DAY 300

destiny

I found this old photo at my mom´s house. Of course, I had seen it before. She has a whole drawer full of old photos and when I was younger I usually rummaged through them to find tiny treasures like this

This photo has a curious story. Long ago, my mother told me its meaning but she didn´t know how it ended up at my house. As you can see it´s a photo taken in Carnival. Probably, it was taken near her house, because the little girl who is sat on the young man´s lap is my mom (it´s a pity that her face can´t be appreciated better). The two pierrots in the back of the photo are my mother´s brother in law and the youngest one is my mother´s brother (on the right side). But the most important thing about this photo is this: the young man who is behind the boy who is holding my mom -yes, the one who is showing his tongue- is my dad

My mom and dad lived in a very small city where everyone knew each other, but the main reason they are together in this photo must be that my mother´s brother in law and my father were cousins. She is sure she were there accidentally; she was not meant to be there, as she was only a little girl, but at that time carnival where celebrated along the day and this group probably went to my grandmother´s house to have a drink and something to eat

This photo was taken circa 1928. And probably my mother is the only one of all them that is still alive. I´ve been talking about this with her  these days. She can´t believe how time has flown. She said me, we always think we will have time, but one day you wake up and you´re that old... and you have not all that time anymore... but what else can we do except living?

While we were talking, I realized that this photo also shows the background of my own story, the moment where everything was starting to hatch. And I feel so very lucky to have this precious testimony of my lineage

On the other hand, I remembered this quote by  Carl Jung , that I truly believe is the perfect caption for it: 

"I feel very strongly that I am under the influence of things or questions which were left incomplete and unanswered by my parents and grandparents and more distant ancestors. It often seems as if there were an impersonal karma within a family which is passed on from parents to children. It has always seemed to me that I had to answer questions which fate had posed to my forefathers, and which had not yet been answered, or as if I had to complete, or perhaps continue, things which previous ages had left unfinished."

Indeed, when I look at this photo now, I feel in my heart that I am dealing not only with things related to my own life, but also with things related to my ancestor´s life. And also that I am looking for a way to integrate not only my story, but their stories in the new weft of my life



PS: My mother has been ill, she is getting better, and this is why I am behind with my post. Now that I am a bit quieter, I am transcribing my impressions of previous days