Good Evening

La Voz de Galicia – December 24, 2021 →

Cristina PatoI wonder how many people there must be who spend Christmas Eve alone…There are some who prefer to be alone for personal reasons because not everyone associates these days with joy or celebration. There are also others that, though not wanting loneliness, are isolated because of COVID and are not able to spend the night with friends and family. And there are yet others that, displaced by obligations of what their past lives were, are perhaps detained or seeking refuge in some border or encampment, and even if they are with someone, feel more alone than ever because loneliness is not always a question of company.

My mother speaks many times about loneliness and the difference between desired and undesired loneliness. She also speaks about the difference between being alone and feeling alone, and perhaps today what I wonder about is how many people are feeling alone during a night when we are constantly shown the image that being together, with your friends and family, is what brings us joy.

But joy is where we are able to find it because we don’t always want or have access to the kind of joy that we are sold. But perhaps we can find and keep moments where we simply feel well, even if it is for an instant, to construct with them our own idea of a celebration, just the way we are: alone or in company. Sometimes I think that if we can collect those small moments, perhaps we can also be capable of turning on that small light that can take us out of the darkness we carry inside. That light that helps us wonder again about the small things, about the things that make us feel well; that light that reminds us that despite everything, we are not alone…Good evening, Christmas Eve.

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