Welcome
By Nacho Cadena Owner of La Petite France - November 2005
 Just one day ago you were kept in the womb of your mother: quiet, protected, in a bundle of maternity, well fed, without contact with the world, in communication only with the patience, the serenity and the love of your mother. I know that she was talking to you, she lulled you to sleep from outside, she sang you little songs, she indulged you, she caressed you, she enjoyed your evolution since you were a fertilized egg until you got to know light, noise, voices, colors for the first time. I also know that it was your fault that your father was a bit unwieldy from time to time when he spoiled you through touching the navel of your mother and caressing her stomach. I also know that he was very much on the lookout for you, he could not have done more, during your marvelous nine months of confinement in your miraculous habitat which accommodated you, so that you could grow and prepare yourself in order to enter the world in the year 2005 in that place which the elders call Planet Earth. I know that he was so on the lookout that he composed a musical piece with the sound of your heartbeat which he gave as a gift to all of those who love you since today, as a welcome sign to the everyday world.
Well, today you left your home and moved and you already realized that dogs bark and that cars flood the streets and that a very intense light encircles you and that the sky is blue and vegetation is green, in so many colors of green, and that there are many others just like you, from the baby next to you in the crib to the old and wrinkled person with white hair. Today you arrived at a different world, a world where we humans share our lives with animals and plants and rocks. A world with jungles and deserts, with rivers and lakes and seas, with rain and drought, cold and heat, metal mines in the center of the earth and corral reefs on the bottom of the ocean. A world with a sunrise every twenty-four hours where a ball of fire appears which we call sun and which is the center of our universe and with a sunset every day where a ball of light appears which we call moon giving us energy, moving the ocean waters. But above all it reminds us of being romantic, of falling in love with each other, of being sensible and tender.
Due to your moving to a new place and leaving behind the total cover of the womb of your beloved mother, I would like to tell you a few things.
First of all I would like you to know that you have arrived at a beautiful world, a good and pleasant world, a world inherited from the hand of a Superior Being who created it in seven days.. a world of colors, of wind, of water, of fire and earth. Sometimes we who live here forget ourselves and we want to twist the world a bit and then Nature reminds us of the mission and the path. For this it sends us hurricanes, earthquakes and other misfortunes, but this is only so that we may focus on our aim and correct our course. The world is good and life is incredible, marvelous, charming, fun, entertaining, interesting. Life is to live it well, ordered, with meaning, with passion, with devotion, with ideals, with illusions. It is very worthwhile to live. Don't ever forget that!
You came here with just one mission: To be happy and in order to be it you have to set out to be it, you have to decide it and prepare the means in order to arrive at this incomparable destination called happiness. By the way, I tell you, searching for it now means finding it. Reaching happiness has its tricks. Simplicity, generosity, knowing how to give and how to receive, admiring beauty, defending your values, appreciating the small things, loyalty, accepting oneself, self-esteem, true friendship, acknowledging others, the insatiable desire for knowing and for being. There are enemies, too which have to be avoided, today I do not want to tell you about many of them because there are so many beautiful things to tell you, but be alert, be aware of egoism, of envy, of excessive ambition for having, of disloyalty, of lies. It is better to focus on how to be better, how to help, how to live together with joy, how to enjoy the few things or the many things you have, how to participate, how to devote yourself to the good and just causes, how to find the good, the pleasantness, the beauty, the enjoyment in everything which surrounds you, in everyday things, in the park, in school, in the lunch hour, in sunsets, in sunrises, in finished and well done work, in the caricatures of life, in your flaws and in your abilities, in your mistakes and in your successes. You should see life in the color that you want, the color you like best, the color that satisfies you. All in all we already established that the main mission is to be happy because by being happy you transcend and help others transcend.
From this day on learn to love. This is the best way, love conquers all obstacles. Love your parents, your brothers, those that are near and those that are far away, love those who are like you and also those who are different, love the birds and the reptiles, the rocks, the mountains, the ugly ones and the beautiful ones, love the ideas, the illusions, the dreams. Love your beliefs, your values, your principles and defend them, which is a great form of loving. Love your life.
Give yourself reasons to live. Don't stop to create illusions and dreams, they are two excuses to walk in a hurry, without rest or also to pause yourself to stop and to contemplate, to look at the panorama from above and to enjoy it. Illusions are for life what water is for plants and dreams are the beginning of reality for mankind.
 Upon your arrival you received a strong impression, a slap on the buttocks so that you might cry, do not be mistaken, nobody wanted to ill-treat you, it was the manner in how to make you scream in order to clean your lungs and to snatch your first expression of joy away from you for having arrived. It is true - I do not deny it - there are obstacles in the path of life, bad moments and sometimes people even suffer. These are calls to strengthen us, to get up with more spirit. By the way, the tumbles in life are common in everyday life, they are necessary, we learn much more from our mistakes than from our achievements. And indeed when you do fall down, you have to get up fast, without wasting time and without any excuses. Then you will be stronger, more persevering and perhaps wiser.
I could tell you about more virtues to be happy like humility, patience, prudence, perseverance, transparency, authenticity.but little by little you will know more about the path on which you should travel until you achieve being a man.
Indeed, I cannot finish without telling you that even though you grow up, even though you will be bigger and older, you will never stop being a child. Preserve your soul of a child, take care of it above all things, don't stop to marvel every day at the color of the sunrise, never loose your capacity of being amazed. There is so much to see and to admire and to be thankful for. Even when you are older, play with your imagination just like today while being a child. Men with the soul of a child are happy men.
I want you to know that you started very well, your sole arrival, your presence amongst us, have filled us with joy, have rejuvenated us, have given us one more reason to live, to work, to take care of ourselves. Ay boy, so little and apparently so fragile, you have given so much good to many, at least to those who are close to you, you have brought us closer together and you have created in us many, many illusions and many dreams. See, how easy it is, you are already doing what you are supposed to do in life.
Welcome Ignacio V. we love you, you have your whole life in front of you. I am sure that you will enjoy it and make the best out of it. You were born with a calling to be happy. May this be God's desire.
P.S. I dedicate this writing to all babies born yesterday, the day before yesterday and the days before that. And also to those who may be born today, tomorrow and all the days of this century and all the centuries to come.
Nacho Cadena - Owner of La Petite France
E-mail: nachocadena@lapetitefrance.com.mx
* From My Balcony
is an independent column of Mr. Ignacio
[Nacho] Cadena, owner of La
Petite France Restaurant
in Puerto Vallarta and source of this information.
To contact Mr. Ignacio Cadena please email
to: lapetitefrance@prodigy.net.mx
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