AFTER MY POEM...

After my poem was written, I recognise something more could be done, in fact I remember two moments in that morning, when I had the marvelous vision of the milky way in the African savannah.
The first moment was, before switching the light on, a glimpse through the window of the hut we where living in.

Thousands of pairs blinking white lights,
calling for hunting through the hut window,
trying to get ready, when the boundary of night
allow the Sun King to clear the shadow.

The second one was the splendorous dawn that convert the skyline into a huge circular ball

One more dayspring is going to bloom
without any stop for life in the grassland,
as the wheel of the mill is on the move,
again the skyline, turn into the Splendid Sun.

Life is particularly important in the first and last hours of the day, as animals use them for hunting. The rest of the day is so hot, that animals rest under the trees.

SYRIAN CHILDREN REFUGEES

What is happening in Syria at this moment, is a crystal clear case of genocide. Genocide is an intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group and in this case, the only action of separating children from their parents is genocide, amen of killing people who think different or belong to another sector of your religion.
Although the UN Charter gives States the right to operate without interference in their internal affairs, we are obliged to do as much as possible to promove an intervention in Syria as soon as possible, because most of the times in case of atrocities such as genocide and ethnic cleansing an intervention is possible, though usually they are late, as it will be in this case if States do nothing now.

TWO MORE POEMS

Extracted from "Book of longing" Leonard Cohen

The road is too long
the sky is too vast
the wandering heart
is homeless at last.


LORCA LIVES

Lorca lives in New York City
He never went back to Spain
He went to Cuba for a while
But he´s back in town again

He´s tired of the gypsies
And he´s tired of the sea
He hates to play his old guitar
It only has one key

He heard that he was shot and killed
He never was, you know
He lives in New York City
He doesn´t like it though.


There is also a beautiful adaptation of "The faithless wife" from Lorca but too long.

A DRAGONFLY POEM

Yesterday 4th of February, we were talking about poetry in classroom and I remembered a picture in my bedroom cottage, with a poem about the dragonfly of unknown author. Here it goes:


Dragonfly

Coming and going I can see the star
Touching grassland living with fairy
Loving dragonfly in my dream
Doubled wings flies really low

spreading news around the pond
here comes rain here comes rain
dragonfly is a weatherman.


 

PROYECTO HOMBRE. A NGO IN MOTRIL.

I am a member of this charity because I could see the need of this kind of NGO, especially for young people. The reason comes from the time I was a director in a high school, because I could see how big a problem can be, in a family whose son or daughter is involved with drugs of any kind.

Proyecto Hombre is a NGO that started to work in Spain in 1984. In Motril exist from 2000 in Barranco de la Higuera street, number 11. This NGO works for helping people who are addict to any kind of drugs and wants to be helped.

The first step is to come to the center, where experienced and prepared people knows you and your problem. Secondly the therapy is focused in getting an abstinence and breaking with the world of drugs. At the same time, a process of mature and self-confidence starts, with the goal of increasing the education and lost reponsability, so as, approaching the person to family and society. The assistance may be ambulatory or residential for 4 to 6 months. Special programs are prepared for young people and those in prison.

At this moment my contribution is only with money but not very far it will be as volunteer, giving part of my free time.

AUSCHWITZ 69 ANNIVERSARY

In October 2005, I was lucky to travel to Cracovia with my wife for a week. In the course of the trip we could visit beautiful and historic places such as Wawel castle, Vistula river, Wawel cathedral with the picture of Czestohowa Virgen, Wieliczka salt mines, the window of the room where John Paul II Pope lived during his stay in Cracovia and many more marvelous places, but, there was a special one that I´ll never forget in my life: a visit to Auschwitz concentration camp. The only view of a rail tresspassing the main door, makes you feel something strange. The face of the people who were coming into the camp was completaly different than the ones who were coming out. Everybody were sad and crying after having been inside a gas chamber or at the door of a crematorio or after having seen mountains of pairs of shoes, suitcases, etcetera.

Today is the 69 anniversary of its liberation and it is important to remember what happened.

Try this link to read something about this anniversary http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/01/27/auschwitz-survivors-mark-liberation-anniversary/4936177/

SHADOWLANDS. THE FILM.

