Live, and have no regrets

Months ago I wrote about losing my dear animal friend. How fast time goes by. There are days, when I’m too busy keeping my head up with studying and work, when I don’t think about him. But on other days, like today, he keeps coming into my mind. How much I miss him, the simple things, like running together through the bushes, his happy barks, his intelligent sparkling eyes.

Losing a loved one, whether it’s a person or an animal, is hard. And for everyone the grieving process is different. This is something important to remember, something that is often overlooked, but has to be respected.

So what I have learnt, felt, and thought, is subjective, it’s my story. But it is about something that unites all of us; life, and death. Without death, we wouldn’t be able to rejoice life. Without death, we wouldn’t be alive. Life and death are both antagonistic and complementary, both being part of our reality. Some might not like those ideas, but to me there is a certain beauty in this, in the essence of our existence. One of the lessons learnt from losing a loved one might thus be:

Live. Live every day, and make sure that when you look behind, you have no regrets. Live and be happy, grateful, that you may share your life with others. Our loved ones might leave us one day, but every single day by their side is precious, a blessing, and a reason to be happy. Death is inevitable, and I’m not subestimating the devastation it can bring to a persons life. But I am saying that we should all live more, in the here and now, and enjoy our lives and that of others.

And even when our loved ones are gone, they can still be an inspiration for wisdom and insights. From Casper, my animal friend, I learnt after his death to never, ever, undervalue life. Don’t throw it away, don’t get lost in unimportant matters. Live. Be. Love.  Yes, he was a dog, and not all people can imagine that a dog has been so important to me, but he has inspired me. He was a living being who with all his soul lived truly and freely. He showed me, with his death, to not waste my life.

To me, losing someone you love should make you value life more, not forsake it, throw it away, ignore it. Yes, I understand mourning, I understand grief, but at some point you have to embrace all the good. All those beautiful memories together, all the love and friendship. Don’t let grief shut out all those good things.

I’m still sad. Some days more than others. But that’s part of life. Even sadness should be seen as something good, although often people think it’s bad… Being sad about losing my dear animal friend means I’m alive, it means I cared about him. It means that whatever friendship we had, it was deep, strong, beautiful. A friendship between two species, that to me was so natural that I never once questioned it.

And what happens after death? I do not know the answers to that great mystery. All I know is that flowers now emerge from his beautiful last resting place, and that his soul roams freely, ever happy, loving and full of enthusiasm.

After all, death is just the next great adventure. 

Happy New Year/ Feliz Año Nuevo!!

Another year has passed. How fast time goes. And at the same time, how slow.

It has been a year of happiness, and grief. A year of personal accomplishments, and a year of losing my dear animal friend. It has been a year of travelling far away and near, both full of adventures and thrill. It has been a year of studying hard, working hard, and doing my best to be the best person I can be. I have tried to grow as a person, unravel my weaknesses and shaping them into strengths. In 2013 it was the first time I graded cum laude for a subject, that I donated money I had earned by myself to help abandoned dogs. The first time I lived like an adventurer for 10 days in a van travelling through the Pyrenees.

A year is never full of only good, or only bad experiences. Life isn’t like that. Life is…difficult, but not in the way most people believe it is. Life is difficult in the sense that, if you want to grow as a person and be the best possible you, you’ll have to work hard. Being tolerant, respectful, honest, loving, is not always easy. There are moments that you lose yourself on the road of life, due to stress, grief, or general feeling down.  There are moments when you know you’re not respectful toward yourself, or when someone tells you to change this or that, but have no idea how, because no one has ever told you how to be brilliant, loving, peaceful, harmonious, self-confident.

Because that is my goal for each year: To be a better person than the year before. A better person for me, in the first place, and for the world, in the second place. My goals are not to gain more material things, but rather to enrich my inner world. A goal, I believe without wanting to offend anyone, is one all should try to pursue. So instead of attempting to make resolutions for the New Year about that you will quit smoking, drinking too much, eating too much, spending too much money, why don’t you try this:

This year, you will try to be you. Yes. You. Only, and absolutely uniquely and sincerely you. You will learn to listen to your body and instinct, and find out that you are a beautiful human being who deserves to be loved, cherished and respected… by yourself, in first place, because that is what makes all the difference between being happy or not.  You will learn that, whatever you do, people will always criticize you, so the only thing you need to do is love your own decisions, not that others love your decisions. You will grow independent of others in the way that you don’t need their love to be able to love yourself, but at the same time you’ll become closer to people because you are able of loving yourself. 

