Y Otra Vez el Otoño/ And Once Again, Fall

Pasó el tiempo y Alón seguía creciendo bajo la cuidadosa mirada de sus padres. Miraba al gato casi a diario andar en el pasto cazando insectos o acostarse en el sol para limpiarse la cara o jugar con una hoja seca bateándola con una pata.

Alón se imaginaba cómo sería si pudiera andar así, si pudiera caminar dóndequiera, si pudiera correr en el pasto, si pudiera ir lejos de aquí. Pero realmente no tenía idea cómo se sentiría si pudiera hacer todo eso. Lo único que se sentía de verdad fue frustración de no tener esa libertad.

Entonces Alón soñaba despierto con correr como el gato o volar como Chico cuando se dio cuenta que una de sus hojas estaba roja en la punta.

--¡Mamá, papá!--gritó. –Mira, mi hoja ya no es verde, tiene una parte roja. ¿Qué me pasa? ¿Qué me pasa?

Julio se rió entre dientes. –No te preocupes, m’ijo, no es nada.

--Alón querido,--le dijo su mamá. --Ya termina el verano y viene el otoño. Tus hojas van a cambiar de verde a un color rojo muy oscuro y muy bello.

--¿De veras?—preguntó Alón.

--Sí, nuestras hojas se ponen muy bonitas antes de se sequen y se caigan.

--¿Se secan y se caen?—lloró Alón. ¿Qué voy a hacer sin mis hojas? No quiero estar pelón. Además de que no puedo andar en ningún lado, ahora se me caen las hojas y me quedo pelón.—

Alón empezó a pensar que su existencia iba a ser totalmente inútil. ¿Por qué nació? ¿Para hacer qué? ¿Para ser un palo pelón parado el resto de su vida sin poder hacer nada? Ay, qué difícil es vivir en este planeta, pensó.

Pero su papá se dio cuenta de lo que Alón pensaba y le explicó que parte de ser un roble era perder sus hojas a pasar el invierno tranquilo y medio dormido para despertarse otra vez en la primavera y crecer hojas nuevas y bellas. La Naturaleza lo creó así y todo era perfecto.

Pero Alón no estaba convencido.

(Continuará)

And Once Again Fall

Time went by and Alon kept on growing under the watchful eye of his parents. He watched the cat almost every day trek around the grass chasing insects or lie down in the sun to clean his face or play with a dried up leaf batting it with his paw.

Alon imagined what it would be like if he could go around like that, if he could walk wherever he wanted, if he could run in the grass, if he could go far away from here. But in reality, he had no idea what it would be like if he could do all of that. The only real thing he felt was frustration at not having that freedom.

So Alon daydreamed about running in the grass like the cat or flying like Chico when he became aware that one of his leaves was red on the tip.

“Mom, Dad!” he shouted. “Look, my leaf is no longer all green, it has a red part. What’s happening to me? What’s happening to me?”

Julius chuckled. “Don’t worry, my son, it’s nothing.”

“Dear Alon,” his mother said to him, “summer is ending and fall is on the way. Your leaves will change from green to a deep and beautiful red color.”

“Really?” asked Alon.

“Yes, our leaves become very pretty before they dry up and fall off.”

“They dry up and fall off?!” cried Alon. “What am I going to do without my leaves? I don’t want to be bald. Besides not being able to go anywhere, now my leaves fall off and I end up bald.”

Alon was beginning to think that his existence was going to be totally useless. Why was he born? For what purpose? So he could be a stripped stick standing there the rest of his life unable to do anything? Oh, how difficult it is to live on this planet, he thought.

But his father realized what Alon must be thinking and explained that being an oak tree meant that you drop your leaves in order to spend the winter peacefully and half asleep so that you can wake up again in the spring and grow new and beautiful leaves. Nature created it that way and everything was perfect.

But Alon was not convinced.

