Miracles of Life

Francisco fell and broke three teeth last Friday. The news arrived like this, cold and straight forward. I was in a plane, about to take off, and didn’t have time for more than sending a short written message, acknowledging receipt of the information and sending one word of support and another of solidarity. It must be difficult to be there when your own son falls and breaks three teeth… Anyway, after landing there was more time for the details and to feel proud of the four-years-old son who didn’t even cry while in the hospital, and to be amazed by his optimism: as the doctor said that the teeth would grow again, Francisco assumed that it would happen fast, maybe within one or two days! I couldn’t help smile… but I was also worried about his reaction when he found that it wouldn’t be that fast. Today, when I asked him how his teeth were, he replied, simply: almost well! Francisco isn’t only the cutest little boy in the whole world; he’s also the greatest!

This morning, when I woke-up, the sky was rather grey and, during the day, it rained. While I slowly got ready for another working day, I didn’t think, not even for a single moment, that the late afternoon would be full of sunshine over a completely blue sky… Instead, I started the day in a bad mood, complaining of the Brussels’ weather… While running around the park nearby, under the sun, I couldn’t help thinking of Francisco and his innocent optimism, and wondering what is wrong with growing-up… I mean, what is the purpose of accumulating experiences and knowledge over the years if, in the process, we lose the ability of hoping for the best and expecting everything to be alright? Would it harm us if we did it? I don’t think so! And, yet, that’s what we do; that’s what I do… Being rational has a downside, and I have the impression that we would be happier if we recuperated a bit of plain, irrational, unexplainable faith…

These last months, I have been investing a lot in old habits that I realised I was missing: losing weight, reading, running, spending quality time with good friends, just to mention some examples. Lately, I have been reading a lot and that makes me happy. And, as it makes me happy, I have bought more books; now, I have quite a lot of books in my waiting list, and I plan to read them all quite fast. One of the next will be “Miracles of Life”, the autobiography of the writer J. G. Ballard. Maybe because I like so much to read, I always found writers to be very special people, capable of very special things. When I saw that his autobiography was called “Miracles of Life”, I couldn’t resist. I am convinced that we could all use miracles in our lives… or maybe, more simply, to be able to recognise the miracles in our lives. Francisco - and children in general - do it very well!