To My Future Children

Another Christmas has come and gone, and what a beautiful time it has been to spend time with all of your loved and hopefully your family. Family is truly what makes the holidays such a wonderful time. It allows us to slow down in whatever is going on in our lives and actually spend quality time with those that we call "Mom", "Dad", etc. These past few weeks I've thought more and more about family and what it means. During the holidays in the Catholic faith we not only celebrate the Birth of Jesus our Savior but we also celebrate the Holy Family, Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. During mass this past Sunday, the priest mentioned something that left me looking more deeply into the meaning of family. He mentioned that beyond any job or career that we choose, we are untimely called to be good Mothers, Fathers, Brothers, Sisters, etc. It sounds so simple yet within our own families we sometimes struggle the most to show our brotherly love. The brotherly love that God has asks of us to "Love one another as we love ourselves".

In my personal life I have strived to be a good daughter, sister, and friend. Of course with many times that I have failed to do my simple job. Over the year however, I  have come to realize and it has actually helped me to see my family differently and appreciate them more, and love them more is the fact that they are not mine. Sounds a little crazy but it is true. My family is not my own, they belong to God. He has let me borrow them. He let me borrow these people I call mom, dad, brothers, and sisters, and a few friends to take care of them for him. To help them and guide them closer to him. One is not born out of thin air. You may not know me but if we have anything in common it is that, that we have people we are called to take care of. I know things are not always great with our parents or siblings, but we must to our best to not turn our backs on them. We have to consider that maybe your own parents did not have a good childhood, and that they need you to show them the love they did not receive. As children we can also teach our parents and vice versa learn from our parents. We are born with this roles to play, yet there is no exact script to follow. This job is learned through getting closer to God and also by looking at the Holy Family as an example.

As my family prepares for our second niece from my oldest sister, I have come to contemplate my own future family. One that is non-existent at the moment, one that if it God's will for me to have, I will. We are not taught how to be a Mother, or a Father. The priest this past Sunday also mentioned that it is easier for a man to become a father, than for a child to have a real father. I must agree, I feel that as a society we treat the amazing gift of birth like it is some ordinary. I am still astounded by the fact that women can create life right within their own bodies. As someone that has never had a child of their own I can only imagine the incredible bond that is created as your body creates a baby. I have heard many stories of the heartaches that mother's go through for their children, because a mother can only do so much for their children until the child begins to make their own decisions. I have come to realize that now matter how good of a mother one is, one cannot control their children's choices or make them for them. So I have begun to pray for my children. I look at the Holy Family and hope to the be the Mother that God wants me to be for my children. I know the roles we are called to play are not easy, and we must pray that we do them the best of our abilities. I encourage those that have children and those that do not yet to pray for your children because they will one day grow and make their own choices. Also, do not forget we are a children also and must care for our parents and pray for them too.

Feeling very inspired I have also wrote a little prayer for my future children.

Prayer for my Future Children

Dear unborn child of mine, If God wills it one day I will be your Mother here on earth
I can only imagine your eyes upon mine as we see each other for the first time
I only hope to be like Mary that stood by her son Jesus through all of his life here and after
I anticipate to teach you so much the most important lessons being to love and to forgive
I can only imagine all of the laughs and times of joy we will share
I am praying for you already because I know this world can be cruel but it is also beautiful
I hope you are a healthy, happy child and find the purpose God has brought you into this world for
I also pray that you are given a good Father to show you the many things that I cannot like Joseph did for Jesus
I anticipate the day when I can give you all of my love, as for now I will share it with those around me, but know that a loving mother awaits to hold you in her arms one day.
May your guardian angel protect you and take care of you always.

With all of my love, Diana M. 

Three Kindergarten Lessons For All the Ages

Halloween 2014; a time to reflect

Well my birthday has arrived, yup I am a Boo Baby, a Halloween monster, and of course a little witch. I am used to this every year and I love it. I love my birthday yet this year as it approached I began to feel a little anxious, but excited. 25 seems like such a milestone, a moment to really stop, and realize WHOA! I am about to be a quarter of a century old. I am halfway to fifty. Yikes! I think my friends have done a good job of getting into my head. It really is just another year that I am blessed to live.  It is a moment to stop and reflect if the path that I am taking and my daily decisions are helping me or hurting me.

As I've reached 25 and have tried to take a look at my life. I realized that through the different stages of life that we live, and as we mature and gain wisdom little has changed on my perspective to life. I began teaching Kindergarten Catechism (teaching of the Catholic faith) when I was seventeen. Even though, I may have thought that I was teaching those precious children, it was they that have taught some of the most valuable lessons that I try to live everyday.

  1. Live Each Day to the Fullest

I have always enjoyed being around children. I used to call myself a "certified babysitter", from how much I was asked to baby sit. Many times after babysitting and after teaching Sunday school I would end up being exhausted from trying to keep up with their energy level. This lesson, though it may have been exhausting to learn was to live each day to the fullest. At the end of their day, most children are exhausted. Exhausted from playing, learning, and growing so much. They truly put 100% effort in each day. They are the hardest working little people I know, solely because they are living each day to the max. I hope to continue to live out this lesson in my life and always give a 100% in my days because the one thing we know as adults is that they are not guaranteed.

