One hour

I have already written about it before, but I cannot help thinking back on the powerful experience I had last year when I have met a person in terminal stage - a few months later she has gone. The most powerful was watching her mood and energy, her desire to continue to be what she has always been, and I will never forget a phrase that more or less said:

"Marcelo, all I do is negotiate with God a few days more."

So today, my birthday, which celebrates the time when I first saw the world in this life, I want to be the beginning of the deepest stage of my existence here.

If my whole life would correspond to just one hour, how much do I have to live yet? Half an hour? A quarter of an hour?

What happened, happened, and it will not return no matter how great it was. But there is what lies ahead, and this is far more important than what I have lived until today - those years I am about to start living.

By thinking like that, I noticed something quite disappointing: most of the time I lived, and possibly the time I will live, was spent in "physiological activities." As a human being, I spent most of my three quarters of an hour or so, eating, sleeping, bathing, etc.. and so on.

But now, as I write, while my body (human) is involved in the physical act of typing these words, my mind flies high. Even a part of my body, my eyes, look out and send other messages to the mind. That is, the hour we have on the planet is not only human. There is also the BEING.

As a BEING, I think I spent more time reflecting on my life. What once was considered bad and negative by many who saw me, today I feel that's what helped me to become who I am today. My reflections, thoughts, imagination, ideas, values, creativity, love, peace, and all that you cannot see, touch, hear or feel physically, are part of three quarters of an hour, and will be part of the minutes that I am starting to live today.

And this I can control. I can choose between being angry and loving, between being discouraged and excited about a new challenge, between being happy or feel sad.

I know that the physical part of whatever will happen is variable. I know many things will happen to me. But I also know that the brightness of my existence depends on that inner dimension of the Being who is me.

And the same goes for you: you can choose to do whatever you want with the time you have remaining, the fifteen minutes or half an hour which is yet to come. Reflect, think, be very light and enjoy everything that comes your way.

So the wonderful hour we would spent on this planet would be worth of it. For you. For me. For all.