Out on the balcony - thoughts and words by @mariandavp

What a night! I sit here on the balcony enjoying a subtle breeze after an extremely hot day and I feel I am back in the 80’s getting ready to sleep out on the balcony. Was I 5 or 6? I don’t remember. What I do remember is that I was not afraid. No one was afraid.

We had no criminality, or very mild anyway, we had neighbors we knew and loved, we had friends we didn’t need to sms or call before we drop by their house to sleep out on their balcony, and most importantly we had dreams.

I guess all young people dream. Irrespective of the decade they were born in, they dream. But who dreamt of a violent world where sleeping out would mean robbery or rape or even death? Who dreamt of a lonely world where living in a crowded city wouldn’t mean not knowing your neighbor’s name? Who dreamt of an unfair world, where people would lose their empathy and instead of wanting to become heroes they would prefer to become one of the crowds? “Mind your own business” we think as we listen to some alarm screaming in the night.

And then we act. We act as if we have a purpose. When I was taking self improvisation classes, our teacher asked us to walk slow, faster and faster BUT feel as if we had a purpose for walking at each pace. So when we had to walk slow, we had to experience the reason we walk slow. When was the last time you walked slow? I can’t remember. That was the most difficult exercise to me. So I asked her; When do we walk slow? She answered; When you are in a moment so fulfilling that you wouldn’t want to walk away from it.

I am in this moment right now. Summer. Balcony. A six year old drinking some rum ready to tell her neighbors that when she grows up she is going to be Indiana Jones discovering lost worlds full of magic.

Oh wait. I think I just did.