023: forget about the fishes of color 🎏
stop and smell the 🌹🌹🌹
I think that a lot of us have grown up with an idealized version of what we want our lives to be
The types of friends we're supposed to have, what they're supposed to look like (what we’re supposed to look like), what we do for a living (what our friends do for a living), the interactions we have, the parties we go to, how we spend our time. All of these visuals are based on the way we see other people presenting the lives they live.
I was doing my regular walk (the one where I saw the 🌸) when I started thinking about the life I always wanted to have, what my friends were supposed to look like, and how I was supposed to spend my time.
I realized that most of what I always wanted, I already have.
It just might not look the way I pictured it one year, two years, five years, or even 15 years ago.
And I thought to myself, "I never want to miss out on the beautiful things I have right now because I was too busy thinking about other things I don't have."
In Puerto Rico, we have a saying,
Olvidate de los peces de colores
Don't get distracted by shiny, fleeting things***
My parents always said it when I was feeling upset or sad about something they knew (through experience) wasn't going to matter in the long run. They also said it when I was focused on something I thought I wanted and needed in my life, but they knew that thing would do nothing for me in the end.
One day we were listening to the radio, and there was a commercial that said, "Forget about the fishes of color," in a very I'm-Puerto-Rican-and-English-is-not-my-first-language accent. It was the first time we ever heard that phrase in English, and it was one of the most beautiful (and funniest) things we'd ever heard.
So this week, I just wanted to tell you: Stop worrying about what you don't have or where you think you're supposed to be. You might already be there and you just haven’t taken the time to notice or appreciate it.
Next time you're on a walk, stop to smell the roses and forget about the fishes of color.
***Ready for the onslaught of texts telling me that's not what the saying meant to them #ColitaDeRana