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I recently read a book written by an adorable Japanese woman that sparks joy: Marie Kondo (The life-changing magic of tidying up, Ten Speed Pr, 2014). The Konmari Method is based on an extremely simple concept: to keep only the essential, the things that make us feel happy.

Taking a decision and stubbornly focusing straight ahead as if we were wearing blinkers is a very common attitude. We have a dream in our heart or an idea in our head, we want to achieve a particular goal, and that becomes the axis about which every detail of our life rotates. We do not stop to observe our reality or to be sure about what we really feel.

These are difficult days. Christmas is just around the corner and all I can do is to run around like a headless chicken to buy pyjamas for my sister or a sweatshirt for my niece. Christmas should be a time of withdrawal from our everyday life, of silence, of moments spent with the people we love. It should be a time of tea, blanket and fireplace (as well as huge meals), of evenings spent watching the lights on the tree while outside it is raining or snowing. And yet…

A person I am really fond of has just separated from her husband. Nothing new under the sun, separations are very frequent nowadays. So much so, that in our group we have come to develop a ‘protocol’ to help the friend involved in a divorce to face the situation in the best way possible. However, this time it was different for me.

The coffee break that my friends and I take at 9 am is a wonderful oasis of peace in which we talk about the most different issues. We laugh, we do group therapy and we catch our breath after rushing to bring our kids to school and before plunging into a long day’s work.

Some time ago I was going through a bad personal moment and I felt sad and lonely. On the worst day of this dark period I got a valuable help from the most unsuspected person.

On the day of her funeral, Margarita taught me something I will never forget. She was a great lady, one of those people, as Mother Teresa would say, who walk fast if they cannot run, who lean on a cane if they cannot walk fast, but who never stop.

What happens when we start a new journey? What do we bring with us of the world we know? What do we store? What do we throw away to travel light on the path? What kind of shoes do we wear to walk faster, safer? How do we reduce the anguish that always pervades the moments that anticipate a movement into the unknown?