Ariel Zorion's Blog, page 9
August 12, 2021
Tiempo
Hoy no lo he podido evitar. Llevaba varios días conteniéndolo, tratando de retener lo que necesitaba buscar una salida, una vía para escapar. Un sentimiento que estaba a punto de implosionar. Y hoy lo ha hecho, en forma de una inocente lágrima que ha abierto el paso a otras muchas que estaban por venir. La frustración ha encontrado la forma de abandonar la jaula en la que quería mantenerla presa, pero me ha sido imposible ganar esta batalla.
El tiempo se me escapa y no sé cómo apresarlo. Intento retener cada instante, exprimirlo, pero se niega a someterse y vuelve a volar entre mis dedos, mientras me doy cuenta que apresarlo es como tratar de agarrar la cola del viento. Y duele, porque la vida es tan bonita que me niego a creer que tiene fecha de caducidad, con todo lo que me queda por hacer.
Con todo lo que tengo que aprender.
Respiro. Trato de coger aire pero no puedo porque la angustia hoy es grande. Lo que acabo de escribir ya es pasado. Me proyecto hacia el futuro y, mientras lo hago, soy consciente de que pierdo este presente irreverente que dura una millonésima parte de lo que debería durar.
Porque nada es infinito.
Y el mañana tampoco lo es.
GRACIAS POR LEER
SUSCRÍBETE PARA NO PERDERTE LAS NOVEDADES
Dirección de correo electrónico:
Suscribir
August 11, 2021
COLOR PALETTE
Black.
An interesting color.
It is the one usually used when referring to crimes. Black episodes, black chronicle of such a city. Claptrap. Death has no color. Although perhaps black refers to the blackout that accompanies the last breath. A fade to an absolute black. The darkness that ensues.
In any case, I’m more of a red person.
An intense red, a crimson red, emanating life.
I also like purple and, even more, the irreverent purple, that shade that acquires the skin after a strong impact taking with it any trace of health.
To each his own, isn’t that what they say?
The fact is that I think in tonalities while I see how my last victim bleeds to death. What ravings the human mind has! Surely they could be investing my time better right now.
I get dizzy. I know because I don’t seem to focus properly, as if everything around me has started an almost invisible dance. My arm strength is gone, I’m overcome with sluggishness.
I move a little closer to the mirror. And there is also the white. The pallor invades me.
I take the opportunity to write with my own blood a message on the mirror.
“I killed them all”.
And the fade is total.
THANKS FOR READING
SUBSCRIBE TO NOT MISS OUR NEWS
Dirección de correo electrónico:
Suscribir
August 10, 2021
GAMA DE COLORES
Negro.
Un color interesante.
Es el que se suele usar cuando se hace referencia a crímenes. Episodios negros, crónica negra de tal ciudad. Paparruchas. La muerte no tiene color. Aunque tal vez lo de negro se refiere al apagón que acompaña al último suspiro. Un fundido a un negro absoluto. La oscuridad que sobreviene.
En todo caso, yo soy más del rojo.
Un rojo intenso, un rojo carmesí, emanando vida.
Me gusta también el morado y, más aún, el púrpura irreverente, esa tonalidad que adquiere la piel tras un fuerte impacto llevándose con él cualquier rastro de salud.
Para gustos los colores, ¿no dicen eso?
El caso es que pienso en tonalidades mientras veo como mi última víctima se desangra. Mi obra final. ¡Que desvaríos tiene la mente humana! Seguro que podrían estar invirtiendo mejor mi tiempo en este instante.
Me mareo. Lo sé porque parece que no enfoco bien, como si todo a mi alrededor hubiera iniciado una danza casi invisible. Se me va la fuerza de los brazos, me inunda la flojera.
Me acerco un poco más al espejo. Y ahí está también el blanco. La palidez me invade.
Aprovecho para escribir con mi propia sangre un mensaje en el espejo.
“Yo los maté a todos”
Y el fundido es total.
GRACIAS POR LEER
SUSCRÍBETE PARA NO PERDERTE LAS NOVEDADES
Dirección de correo electrónico:
Suscribir
August 9, 2021
Summer days
I love those summer days when the weather seems to take a break and decides it’s time to stop, to break with routine and almost forces us to stop and contemplate what the magic of nature is willing to offer us. These cloudy days, when the temperature suddenly plummets and threatens to rain, the atmosphere relaxes in a pure way.
