I would love to receive a rose, smell its fragrance, and appreciate its delicate beauty. However, I would undoubtedly choose a book.
I used to buy many self-help books. I had a shelf full of them, some partially read, others skimmed through, and a few worn out from being reread and underlined. But when I “sold everything” in the summer of 2018 to travel alone through Southeast Asia, my backpack and I, I also sold all of them…
I remember a girl came and bought 15 of these books. She started crying right there and told me that she was going through a “difficult time” and was grateful for the opportunity to take away such “valuable material.” She asked if I had read them all and what they had brought me. I replied that they had been very useful and valuable to me at the time, some more than others, but now it was time to set aside theories and act.
Nearly two years later, with fewer books on the shelf, a more worn-out backpack, and having witnessed breathtaking sunrises and sunsets in many places, I am certain that reading is wonderful and enriching, but there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that can substitute what we see with our own eyes, taste, feel, and experience firsthand.
So today, I won’t recommend any book or send any roses. Instead, I suggest that, as soon as we can, we go out and explore the world because ultimately, only what we live and feel deeply enters our DNA and helps us evolve.
And if we can’t go far this year, we have the perfect opportunity to discover the many unknown corners of our own land. After this forced confinement, it will be a gift to get closer to them and discover what they can offer us.
I look forward to new adventures and new events in our land soon 🙂
Happy Sant Jordi!
PS: By the way, that girl only read three of my books, but they helped her act – they were obviously the ones I had underlined the most.
#travel #read #goforit #Believebyrm