Breathe
By Mónica Hernández
First day back to school and I lived it like everyone else who still has school-age children: with madness, with anxiety, with anticipation sprinkled with nostalgia. The days are long but the years are short. My offspring yesterday was a baby and started secondary education this week. I think I blinked twice and he grew up, to the point where I don't recognize this little person who has opinions, defends his views and prefers his friends over me. I understand that this too shall pass. Adolescence is curable.
What also returned was the routine of schedule, exercise and a hundred thousand to-dos. And habits: my morning coffee with a glance at the international and national news (I skip one particular part, wishing with my eyes closed that in October the national morning torture will end). A glance at CNN, another at the BBC and one more at TV5 and TVe. World covered. And then I realize that I live inside a song that started playing in my head while I was watching the headlines of the newspapers that, by force of habit acquired during my years in Public Relations, I have not been able to shake off. Desolation in its purest form. I doubt it's mentally and emotionally healthy to watch the news... but if I don't, anxiety creeps up on me until it squeezes my trigger finger. A good thing happened this time: somewhere in my brain John Lennon'sA Day in the Life started playing. I sang it all the way through.
