Change is always scary, especially when our experiences have been powerful and rewarding. We experience it at all stages of life, in our studies and at work, in all political, social, and organizational situations, especially when we hold roles of responsibility that we don't want to lose.

We would like certain experiences to never end. But this is self-deception. Dwelling on "true and beautiful experiences" doesn't help us live life, because life itself is change, and this is the dynamic that makes it fascinating even when it's painful.

Cicely Saunders, founder of the first modern hospice, explained it well. An extraordinary woman who, as a nurse, social worker, and doctor, "invented" a new way of caring for people in their most difficult moments. The time of real experiences, according to her, is a time made of depth rather than duration. "The hours of real relationships seem to pass in an instant, while dull days seem to never pass. But as the years pass, the authentic hours are forever imprinted, the useless days fade into nothingness."^[1].

These genuine moments—even when experienced in pain and darkness—can be transformed, perhaps with wonder and emotion, into occasions of profound peace and light. These passages, especially when accompanied by an authentic relationship with others, can help us and give us strength to face the difficulties, trials, sufferings, and hardships we encounter along the way. They encourage us to begin anew without fear, boldly facing what lies ahead, reaching out to others and welcoming the sufferings of humanity around us, engaging, in turn, with the desire to bring, where there is a lack, that light and peace we ourselves have experienced.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said: "Lost time would be time not lived in which we had not loved."^[2].

What happens when these true experiences seem to disappear and are no longer there? Does this diminish the value of experience and roots? Absolutely not. The value of memory is the very foundation of human progress. Furthermore, as philosopher George Santayana says, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

There were those before us who spent their lives for our freedom and happiness. We must be able to return to the experiences that have cemented our personal lives and those of our groups to have the strength to always begin again, even in times of doubt, fragility, and fatigue.

[1] Cicely Saunders. Templeton Prize 1981
[2] Dietrich Bonhoeffer. "Resistance and Surrender" Letters and Writings from Prison