Night was falling. The light on the sky was changing slowly, from the natural blue of a clear sky to the red and yellows of a beautiful sunset. We walked slowly, enjoying the moment, feeling each other’s hearts quietly, hearing the street music, taking pictures, feeling the cool breeze over our faces and tasting the feast of a beautiful sunset fall on Charles’ Bridge in the city of Prague.
I had done something incredible, something perhaps every responsible mother secretly wishes for, and at the same time gives her tons of fear. I have not dared to do it for few years.
That was leaving dad in charge of the household, with two children for a whole week.
Some dear friends of mine came to visit me from my home country and we decided to take a short road trip and Prague was calling.
Prague is one of those cities that when you see it for the first time there is this sensation that time has not passed, that love can last, and stories seem to be written all over it’s streets. Charles Bridge seems to be able to grab your heart and make sure you come back again and again to take one last look.
That night I was walking with my friends and a sensation of happiness, and gladness overtook my heart as I watched the sun say it’s last goodbyes of our beautiful day in Prague together. I knew in that brief moment I was celebrating friendship.
I asked my friends:
“Do you feel happy? Do you feel happy right now?”
“Yes” they said.
“You see?, girls can be happy! if they have each other”
I though about that night days after they had left and I realized that happiness sooner or later comes from the inside of the person’s heart and it could not depend only in our immediate family. I sure missed them, but I did not need to have them next to me to enjoy the sunset, the night, the beauty of the lights and the presence of my friends. I knew happiness had to be found somewhere inside my being, in the way I saw life and I interpreted the moments I was living.
Then I remembered a text in the Bible I had read many times but it took a more powerful meaning to me because of this experience:
“To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness” (Ecclesiastes 2:26)
So, happiness came from God, he gives it freely to the man who pleases him. Thinking about it made me study more about what are the things that pleases God. But about these discoveries I will write in a later post.
I have to confess that after those insight in my trip I came home and I told my husband something we perhaps shouldn’t say:
“I discovered I can be happy with out you”
“What do you mean?”
”Baby I don’t mean it in a bad way” I said while we hugged, “I feel I can be happy because it comes from inside my heart, may be because of God.”
He answered me:
“I see what you mean, only when you are happy and content with yourself you are able to love unconditionally, and truly love. You don’t have to depend in the other persons’ love to be happy and to love in return. You love because you are free. When you are happy you choose to love out of gladness.”
“Yes!” I said, “Exactly!, you totally get me”
