Archives For hector garcia

Live.Love.Laugh.

August 5, 2010 — Leave a comment

love

One of the most popular phrases that we’ve all heard at least once and will continue to hear is that “life isn’t easy”.  It’s really not and for some it’s an every day balance between work, kids, school, activities, debt, relationships, friendships, play, and family.  If we’re not careful, life can beat the crap out of us and keep us down for long stretches of time.

But the hardness of life doesn’t have to defeat us or win.  We can choose everyday to fight back and allow the good things in life to supercede the bad.  We can make the choice to wake up every morning and be happy or find at least one tiny little thing to focus on that will keep our head above water for that day.  For some it’s their kids or mate.  For others it can be their faith in God.  Some even find it in a hobby, sport, or even their craft.  Whatever the case, I feel like there are at least three things that we can do everyday that will always make it good a one.

LIVE.

I’ve had someone tell me before, “I love the way that you live life”.  This was of course in response to seeing all the stuff that I do and how much fun I’m always trying to have.  Regardless of how tough things might be, I really do love life.  I enjoy living and experiencing all that life has to offer.  If I could afford it, I would travel the world and see as much of it as I could.  I do what I can now with what I have, but this life was meant to live and that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m a little kid in a man’s body per se, and yes, I do want to have as much fun as possible.  Just seems like the natural way to live.

Every morning when you wake up, choose to Live.  Don’t get caught up in the routines of life.   Make the most of everyday.  Treat yourself.  Have fun.  Take time out to have fun, however that may be.  And if you have a hard time treating yourself, get someone to help push you and force you to make time.  Take trips.  Go running.  Swim.  Ride a bike.  Do something good for someone else.  Give.  Dance, even if it’s by yourself in your home with the radio full volume.  Move yourself to get the most out of every single stinkin day of your life.  This life is too short to get caught up in the crap that it throws at us everyday.

LOVE.

I firmly believe that Life without Love is no life at all.  There are so many different forms of love.  There’s the love that you have for your kids or family.  There’s love that you would feel towards a friend.  And then there’s straight up falling in love, which is one of my favorites.  But love is essential if we are going to say that we’re “living life”.

I’ve been “blessed” with such a big heart and the ability to love and forgive so easily.  Sometimes it’s a blessing and sometimes it feels like a curse, but I definitely wear my heart on my sleeve and I’m not ashamed of it.  Those who know me well know that I have no problem expressing my feelings and sharing my heart.  Again, life is too short to keep what we feel bottled up inside and all to ourselves.  If I love someone why keep it inside?  Why not let that person know how much they are loved?  We all want to be loved and appreciated, so by me keeping that inside, I’m depriving someone from receiving one of the most powerful feelings and emotions we as humans could ever experience.

Open your heart today.  Allow yourself to love and be loved.  Don’t be afraid to wear your heart on your sleeve and let others know what you feel or think.  We’re emotional beings and were created to love.  Love with all of your heart.  There should be no such thing as loving with half of it anyway, right?  Choose to love today.  Give love today.  And if someone loves you, open your heart and receive it.

LAUGH.

Some research shows that by the time the average kid reaches kindergarten, he or she is laughing some 300 times each day.  Compare that to adults who only laugh about 15 – 17 times per day (men and women laugh about the same, just at different things of course).

I’m 38 years old, and I would have to say that my laughter count is more than likely way more than 17 and hopefully closer to that of a kid’s.  I love to laugh and I love making people laugh.  A day without any laughter would suck!  We all know how powerful laughter is too, because we’ve all had a friend or family member who has been down or sad and what is one of the first things that we try to do for them?  Yep, we try to make them laugh or bring a smile to their face.

Laughter just feels good.  It’s a physical and audible way of our bodies expressing happiness.  So be happy today and laugh.  Laugh alot.  Let the kid inside of you come out and play.  Again, life is too short to take it too seriously.  This life is over before you know it, so why not fill it with laughter and peeing your pants (that’s what happens when something is super funny).  🙂

Have a good day everyone.  Live. Love. Laugh.

– Hector

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A heart-shaped pen

March 24, 2010 — Leave a comment

lafraise

Those that know me well know that I’m a guy with a huge heart.  Not a huge physical heart of course (how would they know that?), but the other one.  The one that’s full of love and passion and lots of other stuff.  If I love something or someone, I pour my whole heart into “it”.  I believe that if you’re passionate enough about something, why only give it 50% of yourself?  Why not give 100%?  If you love someone, why only give a portion of your heart?  Why not give them all of it?  Right?

Well, this is how I live and this is what you’ll get if you know me and are a part of my life.  I doubt that I’ll ever be accused of not being passionate enough.  I hope I don’t?  Life is too short to simply be content and settle for whatever.  You can’t fake passion either.  It’s either in you or it’s not.  And if you ever have to question whether you’re passionate about something or someone, then you’re probably not.

With this said, there’s one thing that I’ve realized over the years that I am passionate about, and that’s writing.  Not just writing for the sake of writing, but writing what’s on and in my heart.  If you’re a close friend or family member, you may have received one of my heartfelt letters once or maybe twice.  They’re sometimes short and sweet, while other times they can be described as “novels”, as one dear friend described them.  In addition to my novels I simply love writing stories.  What’s funny is that i didn’t realize that until this year.  It’s been sitting there, waiting to come out and it’s coming out in the form of kid’s stories.  Don’t worry, I’ll be blogging about this later this week.

