I Learned it All from Soccer...

I was born in the early 1950s in Mexico City. Back in those days and especially in my country of birth sports were not as popular with girls as they were with boys. I was never really interested in sports, I used to take ballet and piano lessons and always loved doing crafts of any kind, but that's a whole other story.

The only sports I've always loved watching are those where art prevails, like figure skating or gymnastics, I did try both of those when I was young but I was never very good at them, not sure why, perhaps I thought of myself as more fragile than I really was. I remember feeling afraid to try anything that went outside of my abilities. I tried many times to break that fear by attempting to learn sports like water or snow skiing, swimming, biking, running, even walking, but anytime I get into the habit of them something comes along to distract me from the consistent practice of a physical activity and every time I drop it, it takes me forever to get back.

The one sport that I really couldn't care less about because I've been inundated with it all my life is Soccer. That was the preferred sport where I grew up and lived the first 25 yrs., then when I became a mom my two kids became soccer players from the age of 3 and I was at every single practice and game for the next 10+ years.

Back in my childhood I had two brothers, my older brother was always focused on business and my younger brother David had Soccer in his heart. He had muscular dystrophy and by the age of 9 he was on a wheelchair so he never had a chance to play the sport he loved to watch, dream and talk about. "Gol del America!!!!" I remember him screaming when his favorite team scored. He might not have been on the field with his physical body, but he was in his heart and soul. He had created this simple quad notebook where he would cut 3 of the 4 sides of the little squares all over two pages side by side. They were cut in strategic areas and then he lifted as if it was a player standing up. Then he would roll a tiny little paper ball, make a goalie on each side and let the games begin.

He would make up his own games and became the player, announcer, referee even the team owner. He kept track of his games and his favorite team wasn't always the winner.

At the time I remember watching him and being in awe of what a great soccer announcer he was and now looking back I can see that he wasn't only living the game he was playing in it. I know that if he had lived longer he could have been a Soccer Announcer and become very loved and admired because of his strength of heart, passion for what he loved and the kindness and patience of an angel. I don't ever remember him complaining about his lot in life.

My uncles and cousins were also fans and players, I believe to this day some still play and so do their sons. Soccer was played at school and at the park, all you really need to play soccer is a flat field a black and while ball and a bunch of people of any age, race, social status, ability, gender, who want to run around kicking the ball and try to get it to hit that net that's being carefully guarded.

The years went on and I got remarried to an Italo/Argentinian. Are there any two groups of people who love soccer more? It turns out my husband feels the same way I do about soccer, but his son and now mine, who happens to live with us, LOVES!!!! and has been playing Soccer his whole life.

So these are just a few of the many things I've learned from Soccer.

1. LIFE IS A TEAM EFFORT, WE SHOULD ALL ROOT FOR AND HELP EACH OTHER.
No matter how good you are at it, how much money you make from it, how many people admire your skills, or how many goals you've scored, you still need a team who helps you along, who's not competing against you but rather giving you their gifts and talents so that you can score. And when you score they feel the same joy that you do because this is a team effort, just like family.

2. JOY IS WITHIN EVERYONES REACH. IT COMES FROM DOING WHAT YOU LOVE.
I'm convinced that even though David never got to play soccer, he felt as if he did, it gave him a reason to dream and not focus so much on his pain, it allowed him to feel passionate about something and it brought him many hours of entertainment, focus and excitement!

3.  YOU DON'T HAVE TO LOVE THE SAME THINGS OTHERS DO AND STILL FEEL JOY THROUGH THEIR JOY.
Even though I still don't care for soccer and wouldn't sit to watch a game by myself including the World Cup Finals, I have enjoyed every second that I've watched my brother, children, uncles, cousins, classmates, friends, neighbors play or get excited watching their team win. I get emotional when one of the countries where I have lived and felt at home wins a game. I have a foster son from Croatia that I haven't seen for years but I know how much he loves Soccer, so every time I hear the Croatian team won a game I think of him with love and joy.

Life is a simple game we play at every moment that doesn't require much, especially when we can play it together as a team.

"I Learned it All from Soccer"

Hugs xoxo
@nit@

The Storyteller...

It's been a while since I wrote, for me writing takes mostly inspiration, in other words I have to be "In Spirit", but it also takes time, commitment, passion, heart or at least a couple of those components and lately my life is undergoing many changes, twists and turns and I'm focusing mostly on that.

I get inspired to write about something all the time, but lately when that happens my mind is either too tired to let the words flow or I'm doing something else at the moment.

