I Have an Absolute Faith in the Capacity of Human Beings for Good

I Have An Absolute Faith in the Capacity Human Beings for Good

A short overview of my life

I am from Colombia. My country is the gateway to South America, blessed by the waters of both the Pacific Ocean, to the west, and the Atlantic Ocean, to the north. We are rich in natural resources, such as coffee, emeralds, flowers, fruits and biodiversity.

I have been teaching English and Spanish since I was fourteen years old, when I started tutoring other children at the bilingual school I attended in Colombia. I also started writing books when I was just a child, but did not publish my first one until 2001. When it comes to my art, I can’t remember a stage in my life when I was not recreating my surroundings with any material I found. I was always told art would not pay for a living, so I simply created out of an intense need to capture the magic of the world around me.

The most life-altering experience I have had was living in the Amazon Rainforest for a year. I am a passionate advocate of nature, and the lessons I learned from the people and the animals I met in and around the River changed my outlook on life forever.

I started creating and illustrating bilingual books because of my own children. I homeschooled when we lived in New Orleans, when we decided to make a new life in the U.S. I simply could not find the kind of books that I wanted them to read, so I decided to create them.  Later on, I had the opportunity to produce and anchor an educational television program in Colombia, geared for children. It was then that I understood the potential of a multimedia approach to language learning.

I love learning about other cultures and countries, and have been fortunate to travel to many places and love to share my experiences. There is so much to be learned from other peoples’ everyday lives!

I have two children, a 19 year old daughter and a 17 year old son who are still my favorite students. We speak Spanish at home and life goes on around us in English. We have always lived in the south because we do not like the cold, we definitely are tropical flowers. So far, we have lived in New Orleans, Dallas and we are enjoying San Antonio immensely.

I was trained as a teacher and taught for twenty years. I have linguistics as a background, a passion for languages and the heart of an artist. I have had my own publishing company for six years. Thanks to it, I have also been able to help people to publish their own books. I am currently teaching art and meditation, tutoring and teaching English and Spanish and continuing to write and create art.

I have been married to my Colombian sweetheart for 22 years, and we still are adding twigs to our nest. It has been a fascinating, ever-evolving journey.  Recently, I read that it is predicted that today’s professionals will be forced to redirect their careers an average of five times in their lifetimes. Looking back, I realize I have done precisely that, and this adventure has allowed me to discover hidden talents and to overcome fascinating new challenges.

I dream about someday returning to the Amazon and creating a school and a native fishery where people can swim right along with the fish. I do not think my life’s surprises have all been unwrapped yet, there are still many productive years to come, and so are yours. Our journeys are still unfolding, promising so many exhilarating possiblilities, and who knows, the future of the rainforest and our sustainability might be in the hands of someone my art or my words can move to action. Perhaps one of you can unlock the puzzle of sustainable progress and you might be able to lead us so that, together, we might find a better way of living in our beloved planet without destroying it.

 I have an absolute faith in the limitless capacity of human beings for good. I believe that each and every one of us can label our life with a purpose. I think that is why I chose Lunita as the name of my company, which means little moon. I have always prayed to be light for others. Language is the magic code that allows us to explore the world and figure out what our role is within its unfolding mysteries. I hope that my books, my art and my stories become the treasure maps for this quest to many adventurous souls.

 With Immense Love and Gratitude Always,

Lina M. Cuartas

Meditation #17 Growing Pains

Meditation # 17 Growing Pains

We left off two weeks ago, with the unfolding of our sexual selves and very befittingly, last week my life was reshuffled in order to help someone dear to my heart and I decided to postpone this writing until I had crossed the bridge over troubled waters, knowing that there had to be something in my experiences that was meant to feed my words. Today, as I read a story about the Giant Sequoias in the new Nat Geo, I recalled my duty, as I read: "Giant Sequoias are gigantic because they are very, very old. They are so old because they have survived all the threats that could have killed them."

Well, so have we, but growing pains truly never seem to go away. I remember reading in disbelief that the "terrible twos" are described by some psychologists as the first adolescence, when a child no longer feels dependent on Mom and Dad and reacts with the need to assert individuality, frequently with tantrums and very audible drama.

And then, there is the very adequately named Adolescence: something hurts deep in the soul, we are not quite children anymore, drowning helplessly within deep thoughts and the surge of hormones and peer pressure that only make matters worse. A lack of a serious sort unnerves mind, body and soul and we can't stand even our own shadow.

