Ocio sobre fondo rojo, 1949
Fuente: https://www.wikiart.org/
In the “trembling immensity that surrounds us,” what they call life, as the Finnish writer Sillanpää (Nobel Prize winner 1939, another of my recent “monumental” discoveries) said, not to worry…
Mission impossible.
This Saturday, June 7, 2025, I will celebrate 40 years as a civil engineer from the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB).
Back then, I thought achieving this goal had been the most difficult and stressful thing I had ever done in my life. I struggled against the currents with mathematical analysis, descriptive geometry, thermodynamics, rational mechanics (not at all rational for me).
But no, what was coming was more complicated than designing a trumpet distributor or calculating a bridge. Looking back over those four decades, among the most challenging and rewarding moments is motherhood, that moment of intimate joy when you gaze into your children’s eyes for the first time and bond with them forever.
After that poetic moment comes the good stuff.
But without going into too much detail about the vicissitudes of my life, the point is that I’m already well into what they call here “the golden age,” and one absurdly believes that the time has finally come, the time to “let go” and do nothing.
As my little philosopher Winnie, the Pooh used to say, “the only problem with doing nothing is that you never know when it’s over.” This phrase, which I love, leads me, with a smile, to my reflection this week.
Although the moments of anxiety and restlessness never completely disappear (I think it’s my hobby), the time has come for me to practice full-time what Oscar Wilde described as “cultivated leisure.”
This consists of not doing much, but living with intention, appreciating the smallest things in life.
Spending time in philosophical contemplation is undoubtedly more satisfying than a day at the office.
So, a well-spent day of “cultivated leisure” is perhaps the first step toward reaching that utopia of not having “a care in the world”
I’m working on it…
Today she shares her “impulsive meditations” from Calgary, Canada, where she lives.
leonorcanada@gmail.com