better than a proverb to remind us of the basic rules of life?

                “A rolling stone gathers no moss” can be interpreted in many different ways, but that’s the magic of proverbs. Everyone can adapt them to their situation and no one would be wrong doing so. Let me tell you my version based on the perception of my life. Not so long ago I suffered from a severe depression. I had no animus to do anything, and my body didn’t either. It was hard to even take a few steps to the bathroom because my lungs would get exhausted.

                This feeling of motionless started getting worse. I wouldn’t had encouragement to read, even though is one of my favorite hobbies. I spent all day in bed sleeping because I didn’t have the strength to do anything else. It felt like a strong force pressing my chest letting me unable to do anything. We went to several medical specialists but there was nothing wrong with my heart, lungs, or brain. Finally, a friendly doctor came to the realization that it was everything on my mind. Even though there was no apparent reason for what I was going through.

                I remember his words because those where the ones that saved me. He told me “Push yourself no matter what. Do what you used to like even though you don’t feel like it.” So did I. I gather the strength to grab and read a book and went out every time I was able although it seemed like an impossible task at first. It wasn’t easy but it was possible.

                I started to move again, letting all the moss that once kept me in a bed in the past. Sometimes it haunts me, but I keep pushing myself and moving forwards. And that’s the thing about life, it can consume you if you keep stuck and dwelling on the moss and negative things that surrounds you. We are stones, we might be reshaped during the hard path of life but that’s what makes us special. Thankfully we can move and progress letting everything back.

Feel free to share your experience.
A BIG psychological hug, R.M.

Is it worth it?

The last year of high school is known to be a stressful one. Students face the idea that they are about to go into “the real world”. With new challenges and drastic changes is not surprising that students might get a little worried about their future goals. Personally, one of the things that worry me the most is that I’m not sure if my dream job can provide me economic stability. My goal is to study journalism, but the thing is that I’m afraid I wouldn’t get a job doing what I love after graduating from college. I don’t care about the money, I could actually do my job for free. But in the world we are living nowadays money is indispensable to survive and this is the reality of many.

Senior students, see the hard economic situation that our country is going through and get more worried than what they already are. Is it really worth it to study what you love although there are millions of college graduated students without a job? This is a persistent question in my mind, but I think I haven’t found an answer to it yet. The idea of spending four or eight years of my life studying something and afterwards being unemployed terrifies me. But I think it is better than spending your whole life doing a job you hate just for surviving. So, I will just dare the circumstances and study what I really love. Perhaps I wouldn’t easily find a job, or have enough money but at least I will be happy and glad that I fulfil my goal.

Aside from the economic situation, most students haven’t even set up their goals yet. They don’t have any idea of what they are going to do after high school. Many of them haven’t find an appealing career or simply don’t want to attend college. Most of those who don’t want to go to college are merely afraid of the changes it brings. Young people sometimes just don’t want to get out of their comfort zone and take new challenges. Those, in my opinion, are the ones that conform doing a job they hate -to survive- just because they weren’t up to give a chance to their dreams.

Humans, in their nature, are conformist. If they don’t like something they just get used to it, because it is easier that way. I must admit that I enjoy my comfort zone, as everyone else. But I’m glad I have been encouraged since I was a kid to achieve my goals no matter how hard they could seem. Because otherwise I had be unhappy. And I have realized that afterwards, when you get out of that dangerous comfort zone and begin walking the path towards your goal, it is not as hard as it seemed in the beginning.

I’m a young soul but that must not stop me from giving a piece of advice to anyone who needs it. People say life is short, but in fact went it gets hard it may seem long. You should decide whether you are going to live it doing what you love or just survive through live doing something you hate regretting your choice. I haven’t find the answer to the question I made before. But I have made a choice, and I’m up to live my life. I hope yours doesn’t seem long.

A BIG psychological hug, R.M.

Our Queen is not alone tonight

A BIG psychological hug, R.M.

Acceptance

A BIG psychological hug, R.M.

What does grows on trees?

Only what it's sustancial, only what we truly need.

Does money, expensive clothes, phones or any electrical device grows on trees? Of course not, those meaningless things of the new modern world aren't essential for our living. We don't need them. That's what the industries have made us think during years now. And that's the problem, so many people don't realize it. They and their conditioned minds are set to crave useless things. It seems like their minds and capacity to analyze things like humans begins have been replaced for that single one thought. It's despicable but pitiful at the same time because, after all, it is their fault?

                                                      

 

A BIG psychological hug, R.M.