Painting in the Sky
 

There was a time when my family was concerned about their kids getting sick or bored on the long road trips, we used to look at the sky, at the ever-changing clouds, and play to identify things, animals, or faces. It was an endless game that kept us busy and enjoying the simplicity of things, the simplicity of imagination. Now I see a scorpion on this passing cloud, which has suddenly turned into a dolphin by the time I started writing this note. I saw a scorpion and I saw a zodiac sign, and then I saw a person and more. It’s amazing how simple things can bring us joy when we are kids and how complicated we become the older we get, the older has this negative connotation somehow, and the more I think about it must be with all of us losing that openness to discovering, to enjoy the simple things, to create worlds from sand and paper, to speak about imaginary worlds. That reminds me of another game we used to have, it was a sort of a weekend tradition to squeeze into mom and dad’s bed, where, out of the blue the pillows folded to become a delivery window, a window for a bakery, and we received orders and deliver bread and pastry, joyful times, connecting times. Years later while in France I remember those nights when on the way home we sort of flew over our feet surfing the alleys in the hunt of that bakery smell, the one of fresh bread and warm croissants, and we jumped into the kitchen and the old man loved to sell us the first batch. During the pandemic times, in Chicago this time, I started to create my own “Masa Madre”, that alive natural yeast that helps you create amazing bread, and I baked it over and over, and I bought a cocotte and achieved the crustiest bread buns. And now I question if this baker’s spirit of this re-joy of creating bread has a link with those early days and weekend visits to the bed bakery at my parents. Whatever it is, is part of me now, part of my discovery path, and I will always continue to see shapes in the clouds, as I used to do through the rear window of that car.

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2022