From Gran Canaria to California

From Gran Canaria to California

by Deborah Martel Rogers

Life is what we want to do with it (and by "us" I am referring to all the people in the world, in general

). From the very moment we decide to come to this side of life, we have taken our first 

decision (or, at least, the first tangible and palpable one). What will be my first mission in this 

world? Will I be able to accomplish it, or will I not be brave enough, when I see the price I will have to pay in order to deliver?

While these thoughts wandered around her already congested mind, Dara continued to prepare 
her children's breakfasts for three-year-old Ana and five-year-old Francisco. Maybe this was why, or perhaps because God had blessed her with a beautiful Hebrew nose, like Barbara Streisand's, he continued to use the password anafrank every time she logged on to her electronic mail. There were some coincidences, definitely: Even although Ana Frank did no longer exist in the physical 
world, her spirit will live forever and ever.

Dara had an attractive body, which, on more than one occasion, had made her feel uncomfortable when asked to choose between body or spirit as if they both could not coexist harmoniously.

“Be kind, generous and strong, like a lioness,” she advised her daughter the day of her third 
birthday while adding: “Remember that softness in moments of rudeness is the greatest sign of 
strength and hope you can send to the world.” Ana smiled and asked for her favorite breakfast: 
Milk and cookies. She was sitting on her favorite blanket, with her Target tray, her Hiperdino bowl, and the spoon Grandma Alice, from Santa Rosa, had given her for Christmas the year before.

This spoon resembled a crocodile, something which probably confused the little girl when she 
thought about the conversations she and her mother used to have, when Mom asked her to eat 
like a lioness, sing like a Canarian bird, while sitting on the blanket which had a Panda bear 
printed on it, and eating with a crocodile-shaped spoon. Such a rich environment!

In the meantime, Francisco, who was still in PJs, was asking for his breakfast, although maybe 
what he was really requesting was for a more relevant role in this story, who knows.

Of course! Although he was only five, Francisco looked like an eight-year-old boy. He was tall, like his grandfather Jim, his father, and his great-grandfathers from Gran Canaria, Domingo and 
Antonio.

He had started to visit Gran Canaria, Dara's place of birth, from the young age of three months.
Dara was his mother, and he got to meet his maternal side: Those relatives who spoke in Spanish with that beautiful Canarian accent he loved.

What called his attention the most was how often his relatives from the other side of the Atlantic 
smiled a day, to the point that he asked his mother if they did not have any problems. Dara 
responded in a way that still resonates in his heart: They live with Lauve. With Lauve? He asked. Yes, with Laughter and Love, Dara replied.

Love and Laugh coexisted in a perfect mathematical union, and this formula: Love + Laugh = 
Lauve would become Francisco's favorite equation.

Now, when Francisco shared his formula with his dear little sister, Ana, a few years later, she 
added a special touch to an already magic formula: Refrain from participating if you are a 
pessimist, a dream-breaker, a living dead, and the rest of beings who enjoy destroying everyone 
else's illusions.

When Ana and Francisco shared with their mother, Dara, what they had learned in one of their 
trips to Gran Canaria, her birth island, only then, she had the certainty that their future would be a bridge of understanding between two beautiful worlds. Gran Canaria and California would speak in a common language: The friendship between two siblings who smile with their sight in a future loaded with optimism and faith.