If you know me and anything about me you know my obsession with Frida Khalo and her life. I have been a Frida freak for about 15 yrs. I would like to say that I was down with Frida before most of main stream America heard of her. She is my hero. She embodies a spirit and will that I wish to carry with me on a daily basis. I have named my cats Frida and Diego. I have driven great distances to see her art displayed. I have been to Mexico and walked through her house.
I am sure this blog will seem like a ramble as many of mine do. Here I go anyway...
I cannot do much justice to her story. I will try. She was born to a Jewish Father and Mexican Mother. She had polio as a child that left her with a disabled leg. As a teenager she was in a cable car accident that left her with a spinal injury that she never fully recovered from her entire life. The accident also injured her bad leg and with these to injuries she lived a life of physical pain. She saw and fell in love with Diego River with in college and married him twice within the course of her life. He was an industrial muralist, but not the reason she started painting. She was a painter in her own right.
I would have to say Frida's greatest sorrow of her life was never having children. Due to her spinal injury and many operations she could never carry a child to term. I can only imagine if she had, the legacy that her children would carry. Frida was loyal and true. She loved people, men and woman in her life with abandon( To yield (oneself) completely, as to emotion). She had views and beliefs that were not always popular (I love that about her) yet she never wavered to make others happy. Aren't we all kind of like that? I feel that I have ideas and ways that I live my life others would not adhere to and vice versa. Here's were unconditional love comes in let people be who they are! Sometimes to love someone is to keep your mouth SHUT! I do not want to push my views on others and I DO NOT want others to push their stuff on me!!!!! Frida marched as a communist in the streets of Mexico. Not my thing but I respect it. I am sure if she had children she would have shown them the things she felt were important as I show my girls. But there is a time to let go. There is a time when we have said and taught what we feel is necessary, and then you have to give it a rest. Live in peace. Because if you don't, you are going to build a wall and create negative space that you may never get back. I believe that to my core. Live and let live, for cryin out loud! So in this rant comes my admiration for Frida. Her spirit tickles the back of my neck. Have the grace and maturity to let others be who they are without pushing your agenda on them over and over. No one wants to be around that kind of constant badgering and turmoil. I don't and I will not allow it in my life or my family's lives. In turn I will give you the same respect. Isn't that what it is that I ramble about? RESPECT.
Frida Khalo is my hero. She lived with so much pain yet never gave up hope. So as I hurt from the poison that is put into my body I think of her and say my mantra that I saw she wrote so may times in her published diaries: Tree of hope stand strong.
If you ever need a big juicy read on the subject of Frida, my fav is: Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera
I may not of articulated all I wanted here today. You get the jist huh?
Peace Out
2 comments:
Maria,
Thanks for your comments on my blog. As another Breast Cancer Survivor (another young one like you) I am right there with you. If you have any questions about chemo, loss of hair, life with the chaos of this disease, please contact me. "I am just one poor beggar, trying to show another poor beggar, where to find food." Blessings, Kat Werner, Blacksburg, VA.
not that this means anything, but the dinner i attended after your bra burning, was in a room that held no less than 10 painting of Frida. it was apt, i thought. made me think of you all night, and i can't beleive i didn't think to tell you that yet!
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