December 21, 2013
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.