When Life Whispers Notes Into Your Mind (And You Find Them Again After So Many Years)

This is the story of a note that has silently resonated inside me for about forty years until mourning made it talk again.

Photo by Doncoombez on Unsplash

Human memory constantly takes notes.

Many notes are almost immediately inaccessible and rarely reappear. Others remain silent in a corner of consciousness until the day something makes them bloom.

The note I want to tell you about belongs to the last family.

Thirty-eight years ago: the note

Photo by Casey Horner on Unsplash

It's summer. I'm on vacation with my parents in Tuscany. We are camping with my godfather of confirmation, the Maestro, and some of his friends.

I was ten years old and starting to ask questions like, 'Where does the world come from?'

That day, we had spent the morning at the beach and were returning to the campsite. As is typical of many Tuscan beaches, the beach was adjacent to a pine forest. As we crossed the shadow of the pines, I asked my godfather, 'What do you think…