2. Have Tantrums, Not Grudges or Hate 

As I turn 25, I strive to be like children more and more everyday in their behavior. I truly consider them friends, and treat them each with the respect of any human being. To be completely honest I probably trust them more then many adults. Children do not know what real hate is. They do not hold grudges, at least not the ones I have met. They do not lie with intention to hurt anyone, many times their intentions are good and pure. The lesson here that it is okay to have tantrums now and then. We all have them. We all come to points of frustration, but after our tantrums are over, let go of any anger or hate, and do not hold grudges. Children many times throw tantrums but minutes after they are quick to hug and apologize.


3. Love Unconditionally and Purely

I am mesmerized by children's ability to put their tiny ounce of pride aside and apologize. Their willingness to explain that they lied only to find that their intentions were pure. I am most astounded by their ability to see beyond what is on the outside, and see each other for who they are on the inside. Children do not pick their friends  for the color of their skin, their language, income, or economic stability. An observation of mine is that many times as we age, we begin to value people for the materialistic things that they have and offer us, not the genuine person that they are. Over the materialistic things that the world has to offer, and the heartaches that happen to us, many times we continue to let pride into our hearts which is the root of many of our problems. This lesson to love unconditionally and purely is one of the most important ones. If we take this lesson to love unconditionally without expecting anything from anyone in return, with pure love, I think we will find ourselves happier and more fulfilled.

I strongly believe that having a childlike outlook to life is one of the secrets to happiness. They have an amazing way of enjoying life, not really knowing hate, fear, or anguish. For those that surround me as I continue to age I will continue to have tantrums that last seconds, my laughs will be loud and uncontrollable, and my heart like that of a child. I encourage you all to listen to the children around you, you will be surprised how much you can learn from them.They ultimately teach us many lessons that as adults we find more difficult to learn and incorporate into our daily lives.

Scriptures for Reflection

Blessing of the Children,  Matthew 19: 13-14
Then the children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said, "Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

Duty to Live in the Light, Ephesians 5: 8-14 
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth. Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness; rather expose them, for it is shameful even to mention the things done by them in secret; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light.

Change through Courage

 My take on "Stolen Education", and the importance of how it has effected our society today. 

In March of this year as a graduate assistant for the Office of Diversity & Inclusion at Tarleton State I was given the task to plan a culture excursion for the multicultural ambassadors, a group of students who value diversity and represent equality and inclusion in all forms and fashion. In searching for activities and events I came across a documentary screening on systematic discrimination in Texas schools. The documentary was called "Stolen Education", and it was going to be shown at the Institute of Texan Cultures on one of the days we would be in San Antonio, TX. The name itself spiked a lot of curiosity and I knew it was an event we had to attend.  "Stolen Education" documents the untold story of Mexican-American children who challenged discrimination in Texas in the 1950s. Hernandez vs. al. Driscoll Consolidated Independent School District, is one of the first post Brown desegregation court cases to be litigated or filed.

This year we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act in July 1964. It was discrimination case like this one that led to the major civil rights movement of the 1960s. “Stolen Education” depicts a story of a fight for equality and change. It is a story of the untold truth not found or discussed in many books that directly effects many in our community today. I cannot begin to stress how important our history is and the role it continues to play in our daily lives and decisions. It is in our history that allows us to see the struggles and triumphs of our ancestors. It is in understanding the past that we are better capable of understanding our present state and make better decisions for the future. It is in our history that we begin to value what we are fortunate to have because of those that lead the way and created change through courage.

 Till this day this documentary has been one of the most inspiring to me. Not only because of the courage demonstrated but because of how unaware I was of this vital part of history for many Hispanics. This documentary clearly addresses  discrimination that the Hispanic community went through which in return has caused a lost for the beautiful Spanish language in many families and a culture that is trying to be revived in our society. This discrimination has now turned into discrimination within our own Hispanic community. Where the new generation of Hispanics now suffer discrimination for looking Hispanic and having a Hispanic name and not knowing the language. No one truly knows the consequences of our actions. Those children that went through that difficult time in society had good intentions of protecting their children. Together as a society we shall not look at our neighbor and assume anything of them. Today, our society is so unique diversified by cultures and languages, that there is no room for hate. We should focus on Love for it does not know race, ethnicity or language, it is transparent.