The written word is powerful though.  Words alone are powerful, but putting them down on paper or typing them in an email makes them permanent and brings them to life.  Words have the ability to tear down someone or lift them up.  The written word can make the difference between someone doing something great or someone giving up.  They can cause someone to fall for you . . . or run from you.

So, if you you’re going to write, at least do it with all of your heart.  If you’re going to send a letter to someone you love, be sure to give the recipient no room to question how you really feel.  Yeah, that’s right, put it all out there.  If someone needs advice or counsel and you feel you have some answers, don’t hold back, put it all in there.  Do it with care and use your words wisely.  Just be sure that your heart is inside.  Do that and you can be assured that your words will be nothing less than powerful.

– Hector

Note:  Graphic above is from the portfolio of artist Konstantin Shalev on Behance.net.

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My dad was tougher than yours.

March 9, 2010 — 2 Comments

momdad1

A conversation with a friend of mine earlier tonight brought to memory my dad, Jesse Garcia, who died when I was 10 years old.  Cancer was the guilty party and this happened in the Summer of 1983, June 19th to be exact.  It’ll be 27 years this June since he left us, and sometimes it really does feel like only yesterday that I was hanging out with the best, toughest, smartest man in the world.

Of course, at age 10, every dad is the smartest, toughest, most powerful man around, but my dad truly was a great man.  I have nothing but good memories about him and every time I hang out with my 70 year old mother, I drill her with questions about him that give me just a little bit more insight on who my dad really was.  Even though I was 10 when he passed away, i was still too young to retain solid memories.  There is a lot that is somewhat vague, which makes those conversations with my mom so valuable.

Like tonight, I sat with my mom for a couple of hours and learned about the initial diagnosis of his cancer.  I learned about how much pain my father had to endure and how strong my mom had to be for him.  I learned a little about what he wished for all of his sons and daughters and I witnessed a love that my mom still has for my dad even after being gone all these years.

So yeah, I have no problem expressing the sadness I sometimes feel when I recall not growing up with a father.  I can remember certain instances in life where having my dad by my side would have been awesome.  I remember being nominated for something in high school, and while all of the other students had their mom and dad waiting in line with them to go out on the football field, i stood there with only my mom.  I envied the others who had their dad standing there with them and I remember looking at my mom, trying to hold back my slightly tear filled eyes from leaking, and saying “Man, it sure would have been nice to have dad standing here with us right now, right mom?”.

When I see a father and son out in public and it’s evident that they’re not close, I sometimes want to go over and slap both of them in the back of the neck and tell them to snap out of it.  When I see a dad hanging out with his son(s) and enjoying his time with them and vise versa, I sometimes want to go over and shake his hand while letting his kids know how lucky they are.

I understand that not every family situation is perfect and there are probably some very good reasons why some people don’t grow up being close to their mom and dads.  I also know that certain situations take place later in life that put a wedge between us and our parents.  But whatever the case may be, I would give anything to be the 37 year old man that I am right now and have my dad in my life.  I would cherish and value every day that I could have with him and not take any of my time with him for granted.  I would still want to learn from him and simply be content with having someone in my life that I could call “dad”.

So whatever your case may be, and wherever you are in your relationship with your “dad” or father, I encourage you to do something different today.  Make a shift.  Step out and do something for him that you haven’t done for him in a long time.  Be the kid that he remembers you as and hug the crap out of him the next time you see him.  Buy him something that speaks volumes to the man.  Encourage him today.  Love him today.  And if you have to, forgive him today if he needs to be forgiven.  You don’t have to wait until father’s day to honor him and let him know that you were thinking about him.  Everyday can be father’s day.  Everyday.

– Hector

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Where the heck have i been?

February 18, 2010 — Leave a comment

whereami

I know, the last blog post in here is dated August 29th.  Those very few followers that I may have had for a little while are probably wondering where i’ve been or disappeared altogether, just as I have.  My intentions for this blog were to be a source of encouragement for readers and provide inspiration for others to “make a shift” and do something awesome with their lives.

Well, that would have been kinda hard over the past few months, especially with a lot that’s been going on in my life.  There hasn’t been a whole lot of encouragement to give out since I myself have been the one needing to be encouraged.  Yes, these past few months have been crazy and life changing.  Lots of ups and downs, but I’m working through them and learning from it all.

If i had anything to share with you today, it would be this.  This life is not easy and it was never intended to be “easy”.  We are going to face challenges everyday.  Some of them will be small and others will bring us to our knees, but they are what they are.  What we do with these challenges and what we learn from them is the big question.  We all handle trials differently.  Some of us try to run from them.  Others react negatively.  And some of us embrace them.  However you handle the challenges in your life, don’t do it alone.  Hopefully we all have family, friends, or other people in our lives that we can turn to for support.  And if you believe in God or a “higher” power, allow Him to walk with you through this.  He can prove to be the best friend you ever had while going through your “stuff”.

I’ll be back to blogging regularly very soon.  I love to write and it’s very therapeutic.  My next post will include an update about a children’s book i’m working on.  Thanks to a good friend of mine who helped push me to get it started.  I now need to follow through with it and get it done.  thanks for following and visiting.

– Hector

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