Arbol que crece torcido, jamas sus ramas endereza.

The tree which crooked has grown, will never straighten its branches. This one, also said to me by the "diablo" of my mother, was first said in reference to some of my 'friends', then later in life to the men I dated. How much sense it makes now! I want to believe we were all raised with morals, taught right and wrong, and molded into a perfect straight tree. But this is not so. I'm sure all mothers and/or fathers did the best they could, but then there's life, circumstances, situations that turn out to be like a wall which blocks the sun that shines on a seedling, giving it light and energy and allowing it to grow straight and strong. If the sun is blocked, then the tree barely grows, it grows crooked, weak. The sun is love, kindness, good will, and those who grow up without that, then of course wold not know how to give it.
 As an example of this I would like to use the men I date that my mother referred to. As many women, I tend to follow a pattern,fall for the same type of guy. The nurturing that all women are instinctively born with tends to make us more susceptible to these bad boys we think need our love and guidance to change. But they never change, do they? Why? Because we are following a pattern, we are always falling for the men that we feel need our love, because somewhere on the road of their lives they lacked it. So they grew up not knowing how to love, how to accept love,how to receive and give kindness. As women we need to change our views and change our patterns. It's like we our shopping in the clearance aisle and we see a dress that is very cheap and we think,'with a few alterations here and there, it will fit!' Well, we deserve better...we need a nice dress that fits perfectly from the beginning even if we pay a little more! Maybe we can buy something on clearance and alter it, but hey...this only works with clothes,not men! With men, we need to step away from the clearance rack, and go to where the most expensive outfits in the store are, the one's that will compliment us perfectly, don't need changing and that we deserve! Because remember...a tree which crooked grows, will never straighten its branches no matter how much sun (love) and water (nurturing) we give it! It's too late...it's grown!

Mas sabe el diablo por viejo,que por diablo.

I have always wanted to start a collection of Mexican idioms, which all Mexicans,born there or here have grown up hearing. We have an idiom or saying for everything, and I would like to make them known along with their meanings or psychological significance. I will start with my favorite one "Mas sabe el diablo por viejo,que por diablo," The devil is more the wisest because he is old, rather than because he is the devil.
 I think the meaning of this one is well understood, and the older I get~no pun intended~the more it becomes true. Experience, more than any schooling or education,makes us wiser. The older we get, or the more we experience, the more we know, the more intuitive,if you may, we become. We can read people better,we can for see the outcome of situations, etc... I remember as a teen always thinking my mom was some kind of witch, or fortune teller, because everything she would warn me about would come true. I was at constant war with my mother, but now I understand her, I have become like her, because of experience.How I wish I would have listened, just the same way I now wish my kids would listen. But my kids see me now as I saw my mother then, as a nag. So we need to accept as parents, that our children need to live their own life, experience things, fall, (just as they did off those bikes), make their own mistakes, so that one day they can and will, become all the wiser. We can try in the friendliest, lovingly way possible to give our best advice, but it is up to them to learn through experience, just as we have.