Irrational Monica in dreamy Portugal-the country where the buildings of the State institutions are painted in pink, where you go to work at 10 o'clock just to have a place from where you could go away and have a "bica"-this is my favorite coffeeeeeee-well, it is just an espresso but I love it-and the place where you socialize with the grocery sales persons and all your neighbors.

I know I am passionately in love with this place because I am irrational-yes, I have to confess-but I know it will go away (not my love, nooooo), just my crazy irrational state of mind. I discovered this today when I was thinking that I should breathe this air more properly and fill up my lungs with the fresh and clean air of Portugal.... so I breathed in carefully and thoroughly and enjoyed that for a while ....and then I realized that I was in the middle of a street full of cars....so this is when I figured out that this must be crazy love. But I like my love and I like thinking that all these beautiful feelings that I have must go somewhere in the Universe and stay there, just to come back when I need them most or when it is their time :-) The dilemmas of the day are: how strong do you have to wish for a thing so that it could become reality and what happens with this love I told you about....I haven't discovered the secret yet, but if I do, I will let you know the answer so that you can fulfill your beautiful, secret dreams too.

The Day

I think God wants to cheer me up in the morning so the first thing He does when I wake up is to offer me different kinds of presents-knowing that I like colors He sent Monet and Turner and other great painters at the same time to paint the sky for me ... and I was happy :-))

This is what nature "does" to me every single morning-a perfect performance of colors and beauty, and I have to do nothing-just to look and enjoy every single second.

:-))

A Walkthru with Kathleen Connally from squigglebooth on Vimeo.

Perfect day

When magic has to happen it just happens, it comes to you and you are heading in the right direction like a magnet. This is what I did too. I had no idea where to go, just jumped in my car, followed the seagulls and smiled at the Sun. At a given moment, I decide to stop at the first beach that "gets in my way"-so there it is, praia Grande, close to Colares. I've been there before, about two times, but it is not a place where I go very often. I stop, get into a shop, get some raspberry ice-cream, smile at a worried salesman, he smiles back and he seems to be happy...I go out with my books, sit on a bench and then.....magic begins :-))

I see somebody stopping just in front of me, it was a friend of mine with his girlfriend-I haven't seen him in years so that was a nice surprise especially that I want to say goodbye to so many people but never get to schedule anything given my crazy program. I couldn't believe my eyes. I was there for 5 minutes and there he was....




I think the effect of my very spiritual book placed me soon into the middle of the beach reading. I had no idea what I was waiting for, just enjoying sooooo much the day and the Sun. I guess in a previous life I must have been an Egyptian Sun worshiper because otherwise I cannot explain my CRAZY love for the Sun. My friends know that sometimes I even talk to him to get out of the clouds and most of the time he does that-and very soon :-) but hey....you would think I am crazy :-)




I decide to take a walk and ..... get to see one of the most beautiful, overwhelming serene sunset I have ever seen in my life. I don't know how it manages to surprise me every single time. It is like the first time I see a sunset, it is like the first time I get to hear the Ocean and I am completely amazed and transposed to another dimension. Really to another dimension, where nothing really matters, where everything is love, where all the worries are gone and my heart is so happy.

I swear I have included in my ritual the "love declaration" for Lisbon. I wake up in the morning, I look at the amazingly beautiful colors that I get to see from my balcony, I think they are surreal and that I actually live in a dream and I say out loud in Romanian "I love you Lisbon"...and then...just like if she could understand I say it also in English and I do my best to say it in Portuguese with the most authentic accent ... and then I am sure that she does understand....I treat her like a human being - and I am sure she is more than a human being....so alive and beautiful. Love.

Amalia Day

I know almost nothing about Amalia Rodrigues. I visited though her lovely house close to where I live (in São Bento) and I listen to her songs from time to time - I think I will soon develop a nice obsession with the Portuguese language when I get home and I believe that I will learn her songs by heart (like I do it with Mariza and sing out loud along with her while I drive :-)). I know though that Amalia had a very close friend, Doina Zugravescu (a Romanian lady), who has a house in Lisbon (you can find her on Google) and I wonder what she could tell the world about Amalia. The nice exhibition that I saw was at Museu Berrardo (there is another one this year at Museu da Electricidade, but I haven't managed to see it yet-too many things that need to be done and seen :-) Have a lovely day!

Just a day

"I keep remembering one of my Guru's teachings about happiness. She says that people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you're fortunate enough. But that's not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don't, you will leak away your innate contentment. It's easy enough to pray when you're in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments" - Elizabeth Gilbert, "Eat, Pray, Love" :-)))







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The Matrix Day

My matrix day-wondering how powerful our thoughts can be, how perfect and yes, correct, life is, how everything flows according to us. If we could only understand and never forget that we guide life with our thoughts, that dreams can turn into reality very easily, that we all contribute to the "whole". Yes, I believe in this and I believe that our weaknesses (doubts, second thoughts, lack of consistency, imbalance) produce cracks in our own "system" and we end up in different points depending on that. I have been thinking about this lately-how I attracted certain things and people in my life, how I made these things and people go away-unconsciously I think I wanted that to happen, or because of my fears and doubts I opened huge cracks that unbalanced everything. This is why I like certain people and avoid others. I don't need negativity, I don't need second thoughts , I don't need doubts and uncertainty. Lisbon and Portugal have offered me the luxury of being able to dream, to ignore these people and situations, to let myself flow over this amazing country, to dream afar and project good things into the Universe. And for this I love this place. I do not know if it has to do with me, with my way of being also, but sure it does with this amazingly peaceful country. It is like you walk on peaceful land, where everything is in harmony, where the negativity is taken away by the strong wind and where the Sun shines happily. I love Portugal for this and I love Portuguese for being able to assimilate all these good energies-I know I don't like certain things in them, but I think that they posses this ability-to listen to nature, to their feelings and to be grateful for the little things that they get in life. Everything is so fragile and subtle and they know how to handle this. And all this harmony creates harmony, and all this lack of thinking creates that state of bliss where all the worries are gone.