Conversations with a nomad.

"How many people do you know who say: I've never done what I wanted, but then that's life. if they say they haven't done what they wanted, then, at some point, they must have known what it was that they did want. As for life, it's just a story that other people tell us about the world and about how we should behave in the world."

"Even worse are those people who say: I'm happy because I'm sacrificing my life for those I love."

"And do you think that the people who love us want to see us suffering for their sakes? Do you think that love is a source of suffering?"

   "To be honest, yes."

"Well, it shouldn't be."

   "If I forget the story other people have told me, I'll also forget a lot of very important things life has taught me. What was the point of struggling to learn so much? What was the point of struggling to gain experience, so as to be able to deal with my career, my husband, my various crises.?"

"Accumulated knowledge is useful when it comes to cooking or living within your means or wrapping up warm in winter or respecting certain limits or knowing where particular bus and train lines go. Do you believe that your past loves have taught you to love better?"

   "They've taught me to know what I want."

"I didn't ask that. Have your past loves taught you to love your husband better?"

   "No, on the contrary. In order to surrender myself to him, I had to forget all the scars left by other men. Is that what you mean?"

"In order for the true energy of love to penetrate your soul, your soul must be as if you had just been born. Why are people unhappy? Because they want to imprison that energy, which is impossible. Forgetting your personal history means leaving that channel clear, allowing that energy to manifest itself each day in whatever way it chooses, allowing yourself to be guided by it."


.........



"How does one go about abandoning the story one was told?"

   "By repeating it out loud in meticulous detail. And as we tell our story, we say goodbye to what we were and, as you'll see if you try, we create space for a new, unknown world. We repeat the old story over and over until it is no longer important to us."

"Is that all?"

   "There is just one other thing: as those spaces grow, it is important to fill them up quickly, even if only provisionally, so as not to be left with a feeling of emptiness."

"How?"

   "With different stories, with experiences we never dared to have or didn't want to have. That is how we change. That is how love grows. And when love grows, we grow with it."