Now that I am no longer young, I understand a piece of advice that a teacher gave me many years ago when I was starting out on the path of literature. Professor Hanni, who was a poet, told me: “There will come a time when you will understand that rushing is not good, it is not necessary, especially in important moments.” But when we are young, we don't understand this. We always live in a hurry, as if every day were our last and we had no time to lose. As if everything had to be done now, quickly, right away.

Although I was not an outgoing, sociable young woman, but rather shy, quiet, dreamy, and solitary, like most young people, I fell in love often, but I fell in love with the wrong people. There is a false saying that “opposites attract.” In reality, this is not the case. For years, I fell in love with attractive, outgoing men with whom I never had a stable romantic relationship. Very different people do not understand each other; they do not get along. At least that was my experience. In true love, which lasts over time, there should be no rush; it's better to take enough time to get to know each other. I had a very lonely youth because I didn't understand the importance of connection and understanding between two people who love each other. I rejected people with whom I could have been happy.

Even when I reached maturity, I had little intelligence when it came to choosing my lovers. I let myself be carried away by physical attraction on more than one occasion, but desire or passion are not enough; they last only a short time. Love is something else. With my current partner, I initially made the same mistake, letting myself be carried away by passion. But something different happened. In addition to passion, a deep connection was created through poetry and literature, which saved me from losing him. Because lasting love requires patience, getting to know the other person as they really are, learning to accept them as they are and not as we would like them to be. It requires courage and self-love to accept their weaknesses, to show oneself as one is, beyond the social mask we build to be accepted. There is a complicity that is woven over time between two people who love each other.

Since we lived in different countries and continents and we are not young, at first we were swept away by the rush and didn't have time to start dating and get to know each other. When we had only been together for a few weeks, he had to return to the country where he lived, and I thought I would never see him again. But we kept in touch via WhatsApp, and a few months later he sent me a plane ticket to visit him, but that visit was postponed for months. We started living together without really knowing each other, traveled to different cities, and at one point we had a big argument and separated for several months.

For months, we had a constant travel schedule that prevented us from getting to know each other. He loves to travel, and I indulged him without thinking that what we were doing wasn't right. When the crisis hit, we were exhausted, fed up with each other, and didn't know each other well. One night in December, when we were in a city other than the one where we live, I took my suitcase and returned to my country, leaving behind some of my clothes, my computer, and some of my belongings. I felt like I was in an untenable situation. That's when rushing into things can hurt us. On the one hand, when we started our life together, we should have taken things more slowly. On the other hand, I should have thought more calmly about my decision to leave so suddenly. He hurt me, and I hurt him deeply by leaving. /div>

Re-encounter in Caracas, April 2025

Christmas dinner 2025 with Daniel's daughter and her husband

📸All photos belong to my personal photo álbum