Around this season, one tends to think: one more year, what will the next bring us?
Focused on my plans for the next weeks, dinners, parties, trips, the doorbell rang. Every time I start planning something, I receive his visit.
He shows up at my door, with a hat and impeccable dark suit, vest, and gray tie. As my father would say, “the strange elegance…”.
Without words, because I know him very well, I invited him to come in.
He sits next to me, in front of the computer, and watches, while I finish planning my activities for this and next year.
My guest is very discreet, no matter how much you want to ask him things, he remains silent. Sometimes a short, almost sarcastic laugh escapes him.
In the middle of my plans, my computer froze. I think the afternoon, the hours, stopped too.
I don’t know how, the notes of a tango very well known to me, one of those that my dad taught me, emerged. “Barrio silvered by the moon….”
At that moment my distinguished visitor invited me to dance.
I surrendered to the dance with my eyes closed.
What a delight it is to let yourself be guided by the confident arms of “future”, which by the way is the name of my kind visitor. How peaceful is to surrender to his designs, instead of chaining him up with excessive planning.
My computer began to show signs of life and at that moment my wonderful dance partner left, offering me a smile and a polite gesture touching the crown of his hat.
I took his visit today as a good omen.
I shut my computer off and decided not to plan so much and just give space to magic. The same that, if one insists on tying up to tight, just cancels itself.
With my imaginary music, there I was, alone, happy, dancing…
Leonor Henríquez (Caracas, Venezuela) Civil Engineer by training (UCAB 1985), writer and apprentice poet by vocation. From her time in engineering emerged her Office Stories (1997), another way of seeing the corporate world. Her latest publications include reflections on grief, Hopecrumbs (2020) (www.hopecrumbs.com) and “The Adventures of Chispita” (2021) (www.chispita.ca) an allegory of life inside Mom’s belly.
Today she shares her “impulsive meditations” from Calgary, Canada, where she lives.
leonorcanada@gmail.com