come on baby light my fire

this week in class we were assigned to read the novel in english "like water for chocolate". i thoroughly enjoyed the book and think many of you will too. the book is primarily about true love and food.

here is one of my favorite lines: "one last chile in walnut sauce left on a platter after a fancy dinner couldn't feel any worse than she did."

one of the many reasons why i love latin women (aside from the way they cook, dance, and get snappy) is because their idea of feminism differs from ours in the united states. the feminist movement in latin america was house wives breaking free from the bonds placed on them by machismo and tradition. they found their freedom through coming further into their role as women, and not trying to take on male attributes.

being a woman in many ways is a balancing act. equally distributing time to family, work, school, church, friends, and a personal life, does not seem possible. so far this year this year looks pretty grim as far as 100% dedication goes in a few areas of my life (for example: i didn't quite get to my 8:00 am class...) but! "like for water for chocolate teacher us,

"Each of us is born with a box of matches inside us but we can't strike them all by ourselves; just as in the experiment, we need oxygen and a candle to help. In this case, the oxygen, for example, would come from the breath of the person you love; the candle could be any kind of food, music, caress, word, or sound that engenders the explosion that lights one of the matches."

so in 2009 i hope that you will be my oxygen (but i don't like people who breath heavy when they talk... so figuratively speaking i guess) and that i will spend my time with things and people who ignite joy in my life.

go and read the book, and then we'll talk some more. andrea