Keep Swimming🏊‍♀️

Almost 18 years ago, I changed the course of my life. I am Brazilian and lived 26 years in Rio de Janeiro. There, I already felt a restlessness about everything, as if something inside me was searching for change. Upon arriving in Barcelona, I have lived many lives during all these years.

Something I have always enjoyed is reflecting on EVERYTHING, whether about my life or society. I like analogies… and one I really love is about life, how to represent it.

I see life as an ocean. We spend life swimming, swimming, swimming. There are periods when we swim alone in the sea and others when we are accompanied. Sometimes we are wearing clothes, and that makes the journey heavier and longer, and other times we are in swimwear, lighter, and thus we enjoy the sea. Many times that period is hard and long, but at some point, we see an island in the distance… and over time we get closer, until finally we arrive, sit down, rest, and return to the sea.

While chatting with my dear friend Paul, we came to another analogy with an element similar to the previous one: the ocean, the sea.

We talked about Rembrandt’s magnificent painting, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, one of my favorites. An important detail is that this painting has been missing since it was stolen in 1990, along with other works, from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, USA.

The painting is fantastic and says a lot about how we manage emotions in different situations in life.

The work depicts a biblical passage from the New Testament. The boat is in the middle of a storm on the Sea of Galilee. On it are the twelve apostles, Jesus, and, looking at “us,” the young Rembrandt.

At the top of the boat, five of the apostles have expressions of panic and fear, completely terrified by the danger of the situation. Another five are around Jesus, who maintains a calm demeanor. These apostles are praying, hopeful, and believing that everything will be alright. One of them is struggling, unwell and vomiting. Additionally, we see another apostle facing away from the sea, as if trying to pretend nothing is happening. And finally, we see the young Rembrandt with an expression that seems to not fully understand what is going on.

In other words, life exactly as it is. In the same situation, each of us can have different reactions, and even we ourselves can embody each of those characters in the same scene… we can feel fear, anxiety, calm, not know how to act, or simply let life continue without moving or getting involved in everything, accepting our limits and choosing our battles.