La Voz de Galicia – March 20, 2020 →
Spring arrived today, and we should not forget nature’s power to make green, bloom, and recover. If we lose hope, we lose everything, and today is a good day to remind ourselves that, whatever happens, there will always be a tree in bloom, a flower in search of sunlight, or a little singing bird brightening our day. Perhaps we might not see it from our window, but we can listen to it and even imagine it, and perhaps that is enough to remember that this, too, shall pass.
The only thing to do is to take care of ourselves and wait. But taking care of oneself is not possible for everyone and not all are capable of doing it for themselves. Those who take care of our elderly are also alone these days, isolated from their loved ones while they take care of yours, waiting for this to end. Also alone–and sometimes without knowing it–are those who share their vital spaces and live with their enemy. In truth, we are all more or less alone, within ourselves, pondering whether we will come out of this one or how we will recover what we have lost…
Last summer, at Trasalba, I heard the great poet Luz Pozo Garza talk about her relationship with solitude; in my notes that day I simply wrote down, «she is 96 years old and she feels perfectly comfortable with solitude.» And today I think that even though solitude is not always a choice, perhaps these days will help us to begin to learn how to feel comfortable with it in order to appreciate those small great rights we forgot we had.
With a verse from Luz, today, more than ever, let’s try to not lose hope and let’s look around us, even if only to imagine the flowers of that garden we will one day take care of: «Now that spring returns.»
