LIVE OR SURVI-VE
The dance of life.
Carolina Zuluaga
I remember Otto on the dance floor, so free, so ecstatic, totally in the present. Otto will no longer dance on this physical plane. A few weeks ago he suddenly lost his life in an accident. He was a very loved person in the Ecstatic dance community in Amsterdam. On the day of his ceremony, dozens of people gathered to share our memories with him, as well as sing, dance, laugh and cry.
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The first to speak was her partner, who is about to give birth to the fruit of that love. Seeing her in pain broke my heart and I could see that I wasn't the only one in the room who felt that way. I feel and hope that a part of him is inside us forever.
This event reminded me of the loss of a loved one when I was a child, someone with whom I felt very close and who for a time in my life behaved like a father. When he died I was six or seven years old. He left from one day to the next, leaving us a great void.
All this makes me reflect on how we live: sometimes we live as if death did not exist; as if we were not fragile and nothing could defeat us. But we are and death can come at any time. I wonder if we are harnessing the greatness of this existence, if we are fully dancing on the floor of life...
Stop surviving and start super living.
Lily Alvarez
I think of those unfortunates who lose their lives in life, to whom circumstances have led them to abandon their illusions or who do not find a reason to continue living, I think of the unfortunates who allow themselves to be lost after the loss.
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Physical death is unfortunate, but death in life is hell itself, darkness is present stealing color in its path, blinding our eyes, clouding thought and closing our ears to faith.
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The people around us become silent witnesses of our agony, they do not want or we do not allow them to intervene, since it is better and more comfortable to be dead while living than to live fully. No matter how grim the picture is: we become victims of compassion, we justify our ignorance by playing the game of life; We wander around the world with guilt on our backs, we work uncontrollably to reach that "something" that will lead us to a happy life, without realizing that excesses have made us lose life and turn life itself into a utopia. We immerse ourselves in vices to avoid reality, or perhaps we think that our life was taken by that being who abandoned us and we persecute him believing that, by retaining him, our own life will return to us transformed into love.
It is very likely that we will begin to die, when we realize that the perfect life that the media shows us as an example to follow "we did not manage to obtain it" and that is when the comparisons arise: the car, the house, the children, the partner and even the pet does not resemble the established ideal; appearing the disappointment that leads us to dig our own grave. The feeling of failure is a deadly weapon that is present throughout our lives, patiently waiting for the mind to allow it to enter, and then finish us off without mercy.
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The irony is that we cry for the inert body, when our body walks like the living dead. We mourn for those who already rest in peace; when we can't even rest. We are sad because his heart stopped; when we live with our hearts in pieces. We miss the dead, we ignore the living; we suffer because the time of the old man is dying and we do not feel happy for his years well lived. We prefer not to see the dead, to remember him alive; we deceive the mind with a subtle touch of selfishness.
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Why wait for death to be in the presence of God, if in life, we can have him present permanently; why be fooled into thinking that after death there is a heaven and a hell, if in life, we renounce paradise allowing the entry of demons to our mind.
Many of us wish consolation and prompt resignation to the mourner, we argue that people die when they are forgotten and that they no longer live on earth because now, they are in our hearts; We mourn the loss, we accompany each other in pain. We reflect on the lost time and our determination to change and the decision to stop overliving and start superliving appears. But when the ritual ends: we collect our old and new wounds to, according to us, continue "living".
