Destiny is a sort of scapegoat, used more often than not as a measure of our incapacity. It is the wild card that allows us to save our responsibilities when things are not going as well as we would like, sometimes it is just the simplest explanation to the things that happen to us, either for better or for worse. Don't get me wrong, I know that most things are beyond our control and I guess that's fine but the idea that there are people capable of pulling the veil of fate is simply hateful to me; I don't know to what extent it would be worth living a life that you already know in advance.
For some time now, things around me have been falling apart, plans have gone awry and my own optimism has eroded to such an extent that a bitter cloud of skepticism has made a home over my head. I continue to go about my business, dealing with my blank pages, convincing rhyme to embellish the occasional verse and ultimately teaching philosophy classes at the university. Nothing new under the sun or just the incredulous cloud that adorns my forehead.
Pandora is a dear journalist friend of mine, not her real name but I like to call her that because she is so curious, she always walks the streets hunting for stories, she shoots them with the lens of her camera and takes them with her on the roof of her yellow Volkswagen as if she were a prey. Yesterday she just ran over me with the outrageous colors of her outfit, I found her in the coffee shop while she was waiting in line, she saw me and gestured me to catch up with her but I just waved at her from afar and took the last place in line. I didn't want to hurt my karma anymore by cheating in line, that thought caused me to laugh.
Once we had our coffees in hand we walked out of the store and without my asking she began to tell me about her latest job, she was doing a series of interviews with people in town and just at that moment she was on her way to the house of a fortune teller. Madame Rosse was the name and her art was to read the coffee cup and just for that reason she had made her stop at the coffee shop. I listened and took small sips of my Expresso and she who knew me well enough didn't need to poke at my coffee to read my disbelief, still she took me by the arm and asked me to come with her. Without time to protest we continued walking through the narrow streets to one end of town. It's right here," she said, letting go of my arm just to look for her camera in the yellow beetle she had left parked in front of it.
The truth was a normal house, several ferns hanging at the entrance, only a simple sign that said "Madame Rosse" I imagined that the scene would be inside but no, upon entering we came across a small reception room adorned by flowered curtains, beyond was what seemed to be the consultation room, in the middle sat a woman of incalculable age dressed in white, table with delicate lace tablecloth also white and to the right a kind of terrace overlooking a very cool garden. She invited us to approach with a wave of her hand, Pandora practically dragged me to the table.
The woman greeted us, her calm yet powerful voice inspired me for the first time a little confidence. So this is the unbeliever," she said, barely glancing at Pandora who smiled nervously. Yes, I found him in the coffee shop where you asked me to go, it really happened just like you said. I for my part opened my eyes wider than usual listening to that revelation while I played with my empty coffee glass and before I could ask what it was all about Pandora told me that she had only gone to the coffee shop because Madame Rosse sent her to look for an unbeliever and that I shouldn't worry because only by seeing him she would know who he was, so when she saw me come in she knew immediately. I claimed that it could have been anyone and a couple of other things but I quickly realized that I was certainly just playing the role of the unbeliever by proving Madame Rosse right. She laughed as she asked for my glass of coffee to start reading.
You find this whole thing hateful he started saying, however you know that there are things that can't be explained and even if you don't like the idea sometimes the best answer is the simplest one. He was saying those things while I folded my arms, I was really waiting for a talk full of platitudes hoping one of them would hit the mark. You should know it's not your fault, he continued; you really have done everything as well as you could and still feel stuck.
This last made me lower my shoulders and pay more attention, you will be able to move forward when you manage to do only two things: the most important is to make peace with yourself, stop complaining and demanding too much of yourself and the second is that you should leave the truth for your philosophy classes, the secret of living well is often to ignore certain things; what good is knowing if it makes you suffer. At this point I felt a moral slap in the face, that woman had led me to an epiphany. I smiled or laughed out loud, I don't know, but it was for realizing at that moment, full of chance or destiny, who knows (Madame Rosse does), a certainty so obvious that I had not even seen it because it was right under my nose. She finished saying Madame Rosse; stop putting so much sugar in your coffee, this is something worth knowing.
Hi there, this is original content by @joalheal , just for this contest in #cinnamoncupcoffe and the #spillthebeans.
My endcard is a Canva desing.
Original written in Spanish - Translation by DeepL free version.