When, in addition, you are lucky enough to enjoy one of those days by the sea, the images that capture your retinas, as you can see in the photos, seem to be from another time of the year, with deserted beaches, with an angry and raging sea.
I also love the fact that they force you to break with routine because, believe it or not, when we are on vacation we also end up submitting to almost fixed schemes that we reproduce day after day. We get up, go to the beach, go to the pool, eat (either outside or at home), take a nap and go back to the beach or pool before returning to the apartment or hotel to take a shower and go out for a walk before dinner. Does it fit more or less with what you do when you go to the beach for a few days? I am convinced that, with little variation, many of you reproduce what I have just mentioned or something similar.
The cloudy and cool days break our schemes and I love that, because we have to look for a plan B and because, in addition, we get out of the maelstrom of beaches and pools full to overflowing when the sweltering heat demands that we go for a dip in the nearest water. I love to observe how the sea changes, its colors so different from those of sunny days, colors that seem to reflect a mood, with murky waters and darker blue tones than usual. These days help you to reflect, to value what you have, to consider how lucky we are to be in a wonderful place by the sea and enjoy the murmur of its waves and the rhythm of the tide when it hits the sand and leaves that beautiful trail of foam.
It saddens me when you hear someone say that, on days like this with rain and clouds, it’s a horrible day because that person doesn’t seem ready to enjoy and is going to miss out on a lot of things. Besides, I don’t think they are horrible days at all, quite the contrary. It’s just another day that dawns, whether the sun rises or not, but it’s a day in your life that counts just like the others and offers you endless opportunities to be happy. Re-create the view, engrave in your memory the dance of the wild waves, because when you are no longer here, you will certainly miss it. Even the days without sun.
THANKS FOR READING
SUBSCRIBE TO NOT MISS OUR NEWS
Dirección de correo electrónico:
Suscribir
August 8, 2021
Días de verano
Adoro esos día de verano en los que el tiempo parece darse un respiro y decide que es momento de parar, de romper con la rutina y casi nos obliga a detenernos y contemplar lo que la magia de la naturaleza está dispuesta a ofrecernos. Estos días nublados, en los que la temperatura se desploma de repente y amenazan con lluvia, el ambiente se relaja de una manera pura.
Cuando, además, tienes la suerte de disfrutar de alguno de esos días junto al mar, las imágenes que captan tus retinas, tal y como puedes ver en las fotos, parecen de otro momento del año, con playas desiertas, con un mar enfurecido y rabioso.
Me encanta, además, el hecho de que te obligan a romper con la rutina porque, lo creamos o no, cuando estamos de vacaciones también nos acabamos sometiendo a esquemas casi fijos que reproducimos un día tras otro. Nos levantamos, vamos a la playa, a la piscina, comemos (ya sea fuera o en casa), un rato de siesta y vuelta a la playa o la piscina antes de volver a al apartamento o al hotel a ducharnos para salir a dar una vuelta antes de cenar. ¿Os cuadra más o menos con lo que hacéis cuando vais a la playa a pasar unos días? Estoy convencida de que, con poca variación, muchos de vosotros reproducís lo que acabo de mencionar o algo parecido.
Los días nublados y frescos nos rompen los esquemas y eso me encanta, porque tenemos que buscar un plan B y porque, además, salimos de la vorágine de playas y piscinas llenas a rebosar cuando el calor sofocante nos reclama que vayamos a darnos un chapuzón en el agua más cercana. Me encanta observar como cambia el mar, sus colores tan diferentes a los de los días soleados, colores que parecen reflejar un estado de ánimo, con aguas turbias y tonos azules más oscuros de lo habitual. Estos días te ayudan a reflexionar, a valorar lo que tienes, a considerar la suerte que tenemos de poder estar en un lugar maravilloso junto al mar y disfrutar del rumor de sus olas y del compás de la marea cuando llega a la arena y deja ese bello rastro de espuma.
