Fuente: https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/
Ding…
I received another notification on my phone, one more on a particularly hectic day: my birthday.
I must say I feel incredibly grateful for all the birthday messages.
Yes, this past April 17th I turned another year older, 65 to be exact.
In this case, the “ding” came with an old photograph.
Three little girls, the one in the middle was me, sitting on a sunny bench, proudly holding enormous ice cream cones piled high with generous scoops of ice cream.
Strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla.
It was a moment worthy of Dorian Gray, or rather, an epiphany about what they call the secret of youth.
These days, this obsession with staying young is everywhere: Botox, surgeries, creams, oils, and other concoctions.
But in the end, time, the relentless one, as the song says, always does its thing, and it’s best to accept it with joy.
I went back to the photo: three carefree souls, smiling and enjoying themselves.
At first, I said it was an old photograph, and I wasn’t lying.
I, the sixty-something, was in the middle, and next to me were my two beautiful friends, ninety and eighty respectively. They kindly invited me to brunch at a very traditional restaurant in the park, and I treated them to ice cream afterward.
Three veterans, three ice creams of different flavors: yesterday, tomorrow, and today.
Three girls.
Time stood still on our palates.
The years evaporated in our smiles.
I discovered the secret of eternal youth.
Ice cream and friendship on any sunny bench in life.
May there be many more, and may they go unnoticed!