This year, you will break up with routine, and start challenging yourself. Challenge yourself to be a better person to yourself, because; if you don’t treat yourself lovingly and with respect, who will?

And, like a raindrop in a lake, your actions will ripple across the surface, affecting lives of others more than you can imagine.

Now, the question for this New Year is: will you affect the lives of others in a positive, or in a negative way? It’s all up to you.

My new year’s resolution is thus: working on myself to become a better person, in order to change the world. Because you can attempt all your life to change the world, but if you don’t change, neither will the world. 

Thank you

Ha pasado otro año. Que rápido va el tiempo. Y al mismo tiempo, que lento.

Ha sido un año de felicidad y tristeza. Un año de logros personales, y un año de perder a mi querido amigo animal. Ha sido un año de viajar a sitios muy lejanos y a sitios cercanos, ambos llenos de aventuras e ilusión. Ha sido un año de estudiar mucho, trabajar mucho y dar todo de mí para ser la mejor persona que puedo ser. He intentado crecer como persona, desentrañar mis debilidades y convertirles en fortalezas. En 2013 fue la primera vez que saque una matrícula de honor para una asignatura, la primera vez que doné dinero que había ganado yo misma para ayudar a los perros abandonados. La primera vez que vivía como una aventurera durante 10 días en una furgoneta viajando a través de los Pirineos.

Un año nunca está lleno de experiencias que son sólo buenos o sólo malos. La vida no es así. La vida es... difícil, pero no de la manera que la mayoría de la gente cree que es. La vida es difícil en el sentido de que, si quieres crecer como persona y ser el mejor posible tu, tendrás que trabajar duro. Ser tolerante, respetuoso, honesto, amoroso, no siempre es fácil. Hay momentos que te pierdes en el camino de la vida, debido al estrés, tristeza o una sensación general de desánimos. Hay momentos en los que sabes que no eres respetuoso hacia ti mismo, o cuando alguien te dice que tienes que cambiar esto o aquello de tu mismo, pero no tienes idea de cómo, porque nadie te ha enseñado cómo ser brillante, amoroso, pacífico, armonioso, con confianza en uno mismo.

Porque ese es mi objetivo para cada año: lograr ser una persona mejor que el año anterior. Una persona mejor para mí, en primer lugar, y para el mundo, en segundo lugar. Mis metas no son ganar más cosas materiales, sino más bien  enriquecer mi mundo interior. Una meta que creo, sin querer ofender a nadie, es una todos debemos intentar alcanzar. Así que, en lugar de hacer resoluciones para el Año Nuevo sobre que vas a dejar de fumar, dejar de beber demasiado, comer demasiado, gastar demasiado dinero, ¿por qué no pruebas lo siguiente?:

Este año, intentaras ser tú. Sí. Tú. Sólo, y absolutamente única y sinceramente tú. Aprenderás a escuchar a tu cuerpo y tu instinto, y sabrás que eres un hermoso ser humano que merece ser amado, apreciado y respetado ... por ti mismo, en primer lugar, porque eso es lo que hace la diferencia entre ser feliz o no . Aprenderás que, hagas lo que hagas, la gente siempre te criticarán, así que lo único que tienes que hacer es amar a tus propias decisiones, no que otros aman tus decisiones. Te harás independiente de los demás en la manera que ya no necesitas su amor para ser capaz de amarte a ti mismo, pero, a la vez, te sentirás más cercano a la gente, ya que serás capaz de amarte a ti mismo.

Este año, romperás con la rutina y empezaras a desafiarte a ti mismo. Aceptaras el reto de ser una mejor persona para ti mismo, porque, si no te tratas a ti mismo con amor y con respeto, ¿quién lo hará?

Y, como una gota de agua en un lago, tus acciones se propagarán por la superficie, afectando la vida de los demás más de lo que podrás imaginar.

Ahora, la pregunta para este nuevo año es: ¿afectaras a las vidas de los demás de una manera positiva o de manera negativa? Todo depende de ti.

Mi resolución de año nuevo es, por tanto: intentar ser una mejor persona, con el fin de cambiar el mundo. Puedes intentar toda tu vida cambiar el mundo, pero si no cambias, tampoco lo hará el mundo.

Gracias