Wordsley, Stourbridge, England: 6 degrees, cold, overcast and rainy.
This is the beginning of my second working week in England, and it is raining all the time.
I found a space in the rain to go out and feed the swans at the canal. On the way back, I stopped at the local cafe in the precinct on the green for a pot of tea and to make an entry in my journal.
Writing in my journal daily is very gratifying, but it is even more so when practising this craft in different places, such as coffee shops, cafés, bars, etc. Before I came to England, while living with Nalva and Yasmin, I would write in the Portuguese bakery near their home. Now that I’m in England, I have moved it to the quaint little café on the village green.
It is a little like the Japanese tea ritual in that there is a whole way and procedure for preparing, making, pouring, and serving tea. I have the daily responsibility of writing and putting an entry in my journal. It is very pleasant to sit in a nice place, drink something good, like coffee or tea, and pour your thoughts out into the journal entry.
When you become a regular at a place, especially one that holds special meaning for you- a kind of safe and pleasant haven- people begin to appreciate you more, respect your craft, and become curious about you as a person. Unintentionally, you draw attention as you write about topics that nobody knows exactly what you are writing about and why.
I have only been writing for almost a year, and it is life-changing. Writing from your mind to your hand, to the pen, and onto the paper allows you to rid yourself of all that is evil, bad for you, and, more importantly, cancerous in your life while also attracting and bringing closer all that is positive.
It is just pen to paper, but it is extremely powerful.
I am a little financially worried at the beginning of the month, especially in England, where the exchange rate makes everything so expensive. £1 is equal to approximately R6 Brazilian Reais. This shows how a weak currency devalues people in Brazil so much. We work and we work hard, paying taxes for incompetent administrators who, after decades of study, cannot and don’t know how to manage a country economically properly for its people.
People and life in Brazil are worth nothing.
The truth is that power goes to their heads like a drug. Their financial ambitions are more important than the lives of more than 200 million people. They don’t see responsibility for their actions as anything but power, pillaging, and their own interests, all driven by an inflated ego.
I know I will always find a way to pay my bills here in England or Brazil. Still, sometimes it is hard to believe, especially when we live in a hostile country that wants to put you down rather than up, that would rather want you to fail than for you to be free and prosperous.
I have also concluded that Brazil today is much worse than Brazil was more than 30 years ago when I arrived. Yes, we have Internet and social media that hide the absolute truth about what we live in today, but when I came to Brazil in 1989, there were many problems, such as hyperinflation.
Still, people were happier and had hope. Maybe they were like this due to ignorance; I’m not sure, but the real quality of life and the essence of the people’s belief in their country and doing the right thing were much stronger than today.
Brazilians have lost hope.
I am ashamed to think that I chose and adopted Brazil as my home country for the last 30 or so years. Yes, I am lucky enough to have had two beautiful daughters who I consider good people, or at least I and their mothers have tried to show and teach them how to be good people with good values, etc., which I am grateful for as it is essential. However, because of my voluntary choice and dream of success in Brazil, it has always been the opposite, with a lot of fighting and struggle to survive, like 200 million others in the country.
But sometimes, I wonder what I did in a past life that I have to pay for in this one?
Did I commit some terrible act like Hitler or Stalin to pay for in this life? If I had stayed in England 30-plus years ago, I probably would have been much more economically successful than I am today.
However, there is a missing point: not everything is just money, class, and economic wealth, but experience, life experience, and the baggage you gain from it. Luckily enough, and I’m very grateful for it, I have had this from the first day my mother kicked me out of my home to when I went to London and eventually Brazil.
Am I feeling sorry for myself?
No, I don’t think so. I think all of this is part of what we must pass through to be better and accountable for our choices, and I am grateful for that. As I mentioned, I have two beautiful daughters and a baggage of experience with a bit of wisdom that you only obtain from living out of your home country.
And I am grateful for that!!!
In bed by 11:00 p.m.
Thank you.
Thanks for reading this blog post. Please explore my other posts and share your thoughts in the comments section.
Richard