Me apena cuando escuchas a alguien decir que, en jornadas así de lluvia y nubes, hace un día horrible porque esa persona no parece dispuesta a disfrutar y se va a perder un montón de cosas. Además, en absoluto creo que sean días horribles, sino todo lo contrario. Es un día más que amanece, salga o no el sol, pero es un día de tu vida que cuenta como los demás y que te ofrece infinitas oportunidades para ser feliz. Recréate la vista, graba en tu memoria el baile de las olas salvajes, porque cuando ya no estés aquí, sin duda lo echarás de menos. Hasta los días sin sol.
GRACIAS POR LEER
SUSCRÍBETE PARA NO PERDERTE LAS NOVEDADES
Dirección de correo electrónico:
Suscribir
August 7, 2021
The power of kindness
When I was little, I remember that my grandmother had sayings for each and every situation. So much so that, when at school we were asked to collect all the possible sayings for an assignment, I was one of the ones who turned in the most. She would write them down on the first piece of paper she could find (a shopping receipt, in many occasions) every time she came up with one. In the end, I turned in a whopping five hundred proverbs to my language class, each and every one of them coming from her prodigious head.
One of those sayings went like this:
You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
This wonderful sentence contains within those nine words an enormous amount of wisdom. What a pity that we so often forget to apply it.
Is there a magic formula that will make our lives easier? Well, I don’t know if there is a magic formula or not, what I do believe is that kindness can make a difference. It is true that there are types of personalities that seem immune to everything (this would be a chapter apart), even to a kind gesture or an expression of affection, but in most of us, receiving a token of kindness makes us feel good. But not only that, kindness has the incredible ability to work both ways, since not only does the receiver of that gesture feel good, but the sender also perceives a sense of deep well-being, as if his or her heart is smiling in some metaphorical or real sense.
Why bring an article about kindness today? Perhaps the question really should be, and why not? However, as I listen from my balcony as two people argue downstairs in the street (I do not hear what they say, but I clearly perceive the tone), I reaffirm the need to reflect on this: have we forgotten to be kind and the transformative power that this has?
We are witnessing a historic moment in which hostility, aggression and violence are particularly visible. It is what sells in the media and, like the virus that plagues our lives today, it also spreads through social networks with breakneck speed. We are inconceivably going through a social moment in which hate crimes and the rejection of those who do not think or feel as we do or depart in some sense from the standard we find acceptable or ideal is multiplying at an alarming rate. After what we have experienced in the past, it seems that we have not learned our lesson. And we think we are the most intelligent species on the planet.
What would happen if each one of us, faced with a situation that pushes us to the limit, decided to respond in a different way, without letting ourselves be carried away by toxic emotions? What would happen if each one of us greeted with a smile when entering a place and sincerely thanked the person who served us, for example, at the supermarket, in a restaurant or at the health center? Can you imagine the infinite capacity that each one of these gestures would have to transform the lives of so many people?
[image error]Pexels.com" data-medium-file="https://arielzoriondotcom.files.wordp..." data-large-file="https://arielzoriondotcom.files.wordp..." src="https://arielzoriondotcom.files.wordp..." alt="" class="wp-image-3140" srcset="https://arielzoriondotcom.files.wordp... 200w, https://arielzoriondotcom.files.wordp... 400w, https://arielzoriondotcom.files.wordp... 100w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />Photo by Teona Swift on Pexels.comBut I want to go a step further and I want to bring you the more selfish point of view so that you understand to what extent kindness could transform us. Just as it happens with gratitude, being kind has positive effects on our physical and mental health and science is there to corroborate it. The explanation is very simple, since in biological terms our brain reward system is activated and endorphins are released, which expands a sense of well-being both when we show kindness and when we receive an expression of kindness from another human being. In addition, levels of cortisol, the hormone responsible for stress, are reduced. Therefore, not only do we feel emotionally and mentally better, but we also reduce the physical risks of, on the contrary, being determined to be hostile and angry with the world.
I am currently reading the book “Cuando la mente encontró a su cerebro” (When mind met its brain) by Luis Aguado (I recommend it 100%) and he devotes a few pages to the functions performed by mirror neurons, discovered not too long ago by a group of Italian researchers. In this section he talks precisely about learning by imitation (so important when we are children), empathy and how we respond to the interaction with other human beings according to the emotions they provoke in us. Have you noticed in how many circumstances we imitate gestures and expressions of others? NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming) talks about this at length, although it is not the subject here. Each one of us is a compendium of genes and learning, of experiences lived and shared with other human beings. Let us not allow hostility to triumph. Become a tool of change.
