The story of Pinocchio has been translated into 240 languages and is one of the most famous fairy tales in the world. Among all the insights that author Carlo Collodi tells us, there is one that most people seem to miss: Pinocchio’s Father Geppetto, is a craftsman who works with his own hands and tools. He is not satisfied with making just chairs and tables, like his colleagues: he wants to create “a marvelous puppet that can dance, fence and do flips.” Something never has done before. No other fable or story does a better job of narrating the extraordinary creativity of a person. Though Collodi probably did not imagine him as much, Geppetto is the forerunner of those who work with love, imagination, inventive verve and above all, passion.
Fairy tales were once called “fated tales.” Many fairy tales deal with conditions caused by fate, the restrictions of birth, spells cast and curses that must be faced and defeated or life won’t progress and love won’t prosper. Folk and fairy tales contain images that relate to issues that each of us are fated to struggle within our lives. They represent aspects of passion that are necessary for true transformations to occur.
We can’t become who we are at the core of ourselves unless the passion in us becomes recognized and released. If we accept our inner passion and learn to work with it, everything changes. Spells are broken, gifts are found, and talents serve their true purpose.
Following the lead of one’s inner spirit leads us to the aspects of the divine most in tune with our individual soul. Without being tuned into a genuine calling we are simply blind wanderers on the roads of life. Once we receive a calling that resonates with the pattern woven within us, we find a path and enter a pilgrimage that suits our soul. Such life-path requires that we risk ourselves in order to find ourselves.
The soul carries the original agreement that moves us to live in the first place. And, the divine companion and inner passion try repeatedly to remind us of the purpose set within. Each soul arrives with a natural passion intended to fashion something meaningful and beautiful from the raw materials of life.
Soul and sole are related words that have shared roots. The soul carries the meaning of “being the only one of its kind” an exceptional, unique and extraordinary person. And sole can also mean the bottom of one’s feet. In order to become a unique and extraordinary person, we must “walk our walk” and move the way our soul would have us move. We must find the original speech of the soul and become the vehicle of its true expression.
For those who live in the way that their soul intended and keep the original agreement that continually brought them to the dance of life, become uniquely shaped and solely made. They become a one-of-a-kind, the person that everyone can learn something from, the kind of passionate soul that no one can ever replace.
The original book version of Pinocchio is different from the Disney adaptation. Instead of a puppet turning into a boy as in the movie, the book tells of a boy turning into a real man by earning his own keep, taking care of his father, rolling up his sleeves and getting to work. In the book, there is no waving of magic wands Pinocchio has a dream and wakes up a real person. Geppetto passionately creates Pinocchio and author Collodi passionately creates a work of art that jumps from the page, freeing itself from just a physical book and becomes a transcendental myth, regardless of how it is told or in what language. In the end, we too have a choice as to whether we will wake up. Because there will be many things that catch your eye but only a few that catch the passion in your soul.
I went to see Fifty Shades of Grey and I am Fifty Shades of Mad. The truly torturous thing about this film is sitting through it. At face value, it’s a bad movie, with a bad story, bad characters, and bad dialogue. It’s not interesting, it has nothing significant to say, and it’s not even entertaining. If you think a film like this would at least provide truly erotic and daring sex scenes that will interest those viewers who showed up precisely to see those moments, you’d be wrong.
Love is in the air!!
Through the smoke and across the tables we were taken with each other right from the very start. A chance encounter turned into an enchanted evening, and then a magical life. Our own private cliché. The sort of thing people don’t believe in anymore. Love at first sight.
While preparing for the journey, you own the journey; once you step onto the path, the journey owns you. My friend Olga Mas and her friend Humberto Rodriguez, both attorneys from Miami invited me to join them on El Camino de Santiago, and I jumped at the chance to go on this medieval hike, a spiritual quest that others have taken for over a thousand years.
I met other pilgrims and heard their stories. There was a sense of camaraderie among us. We were pilgrims sharing a journey, not excursionists or holiday-walkers. We were pilgrims participating in an ancient rite during which we were invested with sacredness. Townspeople offered us something to eat or drink or asked us to light a candle for them or to embrace the statue of the St. James when we reached the cathedral in Santiago. People thought our prayers meant more because we were pilgrims. We had embarked on a spiritual adventure, one filled with significance and gifts of grace. I was in good shape, but I pushed my body to the edge of what I thought it could do and to my surprise the edge kept moving. This was the most difficult physical thing I had ever done. If it was easy more would do it, and it would not be a sacrifice or a pilgrimage.