MARINA OPPENHEIMER BOOKS AND BLOG

  The other day while I was looking for a movie to watch and not finding it, I ended up watching a televised show. The person who ran the show was supposed to provide spiritual guidance to a guest from the audience. On that particular occasion the guest was a woman who had lost her job, had a daughter who had been diagnosed with a severe mental illness, and her unemployment benefits were about to expire. In a few words, should she not find a new job soon she would lose her home and end up living with her daughter in her car. The woman was visibly distraught, and after sharing her story with the audience I wondered what the answer from the host would be. By looking at him I could tell right away that he was totally lost and did not know what to say. Looking studiously at his guest he came up with the following answer: “Let’s look at things from another perspective. Do you think you could look at this situation from the point of view of gratitude?” To say that I was flabbergasted a...

OUR LIFE: A JOURNEY WITH NO REFUGES   I have always liked houses; to me they spell a very special kind of mystery. The reason why I did not think of studying architecture when I was eighteen is probably due to the fact that math was not my forte. Still, whenever I go by a house that appeals to me, I make the point of slowing the car and observe its design. Houses have always been for me the symbol of a refuge; some kind of secret garden where to feel protected from the confusion and misunderstandings of life. Therefore, each time I was able to own one I always did my best to make its interior feel like a welcoming cabin the me dark night. Today that I am forced to be inside my apartment for many hours a day, I look at these four walls and feel that in the vastness of the universe this is a place I can call my refuge. But is it? Is life something that becomes more peaceful after we close the door of our house and make ourselves comfortable? Why is then that, sometimes, when I sit ...