Carmen Monica Oprea

Optimism is a habit that can be learned. As an exercise, start by smiling at everyone you meet. Expect something good to happen to you regardless of what occurred yesterday. Start by accepting that the past no longer holds you captive. It will continue to hurt you if you hold on to it. How liberating is to let the past go when you realize that an abundant world awaits you!

You can learn to be optimistic, to believe that tomorrow will be a better day than today. Because of your past, you are capable to discover that by making changes you allow your spirit to soar. These changes don’t happen overnight. It takes courage to let go of the familiar and throw yourself into the unknown. It takes courage to start all over, to meet new people and to find yourself in new circumstances.

If you trust yourself, then any obstacle is pushed away.

Love,

Carmen Monica

How many have thought that they would be happy if they got a bigger house, landed a new job, or found the perfect someone with whom to share their lives?

Every morning when we wake up, we are given a wonderful gift– another day of life– so let’s just make the most of it because no one can do it for us. It’s essential to adopt the right state of mind about happiness and to stop thinking that things out of our control can bring us joy. I believe that happiness is a living emotion and not an expendable luxury. Therefore, we need to commit to making it a personal priority even if it may turn out to be a new behavior for some of us and quite intimidating.

We should be gentle with ourselves because everything would unfold in due time. We should make peace with the knowledge that we can’t have everything we want. We should find happiness in the things we already have, in the friends loving us, in the art we had created. Perhaps today we may not be familiar with this habit, but like anything new, we can learn to be happy. We only have to be willing to pursue happiness.

Daphne du Maurier wrote in Rebecca:

“Happiness is not a possession to be prized. It is a quality of thought, a state of mind.”

Love,

Carmen Monica

The other day, I talked with an uncle I haven’t seen in eleven years. He had just got a new cell phone and learned how to use it, and he dialed a facetime call. I was stuck in my home with a case of flu and worked from the comfort of my office when my phone rang. He appeared on the screen, and my heart jolted with a pleasure I haven’t had in a while. I touched the screen as if I was touching his face and laughed. He had changed a lot, wore glasses and had a lot of silver in his hair. We talked for a while, sharing our ups and downs, and the thousands of miles between us disappeared in the fraction of a second. They were wiped away by the modern technology.

That morning, I realized how much I was taking for granted. I kept thinking about the friends I have lost, about a friendship taken for granted, and I forgot about the beautiful world of strangers just waiting to make a connection with me while I turned my eyes away, and something stirred within me. There was so much I was taking for granted. At that moment, I had decided not to live unconsciously.

The revelation that I had everything I needed in life to make me happy was as refreshing as a breeze on a hot day. I wonder how many of us go through life empty, thirsting after happiness when, in fact, we are standing right in the middle of an abundant river? One way or another, the world will get our attention with a splash or a slap. Let’s choose to quench our thirst for a better life by acknowledging the good that already exists in our lives. Only then we will be prepared to return to the world the gift of our grateful hearts.

Love,

Carmen Monica

There comes a time when you withdraw from the world in the serenity of your heart and listen to your soul. It does speak to you if you bother to listen. It tries telling you something that you definitely need to know, one of the most compelling truths. Perhaps you already learned this truth while you endured hardship and struggled through the stormy torrents of your daily life. But once you become aware that you are not alone, you will never look again in the face of evil with fear or walk in darkness feeling lost and abandoned.

You feel the wings of an angel while you look at the sky and you tell yourself that you are not alone. Angels send you celestial blessings in unexpected packages that take the shape of your friends, your family, your employers, and even strangers. They are sent to you in times of joy and in times of sadness to remind you that everything passes. Time will change you, will mature you, will strengthen you, and it will open doors you’ve never thought existed. You should learn to embrace the infinite power of the universe that bestows its gifts upon you. You should open your arms and accept the gifts that the universe sends you.

A knock on your door from a neighbor, a letter from a loved one, a call from a concerned friend, an encouraging word from a family member, all these touches of human kindness are in fact gifts from the universe.

Sometimes you recognize them, and sometimes you don’t.

Love,

Carmen Monica

A New Year means a fresh start. It is the time when a new chapter in life is waiting to be written. Like always, there are going to be questions and answers to be discovered. I encourage you to carve out a quiet time in which to dream with the pen in your hand because only your dreams can give birth to change.

Do you know what your hopes are for the future as you reflect on the year that has passed?

