Deixa-me rir...

"Caros Audiophiles, a friend died recently. Well, more like an acquaintance since I cannot claim to have known her well. And yet she was the kind of person who you imagine you know from the beginning. She was open and direct. She wore her heart and her passions on her sleeve. She was a good person.

She loved conversation. Always with a cigarette in hand. She loved debates and arguments. She loved philosophy and conspiracy theories. She could talk, and believe, nonsense. For hours. She loved to provoke. She could be infuriating. She had passion and curiosity. She was an old hippie, and a young rebel free spirit.

She loved people. She used to manage a local cafe where everyone and anyone was welcome, rich and homeless. She loved young people, and encouraged them to be themselves. Above all she was devoted to her daughter. She was a mother, and a friend, to many people. She embraced, and was embraced by, her community.

I am glad that I attended her funeral and the party to celebrate her life. To be among such a mix of different types of people from different social standings and ethnicities. She was born Catholic but became interested in meditation and other spiritual paths. The room was decorated with candles and Eastern Buddhist ornaments. There was a tree with hanging ribbons where anyone could write and attach a card with a memory or a prayer for her. Her ex-husband spoke beautifully and with much humour about her humanity, and her crazy contradictions and idiosyncrasies. Other friends, both old and young, also stood up to tell stories about her, to share why she mattered to them.

I was glad for myself to be there. I was glad for her. It felt good to see and hear how much she was loved.  How she lived life to the max. And it made me feel a little guilty that I had not made more effort to overcome my prejudices and her provocations to spend more time in her company. That was my wish to her tree.

Who knows if there is a divine after-life? You believe, or you don't believe, or you sort of believe just in case. But what is certain is that people remain connected spiritually in our hearts and minds, and physically interact in some way with the particles of nature around us.

As another friend said, she has returned to the cosmos from where she came. Into the mystic...

Which leads me to the song 'Into The Mystic' by Van Morrison that was played at her funeral. The lyrics are generally considered about a spiritual quest, and "a song of elemental beauty and grace, a quintessential Morrison moment."

Van Morrison himself remarked about the song: "'Into the Mystic' I originally wrote as 'Into the Misty' [misty = mist or fog]. But later I thought that it had an ethereal feeling so I called it 'Into the Mystic'. That song is kind of funny because when it came time to send the lyrics to the music publisher, I couldn't decide what version to send. Because really the song has two sets of lyrics [spiritual and earthly/sensual]. For example, there's 'I was born before the wind' and 'I was borne [carried] before the wind', and 'Also younger than the sun, Ere the bonny [= pretty] boat was one' and 'All so younger than the son, Ere the bonny boat was won' ... I guess the song is just about being part of the universe."

We were born before the wind
Also younger than the sun
Ere the bonnie boat was won as we sailed into the mystic
Hark, now hear the sailors cry
Smell the sea and feel the sky
Let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic

And when that fog horn blows I will be coming home
And when that fog horn blows I want to hear it
I don't have to fear it
I want to rock your gypsy soul
Just like way back in the days of old
Then magnificently we will float into the mystic
And when that fog horn blows you know I will be coming home
And when thst fog horn whistle blows I got to hear it
I don't have to fear it
I want to rock your gypsy soul
Just like way back in the days of old
And together we will float into the mystic
Come on girl...too late to stop now.

 

 

RIP Maria.

 

 

A proxima.

 

PO