THE MESSAGES WE RECEIVE, IF WE LISTEN TO THEM
Of the many books I have read about the meaning of life, one idea always stuck with me: that if we observe reality carefully, we will receive messages that life sends us when we need them most. I was walking my dog one morning when, as I passed an old man sitting at the trolley stop, he started talking to me. His was the beginning of a cascade of information that left me speechless. Almost without stopping, he confided to me that his parents were Irish but that he had been born in Brazil, where he now wanted to return. His father had died when he was young, and he had never heard from his mother again because she was a “bad woman,” he said; That is what made him emigrate one day to the United States. I was standing in front of this stranger without really knowing what to do, or how to say goodbye politely and without hurting his feelings. However, apparently the conversation was not over yet, and he continued talking because he still had to tell me the most important thing. ...