BACK TO MY PRESENT PAST

I am going back to Puerto Rico. Not that I do not go often, but this would be the first time this year. Every trip to Puerto Rico is a trip back to the small world that I once left behind. My heart fills up with joy and anticipation with every trip, as if it was the first time in a long time I had been there. I can close my eyes and see everything unchanged, as though time had stopped and frozen life. I can see in my mind the tropical beauty of the Island, the beauty I always long for when it is winter. I see green, the green I adore because it is so vibrant and full of life. I see the deep blue sky, endless, covering the Island like a cozy blanket. But most of all, I see the ocean and the sea, with whom I am forever in love.

When I see the Island from above I get very excited. What a beautiful sight of the ocean, the sand, and the palm trees from the sky! I cannot wait to get my feet submerged in the sand and smell the salty water in the air. The smell of the sea and the ocean is one of the greatest smells there are. I can close my eyes and hear the water dancing with the sand, flirting with the wind, moving in a sensual rhythm that has no end. I can get lost looking at the horizon in which the water and the sky merge becoming one, with no beginning and no end, just like soul mates. I can stare at the reflection of the sun and the moon in the water as the light becomes alive in the movement of the waves that never rest. I can close my eyes and serene with the soliloquy of the ocean and the sea chanting an endless story that has been told many times but never gets old. I could write countless pages and recite countless poems inspired by the majestic experience of my romance with the Island breeze by the beach.

My trips back to home are always revealing. I see all the changes in me, as I have evolved with time and through my absence from my old world, but I see the essence of what I am reflected on my past that is so present when I return to my roots. The loves I left behind I find unchanged, and maybe strengthened by the void that the lack of physical proximity can impose to one’s heart. Every minute is spent pampered by every soul that surrounds me, with love, hugs, kisses, caresses, and food. And in those brief days I spend back in my small world I can see how time cannot stop us from loving, and distance cannot stop us from caring and showing it.

I am going back to Puerto Rico. I will hear the roosters singing in the morning (way too early if you ask me), and the coquies singing at night, and it will all be wonderful. I am glad my son has the chance to enjoy my past too, and hopefully learn to treasure it.