Marc and Angel Hack Life

Let’s begin with three quick stories…

• This morning at a train stop near the hospital, a man and his three young kids got on. The kids were loud and completely out of control, running from one end of the train car to the other. An annoyed passenger sitting next to me looked over at the man and asked, “Is there a reason you’re letting your kids go nuts right now?” The man looked up with tears in his eyes and said, “The doc just told me their mother isn’t going to make it. Sorry, I’m just trying to think before we all sit down at home to talk about this.”
• Two of my ex-coworkers actually laughed at me last year when I told them I dreamed of opening my own hair salon. But I’m proud to say that I opened my salon anyway, almost nine months ago now, and business is really taking off. But to think I almost didn’t do it… I almost took my ex-coworkers’ negativity to heart, and let their limitations become mine.
• Today one of my regular customers, a really grumpy elderly man who has been eating in our diner every morning for the better part of five years, left me $1,000 in cash for his $7 breakfast. Alongside the cash he left a small note that read, “Thank you, Christine. I know I haven’t been the brightest smile in your life, but your smile and hospitable service over the years gave me something to look forward to every morning after my wife passed away. I wanted to say thank you. I’m moving eight hours down the road this afternoon to live with my son and his family. May the rest of your life be magical.”

Those are old stories, familiar stories, and variations of them likely happen more often than we realize. And if there’s one thing they all have it common, it’s the importance of not taking things too personally…

The father on the train wasn’t [Read more…]

“Don’t cry when the sun is gone, because the tears won’t let you see the stars.”
— Violeta Parra

It’s a dull sensation when your heart is breaking, like the muffled sound of a distant gunshot. It doesn’t actually pierce your skin or tear you to pieces, but the sensation is physically present — the paralyzing discomfort of realizing that something you took for granted is leaving for good.

Although it’s hard to accept at first, this is actually a good sign, having a broken heart. It means you have loved something, you have tried for something, and you have let life teach you.

Life will attempt to break you down sometimes; nothing and no one can completely protect you from this reality. Remaining alone and hiding from the world won’t either, for endless isolation and solitude will likely break you with unhealthy nostalgia and yearning.

You have to [Read more…]

Everything We Need

Jose’s wife, Maria, was born in a one-bedroom, stand-alone home on the outskirts of Playa del Carmen, Mexico. It was a fine little home, but her father, Oscar, wanted a real house. So he worked two jobs — a 60-hour-a-week factory job, and then another 20 hours or so a week as a carpenter.

Oscar saved 50% of his income for over a decade to build his family a four-bedroom house, like the ones in the better parts of town. He put half his family’s savings in a local community bank, and he tucked the other half away in a safe he kept hidden on their property.

On the morning Oscar planned to break ground on his family’s new house, the local community bank shuttered its doors, just hours after law enforcement declared the bank was running an illegal (and uninsured) Ponzi scheme. 90% of the deposits Oscar made were lost. Then, the very next day, their little home was robbed at gunpoint. In exchange for his family’s safety, Oscar offered [Read more…]