Will you help me make this world a kinder place for everyone? You are very important for us to achieve this.
THANKS FOR READING
SUBSCRIBE TO NOT MISS OUR NEWS
Dirección de correo electrónico:
Suscribir
August 6, 2021
El poder de la amabilidad
Cuando era pequeña, recuerdo que mi abuela tenía refranes para todas y cada una de las situaciones. Tal es así que, cuando en el colegio nos pidieron que recopiláramos todos los refranes posibles para un trabajo, yo fui una de las que más entregó. Ella me los escribía en el primer papel que encontraba a mano (un ticket de la compra, en muchas ocasiones) cada vez que se le ocurría uno. Al final, entregué en la clase de lengua la friolera de más de quinientos refranes, todos y cada uno de ellos salidos de su prodigiosa cabeza.
Uno de aquellos refranes decía así:
Se consigue más con miel que con hiel
Esta maravillosa sentencia del refranero español encierra dentro de esas ocho palabras una ingente cantidad de sabiduría. Qué pena que tantas veces nos olvidemos de aplicarla.
¿Existe alguna fórmula mágica que nos haga la vida más sencilla? Bueno, no sé si será una fórmula mágica o no, lo que sí creo es que la amabilidad puede hacer la diferencia. Bien es verdad que hay tipos de personalidades que parecen inmunes a todo (esto sería capítulo aparte), incluso a un gesto amable o a una expresión de cariño, pero en la mayoría de nosotros, recibir una muestra de amabilidad hace que nos sintamos bien. Pero no sólo eso, la amabilidad tiene la capacidad increíble de funcionar en ambos sentidos, puesto que no se siente bien únicamente el receptor de ese gesto, sino que el emisor también percibe una sensación de profundo bienestar, como si su corazón sonriera en algún sentido metafórico o real.
¿Por qué traer hoy un artículo sobre al amabilidad? Tal vez la pregunta en realidad debería ser, ¿y por qué no? No obstante, mientras oigo desde mi balcón como dos personas discuten abajo en la calle (no escucho lo que dicen, pero percibo claramente el tono), me reafirmo en la necesidad de reflexionar sobre esto: ¿nos hemos olvidado de ser amables y del poder transformador que esto tiene?
Estamos asistiendo a un momento histórico en el que se hace especialmente visible la hostilidad, la agresión y la violencia. Es lo que vende en los medios de comunicación y, como el virus que asola nuestras vidas en la actualidad, también se expanden a través de las redes sociales con una velocidad de vértigo. Estamos atravesando inconcebiblemente un momento social en el que los crímenes de odio y el rechazo a los que no piensan o sienten como nosotros o se alejan en algún sentido del estándar que nos parece aceptable o idóneo se está multiplicando de manera alarmante. Después de lo vivido en el pasado, parece que no hemos aprendido la lección. Y eso que nos creemos la especie más inteligente del planeta.
¿Qué sucedería si cada uno de nosotros ante una situación que nos lleva al límite decidiéramos responder de una manera diferente, sin dejarnos llevar por emociones tóxicas? ¿Qué ocurriría si cada uno de nosotros saludáramos con una sonrisa al entrar en un lugar y le diéramos las gracias sinceras a quien nos atiende, por ejemplo, en el supermercado, en un restaurante o en el centro de salud? ¿Os imagináis la infinita capacidad que cada uno de esos gestos tendría para transformar la vida de tantas personas?
