Conversations with myself - (1) - We walk the path together — YouTube from the CEC Library

Each of us, on the path we follow, needs to learn to deal with life: to stop being ill-tempered and complaining, stop adding up anger and hatred, and stop blaming others for our unhappiness. Every moment must be used with goodwill, within the scope of what we are. Sometimes we manage to go farther through effort; at other times we do not because we make no effort or are accustomed to other things in life itself.

I remember my childhood in Itacoatiara, where I lived in a very simple house made entirely of wood: wooden floorboards and wooden walls. Those boards housed all kinds of insects, arachnids, creatures, and reptiles; there were even snakes, and I walked barefoot there. What I remember, and what no longer exists today, is that people interacted with one another. We played circle games and a game called pass-the-ring, things involving relationships and childhood. Leaving the house and going left along the dirt road, perhaps after about 50 meters—I have no exact notion of the distance—one reached the end of the street. Across it were a small bridge and a sawmill, both already full of sawdust. I ran barefoot in the sawdust, feeling it beneath my feet, without the slightest notion of danger.

The bridge must have been perhaps two or three meters long, with a stream running underneath. I kept running there. When leaving the sawmill and crossing the bridge toward my house, there were immense trees that marked my life deeply and a boundless stretch of dense brush. It was on this bridge that I promised myself I would make every possible effort to help people. Today I know that I did not fulfill everything I would have liked, but at least I followed the path of becoming a psychoanalyst. I used to work more and better; now I do what I can and give attention as far as I am physically able. I feel a great deal of happiness about the path, about what I constituted myself as in terms of thought, ideas, understanding of life, learning, and relationships with myself and those around me.

I am absolutely certain that when the day comes to hand over this equipment, our physical vehicle, I will be able to know more or less the path I will follow, probably continuing to work. That is a very good meaning of life. What I say is a conversation with myself, and I am thinking of giving the video that title: “Conversation with Myself.” I am grateful. It is good to give thanks for everything we are able to do: for speaking, hearing, seeing, moving, and all of it. We do not see this, but we must always be grateful because the continuity of what we are is what we think and constitute internally. Perhaps I will use the title "Conversations with Myself" for these talks.