Saturday, December 30, 2023

36



 I fell in love with Mario when I was a 23-year-old single mother, insecure, and afraid of losing everything. I clung to him, even though I knew he would leave me eventually. 

He wasn't like most guys I knew. He respected me, for starters. He suggested I go to counseling, with a licensed professional, and offered to pay. He loved Vince, sincerely, and took him into consideration when we had dinner plans. 

"Let's go to Cindy's," Mario would say, referring to a local coffee shop. "They have high chairs."

It was odd and beautiful and wonderful to date him. I wanted to believe he was my forever person, but I didn't trust it. Things were too good... So, when we got married, I felt like the luckiest girl in the world, even when I knew it would end. 

Fast-forward to 1992, when Mario and I had been married for five years. We still loved each other, but life was not easy. Kids, pressures of the blended families, work concerns, fights, exhaustion, and expectations for happiness weighed heavy on us. We were on the brink of divorce. Together, we lived with our two (and sometimes four) children, in a beautiful house, somewhat financially stable--but we were both discouraged. Did we really have what it's took to keep a marriage together?  We knew that love alone wasn't enough to sustain our relationship, let alone make us happy.

One day in 1992, Mario came home from work, stood in the kitchen, where I was loading the dishwasher, and told me he had booked a week long 'intensive counseling vacation."

"We're going," Mario said. "That's it, and that's final." 

As he walked away, I felt relieved. At least we're not getting divorced.

This watershed moment, a mere five years into our marriage, marked the enduring mindset that continues to inform our partnership. When we need help, and we still do, we know where to get it. Good counsel offered us strategies, as well as mindsets, to help us grow stronger together. 

Today, Mario and I went to out to lunch at a coffee shop near us that reminds me of Cindy's, the unpretentious cafe we frequented when we were dating. It serves breakfast all day and Mario loves breakfast. After this, we visited friends in Folsom, who we love and cherish. 

"Someone once told me the secret of a long and happy marriage," one of them said. "It is to accept the fact that you'll have three or four marriages inside of yours over the years." 

I thought about it for a second, then said, "Shoot, that's me in one day." 

The real secret to a happy marriage is that there is no secret. Like everything else, marriage reflects what we put into it. If you and your partner recognize the marriage as a partnership, a contract, a sacred covenant worth preserving, you're already ahead of the game. 

If you have a partner like Mario, it really helps, too. No matter what, he always remembers the source of our strength. Even today, as he heard my friend tell us her secret of a happy marriage, he smiled at me. Just earlier, at the diner, he told me what he thought was the secret of our thirty-six year marriage enduring, even through the horrible trials we've encountered.

"There's only one reason we're still together," he said. "That's Jesus."

Even writing this here seems cheap. What Mario said can be seen as religious or reductive, unless you are us. Mario said this with sincerity. It hovered over my head like a hummingbird. It was tender, like a small flower that isn't supposed to survive a hailstorm or a tornado. Our shared faith was not the only thing he was referring to--it was divine intervention. He said this with all humility, and he meant it. And you know what? I believe he's right. 

💗💗💗



Thursday, December 28, 2023

61

 

This morning at my desk


Today is December 28, 2023, the day I turn 61, and I will love this year.

In 2023, our newest addition to the family was born: Augustine Mario, the son of Alicia, our daughter. A few days ago, surrounded by family, he opened his first Christmas presents, unpacked his first stocking, and sang his first Christmas carols. Life is beautiful.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that life is a blessing I'm not entitled to. Today I'm going to a funeral for a man I barely knew and yet owe my life to: Alfred Ruiz Sr. I went to school with his son, a boy I knew as Alfred, who my grandmother called Alfredito. The Ruiz family were Spanish landowners who employed my grandfather when he first came to Tracy, California. Grandma knew something I didn't: without this family, ours would be like so many others: migrant workers who traveled with the harvests. With the help of the Ruiz family, specifically Alfred Sr's father, my grandfather, Ignacio Gonzalez, became a U.S. citizen and a permanent Tracy resident. He bought land and built a house that still stands today. In many ways, the man whose life we will celebrate today is a stranger to me; in many ways, he is a mench, a godfather, a sponsor. Life is impermanent, for the rich and the poor, we all enter and exit this world in the same way. 


Yesterday, I published my website: janetrodriguezwriter.com. Yikes. I'm not wealthy, so I built it myself... Which isn't as easy as it sounds. Today, at least for a writer, a website is like a business card with a fold-out resume. I've never liked writing a resume either. Please check out my new website and let me know what you think... Really.  

In my sixty-first year, I'm still learning how to speak Spanish, write with a sincere voice, be a good wife and mother, and make the world a better place. The greatest challenge is learning how to love others, and how to receive love from others - especially God's love. I want to live a life worthy of the gift of life. I'll never be able to earn His love, but let me be able to receive it without performing. 

In my darkest days, I cry out to God to make sense of this life. Usually, there is no answer (about how to make sense of this life) but there is peace. King David wrote Psalm 61, the one that marks my 61st year, in a very dark time. Let it be a reminder for all of us: our relationship with God is a personal thing, marked by transparency and truth.  

Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer. I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe.
 and take refuge in the shelter of your wings. F
or you, God, have heard my vows; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name:  years for many generations. 


May he be enthroned in God’s presence forever; appoint your love and faithfulness to protect him a
nd fulfill my vows day after day.

From the ends of the earth I call to you, I long to dwell in your tent forever. Increase the days of the king’s life, Then I will ever sing in praise of your name

Monday, June 19, 2023

Mario

 This is a pantoum, a form with rhyming, repeating lines. Happy Birthday to my one true love, who  is true, true, true ❤️ Happy Birthday, Mario

Mario, school picture, age 8



Pantoum for Mario

 

You’re the boy in the magnet frame, eight years old:

half-smiling, ready, eyes filled with stars.

and too much of the beauty and strength to behold—

I run to you, lover, with open arms—

 

half-smiling, ready, eyes filled with stars.

When I lose my place, dizzy in oceans of doubt,

I run to you, lover, with open arms—

A man I could never be whole without

 

When I lose my place, dizzy in oceans of doubt,

You are there, in our language, with shadowless praise

A man I could never be whole without—

who aims true, and keeps pure all of his ways

 

You are there, in our language, with shadowless praise

and you grew to be purposeful, loving, and bold—

your tested aim, true, in the truest of ways

from the boy in the magnet frame, eight years old—