I'm convinced that I was born to be a "Storyteller". I believe I've always known that but what I didn't know when I was growing up was that you're not supposed to postpone what "You're Born to Be", judge yourself for the way you do it or compare with others that do it as well. I grew up knowing that I had to do better than I did, I was told that by my parents, teachers, surrounded by others who did do it better than I did, I just got by. Looking back I realize that one of the reasons I never became passionate about anything while I was growing up like others did was the way school was taught and my own personal abilities to learn.

Now that I've been working for the school system and see how diligent they are at addressing every single child and teaching them the best way the child learns better, I realize how much of the education I was offered I missed because I just couldn't focus on all that information they offered me, I could retain some things but others I couldn't, my mind would wonder into this Magical World of Storytelling.

I could make up stories about anything as far back as I can remember. I believe that if school had been taught in a Storytelling manner I would have learned better, but it took me till I was living alone, on my own for the first time in my life, in my late 50s to realize this and now in my 60s I've only begun to scrape the surface of all those stories that I've held inside for so many years that seem like so many lifetimes ago, now only a handful of those millions of stories are still somewhat clear in my mind.

There are many ways that we engage in stories, it can be something as simple as someone next to us riding the bus home at the end or the beginning of the workweek, a total stranger we had never seen before or most likely will never see again, he or she has a story to tell like we all do, all that story needs is an audience other than yourself so it can be told, so if you were to engage in a short conversation with that stranger you may know things about them that could change your instant interpretation of them while perhaps identifying with a part of their story. And just by you listening to their story you are allowing it to be told. The person telling their story will get some sense of relief because having a story in your mind can weigh you down or excite you and by being able to tell someone about it you're either sharing on the burden or the excitement while connecting through it with another soul.

This is more evident than ever in this era of Technology, all you have to do is look at almost any site, especially those with platforms that lend themselves to the telling of one's own personal story which are in fact the most successful ones, ie. Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Instagram, Youtube, any dating site, but it doesn't even have to be just Social Media it's also any company that has created a Website,

I know at least for myself that if I'm going to look at a company I have the habit of looking at the area where it says ABOUT US and the reason I do that is because I like humanizing the experience no matter if it is to buy a pair of shoes, some business cards or deposit at the Bank, I feel more of a connection when I realize there is someone behind all these words on a screen that are offering me a product or a service. Just like we did before the Internet changed the way we live our lives.

The other day I came up with some quotes that made a lot of sense to me:

"The plain fact is that the Planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restores, storytellers and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people with moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success the way we have defined it".
~ David W. Orr - Ecological Literacy: "Educating our Children for a Sustainable World".

"The purpose of a Storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon".
~ Brandon Sanderson - "The Way of Kings".

We all have a story to tell and we all have the need for someone to listen to our story and at least for myself I want my story to be an ADVENTURE!

 Envision your story on a large movie screen and ask yourself "Would I go see that movie, is it interesting, will it hold my attention, is it going to make me laugh and cry and feel every emotion intensely, do I like how the music in the background makes me feel, did it teach me something, was it worth my time, how do I feel when I walk out of the theater, uplifted and energetic, sad and drained or perhaps with anger, fear or despair?

Would I read the book and buy the movie when it comes out on video so I can watch it again and again or will it be one of those movies that we see once when it comes out on TV in the weee hours of the morning when there is nothing else to watch and when you're 1/2 way through the movie you realize you already saw it once and didn't care for it?

Go make your life what you want it to be so you can be in total harmony with the story you tell. Believe me it's worth it, I know, I'm The Storyteller....

Hugs xoxo
@nit@

Dreams. they are never in the place you expected them to be...

"I have led such a little life,

I have allowed myself to lead this little life,

when inside me there is so much more.

And it has all gone unused, and now it never will be.

Why do we get all this life if we don't ever use it?

Why do we get all these feelings and dreams and hopes if we don't ever use them?

That is how Shirley Valentine disappeared to,

she got lost in all this unused life."

~Shirley Valentine~

Live Life with Passion!!!

Hugs xoxo

@nit@

Dreams, they are never in the place you expected them to be...

There is so much to life, we must experience!

"Why do we get all these feelings and dreams 

and hopes if we don't ever use them? "

~ Shirley Valentine ~

Live your Life with Passion!

Hugs xoxo
@nit@

I'll vote for him ANYTIME...

I think the best way to describe what it takes to make it to where you want to be in life, is to listen to someone like this kid. You can feel the passion in his words and see it in his actions, and though he is only 17, not only does he know what he wants, he already has it, (very well deserved) and you can tell how getting to where he is has been a lot of fun for him.

It takes that combination of desire, belief, passion and action. I sure enjoyed watching this, hope it inspires you.

Hugs xoxo

@nit@