Welcome to
Yuliana’s Journals
Scroll down to read my blogs which are also available on Medium. I release monthly newsletters to keep you abreast on my latest obsessions, Wellness Recommendations, Podcasts and my novel writing progress. Please enter your name and email address if you’d like to hear more from me.
Living the question rather than living to find the answer has been a mantra that has helped me this past month, especially after the passing of my good friend on July 4th. I suppose there is no greater question one confronts but that of the meaning of our own lives and our own existence. Death, more than much else, helps us to understand what it means to live in the question and not be tormented by questions.
Read MoreWhat I realized was how much courage it takes to be OK with being wrong and to be able to be wholly honest about it. I suppose that is why many of us are so good at deflecting and blaming others instead of facing our own foibles head on.
Read MoreAlthough it may sound strange to some, my decision to forgive opened a doorway for all the good that has transpired in the past nearly thirty years: my parents utter love and devotion to my husband, their pride and love in their biracial grandson, and their delight in the expanded family that is celebrated at every family gathering.
Read MoreThis month’s mantra of talking better and not bitter sounds prosaic enough, but like most things that appear to be effortless, this too requires greater work, vigilance, and endurance to maintain for any amount of time. Like those three dolls I had as a child, each one representing the saying of ‘hear no evil, see no evil, say no evil, they served as a reminder that I had the control of setting my own moral compass for how I could live in the world.
Read MoreI found myself stuck in London with Covid. I suppose if one has to be imprisoned, London, and specifically, my good friend’s house in South London, was as good as it could get. Although I tested positive, I did not suffer any symptoms, which I wish I could have said for my dear friend. So, although I felt fine, I couldn’t leave the house, much less leave the country, or be a productive person whatsoever.
I’ve never been one for a great deal of sentimentality about anything from my past. One of my friends said about me that I rarely let any grass grow under my feet. I know that could construed as me being restless, which is a trait of mine, but I also view it as my ability to not let my past ever become the anchor keeping me moored in one place.
Read MoreRead MoreSince I always feel as though I’m not doing enough of anything, I tend to overload on things to do, taking on responsibilities and projects at a time that sounds absurd in the recounting to a normal human being.
Read MoreFor me personally, after the tumult of the past two plus years and the personal tumult of the past six months after the raging resurgence of my depression, I can see how the past chapter with all of the drama propelled the narrative where I was forced to confront my own limitations.
…”cancer is an unflinching teacher about the preciousness of time, an idea we all understand on some abstract level but rarely truly experience the importance of until it is long too late.”
Read MoreMany glasses will be raised and clinked to celebrate this idea of thanks and gratitude. Amid all of the expressions of thanks for others, try not to neglect yourself. Give thanks for all that you are, all that you have endured and survived, and all that you hope to realize, understanding this is not narcissism or self-absorption. It is the beginning of purity in the thanks you express for something or someone else.
Read More“Travel is not about escaping life, but a way to keep life from escaping us.”
Read More“This month’s mantra to “Shed the unnecessary to live in Kodachrome” was inspired by a Phoenix Tales Podcast guest, Eden Grimaldi. Her philosophy was borne from her battle with breast cancer, this harrowing experience realigning her own perspective about what is truly important in life...to live and appreciate the here and now since we don’t know how many here and now any of us may have in front of us.”
Read MoreThis month’s mantra of “Enjoy the questions as much as the answers,” felt prescient after my recent relapse of my depression. It’s hard to enjoy the question of “why”, or worse, the lamentation of “why me” when you feel your suffering is singular. Instead of falling easily into the victimhood of my own disease by lingering on obsessing over elusive answers to the universal “why,” I have been spending the time examining how “why” can become the road signs, flashing its warning before I fall off of the cliff and when nothing or no one is able to keep me upright any longer.
Read More“In the quest for perfection, we miss out on the most interesting bits” was this month’s mantra. As a recovering perfectionist, this mantra is one I think about with great frequency, probably greater frequency than I would like to admit. It certainly served as a much-needed mantra for me during this process of launching my new podcast “Phoenix Tales.”
Read More“I suppose these two words could also serve as a prompt to imagine all the possible disasters of the unknown. But, after the past year, I can’t imagine a more dystopic future, although I know that is feasible.”
Read MoreOne of my favorite cookbooks was written by Judith Jones, the editor who worked with Julia Child. After the death of her husband, she found herself cooking for one, finding herself adapting old recipes for a single portion.
One of the best recipes in that book, which I imagine myself cooking quite a bit once I am cooking for two, is Steamed Egg(s) Nestle in a Bed of Greens.
Read MoreAs the tug of war between motherhood and daughterhood with the winning side yanking me across the finish line of failure takes place each day, this mantra of Failure is Relative has kept me from losing all hope and not succumbing to the deepest, darkest, nihilistic parts of my nature.
Read MoreNothing neutralizes or levels the playing field quite like the aging process. There is no amount of money, no amount of awards, no amount of physical beauty or strength, no amount of intelligence that can prevent the inevitable…aging and facing the limitations of what it is to age.
Read MoreFailure is a word most writers get to know intimately. If you write, it is guaranteed you will fail. And fail again. And fail again.
Read MoreCooking, unlike baking, is something that this mantra fits perfectly. With the exception of flat -out burning something to a crisp, most recipes can be saved, at least saved enough to be edible. One of the recipes that I’ve found to be most forgiving in terms of a failure being relative is a classic roast chicken.
Read More
