Days like yesterday remind me that there is truly a difference between going through the daily routine, threading one task after another, doing things which will fill in a rarely consciously written check-list of things to do till it’s time to go to bed, fall asleep, until I wake up the next morning with another day ahead of me — and feeling alive.

I feel alive when the Now catches up with me and takes over my awareness. I am then 100 percent in what I am doing. My senses are awakened: the light is brighter; the colors are sharper; everything tastes better…

I remember many years ago passing through Geneva the July my younger brother died. I was walking on a pedestrian bridge at the end of the lake and, turning toward the statue of Rousseau looking at the Mont-Blanc bridge, I felt Life pulsating through everything around me.

Or walking the Camino, again and again, reaching a bend on the path and being grabbed by the landscape suddenly in front of me; or an evening meal at the Albergue — when laughters and stories ripple around the communal table, as we share pasta, bread, and wine.

Yes, I often feel alive when I walk, as if Godde were truly everywhere, greeting me through the trees and pastures, or in the palm-trees and the songs of the coquis. My sisters the waves, my brothers the clouds…

Yesterday morning, Paul and I drove to viejo San Juan to start cleaning our small beloved flat, left to itself these days so much of the time. I could see the length of Calle Sol, a sea of colors in the sunlight, the vibrancy of the old adoquines (blue paving stones), the joyful voices coming from the street, and the turquoise ocean against the blue sky…

En mi viejo San Juan…

As we drove away, later in the day, I noticed then how alive I felt, and how lovely, delightful, sensuous even it is to feel alive.

At the end of the day, when I gathered my thoughts and, sifting through the hours, I looked for that moment when Godde found me as much as I found Her, that instant in viejo San Juan of feeling so alive, vibrant, and awake came back to me.

Thank you Godde for this moment of oneness with you. Thank you for this feeling alive.

When and where do you feel alive?

Photo: A bar in viejo San Juan (Here you can)