You barely have time to get used to the syncopations
in this thing we call life.
You think you mastered the rhythm
and that you know what comes next,
but all of a sudden,
this majestic score,
authorless, as is,
makes you change the rhythm:
Speed up – don’t try to continue going calmly
or you’ll make what has been beautiful till this moment
a failure, an utter mess.
Speed up and forget that you were once calm.
Till the day you have to slow down
and now the rhythm doesn’t make sense anymore
and if you continue with the previous tempo,
you’ll destroy all the beautiful things that are coming your way.
You take a deep breath, but it’s so hard to slow down…
and you meditate and relax and breathe some more
but you realize that, during those seconds,
10, 1,000 or 1,000,000,
you learned to appreciate the eighth notes,
and you learned that a sped-up life fills you with adrenaline
and that life is more delightful when you live to the max,
but you have to slow down,
because if you don’t, everything you’ve done stops making sense
or you’ll make what has been beautiful till this moment
a failure, an utter mess.
Slow down and forget that you had an electric life.
And then all of a sudden, the pauses appear
and now you have to wait and not do anything,
and oh my God, it’s so hard to not do anything
in a life where you’re awarded for doing more,
but the pauses are as important as the other moments
and they hold lessons that are as important as the achievements
and the score that will hold your name
your year of birth and your year of death,
won’t make any sense without the pauses.
But don’t get used to it all,
that’s the key:
flowing between all the notes
with all the grace that’s possible,
without suffering, without complaining,
accepting that this authorless score requires you do so,
that’s what makes some lives so full and grandiose
and others so meaningless.
Play your score with grace,
the kind that comes from knowing what you have to do
and convert your life into a masterpiece
that other people will analyze
to understand what you did differently.
