Winning

By: Lori Walker

(4 min read)

So far, I’ve written about many genres of music. If you are new to my blogs, I’ll let you in on a little secret. My favorite is 80’s hair metal bands!

However, I’ve mixed it up with song titles from The Beatles, Pink, Ray Charles, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Queen (featuring David Bowie), Stone Sour, Kenny Rogers, The Who, Billy Joel, Elvis Presley and Simon and Garfunkel, just to name a few!

Although I will never be able to give proper justice to the passionate, soulful, magnetic intrigue of Latin music, I can at least entertain you with a story!

I have a six-cd player hooked up to a receiver with surround sound speakers in my cute little house. When it’s time to clean or really get motivated, it’s Latin Day! (And it gets LOUD!). I’ll quickly fill that cd-player with Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias, Marc Anthony, Pitbull, Christina Aguilera and Santana. I pretend like I know them all personally!

Ricky entices me to keep “Livin’ La Vida Loca.” I can picture my seven-year-old son and his childhood friend, Patrick, dancing like silly little boys in our living room. They were having the time of their lives!

Enrique slows everything down a bit. When he whispers, “Let Me Be Your Hero,” my heart skips a beat! And when he sings the Spanish version? I can barely breathe!

Marc has me up against the ropes. I can’t decide between his romantic serenade “You Sang to Me” or his burning request, “I Need to Know.”

Armando Christian Perez, aka Pitbull. I can’t even BEGIN to choose my favorite song of his. Right now, it’s a three-way tie between “Give Me Everything,” “Feel This Moment” and “Castle Made of Sand.”

Christina is my hometown girl! In “Infatuation,” her “mother warned me to beware those Latin lovers…” Who could resist “Getting lost in el ritmo (the rhythm)…he whispers…”Te quiero, (I love you)…Te quiero?”

And then there is the man, the myth, the legend. Carlos Augusto Alves Santana. With a career spanning over four decades, his innovative genius was combining rock and roll, Latin American jazz, blues-based lines and African rhythms.

Although he has never formally recorded his own voice, his band, Santana, featured many vocalists over the years. The most recognizable is Gregg Rolie, lead singer on the tracks “Black Magic Woman,” “Evil Ways” and “Oye Como Va.” Rolie and one of Santana’s guitarists, Neal Schon, went on to form another band you may have heard of? Journey? I just love fun facts!

With all that intro info aside, it’s time to get to the heart of this blog. Lyrics.

“Winning” has always been one of my favorite chill songs. I love how Alex Ligertwood (lead vocals when the song came out in 1981) describes the metamorphosis from being ‘one of life’s losers’ to having ‘lady luck waiting outside the door…’

Have you ever looked at someone else’s life, and thought, “Damn, they have it all together! They’ve got money, status and power. I wish I had that! They are WINNING!

Why is it that we feel elated when one person wins, yet the exact opposite if someone else does? Could it be that we assign these individuals labels based on our perception of the way they present themselves? Why do we classify one person as confident while the other as arrogant? Is it their choice of words or their delivery of them?

“Both confidence and arrogance are related to self-esteem or the way that a person feels about themselves. Confidence comes from a high intrinsic value, and understanding that self-worth isn’t measured by achievements, failures, or the opinions of others. Arrogance comes from a sense of superiority over others.”1

There are plenty of celebrities that could easily fall into the arrogant category. I won’t name any, but I’m sure you can picture at least one! Conversely, there are many successful stars we don’t mind admiring—those who possess quiet confidence.

My life has changed dramatically in a very short time. Within eleven months, I became a published author twice. (With the third story on its way in Teresa Velardi’s “A Daily Book of Gratitude” – just in time for Christmas 2022!) I also became a blogger for All Things Wellness.

I’ve spent most of my life on the sidelines, cheering for others. (Which I didn’t mind at all!) But someone believed in me, recognized that I had something to offer, and put me in the game. There are days when I still can’t believe it’s real. There’s nothing that I want more than to step into my new role with quiet confidence.

Whatever role you are best at – wife, husband, mother, father, grandparent, artist, musician, writer, teacher or friend – if you struggle to see that you are a precious gift in someone’s life – I encourage you to be kind to yourself. Pat yourself on the back, close your eyes, and let grace descend upon you like soft, gentle rain. That’s quiet confidence.

And just like Santana, you and I can confidently sing together, “I’m Winning! And I don’t intend…on losing again…”

1https://www.betterup.com/blog/confidence-vs-arrogance#:~:text=Both%20confidence%20and%20arrogance%20are,sense%20of%20superiority%20over%20others.
Lori Walker
All Things Wellness, LLC
ljwalker131@comcast.net
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