~ Diana Esperanza Martinez

Letting Go

                                                              Follow me on Twitter: @dianamtz08 or Instagram @Lovely_diannna

In the spirit of the Disney movie "Frozen" and that awesome song "Let it Go" that we keep hearing over and over. I thought "Letting Go" was appropriate and needed to be talked about. It is something that I have in the past few weeks understood better than I have ever in my life. Letting go seems to be one of the hardest lessons in life. We go through situations in life that sometimes leave us well... with a bad taste in our mouth. Situations that cause us to act a certain way towards an individual or an experience like a bad break up or resentment towards someone for something they said or did. It is evident in our actions when people say things like "oh I don't like that because my ex used to do that" or when we assume things of others from past experiences without giving them a chance to prove themselves. We hold on to so much and sometimes just cannot seem to let it go. Do we mentally block ourselves from overcoming them? I really think we do. Maybe we fear facing our emotions and realizing that we are weak. When we hold on to something that usually means we are not strong enough to face reality. We would rather hold on to the hurt, anger, jealousy, bitterness, and resentment than learn to cope with our emotions and learn to forgive. Forgiving is tough because it requires us to put our pride aside and become vulnerable. Pride is the main vehicle that tells us that we should NOT be the first ones to apologize, that we should NOT be the first ones to talk about our emotions or how something makes us feel. As humans we both have good and bad qualities. People don't realize that just how you feed your body nutrients, you need to feed yourself spiritually also. 

What I mean is if you keep feeding "Pride", you will become more prideful. If we keep feeding those bad habits and that negative way of thinking we become more immersed by it. If you need to visually picture it think of someone who is obese spiritually. That means they are heavy with emotions carrying resentment, anger, bitterness, and they therefore become heavy with with all of these burdens. So heavy to the point where they feel down, lost and hopeless because they have piled and piled so much emotion. However, if we learn to LET GO of some of those feelings we spiritually become lighter and more spiritually fit (new term I think I just invented). Just like someone who is trying to get in shape they try to feed themselves the right nutrients, we need to feed ourselves the positive things in life. We should be conscience of what we are feeding ourselves spiritually with the choices we make just like with real food. For example, even though those Twinkies are delicious you, after you eat one or ten you consciously now feel guilty because you ate it. So I want to encourage you all to be more conscience of what you feed yourself spiritually day to day. Is it weighting you down or is it helping you get more spiritually fit? Forgiveness and letting go is such a beautiful and rewarding thing to do no matter what age or stage in your life you are in. Letting go of any hurt, pain, and even memories is not easy, but it is ever so freeing. Yes, we are meant to learn lessons from our mistakes, but we are not meant to dwell on them. Can you imagine how heavy those things weigh on us? Letting go ultimately means giving control away. By letting go you are setting yourself free of even some choices that you did not make for yourself. We did not have the choice of where we were born, or to be raised in a single parent house hold or to be short, tall, black, white, brown, gay, straight, rich or poor. We should not dwell on what we cannot control, we should embrace who we are, and more then anything let go of whatever is holding us back. Ultimately, letting go means letting God step in and let it be what he has planned it to be. 

Lastly, I want to share this amazing poem that was shared with me. Read it, and then reread it again and again and again. I also want you all to remember that travelers pack light, so they can travel further. So lets work on letting go of things that are just weighting us down, and not letting us be happy with who we are and where we are in life. 

Pack light my friends, we are going far! 

PS. I am sorry for my cheesiness, I couldn't help myself :)


"To Let Go Takes Love"

To let go does not mean to stop caring
It means I can't do it for someone else
To let go does not enable, but to allow
Learning from natural consequences.
To let go is to admit powerlessness, which
means the outcome is not in my hands.
To let go is not to care for, but to care ABOUT.
To let go is not to judge, but to allow another to be him or herself.
To let go is not to be in middle arranging all the outcomes
but to allow others to determine their own destinies.
To let go is not to be less protective, it is to permit another to face reality.
To let go is not to dominate but to be willing to let things happen.
To let go is not to betray the past, but to have faith in the future.
To let go means to fear less, and love more.

 By: Unknown author

The Hardest Part is Starting

Before I start my journey of blogging I want to introduce myself. My name is Diana Martinez, I was born in Mexico and raised in Texas. I am 24 years old and I am what I like to think a pretty average girl living in an extraordinary world. Not extraordinary like I am a millionaire and have everything I could possibly want, but because I choose to see the beauty of life even through our struggles. For some time now I have wanted to start a blog to tell my story. Not because I think my life is the greatest story, but because I belief that we each have a story to share and that we should share it. Also, I want to leave something for my future children to know how I was when I was younger. Along the way if I can help, educate, motivate, and encourage even just one person by sharing my journey then that would be the best blessing of all. As the years have passed and I've seen myself grow I have come to realize more and more each day that I am doing "okay" in life. It is important to stop and realize and even evaluate your life. If there is something you do not like, Change It! You have the power, its your life! It is important to recognize your struggles and triumphs and to look back at your life and see how far you have come. Maybe you have had some tough years recently, but look at where you are now? Are you at a better place than you were 2-3 years ago? I am proud to say that I am. The past few years have been tough from graduating college to filing for divorce at the same time. From job hunting to building relationships I had let fall through. Life is constant journey full of magic and wonder and that is how we should look at it. Don't let your problems define who you are. Live life like a child, full of Hope. Most importantly you are not alone in this world. We can do this together. I have not completely thought of what my blog would be like, but I have now just done the hardest part of doing anything, I "started". So here we go on this journey together. 

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