Things that I want to bring along into my third life
As I am just starting what I consider my third life, I’ve started thinking about some stuffs I’d like to bring with me.
Of course, I don’t think I’m going to quit what I’ve been in this 34 years, what I’ve done and thought, not enterely at least. It wouldn’t be fair nor perhaps possible.
What I want is to focus on what is important to me now, relating to my social life, my body, my job.
I’m going to write a list here, but I don’t mean to give a priority order to its items:
*Teaching. Because it’s taught to me how important is the relationship you build with your students, beyond the importance of the subject you teach.
*Dancing and meditation. Apparently they seem two quite different things: the truth is that afro dance, as I’ve practised it in the last four years, is a kind of meditation that has helped me to become more conscious of my body and of my feelings too. Till now, I’ve practised meditation quite a little, both in formal and informal ways, but I intend to keep on and extend this practice.
*Books by Tiziano Terzani. He was a quite famous Italian journalist and I think he is an inspiring person to me both as a journalist and as a human being.
*Making my house as an “open place”. In the first months of this years two people I’ve loved passed away: both of them loved cooking and eating, loved having a rich social life, loved opening their own homes to other people. They’re not still here, but they have left this precious example about how to live and I want to treat it as a gift.
*Some “no”. During the last years, some people said “No” to some of my claims. I am really grateful for those “no” because they have made me able to understand better what I truly need. It doesn’t mean that I haven’t suffered for those reactions and it doesn’t mean that I think that all of these people deserve gratitude for their behaviours. At least in some cases, I guess they were just means to help me learning some useful lessons. Or maybe not.
*Plants. Well, I’m not exactly a green thumb but I discovered that growing plants has two positive effects: it changes the atmosphere in the house and makes me feel very satisfied when plants don’t die. And sometimes they are so independent that they grow up despite me! ;-)
*Nonviolent Communication. This book written by Marshall Rosenberg, an American psychologist, is problably the most moving and effective handbook about communication and relationships among human beings that I’ve never read. It is worth to read and to know as well the method he created to improve the way we communicate.
*Silence. Some moments of good, sane silence are always helpful. While we stay silent, we can start to listen. And then to understand.
*Enjoying changes. As I wrote before, our life is entirely made of changes. We can’t avoid them and it is wise to love them as they bring us things, people, situations we couldn’t even imagine. It is wise not being only scared of them.
*Good sparetime. Having a pause, going out for a dinner or a night, go to the cinema or to a gig, spend few minutes for a coffee, a chat or a phone call. Reading a book or a paper. Sleeping. Having a walk in the park. Listen to a radio program. All these things help making a more pleasant routine (as I am not living only for working).
*Wishes. They are the gate of our soul. Knowing them, accomplishing to them means to be faithful to our essence.
*More lightness. This is maybe the hardest definition to find: it’s the opposite of superficiality, it’s something like water splashes, it’s light, it’s something that has to do with your inner model. It’s about loosening chains.
*Two movies. One is Spotlight because it is a memento for the method I want to apply when I work, no matter which type of job: doing things well, but never forgetting the human side and the respect it always deserves. The other is The legend of 1900 because it is about life, its emotions, the choices you can make or not and mainly because I need to remember where I come from.
*Bravery. Several people said me I’m a brave person. Yes, I am (and it is mostly exciting).
And finally, remember that every day *everything is new.
