When looking up at the image above, what is the first word that comes to your mind to describe it? 

For me is solace. 

I remember back in my teenage years looking out of the window and finding myself staring into the quiet empty street on a sunny day, especially if it had been raining the night before, making the clear sky and bright sun give the still wet streets this sort of glow. It was a moment where the air felt cleaner, the day felt fresh and in that quietness I took comfort. In that stillness I would take a deep breath and be thankful for a new day. I miss the balcony on which I used to do that. 

For a long time I would search for that same feeling, that calmness and peace that would fill my chest in those sunny mornings, trying to see what it was that made them so special. I wanted to capture the essence and bottle it up so that I could use it whenever I felt down. Sadly, experiences are ethereal; they come as quickly as they go and escape between our fingers, spirited away by the passage of time. 

Soon enough though, I started to find a similar feeling with movies and shows, particularly with anime style ones like the pleasant environments in Ghibli movies or open world games. It wasn’t the same, but the feeling that filled me up was similar. This breath of fresh air from the light hitting the worlds created by the artist just right. 

Even when the world often times felt empty or lonely, I was there. I took deep breaths and closed my eyes. Part of me knew it was just a love for the art and vision the people making these had, yet another took it a step further. In appreciation of the vast, open and beautiful worlds that I saw, I felt myself wondering about my place in my own world. Where do we as a species fit into the spectrum of beauty and unfairness that we inhabit? Part of life is to find our lot in it, yet we always think so personally that we forget we are all part of something so much greater than ourselves.  A broad horizon laying in front of us and offering to walk towards eternity, yet we only focus on the downtrodden path. 

One day, while at work, I saw a group of children running around in the indoor play area. They had been running around for the better part of an hour and a half with the parents sitting at a table with no worries in the world. I remember seeing them there and thinking to myself “I miss the days when we could just have fun no matter where we were.” Strolling back to memories of my elementary school days, of being tired, dirty and yet happy. Back to the days where the basketball court was a battlefield, bushes were forest in which we could hide, the hidden alleys were the usual spots for everyone and a single slice of pizza could lighten up your day.  Where does the innocence and desire for wonder go when we grow older? 

I’ve always tried to keep mine as much as I can, but when I look into the eyes of people my age or older, I realize that whatever light was there, flickered and faded long ago. Husk remain in their stead, walking through the world just wanting it all to end. 

This sadness, this feeling of disillusion, of pain, builds a wall that will never allow us to walk beyond the path that others have set for us, even though in reality, there is no wall. And it can have many names, from simple things like expectations and traditions to dark and horrible experiences like necessity, abuse and the death of loved ones. They create this mental walls that divide and separate us, blinding us to the ever brilliant horizon that lays before us as individuals, and as part of a collective world. Walls that divide and conquer, making us shells full of hate, fear and sorrow. 

It is then that I look to those rainy mornings, those opened and magical worlds that lay before me. Taking a deep breath, listening to the lovely sound of silence. Taking solace in the fact that there is no true road in front of me. In the words of Antonio Machado: 

“Camiante, no hay camino. Se hace camino al andar.”
“Traveler, there is no road. We make the road as we walk.”

So I extend my hand to you, my friends. Your walls can’t hold  you. Would you walk this road, with myself alongside you? No pressure though, it is the journey that matters after all. The destination is wherever we end up. 

Come now, it’s time to get up and go. 

Thank you for reading!