[image error]Pexels.com" data-medium-file="https://arielzoriondotcom.files.wordp..." data-large-file="https://arielzoriondotcom.files.wordp..." src="https://arielzoriondotcom.files.wordp..." alt="" class="wp-image-3140" srcset="https://arielzoriondotcom.files.wordp... 200w, https://arielzoriondotcom.files.wordp... 400w, https://arielzoriondotcom.files.wordp... 100w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />Photo by Teona Swift on Pexels.comPero quiero ir un paso más allá y quiero plantearos el punto de vista más egoísta para que entendáis hasta que punto la amabilidad podría transformarnos. Igual que sucede con el agradecimiento, ser amable tiene efectos positivos en nuestra salud física y mental y la ciencia está ahí para corroborarlo. La explicación es muy sencilla, ya que en términos biológicos se activa nuestro sistema de la recompensa a nivel cerebral y se liberan endorfinas, lo que expande una sensación de bienestar tanto cuando nos mostramos amables como cuando recibimos una expresión de amabilidad por parte de otro ser humano. Además, se reducen los niveles de cortisol, la hormona responsable del estrés. Por lo tanto, no sólo nos sentimos emocional y mentalmente mejor, sino que reducimos los riesgos físicos que supone, justo al contrario, estar empeñados en mostrarnos hostiles y estar enfadados con el mundo.
Actualmente me estoy leyendo el libro “Cuando la mente encontró a su cerebro” de Luis Aguado (lo recomiendo 100 por 100) y dedica unas cuantas páginas a las funciones que desempeñan las neuronas espejo, descubiertas no hace demasiado tiempo por un grupo de investigadores italianos. En este apartado habla precisamente del aprendizaje por imitación (tan importante cuando somos niños), de la empatía y de cómo respondemos a la interacción con otros seres humanos en función de las emociones que provocan en nosotros. ¿Os habéis dado cuenta en cuántas circunstancias imitamos gestos y expresiones de otros congéneres? De esto habla la PNL (Programación Neurolingüística) largo y tendido, aunque no es el tema aquí. Cada uno de nosotros somos un compendio de genes y aprendizajes, de experiencias vividas y compartidas con otros seres humanos. No permitamos que la hostilidad triunfe. Conviértete un una herramienta del cambio.
¿Me ayudas a hacer de este mundo un lugar más amable para todos? Tú eres muy importante para que lo logremos.
GRACIAS POR LEER
SUSCRÍBETE PARA NO PERDERTE LAS NOVEDADES
Dirección de correo electrónico:
Suscribir
August 5, 2021
Ocaso, end of the trilogy The Twilight Case
Specifically, The Hour of Dusk (Spanish version that would be The Twilight Case in English) was released on an unusual date, since it coincided with Book Day 2020, which instead of being celebrated on the traditional April 23 due to our being confined, was celebrated in July, specifically on the 21st.
One year later, I find myself finishing this exciting adventure. I think it’s going to be a little hard to let go of some characters that have been in my life for more than a year and that are already part of it in some extravagant way. I’ve been thinking about Kisha, Pete, Derek, Bill and the others for so long that sometimes I have the impression that it’s going to be hard to let them go and that I won’t be able to invent new ones.
Considering that this trilogy came about in an atypical way and in an atypical mode, I almost feel bad to end it in a conventional way. I guess I’ll have to give it a whirl to see what I can do to make this stage have a golden brooch.
What do I mean by an atypical form and an atypical mode? The second question is almost self-evident, since I wrote most of the first book during confinement. How it came about is the really extraordinary thing, since it was just an ordinary day opening a National Geographic magazine in which Simon Baker advertised Longines watches. And there, when I saw that photo, I thought it could inspire a character in a book.
Everything else came about, I’m not sure how. I’m not one of those writers who have everything thought out and planned from minute one. In many Instragram livestreams I have confessed that I am a compass or a gardener or whatever. In short, I’m a writer who writes the story as it comes up. I get carried away by the muses or something. How will Ocaso end? Honestly, I don’t know yet.
What I certainly have no explanation for is why I knew from minute one that it was going to be a trilogy. It’s the first time that I don’t really write a self-conclusive book, but three books that intertwine and need each other to make total sense. However the first and second can perhaps be read independently, but Ocaso, the third of them, definitely needs its predecessors. I just knew it. Maybe it was a yearning to test myself as a writer and see if I was capable of telling something beyond a story with a beginning and an end in four hundred pages or so. In the end, it’s going to be about thirteen hundred. Not a bad challenge.
The Twilight is coming. This August 2021 comes to its conclusion. Are you ready for that final moment?
You can find my books here
INFINITE THANKS FOR READING
SUBSCRIBE TO NOT MISS THE NEWS
Dirección de correo electrónico:
Suscribir
Ocaso, end of the trilogy of The Twilight Case
Specifically, The Hour of Dusk (Spanish version that would be The Twilight Case in English) was released on an unusual date, since it coincided with Book Day 2020, which instead of being celebrated on the traditional April 23 due to our being confined, was celebrated in July, specifically on the 21st.
