Empty transparent little boxes like crystal spheres, others wrapped in glossy paper that reflects everything around… but what is around us besides silence? Emptiness, yes, this is the feeling of this pre-Christmas atmosphere.
We will feel the emptiness of a chair that cannot be occupied by a relative, the emptiness under the tree that cannot be filled with gifts, the emptiness from the lack of an embrace… emptiness, only emptiness. How can we fill this void? We will do it with hope, the hope that everything we wish for may come true.
After all, Christmas is the dream: Santa Claus taught us to wish for what only he could make happen. This strange emptiness can be filled with hope, which is intangible, just like a wish we must nurture and protect, keeping our dream inside a little box that will become a wonderful gift-wrapped parcel. There will be no need to open it, because we already know we won’t find anything visible or tangible inside, but the most precious things we can receive and give at this celebration are love, hope, longing, dreams.
Let’s transform emptiness into something wonderful, let’s sublimate difficulty, pain and deprivation into a moment of joy, a symbolic exchange of help and solidarity. The “Gifts from the Sky” are those linked to the light of the stars that, in the darkness of the night, become like a beacon showing us the direction to follow. The light we seek is already within us: if we open our arms and legs, we too become a star, though we don’t know how to light it because we no longer believe in hope. The stars in the sky are ready to welcome our wishes; all we are asked to do is believe in them and believe in ourselves.
We must not fear deprivation any more than we should fear joy. Change is the only constant phase of our lives, just as Christmas is.
For this Immaculate Conception long weekend, I invite you to start walking the streets of our city, to experience it as if we were tourists, and even if funds are scarce, let’s not be limited by that, because there are still many ways, ones we are no longer used to, to experience Christmas.
Let’s exchange what we can, but with an awareness of both present “deprivations” and future possibilities. Let’s live this “bridge” as a metaphorical crossing that will lead us to a rebirth. That is why my favourite decoration at this moment is the Tree of Life, a historic symbol of life’s 22 paths, on whose trunk you can glimpse a sign evoking the maternal womb, through which all of us, by “crossing” it, first saw the light of existence.
During your walk, I urge you to take a tour through the city with a “candid” gaze. I invite you to stop by my studio at Via San Pellegrino 27, right beneath the second bridge-house, which also represents the concept of union, family, hearth, to exchange greetings or meet for the first time, or simply to take a photo with the architecture and decorations as the backdrop, but above all with the “Gifts from the Sky” ready to welcome our wishes.
During this time, as every year, I have created small objects whose ancient symbolism remains, in its “reading”, highly relevant today. This December many of us will not be placing unnecessary things under the tree. Suddenly what becomes essential again are roots, family, affections both new and old. Filling this year’s emptiness will be the most precious gift to give to those we love: a wish to be fulfilled.
If you like, you can “buy” it, at a symbolic price to be donated to the upkeep of the Madonna del Soccorso shrine, located a few steps from my studio, or take it with no material exchange at all, since the gift for both of us will be filling that emptiness. This is how we will manage to return to the essence of Holy Christmas, to live a dream, to make others happy so that we too can be happy, like a reflection of light.
From tomorrow, the “SKY” will be ready to welcome our “GIFTS”.
