Planet heart - Part 1: Weed your garden

Did you know your heart is a planet?


Dear fellow explorers,

What a long absence. I have been away from myself. I have been exhausted and stressed out because of long hours of  work, deadlines, obligations. I have taken a step aside for longer than a month and stopped the journey. Somewhat lost and longing to come back to this, my centre, my tree, the rough sand of the path beneath my naked feet.

I begin the journey again. I retake it at the point where I left. Please walk beside me, there are yet more wonders to be discovered.

Time is a whimsical creature that lives within our brain. Now the summer is here, it forces me to go back to the beginning of springtime. When the air was still sharp cool in the morning and the trees were starting to pump their sap up and down faster by the minute. The birds were returning to Gandhi's Gardens. The breeze had changed, the scent and aromas in the air had changed. The light hours had changed. The paths that the trees' shadows followed during daylight had changed. And people had changed.


At around 10 in the morning a young woman in her twenties, Lola, came to the gardens with a shopping bag in one arm and a notepad and a pen under the other. She sat on a bench opposite to the statue and with a long sigh, wrote on her notepad: Dear Marc, I have made up my mind, I will not continue pretending...

15 minutes later, Xavier, a retired man crosses Gandhi's path going towards the bar on the other side. He can see his drinking pals through the glass window. They have been there for years, sharing almost every morning drink. There is something awkward about his walking today. Resolution. Before he reaches the bar, he takes a sharp turn to the left and heads for the beach.

Near 11 o'clock a couple in their early thirties, Damian and Sara, arrive a the grass patch and sit down. They are not talking, they are not looking at each other. Something has been broken. She is holding a sheet of paper with a hospital header printed on it. Damian looks up, then looks at Sara and with a saddened smile says to her: China is not so far, and we've never been to Asia...


Sometime before midday Mario, a lonely man nearing forty, begins to walk the garden paths up and down, he is completely lost in thought. His face and hands are tense and showing signs of strain. The images of several ex-partners visit his mind, but there is always one that stays some seconds longer. He takes his phone and writes a text message:  Hello Darren, I don't know who you are today, but I would like to get to know you...


And Gandhi begins to think that it's a good time to weed his own gardens.