Timeless

When I went to Mexico City for the first time, it was definitely a life changing experience. I was by myself, and saw a totally different world that I was never aware of. I soon learned that countries in South America are the same or even worse, plagued by poverty and injustice. Until then, I was aware of images like that very rarely and only on TV, and usually I'd just change the channel to further instinctively shelter myself from such knowledge. It was none of my business. I had other problems to deal with, like what outfit to wear the night I was going out at the bar. This time though, I had it staring back at me to my face, live and direct. Poverty like I had never in my life seen before. Let me tell you that middle class there, is below poverty line here. Neighbourhoods go from total and utter poverty that violates health and safety codes, to ridiculously fancy affluent villas that here we have no access to even drive by. And its all in one city. I visited a lot of beautiful places in Mexico City, and even climbed the nearby pyramid of the sun all the way up, pregnant and all.

One of the tour stops was at the Basilica de Guadalupe. The 'miracle' of the Basilica de Guadalupe. Aside from the image of Virgin Mary with whom I've left a few wishes and prayers, right after seeing her and telling her my wishes, (very ironically) I turn around and I see an image of two people, a woman and a man, around 45 years old or so, embraced just like Klimt's Embrace painting, identical:

And they were hugging the living life out of themselves!! There they were, in the middle of the Basilica, without a care or even shyness...hugging, crying and sobbing - it was so intense - and they were saying things I couldn't understand (yes I was clearly creeping in, the moment was too much for me to ignore especially because I had just whispered in a last breath my wish to the Virigin and THIS image was in front of my eyes when I turned away from Her). I stood there in sheer amazement. That moment stayed with me until today and I'll remember it forever. Back then I had not seen Klimt's painting of The Tree of Life, but very soon after, out of the blue for no reason, someone emailed me a picture of it in one of those forwarded spam emails, and seeing it, it struck me cold.

On the left it has a lone tall young lady depicting "Expectation"...then the tree of life...and then "Fulfillment" depicted by the famous embrace. On the tree of life is a black bird that signifies the inescapable presence of death - probably Klimt's reminder of our limited time alive here. And that's how I understood the moment I saw at the Basilica. And why it was so intense. For a few moments I was very amused by the silly idea of how the 'universe' always communicates with me in a very cheeky way, throughout my whole entire life. Who knew the universe also does stand-up comedy, right?!

I'm writing all this because I always wanted to share what I saw. It was a really special moment, that for some reason outside of myself, I was put specifically in that place to witness it as well, where I too, quietly and secretly became part of their story, and shared their sorrow and joy that they lived in that moment of their own Tree of Life. Klimt's painting from a hundred years before (1909), stood as a true story that very day of my own life. I myself was simply standing there full of expectation just as the lady on the left in the painting. I was looking at them embracing in complete fulfillment before my eyes just like the couple on the right. And a lifetime was between us.

Human emotions throughout life, death, expectation and fulfillment, are afterall "timeless".