But during that stage, there was also an excitement, a curiosity, an unquenchable desire for thrills, adventures, discovery and a vibrant zest for what was yet to unfold in our lives. This is what I recall the most about my teen years and what I want to reclaim today. That glow of the novelty of life, of movement, of taste, of touch, of sight, of aroma. I remember the thrill of going by myself to the movies or taking a bus ride all alone, or with my sister, and deciding consciously that it was not truly a simple Circular Sur journey, it was an adventure, full to the brim with possibility, with people to be met, places to be seen, experiences to be lived, and I remember feeling that I was so lucky to be there, free to drink it all in, eagerly. This same thirst for change inspired me to leave my country, at the ripe old age of 18, all by myself, on a quest to find my destiny, packing fear and doubt in a locket without a key, and soaring high on fresh, strong wings. I stare at my forty-three year old self in the mirror and want to find the Brave Fledgling that hopped off the nest and somehow, managed to catch a warm wind.

Peer with me into the mirror of life and back at your teenage self and refuel from the impetus of young, unrestrained heart and soul, and dare to jump once again into your life, with the vigor and advantages that only experience, wounds and time can provide. If you don't believe me, dare to learn more about the Giant Sequoias, the towering Masters of Survival.

With Love and Zest,

Lina.

Meditation #16 From Love to Sex

Meditation #16 From Love to Sex

I am finally catching up, and as I was getting ready to write last night, I turned on CNN and watched a disconcerting report on "sexual reprogramming for homosexuals" carried on during decades by psychiatrists and mental health professionals. Our relationship with our bodies and especially, our sexuality, is still a very obscure topic, especially since it requires removing all masks and being open to pain and confusion.

I was brought up in a country where female beauty is idealized and sexualized highly from a very young age. I remember the taunting and familiarization with sex, gender roles and the relationship between men and women, or of those who felt attraction to those of the same sex, as always being at the core of jokes and conversations held not only among adults, but frequently shared and encouraged as a humorous talent among little ones: the telling and retelling of comical stories where the common denominator was always the ambiguity of language and how it served the purpose of ridiculing precisely what people repressed, the intense desires and conflicts that sexuality arose and that were so easily disguised as humor.

I look back at my adolescence and realize with horror that I was not only dancing with the devil, modeling in Medellín in the 1980’s, but surrounded by deceit. My hometown was dominated by drug-dealers and abundant dirty money, a pervasive game involving sophisticated scenarios such as the night clubs built precisely by that blood money and establishing a high stakes, fast-paced traffic of every single human desire, where young pretty girls were customarily just currency, and usually the cheapest commodity to be traded and used and abused at will. I look back at my self-image and credit my mother with the filter that allowed me to have a sense of dignity that prevented me from getting lost amidst the dazzling allure of the pleasure promised by the moment.

I found out about several unwanted pregnancies that happened very close to me as an adolescent and interestingly, fear of that ever happening to me was a big deterrent in my behavior. But looking back, even though I had the privilege of a mother who did not shirk conversations and questions about sexuality and always described sex as the most beautiful experience two people who loved each other could share, I wish I had understood earlier on, the psychological implications of sharing your body and soul with another human being. Very little discussion of this important part of sexuality is ever presented, not only at homes, but at school, and our society, represented mainly by the media, insists on portraying sex as a casual, non-committing, non-binding encounter that is presented as seeming to involve two bodies, but very rarely includes the consequences of the encounter between two souls and two visions of the world.

I have observed the reactions to sexual scandals in the media and among people and see how usually the behavior is examined as a deviation and analyzed from the guilt and shame perspective, the highlight is often the disgrace at having been careless enough to have been caught, while analysis of the complex issues of fidelity, power, and human weakness and sexuality are overlooked, or simply denied.

We seem to believe that like Dorian Gray, we can use our representations of reality, our portraits, consisting on the facades we present to the world, our powerful stances, positions, or possessions, as shields from the truth of who we are; complicated, fallible beings who need to be willing to stare their humanity in the face to fully understand their weaknesses and also their beauty, which is most majestically revealed precisely when we confront our vulnerabilities.

Only by opening our minds, bodies and souls to inquiry, to questions, to longings, to desires, to unfulfilled needs, can we fully inhabit our sexuality, and allow the real You to seek connection with another. Just as when we lay our clothing aside to allow another to become one with us, masks and fears need to be shed, in all three dimensions, forming a bond of unbreakable communion. We spontaneously inhabited our sexuality even as babies when we were held, breastfed, cuddled, massaged and explored our bodies, and we were reminded that we were loved. Sadly, our upbringing may have distorted our perceptions of who we are as sexual selves, but the way back requires re-learning who we are and learning to love and accept ourselves.

Before we can even begin to comprehend the far-reaching effects of a sexual encounter with another person, regardless of our sexual orientation, we need to understand human connections, relationships, affection, conversation, empathy: the gift of looking into another’s eyes and putting down the walls to allow the real selves to shine through and venture to reach out and let the sparks fly. Only then might we find our paths to understanding the fire that is created when two human beings melt one into another and find an echo, a mirror, a bridge that allows them to fuse into the divinity of another. Only through love we can understand this power, but it starts with the love we must first feel for our own selves; Love is the beginning of a healthy sexuality. 

With love,

Lina.