On this wet Saturday morning I find myself looking for inspiration. Inspiration for things to write about, things to think about… In this dreary month of rain and sleet, I wonder, as I’m sure happens to everyone, especially at this time of the year, whether I should be somewhere else, doing something else. I ask myself if I am following my heart and if my heart is still in my job. I look at the things I have managed to achieve in the last 15 years since I have been sitting in this office. Fifteen years looking out the glass door onto the beautiful historic square of Panicale, looking at the fountain built in the XV century with its large slabs of travertine leading up to the water. Watching children chasing each other around it, old men sitting on the steps and talking, lace hanging, music playing, laughter, bride and groom holding hands looking at balloons fly up to the sky… Today I watch the rain falling in a constant flow. I watch the water running in little streams across the empty and quiet square.
I do love houses. I know that, but, what I do has become a slow and frustrating process of late. I love people too, but everyone has stories to tell and all the stories sometimes get too much.
So sometimes I feel like fleeing to the planes of Africa, where I grew up, and watch the changing skies and its golden sun. That place where rain is a treasure. When it rains, you run under its shower and you dance with joy and gratitude.
I suppose sometimes we simply forget to be grateful. Umbria is so beautiful with its green hills and olive trees. Lake Trasimeno is a delight to the senses. Panicale is a little paradise. I suppose it is only natural to yearn faraway places when you slip into the routine mode. But it is important to put yourself back into gear.
Panicale too yearned the rain. We mustn’t forget that the fountain I so fondly talk of, sits on top of what was once a huge cistern, the repository for all the rainwater from the rooftops, which the people of the castle in the XV century used for their every day life!
Rain, rain, beautiful rain!