Valentine's Day Letter from 2009!

VALENTINE'S DAY LETTER (12 February, 2009)

Soon we will begin Lent again, leading us to Pascua, or Easter.

 What is Pascua (Easter)?  It is a passage from the old to the new.  A time for conversion.    For example an adolescent who comes from a violent or difficult environment often searches for relief in peers who do drugs or drink, etc.  My father used to joke at election time, "it is a choice between two evils!"  This is something like being "between the rock and the sword"!

Sometimes, in order to protect oneself from an aggressive, difficult situation, we chose another aggressive situation which is less aggressive and gives us a "way out" of the more aggressive way.

 One of my four sisters, Penelope (penny) once told me, "women have made changes, but men have not changed".  My sister is single.  She never married or formed her own family, although she has a very active life, and has done many charitable activities.  She worked for more than 30 years in the USA government.

 The big question this year is, "can man change and what is really needed in that change?"  Is there a promised conversion and what is that all about?

 Have women really made a positive change for the better, or are many of us simply mimicking men's bad patterns and habits?

 These questions will be the center of my song-poems this year and I hope to shed some light on these matters.  This is coming from a woman who has lived in marriage by Argentine law for more than 30 years, with three children (one of which I gave in adoption to another woman, because I was too young and unable to take care of him).  I am active in the Catholic Church, a member of Legion of Mary, and have read about, questioned, contemplated and studied these matters.

 Professionally, an English teacher, certified as a legal secretary, leather crafts person, and now taking a ceramics class.  Song-poems sprout suddenly and naturally from my heart.  I studied literature and (esp.) Poetry from my younger days and also the Spanish language.  I began being familiar with the Bible from when I heard verses from the time I was a baby.  More than studying these things, I had a great, tender love for them.  The love Saint Valentine professed is this commonwealth love, and it is what the first settlers to the English colonies in North America tried to build.

 I delved into eastern religions as an adolescent and did yoga and have done many breathing exercises.

 I believe all of the great thinkers get back to love and mercy as the best solutions to a conflict of existence and that Jesus paved the future with this, and put the cornerstone.

 More than telling everybody what to do, I open up the questions, "what can we do to truly make a better world... for all of us?  I hope to inspire in this process.

 I look forward.  The only true reality really before me is old age. So what else can I do but prepare for the obvious!

 I believe prayer and contemplation have been the key to help me through troubles that seemed to have no solution, and that when family and friends are supportive it makes all the difference.

 I’m not exactly sure when the line of old age is reached, but I still fight against that (like my father is also doing and my Aunt Regina, aged 97)!  So this is especially dedicated to my

FIDEL ... Y ... DAD!

                                                          LOVE, KARLA

Dad and Aunt Regina have both made their final "Pascuas", but we are still alive!

LIFE IS CHANGE!  HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!