After years of visiting Vienna’s attractions related to the Imperial Court, the most important being Schonbrunn Palace, I felt the need to visit something else, something that captures the essence of life. Beyond all the pomp and rigor imposed by the Imperial Court with its troubling story, marked by drama and suffering, with Empress Sissi as the central character, beyond the opulence desired by all, which struck me years ago, I found that today I am attracted to the simple life, without too many social rigors.
The famous painting “The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt is among the most valuable works in the
world, not only because it is covered with gold, silver and platinum leaves, but because it embodies the essence of love of all time. Simple through the beauty of the gesture and complex through the multitude of ornamental patterns, the scene interweaves the passion embodied by the masculine principle with the delicacy of the feminine universe, the grandeur of ecstasy with the
decadence of agony.
Giving yourself passionately to the moment is the great secret to a fulfilling life. Experiencing seemingly mundane moments and events, fulfilled love or impossible love, which the world labels as having no future. All those suspended hours, the gestures and words spoken or unspoken, which are looking for a way out, the regrets that remain behind. Every expectation has its meaning, every gesture, every word, every unspoken translation in a simple look, when we tailor them with the care of a craftsman who paints his own experiences on the canvas of life. To live, building your own story dictated by your own experiences, listening to the voice of your heart, dancing to its soaring rhythm. To step with life, which always pushes us forward, making our way to ourselves.
It’s not a waste of time to listen to your heart, it’s a waste of time to pretend it doesn’t exist. It’s not a waste of time to listen to your emotions, to see what they have to say, it’s a waste of time to push them away, because they will erupt in the most unexpected ways, creating addictions that we try to keep alive. It is a waste of time to live only to agonize fortunes, without agonizing moments that give us the certainty that life is worth living as it is, with the good and the bad. It is a waste of time to make projections about an experience or a relationship, to tell ourselves how long it must last and how it must unfold, in order to keep up with the world.
Who says how long a story that belongs to the heart, which can only be felt, cannot be expressed in too many words, should be kept? A story that lasts a month is not less valuable than a story that lasts several years, and a story that lasts several years is not less valuable than a story thatlasts a lifetime. Every story lived with the heart has its own destiny, it has its breath, creating immortal moments, through which life jumps ecstatically.
Being able to enjoy a story however long it lasts and whatever its destiny, is an art that you learn as you live, as you leave behind the experiences that have served their purpose, without getting too attached to them, for fear of moving on to new experiences that life reveals step by step to those who dare to take the step.
Building priceless moments by pulling out pieces of the soul from the depths is the sign that we are living our own destiny, not the destiny of others, it is the sign that we are living what is worth living.
