La Voz de Galicia – December 29, 2023 →
We were sitting on the couch at my mother’s house. We were quite cozy, there in the small living room, and I thought that when we four sisters grew up there, I had never questioned the size of that sofa, nor the size of that living room, or of that table. And I give thanks for having grown up like that. But the truth is that when we, the four sisters, are able to get together twice a year with their wives and husbands as well as the next generation (made up of a single girl), the space appears to be smaller than what it really is. But it is more than enough because to get together the only thing that is needed is the will to get together.
And that will to get together is, for me, increasingly more complex. Outside of my own small particular circle, each year it becomes more difficult for me to have a social life, it becomes more difficult to cultivate new friends, it becomes more difficult to leave the house and go out for coffee. And in these Christmas festivities, when suddenly everyone reappears to get in touch again, I began to reflect as to whether this reticence of mine is new or whether it was there before, when having a social life was the motor of my professional life. And no matter how many times I thought about this topic, I always arrived at the same conclusion: the great difference between today and before is that today I have the feeling that I am the owner of my own time (even though it may not be completely true), and that because of this I try to take care of this time in a more active way than I used to do before.
Tempus fugit. And precisely because each day vanishes as if it were a second, I will make time my new resolution in 2024, and I will try to spend it on what I feel I should spend it on. Because even though it may only be an illusion, it is the only currency I have to feel that this life is the one I want to live, and to be able to do whatever I want with my time …
