“Manuela, are you happy?”  I ask.

“Yes, very happy.”  Big smile.

“Why are you happy?”

“Because life is beautiful.”

This conversation gets repeated at least once a week.  Always the same answer.  Manuela works with me.  I like to ask her this because I like hearing her say it.

Manuela grew up in El Salvador. One day, about 18 years ago, Manuela was walking home with her husband’s cousin.  A car drove up to them recklessly fast and stopped.  Four doors opened, tattooed gang members rushed out, pointed their guns at the cousin and shot him many, many times. They jumped back into the car and took off, leaving the cousin bleeding and dead in the street.  Manuela saw it all close-up.

Very soon after, Manuela heard that the gang members realized there was a witness and were asking around for where she lived.  They were coming for her.

Manuela took her son and her husband and fled her village to another one to hide from them.  The gangsters tracked her there and she managed to escape just in time to yet another village even further from home.  She got word they were not giving up on finding her.

Manuela was hiding deep inside a house far from home, frozen with fear, knowing she could never go outside again. She was terrified beyond any terror she thought possible, every moment filled with intolerable panic.

Manuela took her six-year-old son and her husband and they started walking, never out in the open, hiding and sleeping in the jungle, the roughest of jungle back roads only.

They walked the length of El Salvador. They walked across the entire country of Guatemala and into Mexico.

When she arrived in Mexico, Manuela threw herself at the mercy of the United States government and pleaded for asylum.

The US government was well familiar with the cold-blooded El Salvadorian gang killings.  Manuela’s was considered a valid request as it was clear she couldn’t go back.  Manuela was allowed into the country and granted asylum.

When she started working for me, Manuela had a Green Card allowing her to live and work in the US permanently.  

I helped Manuela learn English and gain her American citizenship.

Manuela has worked with me for 17 years.  She is always sunny. I have never seen her unhappy.

The smallest things make Manuela happy.  Rain makes her happy. When it stops raining, it makes her happy. Flowers blooming in the spring, the smell of pine trees.  Every kind of weather.  Life is beautiful.

Manuela takes tremendous pride in her work and doing a good job makes her very happy.

People make Manuela very happy. She is always telling me how beautiful or good or kind or professional or wonderful someone is.  She has fresh complimentary adjectives for everyone.

Manuela sees the beauty in others that they don’t even see in themselves.

While everyone is watching the news, Manuela is watching the butterflies.  Standing in the supermarket line, while everyone is impatiently waiting to get to the front, Manuela is admiring the beauty and character of the faces around her. When she gets stuck in traffic, Manuela admires the scenery.

Manuela is completely aware of the madness of the world around her.  She’s up to date on local and global politics.  She is not naïve.  She is aware.

What she is mostly aware of is the effect it’s having on other people.  She says to me, “It’s crushing their spirit.” 

Manuela sets about solving it.  She says, “They need someone to listen to them.  They need someone to love them.”

“Mostly, they need ‘espíritu fuerte’”  Strong spirit.

That’s what Manuela gives them.  She talks to everyone.

People love her and they love to talk to her.  Manuela breathes fresh life into them.

Manuela is not waiting for life to begin. Hers began when she was born.

She’s not waiting for any person or politician to do anything. She chooses to create the reality she wants to live in. 

Manuela understands magic.  She knows that tiny bits of energy, of effort, produce results many times greater than the size of that effort.  Life is about those tiny bits of energy that all add up.

Manuela lives without restraint.  She loves without restraint. She gives without restraint.

Manuela never forgets.  Life is beautiful.

Be the cause!