Carmen Monica Oprea

It just happened that today I missed you more than yesterday. Maybe because your day is coming and you’re not here to celebrate it. I know that, in fact, you’ve never left, but only hid between the billions of other stars. I see a star burning brightly in the night and I know it is you sending me a sign.

You knew me well because you gave me life and helped me every step of the way. You used to say that all you can do in life is put one step ahead of the other and keep on going. Don’t look back! It’s not much there but loads of memories. You life is ahead of you waiting to be discovered.

I look to Heavens and I find you there. You are the brightest star in the sky. I’m humbled by your presence and I feel at peace. So, thank you for all the nights you’ve spent caring for me, for all the advice you’ve given me, for teaching me to comb through the knots, or telling me that the sky is the only limit. You’ve been the first person to believe in me and my dreams. Your touch had magic and every difficult situation faded in your presence.

If I’d be born a thousand times I wish you’d be my mother in each and every one of them.

In life, many things don’t go according to the plan. If you fall, get up. If you stumble, regain your balance. Never give up. Stay strong because when life looks like it’s falling apart, it might be that it’s falling into place just the way it has been intended. Many times you can feel when someone really loves you even without words. Every day, every moment you have is precious, and when it’s gone, you can never get it back. Don’t live in constant fear of what is happening, what might come to be, and what might have been. Death may come tomorrow because you never know what could happen, so take a chance and try. Every second spent being angry or sad is another second you could never get back. Be fearless. Be strong. Be yourself and live for today.

People make mistakes in life, but that doesn’t mean they have to pay for them the rest of their lives. Sometimes good people make bad choices, but it doesn’t mean they are bad. It means they are human. People make mistakes, gain experience, and learn from them, and it all counts as part of life’s lessons.Nobody gets through life without losing someone they love, someone they need, or something they thought was meant to be. People don’t live forever, but their memory is. So appreciate today what you have, who loves you and who cares about you. You’ll never know how much they meant to you until the day they are no longer beside you.

Spread love, and smiles, and happiness because a person who truly loves you will never let you go no matter how bad the situation is.

We all deal with hard things, some more than others, but hope keeps us going and encourages us to hang on. It is indispensable in our lives. If we help one another in our darkest times, then hope is alive that better times will follow. My family gives me hope, cheers me up when I’m sad, and cares about me. This is a very precious gift to me.
Today, I realized how easy it is to shut down and shut people out. Sometimes, when one person in a specific group has hurt us, we tend to shut down the group. Why do we do it? Hmm, maybe because it is much easier to lock the door on an entire group than to recognize that we have been injured by one individual. It is my belief that we have to try to keep the channels open, not to generalize or condemn an entire group for the evils of one person.
Let’s think of social media where we are exposed to many people and have the illusion that we know them, that we are friends with them. Lurking among the many people we meet online, there are some bad ones and many good ones. Social media can be so invasive, we are bombarded by ideas and messages from people who may be of good will or not. We have to learn to avoid and ignore the bad ones and remember that there are good people in the world too. Social media creates illusions with people you don’t know. We need to be wise and cautious about that.
I hope you will have an easy, happy week, and good things will come your way when you least expected.

I know life can be hard at times, but there is much beauty in the world. All we have to do is reach for it and embrace it with all our hearts. Don’t let it slip away because life is only a moment in the Universe’s infinite. We are stardust, our wishes diminish in the face of its immensity.

I went to a birthday party last night, and all I saw was beauty and not the years that had passed over us.

In life, you will find many who would tell you “I love you.” The truth is that it’s hard to find the person who truly means it. But this is not a reason to give up. You will find the special one, so don’t rush love, and don’t settle.  Find somebody who isn’t afraid to confess they miss you. Someone who knows you’re not perfect, but appreciates you as you are. One of them will give his/her heart entirely.

You want someone who says, “I love you,” and then he/she proves it every day.  He/she wouldn’t mind waking up with you in the morning, seeing your wrinkles and gray hair, and falling in love with you again. To the people who truly love you, you are wonderful already. It is not because they don’t see your faults, but because they brightly appreciate the loveliness of your soul. Your defects pale by comparison. Those people will let you be imperfect and splendid at the same time.

