Meaningful Mondays- Follow your Joy

***Content warning: Some talk of religion and spiritual beliefs.

If you’ve known me for a while, you know I’ve been very spiritual and into crystals for years. 

My spiritual journey technically starts as a child. I was loosely raised Catholic and would go to church and did my Communion but we stopped going after a while but never stopped believing. My family is Cuban so there has always been a respect and interest in Santeria and we also have always believed in Los Santos, both the Catholic and Yoruba versions. (I apologize for any incorrect verbiage I may use, I have never practiced Santeria, I just have mad love and respect and my own personal but very loose devotion to Ochun or La Caridad del Cobre).

I have also always been into astrology and would love waiting for Walter Mercado to come on in the evenings and my mom would call me to come into the living room cause the prediction for Gemini was gonna come on. My mom and dad and I would all listen to each other’s predictions and “hmmm” and “ohhh” comment on them and then go on with whatever it is we were doing. Then, when I was 16, I started to learn about BIRTH CHARTS in astrology and when I discovered my other placements besides my Gemini Sun, well my entire life began to make sense & I haven’t stopped studying and learning about astrology ever since. Around that time, I also took a Philosophy and Religions class in High School that I was superrrrrrr excited about—with good reason because that class catapulted me into my spiritual journey and beliefs that I have evolved into today. Besides learning so many new things to me like ways of living, thinking, practices and cultural/religious beliefs, the teacher at some point recommended we read a book called “Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss….oooofff, that book changed my life. We didn’t have to read it but I wanted to, it was about reincarnation, a topic I had never heard of but I loved and believed in. I kept reading books Brian Weiss wrote and I just continued to expand my brain and beliefs because of these books.

Fast forward a few years after that, at 19 I started working at my first “metaphysical store” called Earthbound and that ALSO continued to catapult me deeper into my spiritual journey. A customer also recommended I’d check out this ✨✨✨MAGICAL✨✨✨ place in Cauley Square, called Sacred Rock Stars (back then, it sadly no longer exists now 💔 but there are still beautiful shops and crystal stores in Cauley Square). I discovered and fell in love with crystals at this point and HOLY WOW, my life shifted and I then became the crystal friend, in all of my friend groups and in my family, I brought my crystals everywhere and with just being myself and sharing what I was into, some people around me got inspired and curious to learn more or ask me questions about them and even get some of their own. My friends would sometimes joke around because I’d bring HUGE crystals on trips we’d take but you know what THEY HELPED me stay grounded and sleep well in these new places so I never let it get to me. 🤣

Throughout my 20s and life, I have always worked in metaphysical stores, in South Florida I have worked in a few—Celestial Treasures, Crystal Vision, Five Sisters, an online store May the Quartz be With You, Bagua for a few and now I work in an Aura Reading + Aroma therapy store in Wynwood. No matter what I’ve tried, I always end up in a crystal store and that’s exactly where I want to be, despite the skeptics and non-believers and despite the amount of times I have been told to get a “real” job. I feel I am meant to do what I am and have been doing simply because it’s what DEEPLY and TRULY lights me up completely. When I am surrounded by crystals and by my jewelry and tools and when I am reading and connecting with someone, there is no place I’d rather be. 

All of this to say—stir the pot, be the weirdo, be the sensitive one, be the “hippie”, be the one that loves so hard it hurts, be the one that carries crystals in bras and pockets and baggies and underneath pillows, be the one that doesn’t work corporate jobs or that does work corporate jobs and is a witch on the side 🤣 the point of it all is to follow your joy, your light because not only will it serve you but it will serve others around you and that come in contact with you. When we are living our truth, it vibrates out of us and others can also feel it. It helps us continue to be aligned with our purpose and bring in more of the yumminess into our lives.

I hope you do one little thing today that helps you follow your joy and your light.

Thank you for reading beautiful human ✨💛

-Esperanza