The window of feelings

John is a young man in his thirties who has not had much satisfaction in life. He was born in a small town and grew up in another where everyone observed his behavior and if he fulfilled-the-foundations-of-life, that is: study, marry, have children and a good job, but John could not achieve anything of that in his life.

One autumn day, tired of waiting for life to smile on him, he decided to take a vacation and visit different places within his country for which he decided to stay in hostels or country houses. He did not want to go to big cities or luxurious hotels, he preferred the tranquility of those country places that abound so much in the interior. For this he had put together a map where he had marked some places where he would spend a night in each of them.

He took the first train that would drop him off at a station close to his first destination. Upon arrival, he observed a picturesque welcome sign, which he already liked about the place because he made him feel at ease. Upon entering the lodge, a familiar, cozy place, with its owners serving behind the entrance counter with the face of good people and with a good-natured air that inspired confidence and whom they received with a beautiful smile and a strong and warm: “Welcome Mr. John! We were waiting for it! " And there he already felt that he had not made a mistake in choosing that place to stay. Kindly, they accompanied him to what would be his room that night, which looked and felt clean and tidy and very tastefully decorated, but what caught John's attention the most was the window that was as beautiful as the rest of the room, its white frame, and its crystals so clean and bright that it seemed not to have them. He did not think about it too much and he dropped his suitcase on the floor and leaped to see that he could be seen from there. Everything that was seen was beautiful! The people seemed happy, radiant; some were even singing along the path that adjoined the lodge. Juan saw beauty wherever he looked, the sounds that came from outside were harmonious and very charming. The sound of the stream that was near there, the chirping of the birds, the laughter of the children scampering around the place, the breeze lifting the fallen leaves on the ground and making them dance through the air with an extraordinary and worthy magic and charm. watch. And the aromas were of damp grass after the rain and wet earth, of the flowers in the garden that overlooked just below the window of John's room, of freshly washed clothes that were lying a little further on in the house next to the lodge.

John was EUPHORIC and this made all that he saw through this window was EUPHORIA as well. That night, he slept so peacefully that he thanked him for deciding to take that vacation.

The next day, he left for his next destination, a place that at first, he did not agree very much to mark on his map because he had to take the train and a bus to get there and that already put him off. Bad mood. And he was not wrong! It happened that the train was delayed and after almost two hours of travel, when he went to take the only bus that passed there that day to take him to his destination, it left because of course, the I arrived later as the train was delayed. Juan was no longer the same as the day before and as the next bus would pass again the next day, he had to spend the night in a boarding house where, upon entering, his owner did not answer him good night or accompany him to the room, simply He gave him the key and indicated with his finger that he should go up the stairs to the second floor. Upon entering the room, I noticed a musty smell coming from under the old and not very clean carpet, the walls were covered with wallpaper with huge and grotesque flowers, and, in some corners, it was somewhat unstuck. John sighed and went to the tiny window that had the room with a dark and rough wooden frame due to the lack of varnish the glass was not clean so the images he saw through it were not truly clear and in fact even somewhat distorted. Outside it was already dark and the only light that shone was in the corner in front, below it, you could see people going by with their heads down, other people in the opposite corner had started a fight, who knows why but their screams and faces they were of fury and ANGER very notorious at the same time that a dog barked non-stop making Juan feel more and more ANGRY for having to spend a night in that horrible place but unfortunately he could do nothing but wait until the next day until he took the bus that would drop you off at your destination. That night he hardly slept because the dog continued barking without stopping and for worse a storm broke out that the sound of the wind was so intense that it seemed that everything was going to end. The rain hit hard on the roof and against the glass of the window which made Juan less able to fall asleep and he only wished that morning would come. His IMPACIENCE revealed him even more and when the first rays of the sun finally appeared and he looked out the window, he saw people walking in a hurry, looking at their watches, as if everyone were late somewhere, they looked IMPATIENT, and he also started to hurry to rearm his suitcase to go to the bus stop. He waited there for more than an hour and did not even appear; he already wanted to leave that place and reach the destination that he had chosen.

Already on the trip he began to feel that everything was going wrong for him as, in fact, he felt that in his life it was also so and when observing the rest of the passengers, I notice that, for the most part, he was dealing with elderly people , with the skin of their faces tanned by the sun and the years working outdoors in the fields, their hands rustic and old from cultivating the land. They all looked SAD, with a look of having lost hope, perhaps longing for a distant land or for a love of youth that was not. Finally, the bus stopped at its stop and John got out with a heaviness in his chest and a lump in his throat. He entered the lodge that he had reserved for the night before but when he reported what had happened, they also kept his room. When I enter it, I observe the walls were painted a faded blue and the only painting located on the wall at the head of the bed showed an image of a ship in a storm, also in blue tones and could be seen in the prow at its crew members scared by the fate that awaited them. Again, John gave a sigh and slowly went to the small window and from there he observed a dead bird that was lying under a tree that, surely, with the storm of the previous night, fell from its nest. Children walked by in dark uniforms on their way to school. There was no garden or flowers nearby, all the way around the lodge was covered by gray concrete and in the distance, he could see the silhouette of a man sitting by the door of the only open store, wearing old and torn clothes, begging for alms. This whole scene awakened in John a SADNESS so deep that that lump in his throat and those tears that he had been holding exposed him with all his strength in a disconsolate cry. That night, John did not sleep very well either because that pain in his chest stayed there without finding a real reason.