Every story starts with once upon a time they met. The location is not important. The circumstances are not important. The age is not a factor. Their race is not important. Important is the fact they had found each other in an ocean called life. A girl and a boy, a woman and a man ran into each other seeking something. Incomplete until the very moment when everything stood still, they were floating adrift. They knew something was missing from their lives, but they couldn’t phantom they were, in fact, missing a part of them.

How many of us search every person hoping to find the half that completes the whole? But how do you recognize it? How do you know she/he is the one you were searching for? What are the signs that you have reached your destination?

When you find a reason to smile without saying anything, when you don’t need words to understand each other, when you share the same beliefs, when the sun shines even when it rains, you know something has happened. She/he offers you comfort when you’re low. She/he sends a cute message to brighten your day. She/he is always on the other end with a warm advice. You realized that you had found what you were looking for. You had met your soulmate.

You realized you had found a significant part of you if it hurts to breathe without her/him. If it hurts to live without her/his presence or hearing her /his voice. Your life if meaningful without her/him in it. Your soulmate doesn’t have a color, doesn’t have age, doesn’t hurt, but provides joy, happiness, understanding, love, and passion. Hold on to your soulmates because only the most fortunate ones, the worthy ones receive the gift!

In the beginning, everyone was good. When we came into this world, we were pure. There was no damage done to our souls. Day after day, the life’s hardships hardened our hearts and goodness became a word belonging to a book. But what is goodness?

Some will say that goodness is character energized expressing itself in kindness. We are called to do good. Many of us today are self-absorbed and bored with the way of life, with other people or with our jobs. It is the reason they need to be part of something meaningful like volunteering to help the less privileged people in the under developed countries, the homeless, or talking to the elders in the nursing homes.

Lao Tzu said: “Treat those who are good with goodness and also treat those who are not good with goodness.” Only this way goodness is attained. Wisdom has its root in goodness, so, by spreading goodness we become wise and take the right decisions for us and the ones around us.

Always look for the goodness in people even if not everything you hear is true and say kind words. A smile brings another smile and, by the end of the day, a vast collection of smiles will hang over our heads. Goodness is stronger than evil, and love is stronger than death. Light is stronger than darkness, and life is stronger than death.

Happy Easter everyone!

Love is part of us. It enhances who we are. It is part of a greater whole. This pure feeling comes from within, not from outside of us, and not even from another person. Love grows with us. You can’t find it in books, or movies, but only in the depths of your soul. It comes from you. Emit love more often and your heart will open.

Believe in something more powerful that what you can see, bigger than you.Believe in something different than everyone else believes to be true. Trust and allow things to fall into place for you just once and take a step back. What it happened? You notice that control is an illusion and when you let go, you break attachments. You become free of obligations, free of rules, free to follow your will and your desires. You become complete because you realize that when you give love, than the Universe will always return more.

The world always expects something from you: to be a good son or daughter, a good sister or brother, a perfect wife or husband, a beautiful mother, and father, a competent employee or an amazing boss. Can you rise to these expectations? Are you going to be happy if you fulfill everyone’s dreams and neglect yours? What is more important: your happiness or the other one’s happiness?

As you answer these puzzles, more will come because our world is a web of questions and answers. One thing I know for sure: the world cares only about what it can get from you. It may be in the form of money because people love money. It can be friendship since the concept is still in style. It can be love. Everybody desires something and, in return, you may or may not obtain money, friends or love. Some say that the best in life comes from your desire to make others happy. What you offer doesn’t have to produce money but it has to benefit the peoples. You have to be creative, funny, attractive, smart, ambitious, and people will be drawn to you.

The human mind is a wonder, and you will never see it bounce into action than when it is fighting against evidence that it needs to change. Our psychic has fighting mechanisms to keep everything unchanged. You do that by interpreting every criticism as an insult, or focusing on the messenger instead of the message, or paying attention to the tone and not hearing the content delivered.

My advice is to concentrate on giving you a skill that will make you more interesting and valuable to other people.