One year later, I find myself finishing this exciting adventure. I think it’s going to be a little hard to let go of some characters that have been in my life for more than a year and that are already part of it in some extravagant way. I’ve been thinking about Kisha, Pete, Derek, Bill and the others for so long that sometimes I have the impression that it’s going to be hard to let them go and that I won’t be able to invent new ones.
Considering that this trilogy came about in an atypical way and in an atypical mode, I almost feel bad to end it in a conventional way. I guess I’ll have to give it a whirl to see what I can do to make this stage have a golden brooch.
What do I mean by an atypical form and an atypical mode? The second question is almost self-evident, since I wrote most of the first book during confinement. How it came about is the really extraordinary thing, since it was just an ordinary day opening a National Geographic magazine in which Simon Baker advertised Longines watches. And there, when I saw that photo, I thought it could inspire a character in a book.
Everything else came about, I’m not sure how. I’m not one of those writers who have everything thought out and planned from minute one. In many Instragram livestreams I have confessed that I am a compass or a gardener or whatever. In short, I’m a writer who writes the story as it comes up. I get carried away by the muses or something. How will Ocaso end? Honestly, I don’t know yet.
What I certainly have no explanation for is why I knew from minute one that it was going to be a trilogy. It’s the first time that I don’t really write a self-conclusive book, but three books that intertwine and need each other to make total sense. However the first and second can perhaps be read independently, but Ocaso, the third of them, definitely needs its predecessors. I just knew it. Maybe it was a yearning to test myself as a writer and see if I was capable of telling something beyond a story with a beginning and an end in four hundred pages or so. In the end, it’s going to be about thirteen hundred. Not a bad challenge.
The Twilight is coming. This August 2021 comes to its conclusion. Are you ready for that final moment?
You can find my books here
INFINITE THANKS FOR READING
SUBSCRIBE TO NOT MISS THE NEWS
Dirección de correo electrónico:
Suscribir
August 4, 2021
LOVE YOURSELF
Is it selfish to love oneself? Of course it is not. It is an act of courage when you are beaten down by envy and malicious comments from others, when you feel that, sometimes, life does not treat you as you deserve or, simply, when you feel a little depressed. Loving oneself is an act of generosity because it implies forgiving our mistakes and not whipping ourselves for them, just as we would forgive a friend or a person we love. But, in addition, loving oneself is the unavoidable starting point for learning to love others without projecting our frustrations or envy onto them.
However, love for oneself cannot be understood in an absolutist way because loving oneself is not synonymous with imposing oneself above the rest. Sometimes, in this so individualistic current that we are witnessing in this historical moment, we forget that love for oneself is not and should not be to the detriment of others.
The fact is that this happens, partly as a result of an individualistic society whose greatest exponent is the selfie, for instance. We witness daily acts of pure egocentrism in which it seems that others do not matter. What prevails is pure hedonism, the culture of enjoyment, having fun without looking at the consequences. With the pandemic, these behaviors seem to have become more acute, although perhaps it is only that they have become more visible. The lack of solidarity, the imposition of our criteria or our well-being on others is nothing more than an unprecedented stupidity that results in a worsening of the quality of life for everyone. We question everything because we believe ourselves to be in possession of the truth, since I and I alone seem to be what matters. And yet, I must insist on the fact that love for oneself begins with love for others, for the other, who is different from me and who, therefore, teaches me that my truth is not the only and immovable one.
When you love yourself, you want the good of all. It’s like a boomerang effect, where the good you project ends up coming back. COVID 19 is shouting it out loud: as long as each and every human being is not immunized, the virus will not stop. It is not that I am free and, for example, I am lucky enough to have access to a vaccine. In the long run, as long as there are so many people who are not as lucky, it will put everyone at risk because the virus will mutate again and continue to travel around the world.
Love yourself but don’t forget to love others. Only in this way, love will be pure.
THANK YOU FOR READING.
SUBSCRIBE SO YOU DON’T MISS THE NEWS
Dirección de correo electrónico:
Suscribir
