ALMA CREATIVA, A Return to My Soul
I have lived in New York for 40 years, but a part of my soul has always been in San Germán, Puerto Rico. This is why I always go back, and exist there, even if only for a short time.
This summer, life showed me that even though I have never been able to go back, there is a space for me in the island, if I choose to stay one day.
Once again, La Casita de Ely opened its doors to me. Zari—the owner and creative force behind this beautiful place, where people gather to create under her guidance—received the book I sent her with great emotion and warmth. I was very grateful for her welcome, her camaraderie and friendship, and her offer of this space: the perfect place for the book presentation.
La Casita de Ely is not only an art space where people come to create; it is also the last place where I taught a workshop before my artistic life completely changed. It felt significant to circle back to a space that holds creativity at its center.
I didn’t have much time to prepare. I had been teaching a four-day retreat workshop just a couple of days earlier, and before that, I had been closing out a year of programming and starting a new one at the school. So I had to accept that perhaps the five people who love me in San Germán and its surrounding towns would show up—and that would be it.
But that wasn’t it! As the night began, friends, family, and strangers to me started arriving, and soon we had a full house.
Alma creativa (Creative Soul) is the advice that my own heart gave me, which I share with the world in the hope that it will serve someone. It reads like poetry, but it’s really a manual. Each page is an invitation to envision and create your own life according to your own heart’s desires and talents. What could be a better audience than people who already visit an art studio to make art?
As I guided guests through the process of creating a “Magical Medallion,” I also got to know them a little. Not everyone was a stranger.
There were three friends from elementary school: Mingo, Walde, and Luis. Several more came from middle school and high school: Belkis, Mayra, and Brunny. My brother Carlos and his partner, Sandra, were there, as were the great artist Diogenes Ballester, my good friend Jose Junior, and Waldemar’s niece, Nitzcali, and her boyfriend.
I met a woman named Ivelisse who loves Mary Magdalene and knows a group of women who share that devotion. I hope to see her again when I return.
There was also a group of Mexican women who came through Zari. They made fabulous necklaces!
Amelia, whom I had met at that last workshop, came with her friend Alice. I was so happy to see Amelia and meet Alice.
And then there was Moraima, who didn’t quite remember me but knew that she knew me. Something brought her there with the help of her friend Enid.
Moraima is the mother of someone I loved when I was 20 years old. I had recently been wondering about her, and there she was, guided by the connection we had formed so long ago. She must have heard me.
During the presentation and reading, I allowed myself to remember those old times when I was reborn and urgently needed to do everything I had come to Earth to do. In a way, I feel that I am once again living through the beginning of such a cycle.
I’m grateful that this time it is happening without illness, but there is still that urgent call from the soul. If there is a purpose to my life after raising a son and sacrificing nine years to duty, then I want this to be it. I am inevitably facing, once again, the fact that life is short—and very much worth living.
And then… the testimony.
Not mine, Zari’s.
Zari told the story of how she had been carrying the book with her since receiving it. She took it to the sea to read and meditate with it. Just hours later, when a terrible earthquake shook both her native land, Venezuela, and her entire being, she found comfort in the ideas in the book.
She said the book helped her find the strength to create a movement to bring aid to her people. With the help of friends, they sent—literally—tons of aid to her country in crisis.
Of course, I don’t pretend for a moment that the book had anything to do with the strength she has carried within her since birth. But how beautiful it is to think that it became a companion and a source of inspiration during such a painful time.
My ideal life is what—and how—I lived in Puerto Rico last month: making art, writing about life, sharing knowledge, learning new things, seeing and creating beauty, and connecting with kindred souls.
I recognize that during the short time I spent at La Casita de Ely and in Puerto Rico, I received the gift of knowing that a vision I have been cultivating since I began reawakening is finally taking place in my life.
It was a brief and ephemeral preview, but it was also a confirmation: it is there, waiting for me to decide.
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