DROPS OF REAL HAPPINESS
by TERENZIO FORMENTI
translation by Lena Bresciani Ravelli
and Amelia Giordani Chambers
RAINDROPS ON MY WINDOW
the first raindrop
falls
on my window
carefully...
others
follow the path
suddenly...
furiously they race
skimming
stroking
falling in love
tiny drops
on my window
from the book " Scattered leaves "
Terenzio Formenti
DROPS OF REAL HAPPINESS N°. 1
- playing baseball with raindrops falling on the
windscreen
- painting a shadow of joy on a sad face with the
gift of a poem or a smile or both
- accepting the fellowship of a raindrop met in a
ocean... or in the rain
- capturing a shadow sprung from darkness,
perhaps... from the light
- stroking somebody's skin and give birth to a soul
- caressing with a glance a passing person, who
inspires harmony
- meeting somebody's glance and feeling
something new growing inside
- realising that somebody is doing something for
us, just for us and that is done with love
- stroking a body and realising that you are
communicating with each other
- encountering a pair of eyes and feeling that they
are talking to you
- realising that we are breathing in harmony with
the universe
- feeling that a child gives himself or herself to us
because he/she feels that we can be trusted
- meeting a person who sheds his/her shell and
trust us with a caress which gives us life
- stroking somebody's body who allows to be re-
created
- meeting a glance which gives us something
- feeling a drop of sweat running down our back,
giving us shivers of pleasure
- the rushing of leaves in a wood
- climbing high up in the wind with autumn leaves
caught in a whirl
- coming across a whirl of autumn leaves which
are joyfully rushing towards us from the corner
along a mountain road
- being a grain of sand playing with a wave on the
beach
- being a wave breaking up on the rocks
- washing our eyes in the morning and realising
that millions of eyes are opening to life that very
day
- being in the rain and not feeling lonely
- being in the sun and realising that millions of
people are enjoying its warmth with us or suffering
its heat with us
- gazing at the moon with loving eyes
- gazing at the moon feeling I am the only lover in
the world
- daydreaming knowing I'm doing it
- coming across a hand which gives itself to me
- touching a hand which makes us feel the
pleasure of touching
- waking up and realising that somebody is near
us
- entrusting our espectations to a burning fire
- asking the rain how it started
- asking the wind where its nest is
- coming across a sound and let ourselves go
- letting ourselves be captured by the harmony of
the silence
- meeting a person who greets us without knowing
us
- creating two tears of joy with a poem
- receiving a smile as a gift
- walking in the fog alone without getting lost
- entrusting our bare body and soul... at least to
the sea waves
- falling asleep by a brook lulled by the murmuring
of its ripples
- drinking some mountain spring water which is
the gift of the universe
- climbing a mountain and feeling that we belong
to it
- falling asleep realising that we belong to the
universal sleep
- feeling that the pores of our skin breath with the
universe
- give birth to a person thanking her/him for the gift
which we received
- rediscovering now and then the little child who
lives inside us
- feeling that we are creating ourselves day by day
- being bare in the wind and being melt by the sun
- letting ourselves being cought by the moonlight
which plays in the shrubs
- following a seagull in the wind and losing
ourselves in its endless flight
- loving ourselves without fear of losing ourselves
- losing ourselves without fear of loving
- remembering to forget and forgetting to
remember
- to listen in order to hear
- to look in order to see
- speaking and feeling the pleasure that another
person is listening to us
- giving a person who is talking to us to enjoy the
feeling that we are listening
- realising that every sea drop plays with its
neighbours even if it is a stranger
DROPS OF REAL HAPPINESS N°. 2
- a stone which talks to me
- a sea which tells us stories of people who love it
and of those who hate it
- looking for the face of the loved one in the clouds
- a swallow telling us its adventures during its trip
to come back to us
- a hedgegog telling us its dreams
- a falling star which asks us to express a wish
- seeing a rainbow in a sky where there is none or
in a night without stars
- wishing a good day to a person who is looking at
us in search of it
- watching the passing clouds with astonishment
- feeling the hold of an embrace which gives us
life
- realising that spring has come also for us
- realising that autumn is not only the beginning of
the coming winter
- the smile which lights up an unforgettable face
- receiving a thankyou and realising that, perhaps
we have given part of ourselves
- realising that perhaps happiness is not only a
temporary variant of unhappiness
- walking along a mountain path where everybody
greets one another
- being held by arms which give us the universe
- wondering if the moon we see is always the
same that other people see even if sometimes it
looks different
- wondering if an idea which doesn't seem
"particularly bright" could still be "a good idea"
- realising that "today" is not only the day which
comes before "tomorrow" and after "yesterday",
but it is the first day of the rest of our life
- a flower which sings a love song
- realising that the air caressing a person's face is
the same which caresses our face
- realising that in a swimming pool, in a river, in a
lake, in a sea, whatever the colour of our skin, we
are in touch in the same water
- perceiving our own body enwrapped in our own
clothes
- realising we are breathing and believing that it is
a gift
- feeling pleasure in being surrounded by fog
DROPS OF REAL HAPPINESS N°. 3
- lovingly gazing at the trees in the sun, in the rain,
in the snow and with the dew
- laughing with the current of the stream and with
the surface of the lake rippled by the breeze
- feeling on our skin the same shivers of pleasure
that the mountain may feel when the farmer preys
with his scythe
- searching the wood in the same way as the sun
does with its beams of light
- smelling the hay in the sun and the scent of wood
after the first shower
- listening to the sound of the wakening wood
- daring to take that step which marks the
difference between being content, being satisfied
and pretending to be
- to give some space to the foolish wise person
who is inside us
- to give some space to the cave man or the cave
woman who still lives in each of us
- to practice discovering that, in order to come
across possible happiness, you must look for it,
ask for it, give it, sow it into yourself and in the
others and wait for it along its usual path:
the five senses:
- sight in order to discover visual scenary; hearing
in order to discover what can be heard; touch to
discover perceptions; taste to discover what can
be tasted; smell to discover what we can smell
- A sixth sense may be added, to be open to the
dreams, to the "unconscious", and to other
unknown languages
- Other possible paths could be: body, mind and
soul, and the must important components of
universe: earth, air, water, fire; the arts: drawing,
painting, poetry, sculpture, music, dance, etc.
- it might be suitable to add these things: being
ready to smile, to laugh, and to use a bit of
humour.