(To be continued)

Soy Lorena.
10/22/07

Everything is the same, everything is different

I come and go. I spend time in my second home, my beloved Mexico. It’s the same but it’s not the same. My expectations didn’t come out the way I had thought they would. Everything changed in a way totally unexpected. That’s life…and me? Am I the same or am I different? Well, I’m not the same because I have lived two weeks more, or rather twelve days to be precise, twelve days more of experience, twelve days of seeing the sun, the clouds, the moon and the stars, twelve days more of eating, drinking, sleeping, chatting, thinking, worrying, exercising, getting dressed, getting undressed, bathing, putting on make-up, taking off make-up, cutting my nails, laughing, crying, breathing, practicing yoga, practicing the piano, singing, thinking about the future, thinking about the past, breathing, feeling the beat of my heart, imagining, walking on cobblestone streets, walking on my dry brown grass, noticing the change of the leaves from green to fall colors, feeling the air on my face, feeling the rain on my head, knowing that life is good, or simply knowing that life is and I am part of it, that I am part of everything I see and my question is: (because there is always a question) Where does the tree end and I begin? Or where do I end and where does the tree begin?

Am I the same or am I different?

Ah, I am twelve days older.

That’s life

on this planet

in this moment.

Soy Lorena.
9/12/07

Ay, Naturaleza/ Oh, Nature

Caminaba ayer decalza en mi pasto, mi pasto diverso, mi pasto atrevido y descarado, mi adorado pasto de toda clase de hierba silvestre, flores silvestres, tantos colores verdes, y notaba las texturas distintas, me fijaba en las partes suaves, las partes duras, las partes ásperas, las partes esponjosas. Miraba hacia el bosque, me acercaba a la orilla de mi pasto donde empieza el bosque, cuidándome no salir del pasto porque allá crece la hiedra venenosa.

(Amigos, imaginen música aquí, una música alegre, dulce, con flautas y campanas, con violoncello tal vez y violines; imaginen unas hadas bailando en el pasto o unas ninfas del bosque, echando chispas al aire, felices, riendo….) ¡Ya basta! ¡REGRESA A LA REALIDAD!

Amanecí con un comezón tremendo en la area del tobillo. Le dije a Teo, “Algo me picó en la cama, me puse la crema que nos hizo Aaron, y sí, ayudó.”
“Qué raro, “ me dijo.

Uh oh, pensé. Miré mi pie de nuevo, todo el tobillo estaba cubierto de “piquetes.”
Teo lo vio. “Oh, no, es la hiedra venenosa. Se va a poner peor.”
“¿Más comezón?” le pregunté.
“Sí, durará diez días.”

Ay, mi adorada Naturaleza, primero las peras, ahora esto. ☹

Oh, Nature

Yesterday I was walking barefoot in the grass, my diverse grass, my interesting grass, my daring and bold grass, my beloved grass of all kinds of weeds and wildflowers, so many kinds of green and I noticed the different textures. I noticed the soft parts, the hard parts, the scratchy parts, the spongy parts. I looked toward the woods and got close to the edge of the grass where the woods begin, taking care not to leave the grass because that’s where the poison ivy grows.

(Friends, imagine music here, happy and sweet music with flutes and bells, with a cello maybe and violins; imagine fairies dancing on the grass or wood nymphs sending sparks into the air, blissful, laughing…) That’s enough! COME BACK TO REALITY!

I woke up with a tremendous itch around my ankle. I said to Ted, “Something bit me in bed. I used that cream that Aaron made for us and it helped.”

“How strange,” he said.

Uh oh, I thought. I looked at my foot again. The whole ankle area was covered in “bites.”

Ted looked at it. “Oh, no, that’s poison ivy. It’s going to get worse.”
“Itchier?” I asked him.
“Yes, it’s going to last ten days.”

Oh, my beloved Nature, first the pears, and now this. ☹

Soy Lorena.
8/18/07

Gravity

And so just as gravity

Holds us in its embrace

Your energy and my energy

Are connected and we hold each other

As the Earth holds us.


The ground you walk upon is the

Same ground upon which I dance

The air you breathe was once inside my lungs

You drank my tears and they flowed in your veins.


The breeze touches me and I am

Reminded of the gentle touch of your finger tips

On my arm, the soft look in your eyes.


What holds us, what keeps us from

Falling apart?

Is it the same gravity that keeps our

Feet on the ground?


(Mañana español)

Soy Lorena.
8/6/07