The tender side of life

Sweet Child of Mine_Piano_(of Guns N' Roses)

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Just a few days ago someone told me one of the nicest things I had ever heard about me. Do you want to know what it was?

This story begins here.

I'm just like my dad and I love it. I owe him and am grateful for the many compliments I receive. The good and the not so good, and I don't say “the bad” I say the not so good on purpose because they are not bad things, but the things that cost us the most.

So that you understand me a little bit more, I will tell you about a conversation with my mother. My dad had already passed away a few years ago and I was visiting her after a therapy session. Talking to her she told me something that was true but like everything had two points of view. My mother, by way of understanding and as if wanting to encourage me, told me: “What's happening, Laurita, is that you are just like your dad. You are very innocent and so is was, he believed a lot in others and he was very sensitive and that made him suffer, just like you."

...What's happening, Laurita, is that you are just like your dad...

I have that moment recorded more than anything because of my reaction because if I was sure of one thing, it was that being just like my dad was beautiful and that others found me similar to him was a compliment. That's why in a second I responded convinced: “Yes, it's true, but it's not bad, it's good! Because being so sensitive and seeing the world with enthusiasm made him so inspired, open, funny and tender, the things that we all loved.” I was smiling when I told it to mom and I still smile when I tell it to you here. My dad also left me that eternal smile. Mom understood me right away because ultimately she loved all those same things about him. She just would have wanted me to suffer less in some situations.

So sometimes when I talk about my dad, even those who didn't know him tell me that I am just like him, that I describe him with the same qualities that they see in me.

Now that you are getting to know me better, you will understand very well why this story could not be told without talking a little about my dad.

I don't need to tell you that life alone brings us very sad moments, very hard blows and that despite everything we have to move forward. However, here I tell you my stories and how I live them so I continue.

Countless times, many people have talked to me about my great smile and my beautiful ways of speaking and they have told me that it catches their attention how even in my most difficult moments and even when I have to cry I always have a big smile for others.

The thing is that I feel the pain the same even if I smile and even when I feel like I can't give anymore, I still continue to see the world and others with love. So if I simply run into someone or if we chat about work or life, it is always from love, respect and the enjoyment of connecting with others. Because generating beautiful moments brightens our days. Have something nice at home or on the work desk, dress and perfume myself beautifully for myself first and then for others, give and receive smiles, show myself as I am because for each of us that must be the best, it brightens our days. , whatever happens.

...The thing is that I feel the pain the same even if I smile and even when I feel like I can't give anymore, I still continue to see the world and others with love...

So this week I had been having some very sad days, believe me when I say very, I mean very, and it wasn't easy for me to do things but at least I accomplished what I had set out to do. Among other things, I was lucky enough to do something that I had wanted to do for a looooong time, having a class on how to decorate cakes with meringue using manga. I was so lucky this time that among friends I found a cook-pastry chef who offered to come to my house to give me a class voluntarily without knowing me. Tell me something, how often does this happen to you? ...did you never say? Well, it had never happened to me.

This is how Virginia known as Cariño arrived at my house, on an almost stormy Monday. She is called Cariño (in Spanish) which means kind of darling, honey, sweetheart in English because she is Uruguayan-Venezuelan and from the years she lived in Venezuela she got used to saying “darling” to people and thus she earned her nickname in Uruguay. It even seems so fitting for this story that she is called that, that I think that if this were a play it would be great if her character was called that.

In baking class we talked about everything... well I talked about everything, about life, because I am very talkative and Cariño was surprised with the decoration of my “dollhouse” according to her (and many others) and that I am “a very packaging girl” (I had never heard that hahaha!) So I also told her about the things I have at home like... the Mickey's toaster.

When we talked about her nickname, her life in Uruguay and her journey to get here she was brief, reserved and she let on few things. She clarified that she would not have expected her nickname Cariño but she finally liked it and even she prefers to be called that. We also talked about setting limits, that it was one of my most recent learning still in progress, that I always take great care not to hurt others and... she looked at me and told me very seriously that it didn't happen to her like that, that when someone bothered her she went with everything in her response and did not measure. At that moment her face, her little eyes conveyed some pain, someone or something had really bothered her. But we didn't get into that topic, the talk continued jumping from one meringue to another and from one topic to another.

At one point she saw some tea bags in my kitchen, she asked me if we could use them and I took the opportunity to tell her that I had brought them from Turkey since I had recently been there. I was especially curious to know if she would like to go to Turkey and bingo! Right away Cariño told me that she would love to go to Turkey one day.

...Cariño told me ... that she would love to go to Turkey one day...

You may say, Enough Laura, tell us the end! Wait because you will see how in the end all the dots come together.

Cariño on her part, she had made it clear from the beginning that she didn't want to charge me because she didn't consider herself an expert in manga decorating. For my part, I wanted to thank her for all the great gesture she had with me and I had thought about what I could give her that would be special and that she would like. I had had an idea that morning and in the talk I knew it would be the best idea ever!

...I had thought about what I could give to her ...

Before he left I went to my room to look for a very cute T-shirt with the big Turkish eye on the front that I had brought from my trip to Turkey but without knowing who I was going to give it to. Several times I had asked me for whom would it be for because I don't usually bring gifts without recipients but this one was waiting for its destiny and Cariño had just told me that she would love to go to Turkey. So I prepared it for him as a gift with a card and gave it to her

I told her that many years ago I once entered a store and saw some string socks with drawings of the Eiffel Tower, hearts and they said Paris and of course I bought them because I wanted to go to Paris one day and when I bought them I told myself that That was my sign that one day I was going to go. And I went to Paris a few years later and went to see the Eiffel Tower every day of my stay, I was amazed! For this reason, I told Cariño that the T-shirt with the Turkish eye, brought from Turkey, was going to be her sign that one day she was going to visit Turkey. And I told her this very happy because that's how I felt.

...her sign that one day she was going to visit Turkey...

She asked me if I was serious about giving her that and she was so happy that she got in tears and when I asked her why, she gave me the best gift, she told me: “Because today you showed me the tender side of life.”

Without words, right?

When someone tells me things like that I can't help but respond: “It's because I'm just like my dad!”

Cariño: Thank you for giving me such an incredible compliment!

To life: Thank you for giving me such an incredible father!

To my parents, with love.