"You are not depressed, you are distracted from everything that is right now" (Facundo Cabral) (1937 - 2011) The Trovadour of Peace

1. You are not depressed You are distracted

2. You are not depressed, you are distracted; distracted from life that inhabits you.

3. You have a heart, a brain, a soul, and a spirit; So, How could you feel poor and unlucky?

4. You are distracted from life that surrounds you, dolphins, forests, seas, mountains, rivers.

5. Do not fall into the same thing that your brother felt who suffers for a human being, when there are 5,600 million human beings in the world. And after all it is not bad to live alone. I have fun deciding at each moment what I want to do; and thanks to solitude I know myself better; and that’s essential to living.

6. Do not fall into the same thing that your father felt, who feels old because he is 70 forgetting that Moses directed the exodus when he was 80 and Rubinstein interpreted Chopin like nobody else when he was 90. Just to mention two known cases.

7. You are not depressed, you are distracted; so you think you lost something, but it is not possible, because everything was given to you. You have not made a single hair on your head, so, you cannot own anything.

8. Besides, it frees you from things. It lightens you up, so you can fly higher, so you can reach plenitude. From the cradle to the tomb it is a school. Therefore, what you call problems, are lessons; and life is dynamic. This is why it is in constant movement.

9. Therefore, you just have to pay attention to the present. Therefore, this is why my mom used to say I’m in charge of the present, the future is God’s business. Therefore, Jesus said “tomorrow does not matter; it will bring new experience.” Each day is enough with its own purpose of being.

10. You did not lose anybody. Who died, simply anticipated us; and to there we all go. Therefore, the best of himself, is still in your heart. Who could dare to say that Jesus is dead? There is not death, there is moving. And on the other side there are wonderful people, Gandhi, Michelangelo, Whitman, Saint Augustine, Mother Theresa, your grandma and my mom, who believed that in poverty LOVE is closer; because money distracts us with so many things, and pushes us away, because it makes us distrustful.

11. Do not you find happiness? And it is so easy; you just have to listen to your heart, before your brain intervenes, that is conditioned by the memory, which complicates everything with old things, with orders from the past, with prejudices that ill, enchains. The brain divides, it means that impoverishes. The brain that does not accept, that life is the way that it is, not the way it should be. Make only that what you love, and you will be happy. And who does only that what he loves, is blessedly condemned to succeed, that will come wherever will have to come, because what has to be will be. And it will come naturally.

12. Don’t do anything for obligation or compromise, but for love. Therefore, there will be plenitude. In that plenitude everything is possible and without effort, because you will be moved by the natural force of life. God put you, a human being, in charge, and that is yourself. You have to make yourself happy and free. Then, you could share true life with others. Remember Jesus, hug your fellow man, like yourself. Reconcile with yourself. Put yourself in front of the mirror, and realize that that creature that you are seeing is the work of God. And decide right now to be happy, because happiness is an acquisition. It is not something that you will receive from the outside. Happiness is not a right, it is an obligation. Because if you are not happy you will be embittering everybody around you.

13. There are so many things to enjoy and our stop on this planet Earth is so short that to suffer is a waste of time. We have the snow of Winter to enjoy, the flowers of Spring, chocolate, French bread, the Mexican tacos, the good wines, the oceans and the rivers, Brazilian football, the one and a thousand nights, the Divine Comedy, Whitman’s poetry, Brahms, Debussy, Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven, Caravallo, Rembrandt, Velazquez and Picasso, and in between, so many wonders.

14. If you have cancer of HIV, two things can happen, and both are good: If it wins, you will be freed from your body that bothers, (I’m hungry, I’m cold, I’m sleepy, I have doubts, etc.). If you win, you will be more humble, more grateful and therefore, happier.

15. You will be freed from the weight of guilt, from responsibility and from vanity; able to live each instant the way it should be.

16. You are not depressed, you are vacant. Help a child that needs you. That child will be associated with your child. Help the elders, and the young ones will help you when you will be an elder. And Service is a sure happiness, like enjoying Nature and taking it in care for the future generations.

17. Give without measure, and you will be given without measure. Love to become what you love until you become the Love. Goodness is in the majority, but it is not noticeable because it is silent.

18. Goodness feeds from itself. Evil destroys itself. If the evil ones knew what a good business it is to be good, they would be good, even if it is for business. You are not depressed, you are distracted.

19. If you heard the other one, the one you carry inside, you would know everything. You would find something for yourself, in everything. Therefore, you would raise yourself up constantly; and then, there would not be confusion, but nuances. And in that serenity you would not look for anything. Then, you will find everything. And being in the present, you would say or would do everything you would have to say and do at every moment, naturally and graciously without effort.

20. That would make the relationship with others full. And growing in love, you will be more creative, without limits and conditions. Ignorance makes us feel locked and mortal. It means that we lock and limit ourselves. Fear distracts us from love. Love is wise and brave because it knows that there is no limit.

21. You are not depressed; you are distracted from the wonderers that happen around you. You are not depressed for something that happened, but distracted from everything that is right now.

22. In loving memory of FACUNDO CABRAL (1937 – 2011) “The Troubadour of Peace” (Text extracted from one of his excerpts)