THE LOSSES OF LIFE...

 THE LOSSES OF LIFE...

  Today I woke up missing you

I kissed that photo you offered me

I sat on that bench in the square, just because

It was there that our love began.

With these verses, Carlos Imperial writes an ode to the past, where sweet memories become sad and bitter, due to the absence of someone dear. Of course it's a love song, but that could apply to every moment we've ever lived. The further we go along the road of life, the more memories are left along the way. Life is made of gains and losses, and we tend to always forget about losses... of course, some come to mind from time to time. From our childhood, the memory of our pets that left for the journey of no return... it is our first loss in life, and getting used to it is not easy... I remember, for example, that I had a chick as a pet. One day the little animal got sick and died. My God, how I cried for his death... I was inconsolable for days. Of course, I later got over the loss, but even today I still remember the little animal... I called him Zezinho... oh, and, no... he was not bought by my parents, nor was he born to any of the chickens that they scratched in our yard. He was part of a litter of one of our neighbors. One fine day, it appeared in our backyard. The owner came to pick it up a few times, then gave up. He didn't want to stay at his house, no way... and he always came to cuddle in my lap. He was my playmate, until the day he got sick and left...

My second loss that I remember... was Suzi! Suzi was a little dog that appeared and stayed there. Well, she didn't die, not in our house anyway. But my father took her away to some unknown place, because he couldn't take the little animal's barking anymore... again, I spent a good couple of days crying, inconsolable. Until I got over it again. And so I went on living life, making new friends and despairing when they had to leave. And there were many pets that gave me the privilege of their presence in my walk through this world. Some stayed with me for a reasonable time, others for a short time... and so life went on...

We can say that pets prepare us so that when a major loss happens... when a family member goes missing... we are ready to accept it more easily, because with them we learn that life is ephemeral . Of course, these words are not told to us... if they were, we wouldn't know exactly what they meant. But let's get used to the concept, let's get used to the losses that occur in our path...

Well, as we grow, losses also occur in the sentimental field. First, the loss of our little friends, who leave for other places, because for one reason or another, the parents have to move. We promise ourselves and them that we will continue to see each other, but a day or two later we no longer remember who left, as others came to occupy the space that was empty for some time. We enter the school, we meet new friends, the teacher becomes our compass for our future. When the year ends, the group disperses, the teacher leaves... and the feeling of abandonment accompanies us for some time, until we get used to the new situation and prepare for whatever comes next...

If we're lucky, we make it into adolescence with our family intact. And we will have one less trauma to face. If we're not so lucky... well, it can't be easy growing up in life without one of the members of our family stronghold... I can't imagine what my life would be like as a teenager if one of my parents had left before their time. We want everyone, parents and siblings, to stay by our side for life... and unfortunately that's not possible. Unfortunately, the time comes when we have to leave... and only nostalgia remains for those who stayed behind...

Finally, the loss that is also important in our journey... the comings and goings of love. It starts there in adolescence. The first boyfriend leaves the most marks in our lives, because he was the first. The first vows of eternal love, the first hug, the first kiss... and, with the small experiences of this contact, we mature little by little and end up blossoming into life. It's not for nothing that we usually call people in this phase "sprouts"... because that's what they are, in fact. They are sprouts that are developing and will have to face the ups and downs in their lives. As we've already faced, right? However, until our last day in this plan, we will continue to win and lose, because this is a constant in life, this is its dynamic. In order for someone to join my circle, someone has to leave it. and it can either be due to a change of location or it can be a little more gloomy, a change in the astral plane... and, for us, there will only be nostalgia for those who left, when we will sit on the bench in the square to remember moments that passed and that were important in our lives...

It's nine o'clock in the morning of this cloudy Saturday, where the thermometers are showing 23ºC, but as the relative humidity is high, the feeling is of a much colder temperature...

May God grant us a simply wonderful day, with all our loved ones by our side. May He bless us all, and allow us to be together again tomorrow. Kisses...