The plot run in a college in Oxford University in 1952. Jack, the main character, is a proffesor and a writer, with a quiet and peaceful and relatevily happy life without any problems at all. From time to time, he explain the same lecture in differents places in the city of London, mainly focus to catholic people as, an Association of Christian Teachers, for example. The lecture try to teach, that God gives us the gift of suffering because He loves us and wants us to grow up, so, sometimes accidents and other terrible things happen without any answer to the question, where is God in this precise moment?, the answer Jack tells us is that God gives us the pain because the world is deaf, in his words " Pain is the God´s megaphone to arose a deaf world", so, like the hurt produced by the chisel of a sculptor in the block of stone, God forms the men and make them perfect.
After receiving a letter from an american woman and poem writer, he accept to be the host of her and her son Douglas. As she is in trouble, plaining a divorce from an alcoholic husband, Jack gets in charge of giving a solution to her situation and say yes to marry her, first in a technical way and secondly in a catholic way after having fall in love with her. Soon after, she is in pain with a cancer and before passing away they both have an idylic bit of time.
Jack´s life has changed completely and turn into a mess. Confussion, fuzzyness and anger are with him at any moment, once, when talking to his fellows, he says: "We are the rats in the cosmic laboratory".
At the end he really understand, by himself, the difference between the theory he has been talking in his lectures and the experience of losing a person who you love. Experience is a teacher he says.
When he is able to head his life with Douglas, he assume that pain is part of the happines. "That´s the deal", as she once said to him.

READING AND WRITING

Answering letters c and i from the Reading Comprehension Questions.

c) The three chapters that interest me more are:
Chapter 2 "Be measured" because it teachs us theimportance of being calm. In page 39 we can read, " In themidst of turbulent situations, Mandela is calm and looks for calm in others. In fact, he radiates calm".
Calm was neccesary after Chris Hani assassination when, instead of moving people into a civil war, he said with an icily calm, at the end of his speech on TV " This is a watershed moment for all of us.Our decisions and actions will determine wether we use our pain, our grief and our outrage to move forward to what is the only lasting solution for our country - an elected goberment of the people, by the people and for the people".

The end of the chapter is clear, " Don´t hurry, he would say; think, analyze, then act".

This chapter is important for me because I see myself in this way of thinking and acting as much in personal as in proffesional life.
Chapter 4 "Lead from the back" because not forgetting that you are the leader, you have to empower others to lead if thegoal is the same.
Mandela said " When you want to get a cattle to move in a certain direction, you stand at the back with a stick, and then you get a few of the cleverer cattle to go to the front and move in the direction that you want them to go. The rest of the cattle follow the few more-energetic cattle in the front, but you are really guiding from the back". "This is how a leader should do his work".

In this chapter, again appear the word Ubuntu, to express the idea of leadership as the idea that people are empowered by other people, that we become our best selves through unselfish interaction with others.
Leading from the back is a double win: You reach the results you want and introduce the idea of collective leadership. This is good for others and good for you.

This is what I have been doing during my late proffesional life.

Chapter 15 "Find your own garden" because it is what I am doing now thoug I am cultivating this garden long ago.
Everybody needs a place apart. A place where you can lose to find you.
In page 220 we can read "Mandela´s garden had become his own private island. It quieted his mind. It distracted him from his constant worries about the outside world, his family, and the feedom struggle".

He could grow his garden with effort, which was rewarded with the view of seeds turning into plants, stalks rising and leaves sprouting.

In page 223 " There is nothing more relaxing than concentrating on a pleasent task that engages the mind".

Mandela once said to Richard "You must find your own garden" what means that we need a place apart, something away from the world that give us pleasure and satifaction.


i) In terms of my own life the most important aspects to be taken are:

- The need of changing in life in order to improve and reach the goals proposed, no matter the personal cost.
- Effort is rewarded. In a world that you can not control, that defy and punish you, that seems hostile, you can meet a place apart to see the beauty.
- Believing that sometimes a both or maybe is closer to the truth than a yes or no.
- Empathy is a good way to find solutions.
- There is a time for others to steer the ship.
- Miracles, if they exist, are man-made. Hardwork and discipline help you push things in your own direction.
- The art of persuasion is "Don´t address the brains of others. Address their hearts".
- If you express your anger, your power will be diminished, while hiding it will be increased.
- Leading from the back can seem a camouflage for leading from the front.
- Don´t hurry; think, analyze, then act.
- In the midst of a turbulent situation be always calm.
- Courage may be the way to overcome fear.