Reflections by Facundo Cabral

I saw an interview with Facundo Cabral, I couldn't get enough of him. Argentinian poet, singer and songwriter. I'm intrigued by his life , just a few things: he was given a job by Evita Peron by stopping her car on the street and asking for a job, was homeless for most of his childhood, his mother said this to him at the age of 9 "I can give you 2 gifts, one was to give you life and second to give you the freedom to live it" she sent him on his way after that.

I found this in the Internet, it has been translated, not sure if it has the same intensity it does in Spanish , here it is anyways. It's long....I know but it's worth sharing.

You are not depressed... just distracted, distracted of this life that populates in you. Distracted of the life that surrounds you, dolphins, forests, seas, mountains, rivers. Don't fall on what your brother fell on, who suffers due to a human being when there is more than 6,400 millions (according to google''s"world population"). Furthermore, it is not so bad to live alone. I have fun by deciding what I want to do at every moment and thanks to solitude, I know myself, which is constitutive for life.Don't fall in what your father felt, feeling old when he is sixty but forgets that Moses lead off the Exodus when he was eighty and Rubinstein played Chopin like no other when he was ninety, just to quote two renamed cases.You are not depressed, you are just distracted. That is why you think you have lost something, which is impossible since everything has been given to you. You didn't even make a hair on your head, therefore you cant be owner of nothing. Furthermore, life doesn't take things away from you but it relieves you....lightens you so you can fly higher to achieve plenitude. It is a school from the cradle to the grave,therefore, what you call problems are just lessons.You didn't lose anybody, the ones who passed away simply got ahead of us because we are just voyeurs headed in that direction. And, the best part of him, his love, will always stay in you heart.Who could say that Jesus is dead? There is no dead.. there is "moving". And on the other side there is great marvelous people: Gandhi, Miguel Angel, Whitman, St Agustin, Mother Theresa your grandpa and my mom among them, who believed poorness is closer to love since money distracts us with plenty of things and draws us apart since it makes us grow distrusted. Do whatever you love and you will be happy. Who does what he loves is blessedly condemned to success, which will arrive in the moment it must arrive since all that is to be will be, and will arrive naturally. Avoid doing things for obligation or engagement but for love. Then, you will reach plenitude and among all that plenitude anything will be possible with no effort, because it is moved by the natural force of life, the one that kept me going when the plane with my daughter and my wife felt down, the one that kept me alive when the doctors said I had only three or four months of life.God gave you the task of taking care of one human being, yourself. Only you will be able to make yourself free and happy. Only then you will be able to fully share your life with others. Remember these words: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.Reconcile with yourself, sit in front of a mirror and think that the creature you see is a master piece of God, choose right now to be happy because happiness is an acquisition. Furthermore, happiness is not a right, but a duty because if you are unhappy, you will make unhappy everyone else around you. One single man without talent nor spunk to live, ordered the death of six millions of fellow Jews. There are so many things to enjoy and our journey in this land is so short that suffering is just a waste of time. We must learn to enjoy the coming snow, the spring flowers, the Perusa chocolate, the French baguette bread, the Mexican tacos, the Chilean wine, the Colombian coffee, the oceans, the rivers, the Brazilian football, the One Thousand and One Nights, books as the Divine Comedy, The Quixote or Pedro Paramo, romantic boleros by Manzanero, and for the intellectual poetry by Whitman, classical music by Mahler, Mozart, Chopin and Beethoven, paints by Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Velazquez, Picasso and Tamayo among other wonders.If you happen to have HIV or cancer, there is two things that could happen and both of them are good. If it beats you, it will liberate you from the bothersome body (I am hungry, I am cold, I am sleepy, I feel like..., I am right, I have doubts)... and, if you beat it,you will be humbled, more grateful...therefore you will be happy and pleased easily, relieved from any guilt, responsibility and vanity, ready to live every moment profoundly as it should be.You are not depressed, you are just unemployed. Help that child that needs you, that child who will be partners with your son. Help the elders so the youngsters will help you when you grow old. Remember that serving others is a certain happiness,like when you care for nature for those to come. Give without limits and you will receive much more than you expect. Love until you become the most loved, even more, until you become the pure essence of Love. Do not be confused by those few homiciders and suiciders. Goodness is bigger although you can see it because it is silent. A bomb makes more noise than a caressing but there are millions of caressings feeding life per each destroying bomb. Isn´t it worth it? If God had a freezer, He would have your picture on it; if He had a wallet, He would have your picture in it. He sends flowers to you every spring. He sends you a sunrise every morning. He is ready to listen every time you are willing to talk. He could live every place in the universe He likes but He chooses your heart. He is crazy about you!! Face it, my friend!! God never promised you days without pain; Laughter without sorrow,sun without rain but He did promise strength for your every single day,consolation to your tears and light in your way."When life gives you one thousand reasons for crying, show that you have one thousand and one reasons to brake into a smile".