As you become the painter of your own canvas, you will learn to embrace the gentle song of your heart. What if instead of making resolutions, you sit and write down your most private aspirations? Write your yearnings kept away until the time seemed right. Believe that now is that time when you have to ask questions and that the answers will come to you and teach you how to live one day at a time.

How often in the past year have you turned away from everything that wasn’t solved in your heart because you feared the questions? What if a year from today you will be living the most fulfilling and creative life you could imagine? Do you understand why asking questions is so important? And believe me, the answers to your questions will come, but only after you understand which questions are worth asking. There are three hundred sixty-five sunrises and sunsets full of wonderful possibilities. Use them wisely. Do not procrastinate! Don’t wait for things to happen. Make the things important to you happen. Pursue your dreams. Don’t give up! Don’t stop halfway!

What if you take a leap of faith and begin this wonderful year by believing in yourself and your dreams?

Love,

Carmen Monica

Leila Isidro, a talented and skillful business manager for Golden Leaves Hotel, decides to leave New York behind along with the attractive Denis Fraga whom she loves deeply but fails to trust. She didn’t imagine she would travel to Spain to meet the mother who couldn’t be her mother and to face again the man she fought hard to forget. An unexpected check coming from Spain and a diary help her shift to the simple life in Rosemary Beach where Leila befriends John Gunter, a former internal auditor for Dunes Corporation, who hides in this thrilling location, running from his past. Leila embarks on a journey in time, learning about her parents love story and her father’s death, unveiling the reasons behind her adoption by her mother’s best friend, Gabriela. Myrna Clarisse Elmer, a famous writer from Spain, watched over her daughter from afar and, in the autumn of her years, decided to let her girl find out about the sacrifice she made. The old diary is the key to discovering her Spanish heritage.

Every Christmas I write a letter to myself. It talks about a woman, charming and dangerous. This woman waves her clever hand over a room, and the room looks like something from a fairytale. Later, she waves her creative hand over the goods of the earth, and a feast appears on the table. This woman finished her holiday shopping, wrapping, and sending in November. This woman never stops worrying about her family and her friends.

This woman needs to be stopped.

This woman must learn to delegate and take time for herself, away from the craziness of the daily chores. She needs time to rest and connect with her deepest emotions. For a while, it is all right to release the reins to other members of the household because it’s her time to think about her accomplishments that year, and the goals she has set for the coming one.

This woman misses her old buddies, but she is at peace knowing they are safe and happy with their loved ones. Then, she thinks about the new people she met. The old and the new combine in a rainbow of friends, each one unique, delightful, splendid, fabulous, unforgettable. Deep in her heart, she knows that her existence has been enriched because she met them. They taught her to believe in herself and move forward regardless of the obstacles set in her way.

This woman sits now at her desk and writes a new Christmas letter to herself, reminding herself never to lose sight of what’s truly important in life: to give love. She will seal the letter in an envelope and set it aside for the next Christmas.

As soon as the letter is done, her kid asks for more chocolate cookies, her husband needs a hug, and her cat wants to cuddle while they watch Christmas movies.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Carmen Monica

When December starts, women’s “should do” lists become long and heavy. Women write cards, mail cards, buy gifts, wrap gifts and send them out, buy trees, trim trees, bake cookies, give parties and so on. When it begins to look a lot like Christmas, in case no one noticed, women perform miracles. They are making the holiday dreams come true from behind the scenes.

What if we slow down long enough to remember the reason for this season so that Christmas becomes authentic and meaningful?

So, be of good cheer, and not frustrated or frantic. Decide to be happy, loving, generous, peaceful, calm, festive, and emotionally connected to the important people in our lives for the holidays this year.

Don’t choose to be a wreck.

Realize that you can’t do everything. Recognize that one of the reasons other Christmases didn’t live up to your expectations is that you tried to do too much, too perfectly.

You can choose to let only what you love most about the holidays remain. If it snows, maybe you should gaze out the window at the gently falling snowflakes, delight in the sound of joyful music, savor the aroma of gingerbread and hot chocolate, read a holiday story each night, bask in a fire crackling in the hearth and recreate customs good for your soul.

Love,

Carmen Monica

Regardless if we know it or not, we, women, have empowering powers within us. We might not be very strong in terms of physical strength, but we make it up with our inner strength. We can give life to other lives and we can nurture our own kind and others. We come in different sizes but with big hearts. We give out love and we can embrace both, man and baby. Love, Carmen Monica