The next morning, he woke up with OPTIMISM, took a shower, got dressed, had breakfast in a bar that offered delicious homemade bread, had a cup of coffee, and went for a walk to tour the town. On the way he passed children running and laughing, an elderly couple holding hands and looking at each other with the same love as when they met more than fifty years ago. He saw an OPTIMIST young woman put up the open sign to her new bakery with delicious sweets and cakes that she baked and sold herself. He saw her with a radiant smile and placing some pots with beautiful flowers on the side of the entrance door to make the welcome to her new clients who did not take long to arrive.

John already had another more relaxed face when he returned to the inn, he went up to his room and looked out the same window as he had done the night before, but this time, he discovered that in the nest of the tree that he saw the dead bird now other hungry birds could be seen and heard chirping waiting for their mother to return with food in her beak and feed them. He also noticed, which he had not done on his first day, that, on the side of that gray concrete path, there were large planters with beautiful and colorful flowers that gave off a fresh and exquisite aroma that reached where he was. I also notice that that man in rags that he saw begging the day before, now wore clean clothes that surely someone would have given him and that a woman offered him a cup of coffee and a sandwich in exchange for sweeping the leaves from the entrance of his house simply so that he would feel useful doing something without feeling ashamed to receive money as he had seen it before.

That night John went back to sleep peacefully and even had beautiful dreams that he would remember the next day when he left for his last destination marked on the map, which was nothing more and nothing less than the town where he was born but that he hardly remembered since his parents They moved in when he was still a little boy.

When he got to that little town, he felt at ease. You breathed fresh air and also the occasional aroma of coffee and freshly baked bread coming out of a cafeteria where he passed to ask where the address that he had as his birthplace was located. The man in the cafe noticed his familiar face and asked him if it was something from Joseph and, indeed, he was his father! Then he welcomed him, invited him with a coffee and a portion of cake and told him many and incredibly beautiful stories of his father's adolescence and youth since they had gone to the same school together and that made Juan very happy because his father He had died when he was a teenager and he had almost no memory of his father nor did he keep photos of his youth. The man accompanied him a few meters until he took the street that would take him directly to what was his house. Arriving there, I hesitate at first, but he decided to ring the bell and ask if it was possible for him to enter and go through it to see if any memory appeared in his memory as a child. As she did so, she opened the door to a beautiful young woman about her age with golden curls and eyes as blue as the sky. John introduced himself, explained the situation and her intention to see her house and the young woman, with a bright smile, immediately ushered him in. Inside were her grandparents, since that was actually her house and she had simply stopped by to visit them since she lived and worked in an even smaller town nearby. When the man saw Juan, he was moved to tears and gave him a hug full of LOVE to what Juan was not used to receiving since his family had always been quite distant in terms of feelings. The woman did the same as her husband and immediately served him a cup of tea with such an exquisite aroma that John closed his eyes and for a moment, he returned to being that little boy that he once was and of whom he no longer remembered anything. After touring the house and seeing what had been his room that was empty because the only daughter of the marriage had gone to study, then he got married and did not return to live with them, but it was not a reason for nostalgia because they were happy because she had found a good man to raise a family with and they had this curly-haired young woman who was their adoration. When saying goodbye to her and thanking them for so much kindness, the young woman offered to accompany him to tour the town and show him some places that he had surely been and did not remember but that when she saw them, she would surely do so. That is how they walked for a long time through the streets of the place, and, at sunset, she invited him to a last place that she promised she would love. John was so excited and happy that he followed her without asking and then they climbed a small hill covered with an intense green grass and covered in some parts by a blanket of very pretty little white flowers and in front of them… the incredibly beautiful sunset! The orange and reddish colors of the sky and the sinking sun reflected and intensified even more the gold of her curls and her eyes turned bluer. The breeze was cool and suddenly they were surprised by a bird that came out of nowhere and made their faces get closer, they looked into each other's eyes and for a moment, almost without planning it, they kissed, their immediate reaction was to blush. and smile like two teenagers, then they hugged and finished watching that magnificent sunset that seemed like a gift that someone very dear to give them to bring these two souls together since Eloise, that is the name of the young woman with golden curls, had had many heartbreaks in life but knew that one day, someone with a kind heart would come to heal her wounds and fill her with LOVE.

John returned to the hostel where he was, once again, he went to the window of the room and through the crystal, crystalline and impeccable, he saw a couple walking hand in hand, a girl and a boy giving a tender kiss on the cheek, the birds in their nests with their chicks, and the flowers, ahh the flowers, in all their splendor full of color and giving off an aroma that attracted the bees and the butterflies that flew and settled on them creating a perfect picture that sweetened the all those who passed by.

John sighed again, but this time his sigh was with a LOVING attitude and satisfaction for having decided to make that trip without expecting to find there the one who would later become the woman of his life.