Land of Snails – Stories from the Bolivian Upper Rainforest

Today I become 71 years old. I give thanks to God for so many blessings He granted me along the way. I was born in the longest day of the summer of 1942 in the Southern Hemisphere. Today I become 71 in the shortest day of the winter of 2013, in the opposite pole of the globe. How befitting because today I start the winter of my life and and is the start of the last stage. I am ready for it. I am in peace and content.

At Peace

Artifex vitae artifex sui
(Creator of himself, of his destiny.)

Very near my sunset, I bless you, Life
because you never gave me neither unfilled hope
nor unfair work, nor undeserved sorrow.

Because I see at the end of my rough way
that I was the architect of my own destiny
and if I extracted the sweetness or the bitterness of things
it was because I put the sweetness or the bitterness in them
when I planted rose bushes I always harvested roses

Certainly, winter is going to follow my youth
But you didn’t tell me that May was eternal
I found without a doubt long my nights of pain
But you didn’t promise me only good nights
And in exchange I had some peaceful ones

I loved, I was loved, the sun caressed my face

Life, you owe me nothing, Life, we are at peace!

Poem by AMADO NERVO Written on March 20, 1915.
Jaime Molina’s photo.

Adolescent in Chulumani

3rd Age Jaime

This entry was posted on 9:19 AM at 9:19 AM and is filed under Reflections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Digg it | Bookmark at del.icio.us